The More the Better? Exploring the Relationship between Social Commerce Feature Intensity, Social Factors, and Consumers' Buying Behavior

Today, several social commerce features exist, which can be integrated into e-commerce websites. Integrating such features facilitates interactions among consumers and shall positively affect the perception of social factors and the buying behavior. As social commerce features differ regarding the stimulated interactions, it is recommended to increase their effectiveness by using multiple features. However, there also exist warnings that introducing multiple features might overwhelm consumers. To study the effects of the intensity of social commerce features on the perception of social factors and the buying behavior, we present the results of a controlled experiment, in which 115 participants used variants of an e-commerce platform with differing sets of features. The findings indicate that the intensity of features might positively influence the perception of social factors and the buying behavior. The provided research model moreover allows examining the causal relations between social commerce features, social factors, and the buying behavior systematically.