The use of ‘ecommerce’ and ‘social commerce in emerging markets’: Omani female millennials’ experiences

Abstract

Commercial social media (social commerce in emerging market) have increasingly been used in many emerging markets as an evolutionary form of ecommerce. While this trend has recently been examined from an e-vender's perspective, little is known about how customers, specifically female millennials, perceive of their shopping experiences with commercial social media in relation to ecommerce. Thus, this study explores the underlying motivations for using one e-retailing type over the other. We consider the social constructs of trust, customer service quality and web design in the study. Drawing data from 20 in-depth interviews with young Omani women, the study revealed that ecommerce is most preferred to commercial social media. It highlights the role of unethical marketing practices; unsystematic delivery costs; unprofessional customer service quality; underdeveloped local market and uneasiness of commercial social media in influencing the decision-making of the customers to shift to ecommerce. The study further points to the intersection between product's price, quality and information in building trust; the role of professionalism, responsiveness and empathy in enhancing customer service quality; the importance of product quality and variety in the local market; and the easy navigation and online payment of e-retailing platforms. The study bears implications on enhancing the features and services of commercial social media. It also calls for transforming the local market to meet the customers’ needs.

Evaluating Impact of Social Media Marketing, Celebrity Endorsement and E-WOM on Online Repurchase Intention with the Mediating Role of Perceived Usefulness

“…The amount of comments made on electronic stages implies the amount of dissemination dissipated through a site page (Hu, Wang, Zhou, Tong, & Xu, 2022). To sustain their sureness and decline the bet of committing bungles in the purchase cycle, clients search for a reference to pick (Al Jamil & Ahmed Ismail, 2022). The amount of web-based reviews should be visible as lucky or awful, dependent upon the previous experience of the clients (Al-Qudah et al, 2023).…”