Chapter Six Discussion

Literature lists Instagram as one of the social media platforms where social commerce is likely to occur. Rightly so, results show that indeed there are individuals in the Kingdom of Saudi who engage in social commerce. Furthermore, a quick overview of the results of this study reveals a congruence with the available literature. This statement comes from observing that the aspects social media platform taps into in their design brought back a result when the same aspects such as age, level of education gender and income are used as parameters in this study. The results discussion below states the results for the parameter and compares the results of the hypothesis with the studies in the literature review

            The results obtained from the respondents showed that a great percentage had purchased goods or services from an Instagram seller. This result supports pieces of literature findings that lists Instagram as one of the social media platforms used for s-commerce. Moreover, it proves Han & Trimi (2017) findings that commerce occurs on a peer-to-peer level among consumers with Instagram accounts. Moreover, the results showed more female buyers than men had purchased through Instagram, that most of the respondents were within the same age-group, and that about half of them had income less than three thousand. The explanation of these results points to the possibility of individuals getting involved and mobilising their networks. The explanation agrees with Yrjölä et al. (2017) study which reported, social relationships affect, perceptions, and emotions of people.

Moreover, the study results showed that respondents they agreed with social support, SCC, trust and behavioural intentions factors influencing their purchase from Instagram. Studies in the literature by Al-Adwan and Kokash (2019); Hassan et al. (2018); Liu et al. (2019); Hajli (2015); Al-Tit et al. (2020); and Zhao et al. (2019) collaborate this study’s result. The explanation could be since communication through Instagram is not a person to person, consumers take a cue from aspects they perceive in their favour when making the buying decision. Sellers online activity gives the perception of shared belief and as such, informing the buyer to adopt a similar strategy or behaviour as the online seller. The seller passes for an individual helping buyers solve problems.

Additionally, results from this study showed that informational support and emotional support were a stronger contributor to s-commerce’s buyer-seller relationship although individually, informational support ranked higher than emotional support. Existing Literature agrees with the results. Hassan et al. (2018) found that these features of social commerce empowered and allowed interactions with consumers. Yrjölä et al. (2017) reiterated those findings discovering that emotional support and informational support allowed the provision of advice and information helpful to buyers. The results showed a highly significant association between social supports and the customers' trust and the relation was a positively low correlation. The study’s hypothesis that social supports has a positive influence on customers' trust and the first hypothesis was accepted. The explanation Buyers will likely trade through their Instagram accounts since what their seller peers post provides a perception that socio-economic status is similar.

Additionally, results of SCC effect on the customers'’ trust showed a highly significant association coupled with a positive moderate relationship. The results collaborate Huang & Benyoucef, (2013) discovery that the seller-buyer relationship on social platforms has become more personal. A viable explanation for the results the opening up of the worldwide web to individuals enabled people to adopt content creation to share experiences as Wang and Zhang (2012) found out. These social constructs, buyers access information provided by the seller and use it to inform their buying decisions. This finding shows that buyers in s-commerce can rely on the information they come across about the seller and their products before deciding whether to trust the buyer or not. Consequently, the hypothesis that social commerce constructs have a positive influence on customers' trust, the second hypothesis was accepted.

Lastly, results on customers trust and behavioural intentions showed a highly significant association. The results match Al-Adwan & Kokash, (2019) findings that once individuals know the social media platform, its contents and the sellers, then their level of trust rises and consequently enhancing the customers' intention to purchase. As such the hypothesis that the customers' trust has a positive influence on behavioural intentions, and the third hypothesis was accepted.

Therefore, having compared the study’s results with the existing literature, there is are factors influencing consumer’s behavioural intentions towards C2C S-Commerce. Social media platforms, for which Instagram is one, rely on what account holders access, share, and do. There is every likelihood that based on social support, SCC, trust and behavioural intentions factors, social media creates a perception that influences buyers decisions. This perception emanates from the way we interact in social settings. At a certain age, a consumer will be at a certain level of income and either pursuing or recently achieved a certain level of education relating to their use of social commerce. The hypotheses were accepted showing how vital the factors are in social commerce on Instagram, agreeing with the available literature from previous studies.