Trust is an individual’s belief that an exchange will happen in a manner consistent with one’s confident expectations. In social networking sites (SNS), uncertainty is usually higher due to the high level of user-generated contents and the lack of face-to-face interactions. Despite this, the enhancement of experience with exchange parties could reduce the uncertainty and the increase tendencies for social commerce adoption through the increase in trust. Information seeking on SNS enhances the users’ knowledge about a product through access to the pool of information. Familiarity with SNS enhances users understanding of the shopping process and reduces the intricacy of the decisions. This study investigates the relationship between trust in SNS and purchase intentions. We propose a model including trust, information seeking, familiarity with SNS, and purchase intentions of fashion products on SNS.
Data were obtained from 206 respondents who had experienced the purchase of fashion products on SNS. Mean age of the respondents was 22.1 years old and nearly 69.4 percent of the subjects were women. Approximately 84.0 percent reported a monthly income/allowance of less than US$400 and the majority (57.9 %) spent less than US$100 per six months on fashion products (e.g., apparel, shoes, etc.) purchases on the SNS. The structure equation model analysis was conducted by AMOS 23.0 using a correlation matrix with maximum likelihood approach. The structural equation model was relatively acceptable (chi-square value = 88.02, df = 57, p = .005; GFI = .94, AGFI = .90, RMR = .04). Cronbach's alphas were ranged between .80 and .88. We used Facebook as the best known SNS to empirically test our model.
Results from a survey of Facebook users showed that trust in SNS increases information seeking which in turn increases the familiarity with SNS. In addition, trust and familiarity with SNS increase the intention to purchase fashion products on SNS. Findings indicate that trust in SNS was found to be a key predictor of intention to purchase fashion products from SNS directly and indirectly. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.