Given a mere 5% success rate for new product launches, identifying effective launch channels in a competitive multi-channel environment is critical for marketers. This study aims to examine how digital search channels (social commerce vs. traditional e-commerce) impact new product adoption.
This research adopts a multi-method approach. Study 1 analyzes a secondary dataset to test the main and interaction effects. Study 2 conducts an online experiment to establish causality and examine the underlying mediating mechanism.
The most insightful finding is that social commerce outperforms traditional e-commerce in driving new product adoption via perceived social presence. Another key insight is that this effect is stronger for male consumers, small brands and during daytime hours.
This study enriches the interactive marketing research by identifying a novel channel determinant for new product adoption, empirically validating perceived social presence as a mediator, and offering a context-specific omnichannel framework that integrates consumer, brand and temporal moderators.
