Drivers of social commerce usage: a multi-group analysis comparing Facebook and Instagram

Social media are increasingly used as platforms to not only socialise but also to shop for products and services. Social commerce is the new trend in e-commerce that leverages the enhanced consumer-to-consumer interactions to support shopping processes. Based on the concept of social commerce constructs suggested by Nick Hajli, this article investigates the role of social commerce constructs, emotional and informative support, and trust as drivers of social commerce intention. We apply multi-group analysis to validate the drivers of social commerce for two of the most relevant social media platforms: Facebook and Instagram. Based on a sample of 800 social commerce users, our findings reveal that social commerce constructs are strong drivers of social commerce intention for both social media platforms; however, there are differences between the two as Facebook seems to generate higher emotional support and trust than Instagram.