Influence of Shopping Related Sharing on Chinese Consumer Decision-Making

Social media has become an increasingly important venue for social interaction and communication. Most previous research have shown the information sharing on social media platforms, but few focus on shopping related sharing (SRS) information and how these information influence consumer decision-making. Through a combination of interviews with observations in our lab to the users of social media and online shopping sites, we investigate the interaction between social media and Chinese consumer decision-making to find answers to the question: how SRS influence Chinese consumer decision-making? It was found that although Chinese consumers attach importance to peer consumers´ comments and rankings online to the goods or the shops, they pay more attention to the comments from their geographically nearby friends. The study offers insights into the relationship between SRS and Chinese consumer decision-making, and design implications are discussed.