Effects of various characteristics of social commerce (s-commerce) on consumers’ trust and trust performance

The development of social networking sites (SNSs) has given rise to a new e-commerce paradigm called social commerce (s-commerce). S-commerce is a subset of e-commerce and uses SNSs for social interactions and user contributions to facilitate the online buying and selling of various products and services. Recent years have witnessed the rapid growth of s-commerce in Korea, but this growth has involved a number of transaction-related issues such as no delivery and the delivery of wrong items. In particular, consumers’ trust has become a crucial factor in the success of s-commerce firms, requiring these firms to make more effort to gain this trust. In this regard, this study identifies the key factors in s-commerce [reputation, size, information quality, transaction safety, communication, economic feasibility, and word-of-mouth (WOM) referrals], that is, the characteristics of s-commerce influencing Korean consumers’ trust in s-commerce. In addition, the study assesses the effects of trust on trust performance (purchase intentions and WOM intentions). The results of an empirical analysis based on a sample of 371 s-commerce users indicate that all the characteristics of s-commerce (except for economic feasibility) had significant effects on trust and that trust had significant effects on purchase and WOM intentions. The results have important implications for s-commerce firms wishing to develop a successful business model for providing their customers with trustworthy services.

► Proposed the major characteristics of social commerce (s-commerce).
► Developed the research model empirically testing the effects of those characteristics of s-commerce on consumers’ trust of s-commerce.
► Reputation, size, information quality, transaction safety, communication, and word-of-mouth referrals directly affect consumers’ trust of s-commerce.
► Economic feasibility did not have a significant influence on consumers’ trust of s-commerce.
► Trust directly affects two variables (purchase and word-of-mouth intentions) of trust performance.