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1. Introduction
The rise of social media has led to the development of social commerce (SC), or s-commerce (Hajli, 2020; Leong et al., 2021; Ooi et al., 2023). In addition, social networking sites (SNSs), such as Meta, WhatsApp, Twitter, WeChat, Instagram and LinkedIn, have contributed to the popularity of s-commerce (Jami Pour et al., 2022; Leung et al., 2022; Lu et al., 2019). Yahoo first coined the term “social commerce” in 2005 to explain how social media is utilised to facilitate business transactions (Cui et al., 2018). T-Commerce on Twitter is an example of s-commerce (Cui et al., 2018). Unlike conventional electronic commerce (e-commerce) in which buyers interact with online vendors individually, s-commerce involves virtual communities and supports user-generated content (UGC) and user interactions (Sheikh et al., 2019). For instance, consumers rely heavily on buying products with low tipping points (Lee et al., 2015). In s-commerce, buyers can build social relationships, communicate, review others' opinions, rate products, recommend products and services, and share experiences (Bazi et al., 2020; Hajli, 2013). Currently, s-commerce is being studied both practically and theoretically (Busalim and Hussin, 2016; Lin and Wang, 2022); however, little effort has been put towards determining its current state and progress (Esmaeili and Hashemi G, 2019). S-commerce is a more sociable, innovative and collaborative way of conducting online business (Gonçalves Curty and Zhang, 2013; Wang et al., 2020). This has evolved into a new phenomenon of universal attention among vendors, marketers, and scholars (Baethge et al., 2016; Ooi et al., 2018). S-commerce research has grown exponentially over the last decade and has become an important emerging research area (Lin et al., 2017). Despite the rapid growth and substantial effects of s-commerce, studies on this phenomenon remain at an early stage and demand further exploration (Han et al., 2018; Huang and Benyoucef, 2013).
S-commerce is anticipated to achieve US$84.2 billion in 2024, contributing 7.8% of US e-commerce retail sales (Tugba Sabanoglu, 2020). Retail s-commerce sales in China are expected to reach US$474.81 billion by 2023 (Influencers MarketingHub, 2021). The S-commerce market revenue is forecast at US$3369.8 billion in 2028 (Grand View Research, 2021). The size of the s-commerce market is expected to...