Influence of social interaction on the purchase behavior of social commerce consumers

2.4.1 Impulsive purchasing

Impulsive purchasing is a sudden, irresistible and hedonic purchase behavior [35]. It is accompanied with complex emotional pleasures, which can lead to conflicts between control and enjoyment. When users’ emotion overcome rationality and think less of the purchasing consequence, they are more likely to purchase [36]. There are many factors that induce impulsive purchasing, including external environment stimulation, purchase situation factors and individual personality traits; external environment stimulation is a series of marketing stimuli that sellers take to attract users, such as advertising, price promotion, shop furnishings. The purchase scenario factors refer to the atmosphere of marketing, the emotions when purchase and self-regulating resources. Individual personality traits such as impulsive buying tendencies, hedonic needs and economic strength are internal influencing factors. Impulsive purchasing phenomenon also exists in online shopping, and the network environment is much easier to induce impulsive purchasing [37]. Robert (2001) [38] believes that in online shopping, stimulating factors such as attractive pictures, product descriptions and purchase evaluations undermine user self-control, so online shopping is more likely to stimulate users’ impulse purchasing than physical stores. Wells (2011) [39] finds that perceived usefulness, website quality, enjoyment affect users’ impulsive purchasing significantly. In addition, other factors such as word-of-mouth recommendations, product images and advertisements are also proved to promote user’s impulsive purchasing tendency.

2.4.2 Repeat purchasing

Repeat purchasing intention refers to the willingness of online consumers to re-trade with sellers at a certain frequency for a period of time after conducting a transaction on the shopping website [40]. It is a desire or tendency for users to continue to form a trading relationship with sellers [41]. Obtaining user loyalty and willingness to purchase repeatedly is the decisive factor for online sellers to have sustainable competitive advantages; research has shown that elements such as service quality, website design, interactivity, trust, security, satisfaction can largely affect consumers’ repeat purchasing [42]. Gefen (2002) [43] finds that service quality, transfer cost, perceived risk and user trust are important factors influencing online shopping consumers’ willingness to purchase repeatedly. Qureshi (2009) [44] finds that website quality, website reputation and delivery ability can positively affect users’ trust, while trust and website quality can positively affect users’ willingness to purchase repeatedly. Chen, Li, and Song (2015) [45] prove that perceived value, satisfaction and trust significantly affect users’ willingness to purchase repeatedly. In addition, some scholars analyze the formation mechanism of users’ repeat purchasing intention from the perspective of emotion, and find that the positive attitude of users to the website is an important factor affecting users’ repurchase on the website [46].

3.2.1 Social interaction and presence

The presence theory holds that social interaction can promote presence of users [51]. With the improving level of social interaction, the sensory stimulus obtained by users is closer to the stimulus of the real environment. On a social commerce platform with a high level of social interaction, users can communicate with sellers, other users, online friends, etc. through social media in a two-way manner to get feedback. High social interaction will give users a sense of being in the environment of products and shopping websites [52]. The consumer can search all the information about the products they need more easily by interacting on the website which can recommend products suitable for them according to their individual needs. In addition, consumers who interact on the website are able to perceive a higher interactive response speed and perceived ease of use, so as to facilitate the consumer to obtain detailed information about products and facilitate their shopping. Customers can view 3D merchandise display from different angles and try on merchandise online, all these activities can make them feel real. Therefore, high interactivity will give customers a feeling of being with the product and being in a physical store. In addition, Hassanein et al. [53] find that improving the design of text and pictures in online marketing can enhance the social presence of users significantly. Mollen [54] also shows that the stimulation of the consumer on the website and in the surrounding environment will be reflected in the interactivity, presence and investment. The following assumptions are made based on the above analysis:

Hypothesis H1a: user-website interaction positively affects users’ physical presence;

A good navigation system, web page layout, detailed pictures and text descriptions of products can not only equip the consumer with the products information they need, but also make them feel relaxed when browsing the website. For example, when consumers buy a sofa, the good design of the website and product display can not only equip them with information about the products, but also make them feel at home, which can improve their social presence.

Hypothesis H1b: user-website interaction positively affects users’ social presence;

By interacting with sellers, consumers can understand the product information from sellers, thus having a deeper understanding of the features and functions of the product. For example, sellers can show consumers the picture of the product and recommend a suitable size for the consumer, so that the consumer can imagine the approximate appearance of the product even if they do not see the real one. On the other hand, by interacting with sellers, consumers can get some more comprehensive suggestions about the product from sellers, which can make consumers feel the service of the merchant and increase consumers’ favor for sellers and the product. Based on the above analysis, the following assumptions are made:

Hypothesis H1c: user-seller interaction positively affects users’ physical presence.

Hypothesis H1d: user-seller interaction positively affects users’ social presence.

Liu H et al. [55] believe that three types of interpersonal interactions between users are mainly concerned, which are professionalism, similarity and familiarity. Professionalism reflects the knowledge of community members in a certain field. Professional knowledge sources are vital to the acceptance of information. People are more willing to believe the opinions of experts when they accept social influence. On the online community platform, members with a certain degree of expertise and more professional knowledge will provide useful suggestions. This can increase consumers’ spatial presence. According to the similarity theory, people are more easily to be attracted by those who are similar to them. Al-Natour et al. [56] point out that consumers’ perception of similarity to other members helps them enjoy interaction. When users use the community platform, they will unconsciously resonate with people who are similar to them. In the social business environment, most of the information users want to obtain are from users who have the same preferences as themselves. Common topics appear only when the preferences are similar. Therefore, the similarity will promote the generation of consumers’ social presence. Familiarity refers to the degree of interaction between members of the community platform and their understanding of other members on the platform. Familiarity reflects the interaction frequency and relationship strength of users in social shopping websites. Familiarity can reduce uncertainty, enhance the degree of trust among platform members and promote interaction. When users interact on a community platform, they are not necessarily familiar with each other, and it is difficult to have a sense of trust or feel relaxed to communicate on the platform. Only when the members feel that they are familiar with each other like friends, will they be more enjoyable and relaxed when participating in activities on the community platform, thereby enhancing consumers’ social presence. Based on the above analysis, the following assumptions are made:

Hypothesis H1e: user-user interaction positively affects users’ physical presence.

Hypothesis H1f: user-user interaction positively affects users’ social presence.

Ipsos’ survey shows that Chinese users are more likely to buy something because their friends on social networks like or follow. The purchase behavior in online social groups is different from one-to-one purchase relationship in the traditional business model [57]. The attributes of social networks have gradually turned the purchase relationship to many-to-many trading relationship based on online social groups and social interaction [58], giving birth to the collective buying behavior of group consumers. Therefore, when users’ online friends are closely connected with them, users’ physical presence will be improved.Finally, consumers’ social friends are a group closely connected with consumers who trust online friends a lot. If consumers’ online friends have purchased goods, consumers can get a lot of information from them. Detailed information can thus enhance consumers’ physical presence. Jiang et al. [34] and Zhao et al. [17] find that online interaction can affect consumers’ social presence and physical presence significantly. By interacting with social friends and discussing common topics about products, consumers can make both parties feel each other’s existence psychologically, so that they will feel a sense of authenticity and intimacy. Based on the above analysis, the following assumptions are made:

Hypothesis H1g: user-online friends’ interaction positively affects users’ physical presence.

Hypothesis H1h: user-online friends’ interaction positively affects users’ social presence.

3.2.2 Social interaction and flow experience

It is generally believed that the stronger the interactivity of the network platform, the stronger users’ flow experience is [55]. Compared to traditional e-commerce, one of the biggest features of social commerce is the interaction. Online stores provide consumers with corresponding interactive tools, attracting their attention and helping them perceive and experience products in the interaction of online stores; Hoffman [27] divides the social interaction into human-machine interaction and human-human interaction, many scholars adopt this method and further subdivide it. On the basis of human-machine interaction and human-human interaction, Tang Jiageng [59] further divides interaction into consumer-website interaction, consumer-online service staff interaction and consumer-consumer interaction.

From these three aspects, a highly interactive platform can respond to user needs quickly, strengthen the connection between users and sellers, and enable users to obtain more information about products or services based on other users’ evaluation of products or services, and realize human-human interaction. Through such interactive process, the feedback on users’ information as well as needs is strengthened, and users’ sense of control in the purchase process is promoted. After all, timely and clear feedback as well as control are important prerequisite for users to have flow experience [56].

Zhou and Shi [60] study the mechanism of social interaction on the user experience of social business, they divide human-machine interaction into perception control and perception personalization. Their conclusion is that perception control can significantly affect the formation of user flow experience. Zhang, Dai and Peng [61] find that compared with two-dimensional human-machine interaction, three-dimensional human-machine interaction can bring a better user experience and significantly affect user experience. Song and Zinkhan [62] find that unique website information can affect users’ interactive cognition. Skadberg [63] find that the higher the level of interactivity of the website, the higher the level of consumers’ flow experience. Hoffman believes that network interaction can directly affect consumers’ attention, thereby increase consumer perception of flow experience. This paper uses user-website interaction to represent human-machine interaction and proposes the following hypotheses.

Hypothesis H2a: user-website interaction positively affects users’ flow experience.

Zhou and Shi [60] divide human interaction into similarity, professionalism and familiarity, and find that similarity, professionalism and familiarity can significantly affect users’ flow experience. Liu H, Chu H, Huang Q, etc. [55] find that the frequency of user interactions and relationship strength in social websites can increase trust between users and promote interaction between users. Jiang, Zhao and Lei [34] empirical research find that online interaction in B2C online shopping positively affects consumers’ flow experience. Guo [64] also confirms that a clear feedback mechanism in the online shopping environment is a necessary prerequisite variable for flow experience. Al-Natour S and Benbasat I found that users’ perception of similarity to other users can promote the formation of interactions between them. Koufairs [65] finds through empirical research that online consumers’ interaction positively affects their shopping pleasure and concentration. Fan et al [66] find through empirical research that consumer interaction in virtual communities has a significant positive effect on consumers’ flow experience. Based on this, the following hypotheses are proposed.

Hypothesis H2b: user-seller interaction positively affects users’ flow experience.

Hypothesis H2c: user-user interaction positively affects users’ flow experience.

HypothesisH2d: user-online friends interaction positively affects users’ flow experience.

3.2.3 Presence and purchase behavior

Many studies have shown that a significant obstacle to the development of online shopping is that the consumer cannot truly experience the goods or services through their own sense of touch and vision when purchasing goods or services. In order to create a sense of presence to address the defect that users cannot feel the products or services truly, when designing online stores and displaying products, many sellers present them as vividly and realistically as possible. Skadberg et al. [63] regard presence as a feature of the “immersive experience” of web browsing, while “immersive experience can stimulate consumers’ perception of trust, thereby promoting their impulsive purchase behavior”. On the other hand, in a 3D online shopping environment, a high level of physical presence will allow users to have a better evaluation of the product, thereby promoting the purchase intentions of consumers. Shin [25] also reaches the same conclusion. Jiang et al. [34] suggests that physical presence has a significant effect on consumer purchase. Therefore, the physical presence may not only promote consumers’ impulsive purchasing behavior, but also promote their repeat purchasing behavior. Hence, we put forward the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis H3a: physical presence positively affects users’ impulsive purchasing intention.

Hypothesis H3b: physical presence positively affects users’ willingness to purchase repeatedly.

Waller et al. [67] indicate that since trust arises in the social environment, social presence serves as a necessary condition for generating trust, and an environment with rich social presence can stimulate a sense of trust among participants. A study by a well-known e-commerce scholar Gefen [43] points out that social presence can trigger trust in the context of electronic services. Lv HB [68] classifies social presence into conscious social presence, emotional social presence and cognitive social presence. His empirical research finds that conscious social presence and cognitive social presence exert a significant positive impact on trust. Chen et al. [45] find that the stronger the consumers’ sense of presence on clothing sales websites, the higher the level of consumers’ trust, which is more likely to produce repeat purchasing intentions.

Hypothesis H3c: social presence positively affects users’ impulsive purchasing intention.

Hypothesis H3d: social presence positively affects users’ willingness to purchase repeatedly.

3.2.4 Flow experience and purchase behavior

Users lose their sense of time from “flow experience”. This research connects flow experience which means concentration, full engagement and inner pleasure with the “time sense” experienced by individuals during the process of browsing the website. However, concentration and full engagement lead to the loss of “time sense”. In addition, pleasure is also a common variable for measuring flow experience in an event. Just as the important “shopping pleasure” in the offline environment, it is equally important in the online environment because it will affect online shopping in terms of attitude and willingness. Therefore, this research believes that the “shopping pleasure” variable has the same effect on online shopping. This paper describes the state of the consumer in flow experience with the “time sense” and “shopping pleasure” variables. Due to the loss of users’ sense of time and pleasure, online shopping users may purchase products that they are not planned to buy, which is called impulsive purchasing. Based on this, the following hypotheses are made:

Hypothesis H4a: flow experience positively affects users’ impulsive purchasing intention;

In addition, the inner sense of joy awakened by flow experience can enable users to focus on the experience of shopping. However, ignoring the risk of purchase will promote the user’s willingness to buy and repeat purchase behavior. Chen and others [32] find that flow experience affects consumers’ willingness to purchase repeatedly. Jiang et al (2014) [34] also find that flow experience can affect the repeat purchasing intention of B2C online shopping consumers. Based on this, the following hypotheses are made:

Hypothesis H4b: flow experience positively affects users’ repeat purchasing behavior.

5.1.1 Detailed explanation of the results

Social interaction enhances the spatial presence of social e-commerce users significantly.

The research results above show that user interaction with the website can largely enhance the social presence of social e-commerce users. Shopping websites with good interactivity often have very specific and detailed page layouts, product descriptions, etc., which can facilitate users’ understanding of the functional characteristics of the products. At the same time, the convenient navigation system can prompt users to find the products they are interested more quickly on the website, and offline physical shopping scenarios are simulated even on some shopping websites with virtual reality technology. Users are more easily to be immersed in the virtual online shopping world through these measures and methods. The immersive experience can enhance users’ physical presence. In addition, in social commerce online shopping, the interaction between users and sellers mainly focuses on the communication between users and customers service. The effect and quality of the communication are mainly reflected in the timeliness, accuracy and assistance of the response, while the interaction between users and online friends is reflected in mutual assistance and sharing. Although these three types of interactions are human-to-human communication, this type of communication can inspire users to remember previous physical shopping, and recall the previous shopping scene, thus promoting the production of users’ physical presence.

Apart from the unimportant interaction between users and websites, other types of social interactions can affect users’ social presence significantly and positively.

User-seller interaction, user-user interaction and user-online friend interaction with significant social characteristics focus more on the communication between people. Good interaction can promote two-way and friendly communication between the two parties, thus creating a warm atmosphere of social presence. Besides, the high-quality interaction between users and sellers, such as product information consultation, bargaining, etc., can make users feel that they are communicating with sellers in a physical store, even giving them a feeling that the store and the product are really in front of them. The interaction between users and their online friends is often reflected in the product service evaluation and shopping experience sharing. The interaction between the two parties is based on mutual assistance and non-utility, thus making it more likely to have resonance and emotional communication between users. Compared with the interaction between users and sellers, this kind of interaction is easier, thus enhancing users’ social presence. The reason why the interaction between users and websites does not have a significant effect on the social presence may be that this interaction focuses more on the user and the website product or service. However, the interaction lacks sociality, that is, failing to deal directly with people, thereby making it difficult for users to have a feeling of “being with others”, so the social presence is not obvious.

Except that the interaction between users and sellers is unnoticeable, other types of social interactions can significantly affect users’ flow experience.

The interaction between users and websites serves as an important factor influencing the improvement of the user’s flow experience. Since the easiness of searching for product information about shopping websites, the detailed product introductions and targeted recommendations based on user needs can strengthen users’ feedback, sense of control and satisfaction during the purchase process and improve the online shopping experience in a social business environment to a certain extent, thereby promoting the generation of flow experience. User-user interaction and user-online friend interaction are mainly manifested as interpersonal communication during the virtual online shopping process. Since these two relationships are based on mutual assistance and non-utility, users can relax their vigilance and shop online easily in this condition, thus generating a sense of joy and entering a state of flow experience easily. In this research, the reason why the interaction between users and sellers does not have a significant effect on flow experience may be that they are often stakeholders, and sellers’ description of the product information is often exaggerated or even false. Therefore, users are often alert when communicating with sellers, thus making them difficult to concentrate or to be happy, so it is impossible for them to achieve a state of flow experience.

Presence is an important factor influencing the impulsive purchasing of social business users, but it has no significant impact on the willingness to repeat purchasing.

Presence is a kind of “immersive” feeling generated by users in a virtual environment. Both physical presence and social presence are important factors which can help users generate impulsive purchasing intentions. In a social business environment, the vivid and anthropomorphic design, attractive pictures and purchase evaluations of shopping websites stimulate the sense of physical presence of users, thus giving them a feeling that online stores and products are in front of them. At the same time, external stimulus factors such as advertisements and price promotions release a signal to users that the product is of good quality and low price, thereby destroying their self-control ability, making it easier to stimulate their impulsive purchasing intention. In addition, the positive social presence generated by positive interpersonal communication allows users to relax alertness, shorten the distance and generate trust between users and sellers, which leads to users’ impulsive purchasing intentions ultimately. The reason that physical presence and social presence do not affect the willingness to repeat purchasing significantly may be that users’ repeat purchasing of a certain product is based on the evaluation of shopping satisfaction. If users are not satisfied with the purchased product, they may not buy again. The sense of presence is just a sense of reality generated by users in the virtual environment, but it cannot be guaranteed that users will be satisfied with the purchased product, so they don’t want to buy again.

Flow experience is a key factor affecting the willingness of social business users to buy impulsively and repeatedly

Impulsive purchasing is a sudden and hedonic buying behavior with complex emotions. The impulsive purchasing behavior is often caused by the irresistible and strong purchasing tendency of users because of various stimuli in the scene. Impulsive purchasing is often manifested as users’ pursuit of the buying experience, so enhancing their virtual experience can enable them to have a timely and clear sense of feedback and control, thus generating a flow experience to stimulate users’ impulsive purchasing intention. The willingness to repeat purchasing is a desire or tendency for users to establish a continuous trading relationship with merchants. As a self-purposed experience, users will feel the loss of self-awareness and time and have a sense of pleasure in flow experience. These reactions and emotions can stimulate people’s inherent motivation to repeatedly participate in an activity, known as the repetitive purchasing willingness.