Let’s Go ‘Shoppie’ — Social Media Shopping’s Cool! Nigerian Students’ Acceptance of Online Shopping via Social Media

Abstract

Advancements in information and communication, especially Web 2.0 have provided consumers and businesses with tremendous opportunities to utilize social media platforms effectively. Although both consumers and online retail stores have a wide variety of online platforms to do shopping and run modern, seamless businesses and reach consumers instantly around the world respectively, social media platforms have proven to be one of the most preferred online environments by many consumers. Despite the potential of online shopping via social media, limited attention is focused on this booming research area in Nigeria. Hence, the present study aimed to close the literature gap by to investigating consumer acceptance of social media shopping. Employing the UTAUT model perspective, a survey questionnaire was designed and administered face-to-face to 380 undergraduate students selected using purposive sampling method from two Nigerian universities: University of Maiduguri and Yobe State University. Consumers’ intention to do social media shopping was moderately high, with WhatsApp being the most preferred social media application for doing online shopping followed by Facebook. Keywords: consumers, Facebook, online shopping, social media shopping, WhatsApp DOI : 10.7176/NMMC/77-05