Social Media engagement as an e-commerce driver, a consumer behavior perspective

This study explores the relationship between Social Media engagement and the activation of the consumer´s purchase process. Following a consumer behavior perspective we study how the new communication paradigm of the Web 2.0 has change the first stage of the e-commerce purchase process, the problem recognition. We use the case of a smartphone purchase, to explore how differences in Social Media (Facebook) engagement would help describe existent differences between the consumer´s triggers for problem recognition. The results suggest that there´s a relationship between the level of engagement and the consumer´s state that influences the activation of the problem recognition. Implications for e-commerce and Social Media managers are discussed.