Factors influencing consumer attitudes toward online shopping: the mediating effect of trust Youssef Chetioui and Hind Lebdaoui School of Business Administration, Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Ifrane, Morocco, and Hajar Chetioui FSJES, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco Abstract Purpose – The coronavirus pandemic has created a new wave of first-time online shoppers in both industrialized and emerging countries. More interestingly, scholars and practitioners expect this transition to online shopping to eventually persist in the next few years. The current research study aims to investigate the factors explaining attitudes toward online shopping. The authors propose an integrated model in which trust mediates the effects of relative advantage and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on attitudes toward online shopping. The moderating effect of gender was also assessed using the multigroup analysis (MGA). Design/methodology/approach – Based on data collected from 378 Moroccan online shoppers, the authors empirically tested the hypothesized model using a partial least squares (PLS) estimation. Findings – First, relative advantage, eWOM and trust significantly impact consumer attitudes toward online shopping; at the same time, trust is influenced by relative advantage and eWOM. Second, results confirm that trust mediates the effects of relative advantage and eWOM on attitudes toward online shopping. Third, the MGA reveals that female consumers tend to exhibit a stronger effect of eWOM on trust and on attitudes toward online shopping. Originality/value – Most relevant studies have focused on the main predictors of attitudes toward online shopping but did not suggest mediating and moderating factors that can help in explaining indirect effects. The present paper bridges a gap pertaining to antecedents of attitudes toward online shopping by incorporating the mediating effect of online trust. The authors also examine gender disparities related to the predictors of trust and consumer attitudes toward online shopping. This study is the first of its kind to investigate the antecedents of attitudes toward online shopping in an African country. Keywords Relative advantage, eWOM, Trust, Online shopping, Attitudes, Gender Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction The wide spread of the Internet along with technological developments has established new channels for businesses interested in promoting and selling their products and services (Martins et al., 2018; Caputo et al., 2019). In that same context, businesses are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in efforts to establish an electronic presence on the Internet (Tankovic and Benazic, 2018). The expansion of online shopping has provided customers the option to easily compare product characteristics and prices, making it the most flexible way of purchasing. In Europe, for instance, e-commerce has reached an average annual growth rate of 22% with total retail sales surpassing the V200 bn in 2014 (Marcus and Petropoulos, 2017). However, online shopping is still emerging in most developing countries. Statistics indicate that only 15% of African households made an online purchase in 2018 (UNCTAD, 2018). Though online shopping is still in its infancy stage in Morocco, consumers can shop online from a variety of local and international online shopping websites, namely Jumia, FourniPro, Aliexpress, Amazon and others. This study examines consumer attitudes toward online shopping in the context of an emerging market, i.e. Morocco. Indeed, online shoppers in Morocco can still be considered as Consumer attitudes toward online shopping The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1450-2194.htm Received 11 May 2020 Revised 27 August 2020 15 November 2020 Accepted 16 November 2020 EuroMed Journal of Business © Emerald Publishing Limited 1450-2194 DOI 10.1108/EMJB-05-2020-0046