Consumer Needs and Design Practices for Trusted Social Commerce Platforms from the Users' Perspective in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Over the last few years, e-commerce has changed remarkably. Due to the increased popularity of social network platforms and their extensive usage, a new form of e-commerce has emerged, namely social commerce. Consumers in many countries, such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), are increasingly using social media platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp to buy and sell products and services. Using social media in this way has become popular, even though social network platforms lack support for conducting e-commerce. Social commerce creates opportunities for individuals to buy products or hire services. People need to trust the platform, find what they need and communicate with the buyer/seller to conduct commercial transactions. With the growth in social commerce, using social media to engage in business transactions, it has become necessary to understand user behaviours and routines to tailor the design of social commerce platforms. The challenges facing users should be identified, especially concerning trust, which remains one of the issues that need more study. Moreover, there is a lack of research on understanding users’ routines and behaviours in using social commerce platforms and trust mechanisms.\~\ This research aims to understand this new trend, to investigate the needs of social media consumers within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to investigate how social platforms can be better designed to meet their needs. Furthermore, this work addresses users’ preferences for social features that are related to commerce, as well as investigating trust mechanisms and techniques. Design preferences were explored based on the buyers’ perspectives. Five studies were conducted to achieve the research aims, employing a mix of methods (interviews, observation, co-design workshops and critique workshops). The first study sought to gain a general understanding of the use of social commerce based on buyers’ experience. The second study developed broad knowledge of the use of social commerce from the sellers’ perspective, based on understanding what sellers provide to buyers and how they attract them and gain their trust. The third study examined sharing activities and compared the use of social commerce and e-commerce. The fourth study employed co-design workshops to finalise the design recommendations. Finally, the fifth study aimed to provide a critique of the social commerce platform mock-ups.\~\ These studies may help both academia and industry in the future as there are few studies on this area, especially in the context of Saudi Arabia. The critical features of social commerce and e-commerce have been identified. In addition, the design preferences for the social commerce platform have been explored. This thesis can help inform the design of social commerce platforms, especially with regard to social and trust aspects.