Websites' hue-context congruence as a vector of trust and behavioral intentions

Purpose This paper aims to determine the effect of the congruence between a website's background color and its context (product category) on online trust and resulting behavioral intentions in emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach An online experiment, conducted on 240 web-surfers, compared two versions of a website (high vs low color-context congruence) in terms of online trust and resulting behavioral intentions. The authors also studied the moderating role of the online shopping experience on the color-context congruence impact on online trust. Findings Results revealed that a website's color-context congruence enhances online trust. The authors have also demonstrated that online trust plays a mediating role in the relationship between color-context congruence and behavioral intentions. Moreover, they found out that the influence of the color-context congruence on online trust is enhanced when the web-surfer is highly experienced in online shopping. Research limitations/implications This research contributes to fill in the theoretical gaps and to better understand the influence of color-context congruence on online trust and behavioral intentions in emerging markets. Indeed, past studies had focused on the color impact on online trust without taking into consideration congruence with the website context. However, this study is limited to a single category of products (tourist products) and only two colors (blue and red) were manipulated in the experiment. Practical implications This study highlights the importance of selecting a background's color that matches with the sold product category to reassure web-surfers so that they trust the commercial website and express some favorable intentions like buying. Originality/value Prior studies had focused on the website's color effect on online trust neglecting color-context congruence. Our study helps to highlight the importance of selecting background colors matching the product category.