• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.31-39
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• 2020

Purpose: This study attempts to explain why online luxury shopping malls have implemented a difficult registration process and membership fees. These features weaken online shopping convenience, one of the major reasons why people shop online instead of offline. Therefore, this study scrutinizes the effects of membership features on trust, focusing on the moderating effects of registration difficulty and membership fees. Research design, data and methodology: A survey method with a total of 296 survey data was used. A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design was employed. The three independent variables are price discount rate (20% vs. 70%), registration difficulty (low vs. high), and membership fees (yes vs. no). Results: The results reveal that a price discount rate has a negative effect on trust, whereas membership fees and registration difficulty moderate its negative effect on trust. Conclusions: A high price discount rate lowers trust for online luxury shopping malls. Meanwhile, registration difficulty and membership fees can be used to prevent consumers from losing trust caused by the high price discount rate. Therefore, registration difficulty and membership fees are signals implying that not everyone can use these private online shopping malls, which provide low prices for luxury items.