Exploring Social Commerce Adoption in China: a Uses and Gratifications Perspective

As a new e-commerce paradigm, social commerce has resulted from consumers relying on the online recommendations of friends and acquaintances. To clarify Chinese consumers’ social commerce intentions, we conducted an empirical study based on a uses and gratifications approach. The results indicate that perceived gratification from entertainment was found to be the strongest predictor of Chinese consumers’ social commerce intentions. This is followed by the perceived gratification from information seeking, expressive information sharing, cool and new trends, and social interaction. However, neither gratification from escape nor passing time was found to be significant predictor. In addition, perceived gratification from information seeking has a stronger influence on consumers’ social commerce intentions in females than in males, while perceived gratification from expressive information sharing has a stronger influence on consumers’ social commerce intentions in males than in females. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in the paper.