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Technological advancements have drastically changed the world in the last few decades. The conduct of traditional commerce, in particular, has been gradually transforming into an electronic commerce (e-commerce) since the revolutionary invention of the Internet in the 1960s. The rise of Web 2.0 applications and social networking sites (SNSs) facilitated the further transforming of e-commerce conduct. Boyd and Ellison (2007) defined SNSs as follows:
Web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semipublic profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. (p. 211)
Examples of SNSs include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Each is an online social platform on which users can create profiles, present themselves to communities, exchange information, and communicate with one another. By merging SNSs and e-commerce activities, a new form of e-commerce has emerged known as social commerce (s-commerce). S-commerce generally involves using SNSs to assist in the process of selling, purchasing, and engaging in social interactions between businesses and consumers. Rubel (2005) was the first to discuss the concept; he reviewed Yahoo’s Shoposphere site as the first example of s-commerce and predicted the future trend of s-commerce. Although scholars have not established a standard definition of s-commerce, it is distinguished mainly by three elements: Community interaction, social media technologies, and commercial activities (Liang & Turban, 2011). In this study, the authors adopt Huang and Benyoucef’s (2013) definition of s-commerce as “an Internet-based commercial application, leveraging social media and Web 2.0 technologies which support social interaction and user-generated content to assist consumers in their decision making and acquisition of products and services within online marketplaces and communities” (p. 247).
The recent developments caused by COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated a shift in both consumers and businesses behavior, where online shopping has become the norm for many people (PwC, 2020). Currently, most SNSs have added features to support e-commerce activities on their platform. For instance, as a response to the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown policies that many governments have implemented worldwide, Instagram added a new tab called the “shop” tab to support online retailers, enabling them to sell and reach more customers through the Instagram platform (Instagram, 2020). Moreover, Kemp’s (2023b) report shows that 59.4% of the world’s population uses social media, with an average daily use of 2 hours and 31 minutes. This high level of usage of SNSs means higher chance for SNSs’ users to engage in s-commerce.