The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of social commerce (s-commerce) cues (i.e. trust, compatibility, reliability and responsiveness) on repurchase intention in apparel s-commerce along with the mediating effect of customer engagement and the moderating effect of s-commerce navigation.
Using the purposive sampling technique, face-to-face survey was administered to Gen-Y social media users in Malaysia. Subsequently, 384 respondents were sampled. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was used to perform the analyses.
S-commerce cues have a positive effect on customer engagement, which in turn leads to repurchase intention of apparel among Gen-Y. Particularly, customer engagement also mediates the relationship between s-commerce cues and repurchase intention. S-commerce navigation is found to moderate the effect of engagement on repurchase intention.
The findings are derived from the perception of Gen-Y in Malaysia and do not represent the entire population. Future research could investigate the same phenomena across generations and consider heterogeneity issues to provide more insights.
Apparel s-commerce retailers are suggested to engage with customers more in the e-retail environment to build a lasting relationship. Contextual factors such as ease of navigation should be observed to enhance the desired response of diverse customers today.
This study adds to the growing body of knowledge on relationship marketing by assessing the impact of customer engagement and navigation on the relationships between s-commerce cues and repurchase intention in the contemporary setting.
