An experimental study of Chinese shopping related sharing behaviors

Abstract

Social media has become an increasingly important venue for social interaction and communication. Most previous research have shown the information sharing on social media platforms, but few focus on shopping related sharing (SRS) information and how these information influence consumer decision-making. Through a combination of interviews with observations in our lab to the users of social media and online shopping sites, we want to find answers to the question: what are the factors that influence Chinese consumers' SRS behaviors? It was discovered that the factors like why, what, whom, where, when etc. have significant influence to Chinese consumers' SRS behaviors. The study offers insights into the relationship between SRS and Chinese consumer decision-making, and design implications are discussed. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.