Uncovering the role of consumer trust and bandwagon effect influencing purchase intention: an empirical investigation in social commerce platforms

Owing to the increased use of social media and networking, social commerce is gaining popularity among industry experts and academia. As a result, there are ongoing concerns about creating high-quality buyer-seller relationships in social commerce. To aid this conversation, the present research investigates the influence of several factors – mainly, social presence and trusting beliefs – on sellers’ trustworthiness. It also considers the impact of the bandwagon effect on purchase intention in the field of social commerce, as well as the role of gender differences in the relationship between trust and purchase intention. To validate the measures, the paper applied structural equation modeling to a data set of 204 online consumers in India. The study found that social bonding and bandwagon effect have a strong influence on trust and purchase intention, respectively. The results may encourage social commerce managers to develop better strategies for interacting and communicating with site users.