The role of chatbots’ human-like characteristics in online shopping

•Customers’ trust in chatbots result in their willingness to use chatbots.•Customers’ readiness characteristics, including optimism and innovativeness, have a positive influence on their trust in chatbots.•The human-like characteristics of chatbots, including empathy and social presence, have a positive influence on customers’ trust in chatbots.•Anthropomorphism of chatbots has a negative influence on customers’ trust in chatbots.•Trust mediates the effects of chatbots’ human-like characteristics and customer’ readiness characteristics on their willingness to use chatbots. Despite their importance for online shopping, little is known about what motivates customers to trust and use chatbots. This study fills this gap by investigating factors leading customers to trust chatbots, eventually leading to a willingness to use them. We examined the antecedents of trust from two perspectives: first, the customer perspective, represented by innovativeness and optimism, and second, the chatbots’ human-like characteristics, represented by anthropomorphism, empathy, and social presence. The model was examined using a representative sample of 395 online shopping customers. Our findings show that customer’s readiness characteristics (optimism and innovativeness), and the human-like characteristics of chatbots (empathy and social presence) have a positive influence on customers’ trust in chatbots, while perceived anthropomorphism has a negative influence on trust. In addition, our results indicate that customers’ trust significantly affects their willingness to use this new technology. The results of the study provide key insights for chatbot developers and marketing managers on how to build trust in chatbots, which will, in turn, lead to an increase in customers’ willingness to use this technology in the online shopping context.