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Over the past years, the social networking sites (SNSs), have introduced social commerce as a new trend of e-commerce that encourages the purchasing behavior of SNS users (Hajli, 2015). This new trend differs from other types of e-commerce in both social and electronic aspects. Social commerce has changed the way customers purchase products and services online (Chen and Shen, 2015). This type of commerce relies on information exchange, which helps consumers make sensible decisions (Wang, Yeh, Chen, and Tsydypov, 2016).
Among the most prominent social networking markets, China and India rank the largest and second largest markets, respectively, thereby making the Asia-Pacific the leading region with more than 1.73 billion SNS users as of 2019 (eMarketer, 2019). According to the Global Web Index survey, 17% of Internet users in the US and UK were inspired to purchase products in the past month after seeing posts by influencers or celebrities on social media (eMarketer, 2019). These figures show why social commerce boosts globally, especially in China. Chinese social commerce is treated as a representative case in this paper, which explores the antecedents of online shopping intention in social commerce contexts with similar or diverse conditions.
China has nearly 673.5 million social media users as of 2018 (Statista, 2019). Despite the nationwide ban on Facebook, local social networking sites in China have attracted wide appeal among users (Statista, 2019). According to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the contact ratio of SNS users and online shoppers is 43.6%. Among those SNS users with online shopping experience, 3%, 25%, and 72% often, occasionally, and never share shopping information, respectively. Meanwhile, 39.4% of these users were willing to consume a certain product that is by others (CNNIC, 2016). As of December 2017, China has 533 million online customers, which account for 69.1% of all habitual Internet users in the world and represent a 14.3% increase from the previous year (CNNIC, 2017). According to Lee, Son, and Kim (2016), the “social fatigue” phenomenon in some markets indicates a decrease in the number of buyers of products recommended on social networks. Given the large social commerce market and the nutrient-rich environment for growth in China, those elements that influence purchase intention need to be identified. However, previous empirical studies on those factors that influence the decisions of Chinese online shoppers are not dense, and some questions remain unanswered.
The scope of this paper may be perceived as narrow (examining only a subset of Chinese websites) or wide (examining online shopping in general instead of a particular industry). Accordingly, this paper examines purchase intention and its important antecedents, including website quality and eWOM, in the Chinese social commerce context. Previous studies have proposed two types of online social interactions, namely, WOM and observational learning (Godes, Mayzlin, Chen, Das, and Verlegh, 2005), whereas this study specifically focuses on social commerce websites (e.g., Taobao and JD) and applications (e.g., Weixin, Red, and Tik Tok) where consumers interact with one another.
The findings of this study have practical significance in modern marketing. Specifically, this paper examines how the relationship among website quality, eWOM, and trust affect the purchase intention of consumers by analyzing Chinese social commerce websites, namely, Taobao, Weixin, JD, Red, and Tik Tok. Chen, Hsiao, and Wu (2018) called for further research into the pivotal factors of purchase intention in social commerce websites. Those factors that moderate purchase intention in the social commerce context also warrant further examination. This paper also reviews the literature on the antecedents and major moderators of online purchasing intention in social commerce contexts. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to examine the impact of website quality, eWOM, and trust on purchase intention; and (2) to investigate the moderating effect of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) on the relationship between website quality and online purchase intention.