The current study tackles the question of why consumers continue to patronize e-commerce platforms despite of the inherent risks attached to it. Literature points to trust as a powerful factor that reassures consumers and allays their fears of the uncertain. To understand how trust is built, this study looks at word-of-mouth (WOM) in three areas – product, experience, and service – albeit from a lesser studied characteristic: completeness. Bringing these together, the relationships between WOM completeness, trust, and purchase intentions are investigated to understand the influence one exerts on the other. Regulatory Focus Theory also lends to the understanding of the consumer psyche to further deepen the understanding of how consumers process information from WOM. Utilizing data received from 358 valid questionnaires, this study has found significant interactions among WOM completeness, trust, and purchase intentions. Regulatory focus, however, tells a different story as only the relationships between product and service WOM completeness have with trust are moderated. This study closes with a discussion of the results, implications on theory and practice, and directions for future studies into the completeness of WOM.
