Social Commerce—When Social Media Meets E-commerce: A Swiss Consumer Study

Abstract

Social commerce was established with the growing commercial use of social media platforms, centered around e-commerce features and actors (buyers, influencers, and sellers) which provide user-generated content through recommendations on products and services. Important factors are both the utilization of social media platforms as trusted sources by users and the trusted content from users posting their experiences and opinions. This study focuses on Swiss consumers (9 out of 10 Swiss residents are active online) and their usage of social media, e-commerce, and social commerce as a source of trusted product information and platforms to share their own product experiences. While social media usage in Switzerland is high (almost all online users are using some form of social media), only one-third are using social media (primarily YouTube) as a source of information that guides decision-making. Merely one in ten respondents post their experiences—satisfaction or recommendations for products and services—on social media at least once a month. Our research data show that in Switzerland, social commerce is an underdeveloped marketing concept as to available e-commerce features and the degree of trusted user-generated content about products and services on social media platforms.