Analyzing The Impact of Sns Affordances On Peruvian’s Purchase Intentions In Social Commerce: Implications For Smes

The restrictions on mobility during the pandemic particularly impacted small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), forcing them to migrate to digital channels. S-commerce, which uses social network sites (SNSs) platforms to facilitate buying and selling products, has emerged as an alternative channel because of its growing number of users and low implementation costs. Although this medium is increasingly adopted as a purchasing channel, 58% of Peruvians who make online purchases still do not use them for this purpose. This study aims to determine the impact of SNSs affordances on users’ purchase intention through SNSs to provide SMEs with recommendations on how to use this channel efficiently. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, a model is proposed to investigate the influence of SNSs affordances on purchase intention in s-commerce. A total of 219 online observations were collected. Structural equation modeling results support the positive effect of the following affordances: visibility, triggering-attending, and social connecting as trust-building mechanisms, which in turn is positively related to intention and, thus, purchase. Implications of these findings are discussed.