Social commerce: The transfer of power from sellers to buyers

Abstract

The emergence of social media has demonstrated the empowerment of end-users with a transfer of power from sellers to buyers. Consumers have become able to generate content and share this in their networks with peers. Digital content generated by individuals has an economic value. Economic implications in the form of product sales through social interaction of individuals must now be taken into account by businesses. This has seen the emergence of social commerce, an important evolution in e-commerce. This paper draws on social support theory, social commerce constructs and information systems concepts, and proposes a conceptual model. This proposed model investigates the role of social media in facilitating online communication between consumers through social commerce constructs, leading to online social support. A survey has been conducted to examine the structural model. Data analysis using SEM-PLS reveals important factors indicating the role of social media in facilitating online communication through social commerce constructs, generating online social support and affecting consumers' behaviour, the value of social commerce for the market. Theoretical implications and practical implications of this study are explained in the end of the paper.