The influence of peer characteristics and technical features of a social shopping website on a consumer's purchase intention

This paper aims to reveal the influence of peer-member characteristics and technical features of a social shopping website (SSW) on consumers’ purchase intentions. Following the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, this study operationalizes “stimulus” as website features and peers’ qualities, “organism” as experiential shopping values, and “response” as the purchase intention of users. The research model is empirically tested with survey data from 313 real SSW consumers. The results suggest that similarity, benevolence and expertise of peer members in the community and the website's support for recommendations positively impact shoppers’ perceived utilitarian value of the SSW. Moreover, users’ perception of peers’ similarity and benevolence positively affect their sense of social value of using the platform. Finally, both perceived utilitarian and social value predict individuals’ consumption intentions. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.