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Although the internet plays a significant role in daily activities, particularly shopping, some individuals are reluctant to shop online due to distrust in the online environment. This research aims to investigate trust barriers to online shopping from the relevant literature and prioritize them in an intuitionistic fuzzy environment. After reviewing the relevant literature, 18 barriers were extracted and a questionnaire based on these barriers was distributed among 150 internet users to rank three criteria of Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), namely severity, occurrence, and detection. Afterward, using the entropy method based on FMEA in an intuitionistic fuzzy environment, the priority of each barrier was assessed. The findings showed that the most important barriers to trust in online shopping are ‘privacy risk’, ‘lack of feel‐and‐touch associated with online purchases’, ‘psychological risk’, ‘social risk’ and ‘feeling that e‐vendors are pretending to care about buyers’ welfare’. Based on the findings, marketing managers should focus on improving and promoting the infrastructure security of their online shopping sites, providing comprehensive information, and benefiting from influencers and celebrities’ endorsements in order to increase customer trust.

Purpose This paper aims to examine the moderating role of positive and negative strategies of emotion regulation on the relationship between risk aversion and brand sensitivity. Design/methodology/approach By conducting a survey, this study has collected a total of 405 responses and the data have been examined with structural equation modeling. Findings The study has demonstrated that some strategies of emotion regulation have a significant moderating effect, and they can down-regulate the effect of risk aversion on brand sensitivity. These strategies are positive refocusing, refocus on planning, positive reappraisal, putting into perspective, acceptance and rumination. Research limitations/implications Future studies should consider a broader range of respondents to validate the results. Moreover, the role of emotion regulation in the relationships among repurchase intention, customer loyalty and customer compliant could be examined. Further research could also focus on the relationship between risk aversion and brand sensitivity with regard to different types of buying situations and consumers’ types. Practical implications The findings demonstrate a substantial implication regarding emotion regulation and brand management. Positive strategies of emotion regulation make risk-averse people less likely to pay attention to brands and lead them to be less brand-sensitive. New companies and businesses could use these findings to make consumers regulate their emotions positively. Originality/value This research provides novel findings about the influence of consumers’ emotion regulation on brand sensitivity. People who use positive strategies of emotion regulation tend to dampen the effect of their risk aversion on brand sensitivity and will become less sensitive to the brand.

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