A Study on the Effect of Social Commerce Beauty Product Type, Discount Rate and Regulatory Focus on Purchase Intention

Abstract

This study intended to verify the interaction of social commerce beauty product types, discount rates, and regulatory focuses on purchasing intention. The design consisted of three-way mixed design of 2 (social commerce beauty product type: general product, service product) x 2 (discount rate: high, low) x 2 (regulatory focus: improvement focus, prevention focus). This study was conducted with 280 women over 20 years old who have used social commerce in Seoul and the Gyeonggi region, and a total of 259 copies were used for the final analysis excluding the data with incomplete responses. Frequency analysis, credibility analysis, three-way ANOVA, simple interaction effect analysis, and simple main effect analysis were conducted using the SPSS 18.0 Statistical Package for data analysis. The results of this study were as follows. First, it was identified that the social commerce beauty product type and discount rate have a significant effect on purchase intention. Consumers of beauty products through social commerce prefer intangible beauty service products than general products that they can also purchase in other sites and prefer products with a higher discount rate. Secondly, it was identified that the social commerce beauty products type, discount rate, and regulatory focus make significant interaction effect on purchase intention. The preventive focus group that tried to manage risk and use several alternatives or previous alternatives repeatedly showed higher purchase intention when the discount rate of beauty service products was higher. The result implies that consumers who have used social commerce feel less risk regarding quality because they have direct and indirect experience with social commerce products. Therefore, companies who wish to sell beauty products in social commerce should establish different marketing strategies depending on consumer experiences with social commerce.