The impact of social shopping feature richness on buying intention: a product perspective

Abstract

PurposeSocial shopping platforms have flourished by using multiple social shopping features, yet little is known about how the combination of these features affects purchase intention, particularly in terms of the product itself. The purpose of the paper is to draw on the concept of social shopping feature richness, adopting a formative approach on the survey used, and endeavors to reveal the concept's impact on consumers' buying intention from a product perspective.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on mental accounting and signaling theories, a theoretical model is proposed and empirically evaluated with 356 samples collected using a questionnaire survey.FindingsThe results suggest that social shopping feature richness promotes consumers' consumption by providing information signals to satisfy acquisition utility and transaction utility. Specifically, social shopping feature richness enhances perceived product quality, while decreasing negative perceptions regarding price. Moreover, perceived product quality and perceived price significantly influence buying intention through the mechanism of perceived value.Originality/valueThe authors' study highlights the role of the combination of functionally diverse social shopping features on product sales for social shopping platforms.