WeStore or AppStore: How Customers Shop Differently in Mobile Apps vs. Social Commerce

In the dynamic e-commerce environment, social commerce has emerged as a revolutionary force, transforming how consumers interact and transact online. This paper investigates the differences in customers’ search and purchase patterns between a prominent online retailer’s burgeoning social commerce channel, the WeChat mini-program, and its native mobile app. We analyze the customers’ entire journey through a sequential search model that encapsulates decisions from channel selection to product search, search termination, and the final purchase. This study contributes to the search model literature by being the first to estimate both fixed and marginal search costs in a sequential search model in an omnichannel retail environment. We calculate fixed search costs, marginal search costs, and preferences for each channel, revealing differences in customers’ behaviors across channels. Our analysis shows that customers’ fixed search costs are higher, but marginal costs are lower on WeChat channel compared to the App channel. Also, customer characteristics like historical spending levels and search timing influence their search costs. From these insights, we suggest strategies tailored to each channel capitalizing on the differences in customers’ search costs. The first strategy encourages search initiation by lowering fixed search costs through peer-to-peer link sharing in the WeChat channel. The second strategy aims to minimize marginal search costs using search-triggering coupons in the App channel. Implementing these strategies significantly boosts conversion rates and profits for the online retailer. This research is one of the first to explore the differences between traditional retail channels and emerging social commerce channels.