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Investigating the factors that drive social commerce purchase intention amongst the millennials in South Africa

Social media has become fundamental to companies, as well as consumers. Its existence has produced new opportunities and introduced options like ‘social commerce' whereby consumers and firms can sell goods and services on social media platforms. Due to the evolution of marketing from 1.0 to 4.0, the...

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Main Author: Kiza, Melikhaya
Other Authors: Dlamini, Siphiwe
Format: Thesis
Language:English
English
Published: School of Management Studies 2025
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access_status_str Open Access
author Kiza, Melikhaya
author2 Dlamini, Siphiwe
author_browse Dlamini, Siphiwe
Kiza, Melikhaya
author_facet Dlamini, Siphiwe
Kiza, Melikhaya
author_sort Kiza, Melikhaya
collection Thesis
description Social media has become fundamental to companies, as well as consumers. Its existence has produced new opportunities and introduced options like ‘social commerce' whereby consumers and firms can sell goods and services on social media platforms. Due to the evolution of marketing from 1.0 to 4.0, there has been limited research about marketing 4.0 within social commerce. The current study aimed to assess marketing 4.0 dimensions and social commerce characteristics that have been under-studied - particularly how they affect millennial's purchase intentions in social commerce. A sample of 261 millennials was received from two different provinces Western Cape and Gauteng. The findings revealed that platform reputation, reviews, ratings, and product differentiation enhance trust and price. Moreover, trust shows no influence on purchase intention – and nor did brand image, brand integrity and brand identity. Findings from this study indicate that product differentiation, reviews and ratings, and platform reputation are the underlying reasons for trust and brand image are drivers of social commerce purchase intention. Thus, managers need to listen to consumers and produce individualised products to ensure unique and well differentiated offerings. Marketing practitioners should rather focus on using reputable social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as key social commerce platforms for the purchase of products. Furthermore, as reviews and ratings are important for millennials, marketers should provide a good response to negative feedback. Lastly, managers in online communities should provide an excellent customer service as that will enhance customer service and lead to purchase intention.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language English
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last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:01.081Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2025
publishDateRange 2025
publishDateSort 2025
publisher School of Management Studies
publisherStr School of Management Studies
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41640 Investigating the factors that drive social commerce purchase intention amongst the millennials in South Africa Kiza, Melikhaya Dlamini, Siphiwe Social commerce, Marketing 4.0, Social media, Social commerce characteristics, Electronic commerce, Millennial, Purchase intention Social media has become fundamental to companies, as well as consumers. Its existence has produced new opportunities and introduced options like ‘social commerce' whereby consumers and firms can sell goods and services on social media platforms. Due to the evolution of marketing from 1.0 to 4.0, there has been limited research about marketing 4.0 within social commerce. The current study aimed to assess marketing 4.0 dimensions and social commerce characteristics that have been under-studied - particularly how they affect millennial's purchase intentions in social commerce. A sample of 261 millennials was received from two different provinces Western Cape and Gauteng. The findings revealed that platform reputation, reviews, ratings, and product differentiation enhance trust and price. Moreover, trust shows no influence on purchase intention – and nor did brand image, brand integrity and brand identity. Findings from this study indicate that product differentiation, reviews and ratings, and platform reputation are the underlying reasons for trust and brand image are drivers of social commerce purchase intention. Thus, managers need to listen to consumers and produce individualised products to ensure unique and well differentiated offerings. Marketing practitioners should rather focus on using reputable social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as key social commerce platforms for the purchase of products. Furthermore, as reviews and ratings are important for millennials, marketers should provide a good response to negative feedback. Lastly, managers in online communities should provide an excellent customer service as that will enhance customer service and lead to purchase intention. 2025-08-28T11:47:50Z 2025-08-28T11:47:50Z 2025 2025-08-28T11:38:12Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MBusSci http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41640 en eng application/pdf School of Management Studies Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Social commerce, Marketing 4.0, Social media, Social commerce characteristics, Electronic commerce, Millennial, Purchase intention
Kiza, Melikhaya
Investigating the factors that drive social commerce purchase intention amongst the millennials in South Africa
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Investigating the factors that drive social commerce purchase intention amongst the millennials in South Africa
title_full Investigating the factors that drive social commerce purchase intention amongst the millennials in South Africa
title_fullStr Investigating the factors that drive social commerce purchase intention amongst the millennials in South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Investigating the factors that drive social commerce purchase intention amongst the millennials in South Africa
title_short Investigating the factors that drive social commerce purchase intention amongst the millennials in South Africa
title_sort investigating the factors that drive social commerce purchase intention amongst the millennials in south africa
topic Social commerce, Marketing 4.0, Social media, Social commerce characteristics, Electronic commerce, Millennial, Purchase intention
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41640
work_keys_str_mv AT kizamelikhaya investigatingthefactorsthatdrivesocialcommercepurchaseintentionamongstthemillennialsinsouthafrica