A study of the factors influencing consumer satisfaction in social commerce: the case of Saudi Arabia

Consumer satisfaction has been cited to be an important determinant of repeat business. Therefore, it is important for businesses and other stakeholders to have insights about the factors influencing consumer satisfaction. The aim of this research is to explore these factors in the social commerce (SC) context. The research identifies the key predecessors of customer satisfaction, and gaining insights about the nature of their relationship with each other and with consumer satisfaction.

Using a positivist paradigm and employing a quantitative approach, this study uses paper- and web-based surveys to collect research data. The study sample consist of Saudi Arabian students who have experience with SC websites and are studying either in Saudi Arabia or Australia. In total, 372 responses are collected. The collected data are analysed using the partial least squares (PLS) regression method to address the research questions and test the research hypotheses.

Overall, the results support the theoretical model proposed in this study; that is, all factors affecting consumer satisfaction in SC are found to have a significant impact on consumer satisfaction. Specifically, it is found that word-of-mouth (WOM) is the factor affecting both trust and social influence most strongly, and trust is the factor affecting consumer satisfaction most strongly. Since trust is most strongly affected by WOM, it seems imperative that SC enterprises pay special attention to consumer feedback and responses. These findings are consistent with those of the current literature.

This study provides insights into aspects of SC that have not previously been fully investigated. The SC phenomenon has been studied from the standpoint of consumer intention and behaviour but not in terms of consumer satisfaction. This study attempts to fill this gap, along with the gap that exists in terms of defining the concept of consumer satisfaction in SC settings.

It is expected that the proposed framework in this study would improve the understanding of the factors affecting consumer satisfaction and the structural relationships between these factors. In addition, this research is expected to act as a guide for SC businesses to help them better meet consumer requirements, which ultimately may lead to an increase in sales revenue.

The results of the quantitative analysis need to be interpreted within the limitations of the study. The sample for this research only consisted of students. The researcher acknowledges the limitation that students comprise only a subset of all consumers, and the findings from this research may not be generalised to all SC users.