Rapleaf's Auren Hoffman commissioned the Virtual Handshake's Scott Allen (former writer on this blog) to do a study on Transactional trust in Social Commerce. What the hell does that mean?

Scott studied what it took for people to trust each other enough to buy or sell stuff on internet based marketplaces, like ebay. Scott's conclusions from the survey:

Transactional trust appears to be much more important to buyers than to sellers in a social commerce setting. The top four issues for buyers to determine trust all ranked higher in importance than the number one issue for sellers. The average of the top five issues was 18% more important to buyers than sellers. Sellers are also significantly less likely to research buyers prior to completing the transaction. And only 37% of sellers have ever decided not to do business with someone due to a lack of trust, versus 71% of buyers.

This seems to have a good basis in fact. Only 43% of sellers reported ever having any actual trouble with buyers, while 61% of sellers reported experiencing an actual problem with the seller.

Innaresting stuff! Rapleaf really has the potential to reduce the frequency of these troubles as their portable and transparent reputation system becomes pervasive. Notice I didn't say "IF". Auren has a long track record of success.
Rapleaf is definitely a company to watch.