Introduction
Social Electronic Commerce comes under the umbrella of electronic commerce, it is a subset where social media is involved and other social interactions are supported online. Further, it is also used to assist the users while buying and selling. In a more specific context, it is the use of social networks in the context of e-commerce transactions. Social media has offered a variety of avenues for new businesses to capitalize on. Social commerce takes into account social media technologies and infrastructure to support online interactions and use contributions in order to assist in the acquisition of products and services. The emerging applications facilitate the use of social media that further give opportunities to entrepreneurs to integrate electronic commerce with social media in order to achieve maximum benefits.
Project Objective
This essay aims to explore the opportunities and challenges offered by social electronic commerce. As the increase in the popularity of the sites that facilitate the social networking has increased, this has opened up the doors of opportunities for new entrepreneurs to experiment with new business models in order to better capitalize the opportunities of innovation. However, there are many challenges as well.
Project Scope
This essay shall focus on online technologies and the impact that is created through the integration of social media with e-commerce. It shall tend to describe the drivers that cause social commerce to pose challenges and opportunities for the entrepreneur. Further, what role the relationship quality can play in strengthening social commerce for the benefit of the entrepreneurs, and what costs are associated with it?
Literature Review
Research studies suggest that the role of social media is very important as social platforms are the important platforms that tend to accelerate the popularity of the business. It is because these social sites are already popular this makes it easier for the business to market themselves to a larger public in no time. In the studies that were conducted in the earlier periods of time, it was considered that the use of the internet depletes the interpersonal skills of a person, and the more a person shall spend time on the internet the more he/she shall face hard times in maintaining his/her interpersonal relationships. However, recent studies have revealed that the communities that are working online can cause to increase the social values among the users of these communities. Further, the internet has now been considered as a powerful vehicle to bring proximity within individual relations (Liang, 2011).
Moreover, House (1981) found that the types of online social support may help to improve efficiency within the working paradigm. In contrast to the traditional forms of eCommerce channels, different types of online support can help the business to improve its performance by getting the benefits in these areas that include the work-related stress that gets reduced along with the support one gets which may be emotional, informational, and instrumental and appraisal support. Further, Scharefer et al (1981) affirmed the notion that people along with informational support also require emotional support as well. Thus, this emotional support can be provided by increasing the level of interaction among the users.
References
House, J.S. Work Stress and Social Support. Reading, MA: AddisonWesley, 1981.
Liang, T. P., Ho, Y. T., Li, Y. W., & Turban, E. (2011). What drives social commerce: The role of social support and relationship quality. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 16(2), 69-90.
Schaefer, C.; Coyne, J.C.; and Lazarus, R.S. The health-related functions of social support. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4, 4 (1981), 381–406.
Liang, T. P., Ho, Y. T., Li, Y. W., & Turban, E. (2011). What drives social commerce: The role of social support and relationship quality. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 16(2), 69-90.
