Social Commerce Research Trends

This assignment delves into the dynamic field of social commerce. It examines existing definitions, identifies prominent research themes within this domain, and analyzes current trends shaping its evolution. The focus lies on understanding how social media platforms are transforming traditional e-commerce models and influencing consumer behavior.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH
Business Research
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Project Objective.............................................................................................................................3
Project Scope...................................................................................................................................4
Research Questions and justification...............................................................................................4
Literature Review............................................................................................................................8
Introduction......................................................................................................................................8
First: Opportunities of social electronic commerce.........................................................................9
Second: Problems of social electronic commerce.........................................................................12
Third: Strategies to reduce risks in social commerce...................................................................15
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................16
Research Methodology:.................................................................................................................16
Research Philosophy:.....................................................................................................................16
Research Approach:.......................................................................................................................17
Method of Data Collection:...........................................................................................................17
Sample Size and Sampling Technique:.........................................................................................18
Data Analysis Method:..................................................................................................................19
Reliability and Validity of the Findings:.......................................................................................19
Research Limitation.......................................................................................................................20
Timeline.........................................................................................................................................20

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Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
Reference.......................................................................................................................................22

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Introduction:
In the highly competitive market in which most of the organizations operate today, the
importance of social electronic commerce cannot be overstated. While this can be advantageous
in more than one way, it is not free from limitations and risks as well. Hence, in order to collect
and analyse the data needed for exploring sufficient knowledge regarding the opportunities and
risks of using social e-commerce in business, it is important to develop comprehensive
knowledge about the research methodology to be selected.
Project Objective
The aim of the current research project is to discuss about the matters related to that of
opportunities and problems that are associated with the use of the social electronic commerce.
Social Electronic commerce or social commerce is a form of promotional activities related to e
commerce business, which is dependent upon social media form of marketing. With rising
popularity of social media platforms and digital form of communication, e-commerce business
firms use the same in order to communicate with customers. Through the form of social
interaction, it is possible for the business organization to reach out to the customers and
communicate about details related to product and service. This time of social Electronic
Commerce was introduced in the year 2005 by Yahoo, where online collaborative shopping tools
are used as one of the effective medium to improve upon the total sales volume.

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Project Scope
The importance of current project is due to the fact that it will provide the research
methodology guidelines for investigative opportunities and drawbacks that are associated with
social Electronic Commerce. The purpose of the research project will also be justified by the fact
that it will help to improve upon the intervention techniques that can help to deal with the
drawbacks that are associated with that of implication of social Electronic Commerce. The result
of the research work will help business organization to prevent the misuse of social media
marketing, which can comprise up on the brand reputation by misuse of the public forums.
Research work will also aim to highlight upon the gaps that are associated with that of the
existing literature, thereby ensuring about the fact that it will be possible to make most use of the
social media platforms in matters related to that of promotional strategies of the e-commerce
platforms.
Research Questions and justification
It is important for every research to frame effective research questions, which will help to
address the issue related to the research topic. Framing of the Research question is the initial part
of implementing blueprint for research method. Research question also establishes link between
the research hypothesis and Research aim. In order to develop strong Research question it is
important to properly manage the pre existing ideas related to the research topic.
Following are the questions of the research work that is provided along with prescriptive
justification:
What are the opportunities that are associated with social Electronic Commerce?

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With the increase in the popularity of social media platforms and growing number of
users from all parts of the globe, it is widely believed that social media platforms are one of the
effective medium of communication. Social form of interaction is Highly Effective in matters
related to sharing product and service information. As mentioned in the existing literature, social
media platforms provides opportunity establish an effective relation between the users and the
service providers. This can help the business organization to understand the demand of the
customers thereby bringing about change in the business and marketing plan.
Nevertheless, it is important to widen the opportunity that is associated with that of the
social media websites. The social aspect of online shopping can provide a wide range of
opportunity for the customers to get details and review feedbacks about the products they are
willing to purchase. With the help of the above mentioned Research question, it is possible to
improve upon the opportunity of social media communication that is one of the essential to
manage with social media marketing. As mentioned in the portion of literature review proper
utilization of social resources is essential due to the fact that it can help in the process of making
buying decisions. As the customers are able to gain knowledge about the product of their choice,
it is easily possible at them to make decisions related to that of brand choice.
What are the problems that are associated with that of social electronic commerce?
It is mentioned in a literature review that the use of social Electronic Commerce is
usually associated with some drawbacks. This is mainly due to the facts that, the popularity of
social media network also provide the opportunity to misuse the same. Spreading of false news
and information is often common. With the help of the above mentioned that question it is

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possible to identify all the drawbacks that are associated with the application of social Electronic
Commerce.
It is important to mention in the context that trust issue is one of the major causes of
concern for use of social media platform as a source of business communication. Due to the fact
that there is an opportunity of spreading false information, it is not possible for the customers to
rely or trust upon the information that they get through the social media platforms. As the
problems related to social Electronic Commerce and highlighted up on, it is possible to
implement solutions to prevent the misuse of the social media platforms. The risks that are
mentioned within the review section are also a major concern that can lower the reputation of the
business. Hence, by addressing this question it is possible to address the issues related to
security, which can leak vital information related to that of the social Electronic Commerce.
What are the strategies that need to be implemented in order to reduce the risk of social media
commerce?
This is the final and the most important question of the investigation, which will aim to
implement proper solutions related to the misuse of the social electronic commerce. This
question will help to address issues related to raising the security level for preventing the misuse
of social media platforms. It can also help to investigate up on the ways that will be implemented
to raise the Awareness of the business stakeholders while dealing with matters related to use of
social Electronic Commerce in business communication process. It will be also possible to
address the issue related to corporate social responsibility, which will help to maintain ethical
standard.

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With proper level of justification that is provided for the research questions, it is possible
to implement appropriate research methods. This can help to address the issues related to the use
of social Electronic Commerce.

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Literature Review
Introduction
The advance in social media application development caused the new
paradigm of e-commerce represented in the social commerce. Social media
applications facilitate on-line shopping activities of products and services.
Business organizations have to develop their websites on social media,
according to consumer preferences to facilitate their transaction in the social
context. Social commerce brings e-commerce to the social media context
and the social media at the same time could be transferred to the e-
commerce website. Although social commerce mainly refers to practicing e-
commerce activities within the social media context. Social commerce is
mainly dedicated to the social activities as collaboration, information sharing
and networking (Huang & Benyoucef, 2015).
The social interaction of users is due to the wide spread of the social
networking sites. Consumers are free to join the social groups of their choice,
communicate, share information, knowledge and practices with each other.
This social interaction influences the buying behavior of users according to
the perceived information from their friends. The social commerce
empowered buyers over the sellers. The social support is likely to increase
the social commerce activities and influence more buyers, as users make
informed contributions among social groups. These interactions are analyzed

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by business organizations to know the buyers' attitudes and predict their
future activities (Hajli & Sims, 2015).
This report mainly focuses on the opportunities and challenges of the
social electronic commerce. It consists of three parts, the first part discusses
the possible opportunities of social electronic commerce, the second part
analyses the possible problems of social electronic commerce. The third part
introduces strategies to reduce risks in social commerce.
First: Opportunities of social electronic commerce
The increasing number of social media applications created many
opportunities for organizations to developed business models based on the
concept of electronic commerce (e-commerce). Social commerce provides a
marketplace for users to sell their products on line. Many companies use the
social commerce as, Yahoo, eBay and Amazon, as they got the opportunity
of user participation to create value from the social networks. The social
commerce provides a user centered environment, which creates social
interaction as it motivates the users to shop together, which create
advantage to the seller represented in increased sales volume, higher level
of user engagement and creates strong relations between the organization
and the customer
(Huang & Benyoucef, 2015).

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Social commerce encourages organizations to provide high quality
products, increase the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns and
analyze users'preferences to predict the future trends of the market. The
social media changed both of the consumer and the companies' roles as the
electronic word of mouth marketing has developed. As the word of mouth
marketing changed the way the consumers behave is also changed (Jim, et
al., 2015).
The key to successful social commerce is the social influence of the
customers. As the social support from other encourages the user influence to
the product. This influence is the driver of the customer decision of buying
the product (Wanga & Yu, 2017).
As a social marketplace, social media encourage users to share
information and experiences about shopping products which affects the
decisions of their peers.Information sharing between consumers on social
media takes place before and after shopping online. It can take the form of
rating recommendation or review of the seller or the product. There are a
variety of activities that could take place in the social media marketplace as
pre-shopping activities, the decision making of shopping and evaluation
after-shopping. Accordingly organizations can benefit from these activities in
creating their business strategies to improve their performance (Lin, et al.,
2017).
 Social aspect of online shopping

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 Shopping by nature is considered a social activity. The social commerce
provides escrow services and accepts guarantees transactions done with
the credit card. Social media channel strengths the social nature of the
shopping activities in the online shopping activity. It also allows the
organizations to take the initiative of the social interaction and to manage
the interaction with the customers.Social commerce focuses on the social
activities as collaboration and information sharing, unlike the e-
commerce, which mainly focuses on the shopping activities.When buyers
access the products from social media applications, they can get the
information they need from other shoppers' experiences and they gain
more knowledge about the purpose of the purpose of their shopping and
to make accurate purchasing decision (Lu, et al., 2016).
 Social resources as a predictor of consumer expertise
The information resources available on the social media, when the
consumer interacts with one of its applications he can get the information
needed to make the buying decision. The type of information the
consumers' access to gain knowledge enables the seller to differentiate
between the beginner and the expert consumer. Analytics tools can
provide the organizations with the type of consumers and their
preferences (Barrutia, et al., 2016).
 Technological support to social commerce
The on-line shopping through social media is different from the shopping
experience in the offline context. The social commerce provides buyers

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with informational and emotional support. But in the online context,
people do not have human interaction. The technology of social
commerce is represented in applications and web 2.0 technologies which
influence consumers to participate in blogs, communities and forums. The
variety of technological platforms attracts different styles of users, which
creates an opportunity for business organizations to choose their target
customers (Hajli, 2013).
 Factors that influence consumer intention in social commerce and
creates opportunities for the business organization
According toAkman & Mishra (2017), the consumer driving factors
towards social commerce are as follows:
 Using social commerce involves security aspects, as consumers need
to feel that their transactions are secure. Securing the user access
increases the opportunity for shopping and risk reduction.
 Quality also plays a vital role in making shopping decisions. Trust in
the product quality creates reliability.
 It is important to provide an easy access and make the shopping
process enjoying to the shoppers in order to attract them. The easiness
and enjoyment assist in the user engagement in the technology
mechanism.
 The social pressure affects the consumers in a positive way when they
find support from trusted people within the social network and
accordingly, the opportunity of their engagement increases.

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 It is important to shoppers to be satisfied when using the information
and communication technology. As social network is the platform,
where communication takes place between users and it should be
developed on a regular basis to attract users. Also, users should be
involved in the development process to ensure that the application
satisfies their needs. Satisfaction involves easiness, usefulness,
expectations and experiences.
 Small companies can make use of advanced technology in promoting
their products to be able to compete globally and take the opportunity
that the social commerce offers to them. They should adopt strategies
to promote their brands through social networks.
 It is important for business organizations to be ethical in their presence
on the social network as the perceived ethics affect the shoppers'
response and enables better sharing of information among users.
Second: Problems of social electronic commerce
It is a challenging task for business organizations to make their social
platform socially accepted. Organizations have to add features to fulfil the
user needs. These features include the logo of the brand, recommended
products, reviews and feedback, customized products and discounts. It is
important for business organizations to understand the market needs and
consumer expectations. The social commerce website of the seller should be
evaluated according to users' perspectives of the required social features.
The absence of this analysis will lead to the failure of the business strategy

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of social commerce as it should be based on actual, quality and timely
information (Huang & Benyoucef, 2015).
 Trust in social commerce:
Almost all of the economic transactions are built on trust. The social
commerce platform lacks the rules so users tend to trust the seller when
taking the shopping decision. Trust is also the most important factor in e-
commerce. The social context can be a source of providing trust or the
opposite. In social commerce, trust in the seller is the major aspect then
comes the trust in the marketplace.The buyer interaction through the
website should create a trust, analysts describe this relationship as similar
to the interpersonal interaction. Being able to view the previous purchase
actions of buyers, directs the behavior of the buyers according to the
perceived information (Lu, et al., 2016). It is important to reduce the
perceived risk of the buyers through monitoring their purchasing
performance indicators in different modes of transactions (Zheng, et al.,
2015).
 Members’ intention in social commerce
The shared intention among group members reflects the individual
intention of the group members. It is considered a collective intention of
the entire group. That is why it is considered a social value which
influences the group members' behaviors.It is also considered
informational value asinteraction among group members includes

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information sharing, which impact their attitudes and buying behavior
(Sun, et al., 2016).
 Risk of social commerce
There are different types of risks that could take place in the social
commerce, including, product, channel and social related risk. The
product-related risk, concerns with whether the product specifications
meet the consumer expectations or fail to do this. The channel-related
risk concerns with the consumer's feeling towards the online buying
process, which could be positive or negative.The social-related risk
concerns with the buyer attitude with regard to the opinion of his family
members or friends.Accordingly, new consumers or pad experienced
consumers have high perceived risk towards the social commerce. On the
opposite, when the consumer is loyal, his perceived risk is low and the
switching cost will be positive(Yen, 2010).
 Security of social commerce
The vendor behavior should be security related. Securing personal and
financial information is a very important issue. Security actions include,
privacy control, confidentiality control, authentication control and data
integrity control. The user perceived security controls his buying behavior.
If the users feel safe and their personal information is protected, then
confident expectation will be gained.The perceived security is highly
related to trust, as the received security increases the trust increases
(Choi & Nazareth, 2014).

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 Electronic word of mouth
The credibility of information is important to the electronic word of mouth
in the online context. If the users trust the social commerce website, it is
more likely for them to spread electronic word of mouth about the
company activities. High level of interaction on the social website, creates
an opportunity to the electronic word of mouth behavior to spread(Shi &
Chow, 2015).
 Culture in social commerce
The social media marketplace makes it easy to define the various
communities and cultures. It provides a challenge to the sellers to satisfy
the individuals' needs according to their culture and privacy protection.
Individuals' culture may be related to high perceived risk towards financial
transaction security or personal information protection through the
shopping transaction process. Also, it is important for sellers to
differentiate between public and private users in the online context
(Gajendra & Wang, 2014).
 Social media and brand engagement
Brand engagement in social commerce is considered an effective tool for
business organizations to spread worldwide. The challenge exists in the
fact that social media were created to people not to spread brands.
Brands are mainly speeded by electronic word of mouth. The problem is
the brand engagement has no measurement either inside the
organization or in the social media platform. Accordingly, it is better to

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organizations try to understand how brand engagement happens and
attract more users to the brand. Many forms of engagement do exist, as
photo sharing, blogs, videos, chat rooms and forums (Schultz & Peltier,
2013).
Third: Strategies to reduce risks in social commerce
Organizations should be aware that social commerce is challenging to
them, as problems may occur and spread widely among users worldwide.
There should be a strategy to deal with such cases of crisis to deal with them
and reduces their impact. The problem may occur due to information
insecurity; in this case, technical handling is necessary at the time of
occurrence. It is also considered a responsibility of the consumer to protect
his information in the online context; this could be done by using the latest
security software and safe browsers while making online transactions (Vos,
et al., 2014).
The corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays a role in improving business
organizations' social commitment, including, their presence in the inline
context. CSR assists in keeping the ethical standards of the organizations
(Farrokhnia & Keith, 2013).
Conclusion
Social commerce provides a marketplace for users to sell their
products on line.The social commerce provides a user centered environment,

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which creates social interaction as it motivates the users to shop together. It
also, encourages organizations to provide high quality products and increase
the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns.
Research Methodology:
Accordingly, this chapter intends to give an insight into the research approach, research
tools and technique as well as research philosophy that will guide the systematic process of
collecting and analysing the research data.
Research Philosophy:
Research philosophy is an important concept as it explains the set of beliefs underlying
the research approach. While there are three distinct kinds of research philosophy- Positivism,
Interpretivism and Realism, the present research project will employ the use of Interpretivism.
This research philosophy has been chosen here because the ulterior aim of the research is to not
merely to test the validity of any hypothesis, but to develop knowledge and gain insight into the
research issue. The Interpretivism approach will help in gaining an empathetic understanding
and in-depth analysis of possible advantages and potential risks of utilizing social e-commerce in
business (Mackey and Gass 2015). In order to understand the opportunities and risks of
outsourcing business activities, it is important to see the situation and interpret the issue through
the minds of the managers of social e-commerce using organizations.
Research Approach:

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The research approach is also an integral part of any research method, and it helps in
offering an insight into the basic plans and procedures which are being used in the research
process. There are primarily two different kinds of research approach which are – Inductive
Research Approach and Deductive research Approach. While the deductive research approach
intends to test the validity of a theory, the inductive approach is concerned with the exploration
of new facts and generation of new ideas (Taylor et al. 2015). Since this research does not intent
to test the validity of any hypothesis, but rather simply intends to develop knowledge about the
possible risks and opportunities of social e-commerce in business, inductive approach will be
chosen. The inductive method will help in developing a pattern of meaning and exploring the
important facts regarding the prospects and scope of application of the social e-commerce system
in business.
Method of Data Collection:
The data collection method is the most important method in the research process, as it
helps in selecting the appropriate method of collecting research information that will be analysed
for deriving reliable conclusion. There are two kinds of data collection methods- qualitative data
collection method and quantitative data collection method. The qualitative data collection
method will be adopted for the present research, because the present research intends to uncover
and explore the research topic in greater depth, and hence a more holistic understanding of the
research issue is important (Flick 2015). Quantitative data collection method has been omitted
here because statistical data will have no role to play here. The qualitative method will be chosen
because it will help in developing an understanding of the behaviour and attitudes of the
consumers, and how the same is affected by the availability of products on the social networking
sites. Any kind of factual and statistical data is not required here. Hence, accordingly the data

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will be collected by conducting a review of the existent academic literature as well as by
arranging a qualitative focus group interview with the managers of a chosen organization-
SnapCap that also uses the social e-commerce platform to promote its products and attract
consumer attention (Brinkmann 2014).
It is important to note in this connection that there are two kinds of data that can be used
in any research- the first hand data, collected by the researcher, also known as the primary data,
and the second-hand data collected by other researchers and scholars in the past, that can be
utilized for the present study, and is known as the secondary data. The present research employs
the use of both primary as well as secondary data (Silverman 2016). Primary data will be used
while collecting the data directly from the responses of the interviewees, the managers of
SnapCap, while the secondary data will be collected, while reviewing the existent past research
papers, academic journal publications, and business reports of companies like Yahoo and
Amazon that actively exploit this social platform.
Sample Size and Sampling Technique:
The sampling technique is highly important in the process of conducting a research as it
helps in the effective selection of suitable study participants, so that the data collected through
the responses of the interviewees, can ensure validity of the findings. Since focus group
interview has been selected as a data collection method, the purposeful sampling technique will
be used for the research. This technique is widely used in the qualitative research methods,
which involves the identification and selection of the respondents, who are likely to possess
maximum knowledge and experience about a particular phenomenon (Panneerselvam 2014).
Accordingly, the respondents chosen for this research are the managers of SnapCap, an emerging

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Australian online retail company that utilizes social media for the promotion of its products. The
managers will have adequate knowledge regarding the possible opportunities and potential risks
of using social networking sites in the context of e-commerce transactions. Accordingly, the
sample number chosen is 10.
Data Analysis Method:
The qualitative data collected through review of the articles will be analysed by the
interpretation of the research information available in order to understand any underlying
patterns and common trends (Blumberg et al. 2014). For analysing the data collected through the
interview, the conceptualization technique will be followed whereby the general and abstract
data will be collected from the research, and the same will be used to explain how they help to
explain the specific phenomenon under study.
Reliability and Validity of the Findings:
Reliability and validity are two important issues in any research. Qualitative research is
often criticized for lacking the scientific rigours that makes the research authentic and reliable. In
order to keep the conclusion error-free and reliable, the present research will confirm the data
collected through the review of academic literature, by comparing the results and findings with
the responses of the interviewees selected for the interview. Further, to reduce and eliminate
research bias, the researcher will engage with other researchers as well.

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Research Limitation
Although the research will be taken with much care, yet it may not be free from a few
limitations. Accordingly, the first limitation of this research is that it is completely reliant on the
use of qualitative data, and does not employ the use of quantitiave data, that can reduce the
reliability and authenticity of the findings less reliable. Next, the sample size is too small (10),
and hence it cannot be ensured that this small sample size will be able to represent the
perspectives of the entire target population. Next, the interview questions may be formulated
such that it leads to biased and influenced responses from the respondents’ ends.
Timeline
The entire research process is divided into various research activities that will be
accomplished over a period of fourteen weeks. Accordingly, a Gantt chart has been provided
below that will give an insight into the research activities and the estimated time to be taken in
order to complete the same.
Research
Activity
Week 0 to 2 Week 3 to 6 Week 7 to 8 Week 9 to 10 Week 14
Literature
Review
Conduction of
Interview

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Data Analysis
Deriving the
Conclusion
and Checking
the Reliability
of the Project
Findings
Completion
of the Project
Conclusion
It is clearly evident from the above discussion that this chapter offers a detailed idea
about the research methodology that will be used in order to conduct this study. With every
points and sub points it has been shown with proper justification why the researcher has used that
particular methodology.

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