A Study That Looks Into a Frame of User Interface Design Requirements For

A study that looks into

A frame of user interface design requirements for usability and improved consumer behaviors in social commerce

MASTERS THESIS WITHIN: Informatics

NUMBER OF CREDITS: 30

PROGRAMME OF STUDY: Information Architecture and Innovation

AUTHOR: Julian Sybella Nansamba

JÖNKÖPING May 2020

Master Thesis in Informatics

Title: The impact of user interface usability on consumer behavior in social commerce-

Authors: Julian Sybella Nansamba

Tutor: Daniela Mihailescu

Date: 2020-05-26

Key terms: User interfaces, Usability, Consumer behavior, Social commerce.

Abstract

User interface usability in social commerce is an important theme today because many businesses are evolving with use of social media in order to easily reach larger markets. The study was based on the fact that online shoppers and their purchase success depend to the great extent they can interact with the interface (usability). Therefore, it is important for companies to attend to the users' online consumer purchase behavior. The purpose of the study is to discuss which interface design requirements can enhance usability that improves consumer behavior in social commerce.

The methodology of social constructionist paradigm, a deductive research approach with investigation from multiple exploratory cases was used. For extension of knowledge about the topic both secondary and primary data with interviews was followed. The findings show that the social commerce companies are still facing some challenges because they still lack some of the suggested requirements which hinders the usability of their interfaces. Moreover, they believe that some requirements are not be as important as others. The companies can use these findings to apply and harmonize this frame of requirements into their user interfaces in order to achieve usability that promotes consumer behaviors since they can now realize that the few requirement they never attend to limits the usability of their websites.

Table of Contents:

1.0 Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Research problem ...... 2 1.2 Research purpose...... 3 1.3 Research Question...... 4 1.4 Delimitation ...... 4 1.5 Definitions...... 5

2.0 Theoretical framework ...... 6 2.1 Social commerce ...... 6 2.2 Consumer behavior in social commerce ...... 7 2.2.1 Customer journey of the social commerce user. 8 2.3 Usability ...... 10 2.4 User interfaces for the social commerce ... 11 2.4.1 Design requirements for quality s-commerce User interface 12

3. Methodology ...... 22 3.1 Research Philosophy ...... 23 3.2 Research Approach ...... 24 3.3 Research Method ...... 26 3.4 Research Strategy ...... 27 3.5 Case sampling ...... 28 3.6 Data collection ...... 28 3.7 Data Analysis...... 31 3.8 Method evaluation ...... 32 3.9 Ethical considerations ...... 34

4. Empirical findings...... 36 4.1 Company A ...... 36 4.1.1 Social commerce ...... 37

4.1.2 Consumer behavior ...... 37 4.1.3 Usability ...... 38 4.1.4. User interfaces ...... 39 4.2 Company B ...... 43 4.2.1 Social commerce...... 43 4.2.2. Consumer behavior ...... 44 4.2.3. Usability ...... 44 4.2.4 user interfaces ...... 46 4.3. Company C ...... 51 4.3.1 Social commerce ...... 51 4.3.2 Consumer behavior ...... 52 4.3.3 Usability ...... 53 4.3.4 User interfaces ...... 54

5. Analysis ...... 59 5.1. Social commerce ...... 59 5.2 Consumer behavior ...... 60 5.3 Usability ...... 61 5. 4 User interfaces635.4.1 Design requirements for quality social commerce user interfaces ...... 63

6. Conclusion ...... 70

7. Discussion...... 72 7.1 Limitations and self-criticism ...... 72 7.2 Suggestion for further research ...... 73

References...... 74

Appendices ...... 82

LIST OF FIGURES: Figure 1; Illustrates the SOR model of consumer behavior in social commerce. (Zhang, 2016) pg 99...... 8 Figure 2;Illustrates the highlight of the selected steps of the customer journey (https://www.google.com/search?q=social+commerce+customer+journey)...... 9 Figure 3. shows the summary steps of the users’ journey of the highlighted part in figure 2 ...... 10 Figure 4; shows different sorting categories: (retrieved from Dhgate.com) ...... 14 Figure 5;shows page formats interfaces (retrieved from Dhgate.com) ...... 16 Figure 6;Shows product catalog (retrieved from Missguided.com) ...... 17 Figure 7; Shows simple registration forms. (retrieved from Dhgate.com)...... 18 Figure 8; shows the different customer service methods; (retrieved from SHEIN.com and Dhgate.com) ...... 21 Figure 9; illustrates inductive research approach ...... 25 Figure 10; shows deductive research approach ...... 25 Figure 11; Represents company A’s perspective of the relation between the usability attributes 39 Figure 12; Represents company B’s perspective of the relation the usability attributes ...... 46 Figure 13; Represents company C’s perspective of the relation between the usability attributes 54 Figure 14; Represents the companies' perspectives in regard to the SOR model of consumer behavior in social commerce...... 61 Figure 15; Represents the summary of the overall perspective of therelation between the usability attributes by the companies...... 63

LIST OF TABLES:

Table 1: Illustrates the secondary data key word categories used ...... 32 Table 2: Illustrates the information about the company and the respondents from which the findings were made...... 37 Table 3; Illustrating the use of the different social media platforms in the social commerce companies interviewed...... 61

1.0 Introduction

In this age of fast-growing digitalization, change is inevitable especially in the way we purchase goods and services. And while this digital transformation emerges, issues of how retailers and other selling companies attempt to explore the boom in the electronic market arise (Lohse and Spiller, 1998). This means that selling companies may have to distinguish between selling through a physical store and an electronic counterpart, as the familiar layout of the physical store becomes a maze of pull-down menus, product indices, and search features (Spann et al., 2012).

Moreover, while social networking users spend 50% more online than people who do not use social networking sites, many are now doing a lot of talking using social networks (Lawrence J, 2011). Also people like to talk about their potential purchases and brands they like through these networks therefore many e-commerce providers have created social media presence for their e- commerce sites on these social networks for example Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter among others (Ionescu, 2009) hence enhancing social commerce.

The social commerce providers are utilizing “an Internet-based applications build using the technological foundations of Web 2.0, which supports the generation and exchange of User Generated Content (UGC)” (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010) pg254, into their business website. Throughout the overall customer experience of purchasing the product, the user interface becomes one of the important elements that allows the users achieve their goal (Florin, 2001).

The s-commerce website interfaces then become the basis of selling and should be designed to streamline the business processes for an organization (Nielson J,1990), and provide interface and screen designs that encourage efficient comprehension and execution, create screen icons and graphics that make display easier and more comfortable to use (Borjaski, 1994). Social- commerce sites allow performance of daily business activities by interacting through menu- driven user-interface components such as tool bars, and dialogue windows through the interfaces (Zhang, Chen & Ying, 2006). In addition, these interfaces must catch the attention of a customer as similar to which they would have got from a customer service person at the physical store (Marcus,1993). Therefore, for any successful s-commerce, online shopping will depend on the

great extent upon the usage of the interface and how people interact with the computer (Lohse and Spiller, 1998). However, while this great idea has been identified by many companies, they are still facing challenges about the friendliness and warmness (usability) involved with usage and intractability of their interfaces (Arnold Lund, 2001).

1.1 Research problem

Social commerce is increasingly taking up a great share in the consumer's market today. Undoubtedly, companies have managed to reach multitudes of these consumers on marketing their products and services through social media and other social networks. And while many of the s-commerce are making efforts to increase their profits through sales via their social media collaborations, many of them are not paying enough attention to the users' online consumer purchase behavior through their site interfaces. Moreover, these companies are making large investments in the implementation of business information systems with the expectation of productivity gains, competitiveness enhancement, and the reduction of market, administrative and operational costs (Younghwa Lee and Kenneth, 2006). Even after this, they are still experiencing problems such as incomplete purchases at the website for example, there are still customers that are categorized as "dummy customers". Dummy customers means those customers that have visited and are aware of these social commerce websites, and are probably interested in the products and services of these companies, but give up with purchasing. This usually is due to the unusable user interface of these websites which make their purchase journeys difficult (Nielsen J, 1994).

Furthermore, while companies and designers need to fulfill the evolving requirements from the s- commerce world, these applications have gradually evolved in providing complex functional features in the user interfaces (Zhang, Chen &Ying, 2006). However, these rich features are not always obvious for the users to navigate and interact in the interfaces (UI). As a result, the consumers usually get overwhelmed by the enormous functionality available as they struggle in deciding where to start and where to go next after a result from a feature within the interfaces. Thus, the overall idea to achieving their end goal is hindered with in the business processes.

1.2 Research purpose.

User interfaces have revolved from the past years and the attitude towards them are changing within the growing technology (Tidwell,2005). While many companies have embraced the digital and online way of selling their products and services, the user interfaces of their social commerce systems nowadays become important. This is because a well-designed user interface allows users to complete their everyday tasks in a great extent, (Kim, 1998) which as well promotes business success. Moreover, the new product development requires an enticing user interface to attract customers to stay on the application/ website, explore and successfully make their purchases(Farhan Saeed, 2018). In addition, while the evolving consumer behaviors with the use of interfaces takes place, there is no doubt that social commerce user interfaces designers need to add these design features to the websites in order to evolve as well (Tidwell,2005). Furthermore, during the social commerce processes, there are such cases when the users are involved with intermediaries that are separated by distance or perhaps time, such interfaces become even more important (Bates, 1989).

Thus, existing literature has demonstrated and discussed how a good s-commerce interface can increase consumer behavior. However, there is still limited information regarding what "good" really means and what kind of interfaces bridge the gap of incomplete purchases for the so-called dummy customers. Therefore, this research focuses on looking into which user interface requirements can enhance usability and improve consumer behavior of achieving purchasing in s-commerce. For example, the importance that users who visit the websites to buy products can apply the interface easily and that the technical parts do not distract their attention from their work.

To extend knowledge in this matter, this thesis will explore the attributes of usability that promote consumer behavior in social commerce websites and a frame of user interface requirements that support the usability of the social commerce interfaces. The research will provide insights from different social commerce cases plus the different perception from the social commerce user interface designers.

1.3Research Question.

1.What attributes of user interface usability affect consumer behaviors in social commerce?

2.Which design requirements are required to promote usability and consumer behavior in social commerce?

1.4Delimitation

Regarding interfaces (the interaction face between the user and a computer system) such as apps, websites, operating systems, among others, this research will mainly focus on s-commerce website interfaces.

In regard to consumer behavior, the research will focus on user's behaviors from when the user get aware of the company products/ service to when they decide to purchase it. This is further elaborated in the customer journey part in the literature.

Collection of data will be focused on designers of the s-commerce sites because they are considered to have experienced knowledge about the topic and can provide quality information about the topic within the given period of time for this research. Though it would have been nice to capture data from the users' perspective too.

In addition, a research strategy of multiple case studies will be carried out on some social commerce companies to achieve more data within the limited time of this research.

1.5Definitions

User Interfaces (UI): This is the features of a computer system that allows the user to interact with it. In business terms, user interfaces can be described as the representation of communication with the user on behalf of a business system and can be displayed in terms of pictures, sound, color, and text. (Ravi Chandra,2008).

Social commerce: This is the use of social media in e-commerce. Social commerce encourages consumers to participate actively in the buying and selling of products and services in online marketplaces and communities, through interactive and collaborative online shopping experience (Zhao Huang,2017)

Consumer behavior: These are the online shoppers' habits, for example what online and offline distractions are competing for their attention, and what factors mostly influence them to embrace, or abandon, their online shopping experience (Jack Loechner, 2018)

Usability: This can be described as the ease of use of a system. When prospective customers start exploring a web site, the ease and the efficiency with which they can access relevant information can affect how much they feel in control of the site (Florian, 2001)

Web 2.0: This is a second generation of internet, created to state the difference between traditional static Web sites and interactive knowledge creation platforms. Here users are supposed to extract from and contribute to the knowledge databases simultaneously through active participation from multiple sources (e.g. other individual users, data and services) (O'reilly, 2007).

User Generated Content (UGC): Contents that are publicly available over the Internet, which reflects a certain amount of creative effort and created outside professional routines and practices. (Christodoulides, 2012)

Dummy customers: Customers are who redundant users of the social commerce website. They are aware and part of the s-commerce systems but do not usually or not even at all buy the products due to lack of usability of the user interfaces.

2.0 Theoretical framework

2.1 Social commerce

Social commerce is believed to be the collaborative network for online sellers (Stephen and Toubia, 2009). It is also conceptualized as the selling with social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube (Marsden and Chaney, 2012). Social commerce is also perceived as a subset of e-commerce, for example Dennison et al., (2009) adopted a definition provided by IBM and explained it as the marriage of e-commerce and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Kem, et al., (2016) on the other hand believes that social commerce can be perceived as a broader approach to e-commerce and therefore identified two major types of social-commerce: 1.Social networking sites that incorporate commercial features to allow transactions and advertisements and; 2. Traditional e-commerce websites that add social tools to facilitate social interactions and sharing. Also social commerce can be described as the use of social media tools and Web 2.0 technologies in e-commerce (Huang & Benyoucef, 2012).

Social commerce is considerably changing the way internet users are communicating and sharing data today, and this is due to the impact of social networks (Griffith, 2011). Moreover, the emergency of social commerce has brought some substantial changes that affect both the businesses and the consumers. (Kem, et a, 2016).Researchers still believe there is more need for attention to the understanding of social commerce because it contains significant satisfaction derived from the shopping behavior of users that are involved in the transactions with friends to friends (Griffith, 2011). In addition, one of the special characteristics of social commerce is that interactions are community based and not one-to-one (Stephen & Toubia, 2009). These phenomena are shaping new interface design models with features that are more customer oriented in order to add value to the customer hence improving marketing strategy for the selling companies.

The adoption of these features and components can affect the understanding of social commerce context on the social shopping behavior of vendors and consumers, therefore there is need to provide an adoption framework. In regards to this, M. Hajli, (2015) came up with a Social Commerce Adoption Model (SCAM) with six predictors of s-commerce to address the adoption of s-commerce. The six predictors in the models are Recommendations and referrals, Forums

and communities, Ratings and reviews, Trust of the social commerce site, Perceived usefulness and lastly Intention to buy. However, the success of these predictors is completely governed by how consumers behave with the website since several decisions need to be undertaken by the consumer in order to accomplish their goal with s-commerce (Kem, et a, 2016)

2.2 Consumer behavior in social commerce

Different studies have adopted some theories such as the motivation theory, technology acceptance theory model, culture related theories, theories of reasoned action and planned behavior in relation to consumer behavior in s-commerce. (Kem, et al, 2016). Other studies emphasize on consumer motives, benefits, and values such as functional, emotional, self- oriented, social and relational values while interacting with the brand (Davis, et al, 2014). In addition, Kem and Benyouce, (2016) identify several factors for studying consumer behavior in social commerce by proposing an integrative framework stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model and the five-stage consumer decision making process.

The SOR model explains individual behaviors as learned responses to external stimuli (Zheng, et al, 2015). According to the SOR model, environmental performances act as external stimuli, which can affect individuals' internal cognitions and emotions (Kem, et a, 2016). These internal factors will then drive them to perform behaviors forming the responses. Hence this model can enable the understanding of consumer's behaviors on s-commerce sites.

Furthermore, the Five-stage consumer decision-making process explains five activities of response for the consumers' decision-making process: need recognition, search, evaluation, purchase and post purchase (Engel, Kollat & Blackwell, 1973). The need recognition refers to the consumer's need or awareness of certain products: The search refers to the consumer's searching behavior for making choices: the evaluation is the consumer's evaluate alternative products or shopping platforms to choose the best option: The purchase refers to the consumer's purchase behavior and : the post-purchase refers to the consumer's post-purchase activities such as recommending products to others (Kem, et a, 2016). As explained, the SOR model and the five-stage consumer decision making process play a potential role on explaining consumer behavior on social commerce site and below is the representation of the framework for consumer behavior in social commerce.

Figure 1; Illustrates the SOR model of consumer behavior in social commerce. (Zhang, 2016) pg 99

In conclusion, regarding consumer behavior in social commerce, satisfied consumers may spend longer on a website or may revisit the website later and may recommend the website to others (Zhang & Dran, 2001). It is crucial to determine what makes a user satisfied with the s- commerce, therefore s-commerce evaluators need to first of all learn who their users are and the key goals of those users, plus the steps the users are going to take to use that site.

2.2.1 Customer journey of the social commerce user.

A customer journey is a complete sum of experiences that consumers go through when interacting with a company or brand (Audra Sorman, 2019).As for consumer behavior in this research, it is important to mention that the behavior of the user is considered from when they get aware of the brand and open the website in order to purchase from it. According to Stuart Hogg,(2018)the journey people take to become loyal customers would be a straight shot down a motor way: buy the product: use the product and repeat the cycle. But in reality, this journey is more like a sightseeing tour with stops, exploration and discussions along the way (Stuart Hogg, 2018). Therefore, the moments when you need to convince your customer to pick your brand and stick with it instead of switching to a competitor may lie in the power of your interface.

Furthermore Stuart Hogg, (2018) identifies five things that social commerce can look into to enhance the journey of their customers:

1. Find the sweet spots where the goals of the customer and yours aligns 2. Identify all of the communication touch points in your consumer's journey 3. Recognize the pain points and moments of delight

4. Experience the customer's journey yourself 5. Visualize the journey map

In doing so, the customer journey can be a guide in improving the usability of the product for the users.

For this research, I will concentrate on the consumer journey from when the user gets aware of the website to when they decide to purchase the product. The journey of a customer in social commerce involves five different steps which are awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy. Below is the figure showing these various steps.

Figure 2;Illustrates the highlight of the selected steps of the customer journey (https://www.google.com/search?q=social+commerce+customer+journey) From the figure above, the highlighted part indicates the areas that this research concentrated upon, which are awareness, consideration, and purchase.

 Awareness is the point where the consumers/shoppers see the social add, blogs, emails, word of mouth, reviews and then move to the website interface where they can access the home pages, products and categories that they may be interested in.  Consideration is the point when the users have accepted the website and decide and continue to select several items to their cart for future purchase.  Purchase is the point where they decide to buy the products that they added to their cart

Figure 3. shows the summary steps of the users’ journey of the highlighted part in figure 2 2.3 Usability

Usability can be referred to as how easy it is for users to learn a system, how efficient they can be after being learned and how enjoyable it is to use it (J. Nielsen, 1994). Usability can also be defined as the capacity or a software product to be understood, learned, operated, and attractive to users (Fernandez et al., 2011). In addition, usability can be characterized as a global feature of a system that is acceptable by the end users and satisfies the needs and the requirements of the user (Nielsen & Mack ,1994). Usability can be decomposed into five attributes:

 Learnability, which is the ease of learning the functionality and the behavior of the system  Efficiency, which is the level of attainable productivity, once the user has learned the system  Memorability which is the ease of remembering the system functionality after a period of non-use  Low error rate which the capability of the system to support users in making less errors during the use of the system and  User’s satisfaction which is the measure in which the users like the system (Nielsen, J, 1994).

In addition to the five attributes, Arnold M. Lund, (2001) agrees with Nielsen J, (1994) that usable system are ones that contains an acceptable level of errors or an acceptable speed of accomplishing a standard task. Hassanein& Head, (2007) and Mack & Sharples, (2009) agree that usability is an important factor of the overall quality of social commerce design and a very

important requirement of product design because it is the utmost importance to consumers in the decision to purchase a product. Furthermore, usability is viewed as one of those characteristics of software quality such as the capability of a system to be understood, learned, used and attractive to the user (Costabile M, 2001). Luna-Nevarez and Hyman (2012) described the following six usability attributes of website design: content quality, visual and presentation style, navigation, textual information, advertising and social media aids. For too long, many UI designers have been designing systems that require a lot of usage effort by the users, which results into technology un-acceptance (Costabile M, 2001). This affects the users overall purchase behavior and usability for the social commerce interfaces.

To improve usability, nowadays website design is becoming a cooperative activity, which involves a usability group, end users, and a development team (Madsen. K, 1999).Costabile M, (2001) argues that the reason why many computer-based systems are so hard to use is that emphasis and focus during the development of the product has been put on the system rather than people who will be the ultimate end-user. Moreover, many companies have come to realize that direct interaction between end users and developers can promote great usability, so end users are more actively involved in the early development process and contributing to design, rather than acting as evaluators (Madsen. K, 1999). Therefore, to implement interfaces that work for the user's needs and abilities, designers need to adopt the user-centered design approach where users focus on the users and their needs in each phase of design.

2.4 User interfaces for the social commerce

A user interface in s-commerce is the asynchronous interaction between the seller and the buyer (José, Peiro & Patrick, 1994). User interfaces are also defined as the first impression of the social commerce websites where interactions and commercial activities are delivered through (Liang and Turban, 2011). User interfaces play a role in walks of life of s-commerce users such as a simple search of the website, or in distance communication between hearing and impaired people (Kim, J. & J.Y. Moon (1998).

A good user interface design is one that results when designers understand people as well as the evolving technology (Costabile M, 2001). Moreover the UX designers need to understand who are the audience users of their product, their personal characteristics, physical capabilities, their

goals and the task they need to accomplish and the circumstances under which they work (Liang and Turban, 2011). Furthermore, a well-designed user interface of an s-commerce website has a positive effect on consumers, inciting them to use a website and purchase online (Fan and Tsai, 2010). Many users experience frustrations and anxiety with these websites; therefore, it is important that the designers provide user interfaces that support a warm and friendly interaction with users (Costabile M, 2001).

In order to implement quality s-commerce interfaces, there is a fast accumulating body of knowledge that is concerned with user interface design in order to avoid repetition of bad design for example it has been suggested that designers need to integrate UI design methods and techniques such as interface testing and quality control procedures to those that are already tested (Costabile M, 2001)..

2.4.1 Design requirements for quality s-commerce User interface

Designing of s-commerce websites is very challenging, because the sites must accommodate nearly all users, including a significant amount of user interactivity and still be easy to use (Tullis, Tranquada, and Siegel 2011). Factors that come into play are the architecture of the information, the familiarity of website metaphors and the transparency of terminology. In this case any feature that guides users through the shopping process can also facilitate the site usability and interaction (Florian,2001)

According to Straub and Watson (2001), it is vital to evaluate the website quality properties and understand what the customers would need from a website. In the context of social commerce websites, Kim and Lennon (2013) have addressed website quality from three dimensions which are: system, information, and service.

 System quality: which is the extent to which the client thinks the website is easy, reliable, accessible, and adaptable and the interface interaction is consistent (Kirakowski, Claridge, & Whitehand, 1998). Characteristics such as lack of responsiveness, usefulness, and suitability discourages the customer from utilizing s-commerce website hence declining the sales and demand.

 Service quality: Service quality measures reactive, cooperative, and efficiency aspects of the website (Palmer 2002). Service quality indicates the overall customer assessments and judgments about the service provided by the site (Palmer 2002).

 Information quality: This is the degree of perceived value about the output provided from the website (Rai, Lang, and Welker, 2002). The information contained in the website has to be accurate, relevant, personalized, formatted and easy to understand to encourage customer’s initial purchase intention

In relation to these dimensions, the frame of requirements for a quality s-commerce website interface should focus on achieving design that encourage purchases. Najjar, L, (2000) recognized and addressed the major requirements needed for quality s-commerce interface design as, navigation, page format, registration, catalog, personalization, checkout and customer service

Navigation

Navigation is the ability of users to move through your site. Design navigation that is simple intuitive and obvious makes it easy for users to move through the site (Najjar L, 2011). Navigation control should be put in the same location on each page and should tell the users where they are, how they got there and where else they can go (Fleming, 1998). Rogers and Chaparro, (2003) also argues that s-commerce site interface should provide" breadcrumb" navigation, for example small, hyperlinked pages at the top of each page usually above the title of the current page. In addition, Grimm,(1999) also believes that these breadcrumbs navigation control allow users to easily retrace their steps, for example (Home>Women's clothes>Dresses>Party dresses).

Design the navigation that allows the user to browse any product in at least five clicks or fewer (Tracy 2000). This can be done through categorization by names because names serve as a global navigation control (Najjar L, 2011). Moreover, it is much better to provide more category names at each level than to provide more levels to click through. Furthermore, allow users to filter products in categories by useful measures such as price ranges, brands, discounted products, and customer ratings. For example(SHEIN.com) allows users to filter products by price ranges,

ratings, color, among others. Lastly, the s-commerce sites should provide specific browse functions to meet user needs. For example,(missguided.com) lists products by seasons and occasions.

Search is also an extremely relevant element during navigation, but unfortunately, many social commerce sites do not design, maintain, or even evaluate their search functions (Hagen, Manning, and Paul 2000). Nielsen and Tahir, (2001) in their study also found that 36% of users spend a lot of time looking for where to find the search functions on 25 s-commerce sites. To improve this function, designers should use meta tag tools, thesauruses, alternate spellings, and database search engines (Najjar L, 2011). For example, the advanced search function on (DHgate .com) allows users to enter a variety of information (e.g., title, sizes) . Also display the search field at a drop-down menu that makes it easier for users to focus on one area of the site. In addition display the "searched-for" keywords to allow users to perform another search, refine the search results, and sort the search results using helpful product attributes such as price range (e.g., SHEIN.com), style, size, and customer review rating.

Figure 4; shows different sorting categories: (retrieved from Dhgate.com)

Page format

Page formats play an important part on the quality of the company's website user interface. To make it easier for users to interact with social commerce websites, format the pages in a way that that the user interface elements are in familiar locations (Bernard 2001). This is because the most website users are familiar to using several websites for which seem to look familiar with each other, for example put the return-to-Home hyperlink to the top, left corner. In addition to use the company's logo as the hyper link to make it serve as a double duty as a branding element (Pastore 1999). Regarding promotions, allow the user to see the promotions on each product 14

page by putting it on the right side or cross the bottom of each product page (Najjar L, 2011). Also include promotions for products such as: those that were highly rated by your customer and will appeal to most of your visitor-users and show the promotional product names, images, very short descriptions, and prices (Pastore 1999).

Regarding shopping carts, users need to know what is in their cart, put a shopping cart summary on each page. In the short summary, show a short hyper linked product name for each item, the quantity of each item, the price, and the cost subtotal (Chaparro 2001; Pastore 1999; Ragus 2000a). This prevents the users from moving back and forth the interface which may distract their attention in the process. Also include a link to the complete shopping cart, the wish list and the checkout.

Registration is one of the most annoying elements of a page format if it is poorly interfaced. To easily accommodate registered users, designers need to include the sign-in entry fields and hyperlinks on every home page (Najjar L, 2011) Display the user's name (e.g., "Kevin Dickson") near the top of the home page so that the registered user knows they are recognized and are receiving member benefits such as express check out (Najjar L, 2011) The Contact us hyperlink should be placed on every page perhaps at the bottom.. Furthermore, a good way to attract new users is to put on each product page a link to a simple referral form in which users need to enter only sender and receiver names and e-mail addresses (e.g., Julian.com’s “E-mail to a friend”) (Reichheld and Schefter 2000). In addition, information privacy being a critical issue for users, provide links to your privacy and security policies at the bottom of every page, as well as show the links clearly where the users are entering private information in the content area of the registration and check out pages (Stanley, McCarthy, and Sharrard 2000).

Figure 5;shows page formats interfaces (retrieved from Dhgate.com)

Catalog

The catalog should make it easier for users to see products (Najjar L, 2011). In addition, avoid requiring users to register first in order to see a product catalog, for example (DHgate.com) allows the user to see their product catalog and availability even without registering on the website. Furthermore in regards to availability, show only products that are in stock to reduce user frustration and allow users to see the availability and price of products immediately before they are able to add it in the shopping cart (Najjar L, 2011). For example (SHEIN.com) allows you to see availability and prices of products before even adding it in the shopping cart. Also sort the product catalogs in lists of style, size, color by using filtering tools. This allows users to narrow down a long list of products while navigating through the site (Nielsen and Tahir 2001)

Freedman,(2008a) also argues that users spend at least 6 minutes or more on helpful page interfaces, therefore it is important to allow users to zoom in and move the image to see the product details. To facilitate these use tabs below the product image, display textual product summary, specifications, and customer reviews and ratings. Also provide engaging how-to videos, that are ideally associated with specific products (Najjar L, 2011). For example (AliExpress.com) shows videos of actual appearance and usage of products.

For easy accessibility of product page by the user, display graphical “Add to shopping cart” and “Check out” buttons with larger fonts and brighter colors (Najjar L, 2011). In addition, update

the cart summary at the top of the page to provide confirmation to the user (such as on Gap.com) with a message like “You successfully put the product into your shopping cart.”. Also allow users who may want to purchase later a button that moves the product into the member's wish list (Najjar L, 2011). Furthermore, endeavor to show the original and current price of the product if the product is on sale because shoppers love a bargain (Nielsen, 2007)

Figure 6;Shows product catalog (retrieved from Missguided.com)

Registration

Registration determines a lot whether users will continue in the process or not. The simpler the registration process, the more likely will users register and buy (Agrawal, Arjona, and Lemmens, 2001). (Sacharow and Mooradian, 1999) also argues that users tend not to read or complete the registration page and almost half of the users leave without succeeding their registration page (Najjar L, 2011). This leaves the s-commerce companies with no information to personalize for their customers. In addition, give permission to registered users to send e-mail notifications for example on sales and new products (Charron et al. 1998) and to leave a cookie “Remember me when I return”. In order to reduce the number of actions made, make it easier for users to remember their sign-in names or only require them to enter their email addresses and a password.

Goldwyn, (2010) argues that the system should allow unregistered users enter the shipping and billing information during checkout, after which you can inform the users the benefits of registration. (For example, ASOS.com) allows users to checkout before registration. Also unregistered users can be asked to register by utilizing the information they just entered during

checkout, and to provide only a password (Nielsen 2007). In order to reduce this, make it easier for users to remember their sign-in names or only require them to enter their email addresses and a password. As for the privacy and security policies, provide a link at registration to make users aware of their rights to privacy and security of their information. Furthermore, give users control of their personal information by allowing editing the registration information and to unregister. Regarding purchase card information, never show the entire credit card number; show only *s and the last four digits for security reasons (Najjar L, 2011).

Figure 7; Shows simple registration forms. (retrieved from Dhgate.com) Personalization

Personalization is a powerful element for social commerce sites, and it can provide a more compelling user experience, reduce the number of choices to a subset that is likely to interest the user (Grau, 2009). It is based on the user's registration information, purchase history and browsing history. In order to implement these, display the user's name at the top of the page, personalize the suggested product on the home page, and list the recent mostly viewed products (Freedman, 2008a). For example (SHEIN.com) display the recently viewed items and always displays the user's profile at the top of the page to show their current presence.

For effectiveness and less annoying for users, send notifications for only products that interest the user and allow them to forward the promotional e-mail to a friend or their social network (eMarketer, 2009b). For example (Pinterest.com) sends notifications on products that interest the user but also allows them to share it with friends via other social networks. Moreover, since these are social commerce sites, allow users to be part of a community to improve user loyalty, user

time on the site, and site revenue (Najjar L, 2011), by offering tailored information, tools and message boards.

Checkout

Checkout is one of the reasons why 40% of users failed to complete an online order (Rehman 2000). As mentioned earlier registration is one of the issues that hinders users at checkout as they require completing long forms (Sacharow and Mooradian 1999). In order to reduce such issues, designers should try to put all the checkout fields on a single page to avoid user confusion. It is also very important for users to know all the information they need before acting. In other words, users like to know their shipping cost, quantity of product, price of the product, as well as be able to add, remove and reduce the number products from the cart with ease before checkout (Najjar L, 2011),

Regarding delivery and shipping information, allow users to enter a zip code and provide a drop- down menu of shipping choices (such as DHL, UPS, Postnord) and delivery speeds (such as 5-12 business days). In addition, the shipping costs of these choices need to be clearly provided to the user. Regarding promotions, free shipping offers, and coupon codes among others, these should be easily usable to encourage users to increase their order sizes and to complete their purchases (Najjar L, 2011). Save the registered user's shopping cart content for at least 90 days in case they leave the page without complete purchase (For example Amazon.com) keeps their users' cart for a longer time. In order to motivate users on their cart, remind them by sending an email alert, this encourages the users to purchase the product they left in the cart.

Regarding payment, provide easy and safe and reliable ways to pay (such as credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, Klarna.,). In addition, for credit cards that require a security code, display a link to a popup window that explains via text and images where to find the security code on different cards order (Rehman 2000). Also provide a read only purchase summary and in case users need to change anything, allow them to be able to edit that information before completion (Najjar L, 2011).

Privacy and security is key at checkout, and 20% of users said they stopped at checkout because they felt the site was insecure (Hill 2001). Moreover, many users have been scammed due to such insecurity issues. Provide site's security and privacy certified by consumer groups (such as

TRUSTe or BBBOnLine) plus show their logos on the checkout page (Rehman 2000). In addition, add links that have information about consumer protection features such as return policy, security protection, delivery guarantees, and customer service email response time guarantees (Agrawal, Arjona, and Lemmens 2001; Rhodes 1998)

Figure 8; shows checkout summary with payment information:( retrieved from SHEIN.com)

Customer service

The best and outstanding customer service for a s-commerce website is one that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in real time (Agrawal, Arjona, and Lemmens 2001) with different ways such as live chats, toll-free contact calls, FAQs (questions and answers to frequently asked questions) on topics such as checkout, privacy, security, and returns(eMarketer 2009a).. For example (DHgate.com) provides 27/7 customer service that gives live chat, FAQ and contact us telephone contacts for call options.

Live chart is currently dominating the customer service sector because it is an easy, cheaper and clearer way to accessing and understanding information. Users also prefer live chat to customer

service for simpler questions on topics such as order status or shipping choices (eMarketer 2009a).

Return policy also determine whether users will continuously use a social commerce or not. Return of online products should be as easy as possible. and should provide a pre-printed shipping label for the user to mail online purchases to the store (Najjar L, 2011). In addition s- commerce should also provide free shipping for returns 365 days from the purchase free shipping on the next order, choice of shipper, and the ability to print out a return shipping label to use on the original shipping box (Najjar L, 2011)..

Figure 9; shows the different customer service methods; (retrieved from SHEIN.com and Dhgate.com)

In conclusion, this theoretical framework has discussed different aspects in relation to the research topic such as social commerce, consumer behaviors in social commerce with accompaniment of a suggested model of SOR (Stimulus, Organism Response) that describes how users behave with user interfaces in social commerce. The customer journey of the social commerce users that highlighted the journey of users that this research will focus on which is from the point of awareness of the brand to the point of purchase

The usability of interfaces with attributessuch as learnability, memorability, efficiency, low error rate and user satisfaction have been discussed in detail and how each of them is important for a quality user interface. Lastly, a frame of requirement for a quality socialcommerce user interface was discussedsuch as navigation, page formats, catalogs, registration, personalization, checkout, and customer service.

I have decided to take with me theaspects ofsocial commerce, consumer behavior, usability and user interface requirements in the next part of the thesis except the consumer journey aspect which was introduced to further explain about consumer behavior that this thesis will focus on.

3. Methodology

In this chapter, I will discuss about the underlying motivation and selection for the research philosophy, research approach, research strategy and research method. Followed by an outline of data collection techniques and analysis procedure for the empirical findings, at the end, method evaluation and research ethics will be presented.

3.1 Research Philosophy

Research philosophy is the idea that there are different views of the world and the process that operate within it. Burrel and Morgan, (1979) stress that developing a philosophical perspective requires the researcher to make several core assumptions concerning two concepts: The nature of reality and society "Ontology" and the nature of science "Epistemology". A research philosophy is also a vital aspect of the research process as it opens the researcher's mind to other possibilities, which can lead to enrichment of their skills and well as their confidence in using the appropriate methodology (Brannick and Roche, 1997).

Ontology is concerned with "what is" a study about the nature of reality or what could be known as the world (Snape & Spencer, 2003). It is also described as the branch of philosophy that discusses the being and existence (Burrel and Morgan, 1979). Ontology entails that reality exists within our consciousness and only through experience. In this regard, there are two ontological perspectives which are critical realism and relativism theory. Critical realism believes that there is a world that exists independent of the human mind but cannot be accessed in its entirety, rather in partial fragments (Letourneau & Allen, 2006). Relativist ontology is the belief that reality is a finite subjective experience (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005) and nothing exists outside of our thoughts.

Epistemology on the other hand is about how one makes meaningful sense of our world.(Annells, 1996) and the study of knowledge, “a way of understanding and explaining how I know what I know” (Crotty, 1998). Epistemology believes that the world exists independently of awareness and does not necessitate that meaning exists in the same way. (Annells, 1996). Epistemology is based on two stances of subjectivism and objectivism. Subjectivism is the belief that knowledge is always filtered through the lenses of language, gender, social class, race (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Objectivism is the belief that truth and meaning reside within an object and is independent of human subjectivity (Crotty, 1998).

In order to ensure a strong research design, a research paradigm that is congruent with the researcher's beliefs must be chosen: For example, Postpositivism, Interpretive, and constructionist(Mills, Bonner, & Francis, 2006). Postpositivism is conceptualized as having an objectivist epistemology and critical realist ontology (Annells, 1997). Interpretivist is conceptualized as having a relativist ontology with a subjectivist epistemology (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Constructionist is conceptualized as having ontological critical realism with epistemological subjectivism. In this case, meaning is created through an interaction of the interpreter and the interpreted (Crotty, 1998)

Therefore, in this research, I decide to use the social constructionist paradigm through consideration that social sciences are constructed by accumulating people's understanding of the topic of knowledge. Furthermore, it will allow me to generalize certain aspects of study. However, this technique has certain drawbacks, such as inaccessibility of certain information despite gathering data from multiple sources and lacking in accepting cultural differences.

3.2 Research Approach

There are basically three types of research approach; inductive, deductive, and abductive for which one will choose to undertake depending on the relevance of the hypothesis they would have come up with (Ritchie et al, 2013).

Inductive approach is concerned with generation of new theory emerging from the data. (Debora Gabriel, 2013). It is a logical process in which multiple premises found to be true most of the time are combined to obtain a specific conclusion or evidence for the truth of a conclusion (Sauce, 2017). The advantages of this approach is that it provides a great place to start a new lesson or unit and it seeks to establish what you already know, or what you think and know about the topic. (Dell’Olio& Donk, 2007). However, some of its drawbacks is that it is not entire suitable for explanation of new concepts or ideas. It is more applicable to concepts that are abstract as compared to those that are more concrete. Below is a proposed model for inductive research

Figure 10; illustrates inductive research approach A deductive approach is concerned with testing theories and usually starts at that point (Debora Gabriel, 2013). Here researchers move from a more general level to a more specific one. This approach utilizes a lot of arguments in order to derive sufficient reasoning for a particular fact and these arguments are based on definite law, rules and regulations(Taylor et al., 2002). The researcher studies what others have done, reads existing theories of whatever phenomenon he or she is studying, and then tests hypotheses that emerge from those theories. Below are steps undertaken in deductive research approach: theorize/hypothesize, analysis and confirmation of hypothesis. However, the deductive approach is criticized for the lack of clarity in terms of how to select theory to be tested via formulating hypotheses.

Figure 11; shows deductive research approach Abductive approach is the systemized creativity of intuition in the search to develop new knowledge. Here, instead of adhering to a logical process, its developments in science are often gained through an intuitive leap that comes forth, and which can be called abductive reasoning (Taylor et al., 2002). The abductive approach starts with 'surprising facts' which may emerge when the researcher encounters with an empirical phenomenon that cannot be explained by the existing range of theories (Creswell and Clark, 2007). In addition, researchers seek to choose the ‘best’ explanation among many alternatives in order to explain 'surprising facts' identified at the start of the research process

In this research, I decided to undertake the deductive approach, because it will allow me to acquire already existing knowledge from the existing literature and then acquire the perceptions of designers regarding user interface design requirements. It will also allow the reasoning and

confirmation of already existing information about the user interfaces of different s-commerce firms. Therefore, I believe that the deductive technique best suites conducting this study

3.3 Research Method

There are two ways of conducting a research in regard to research methods which are qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research comprises of methods such as: logic, ethnography, discourse analysis, case study, open-ended interviews, participant observation, grounded theory, focus groups, historical research among others. (Cibangu, 2012). Joop & Henny, (2005) argue that qualitative research examines how people learn about and make sense of themselves and how they structure and give meaning to their daily life. This means that the researcher gains further understanding by looking at how others make sense of their experience.

Quantitative research methods is on the other hand based on numeric figured of measurable data and can be processed in a systematic way though investigations of phenomena and their relations (Leedy, 1993).. Here information is collected from existing and potential customers using sampling method, and sending out online-surveys, online polls, questionnaires etc. Also, qualitative data guides the researcher to think about the cause and effect, use of measurements and observations, as well as a test of theories (Creswell , 2003), Furthermore it uses strategies of inquiry such a experiments and surveys, and gathers information on predetermined instruments that yields numerical data.

In this study, I will utilize qualitative research method that will be based on interpretive philosophy and making sense of socially constructed meanings about this topic (field of interest) (Saunders, et al., 2012) It will also enable a detailed understanding of a process or experience related to the topic, which will be provided by UI experts (designers), and information will be available in non-numeric format (e.g., text or visual) form. Thus, this method will enable to access and understand and examine which user interface elements influence usability and purchases of customers in s-commerce companies. Moreover, the larger aim is to gain deeper knowledge of user interface usability and to develop a theoretically and empirically grounded framework of design requirements for usable interfaces.

3.4Research Strategy

A research strategy refers to how the researcher propose to answer the research questions set and how you will implement the methodology. It is based on the main components of the research project which is the research topic and focus (Easterby-Smith, 2015). The mainly used research strategies are case studies and action- oriented research. But according to Easterby-Smith, (2015), it is more likely to use case studies.

Case study focuses on in-depth investigation in a single case or a small number of cases. Case studies allow researchers to learn about the state of the art and generate theories from practice, understand the nature and complexity of the processes taking place and is an appropriate way to research an area in which few previous studies have been carried out. (Benbasat , David & Melissa, 1987).

According to Yin (1994) there are three types of case study: exploratory, descriptive and explanatory case study. The exploratory case study seeks to explore any phenomenon in the data which serves as a point of interest to the researcher. The descriptive case study seeks to describe the natural phenomena which occur within the data in question, focuses on "what' or "why" without including information about "where", "when" and "who". The explanatory case studies examine the data closely both at a surface and at an in-depth level in order to explain the phenomena in the data.

Therefore in this research, I will utilize the exploratory multiple case study as it will allow investigation of natural phenomena without any imposed control on the circumstances and to have insights on the matter in practical terms (Yin, 2017). In addition, the case study is chosen as an underlying research strategy because the study of User Interface usability in Social commerce is under a constant changing environment and also because as a researcher, it is not possible to control the consumer behavior of UI users but rather improve it. Furthermore, it will allow exploration of differences within each case in order to find general similarities occurred. Moreover, multiple case study will support the research time frame, which is about doing the observation on multiple variables at the same period (cross sectional), instead the same variable over long period of time (longitudinal).

3.5 Case sampling

A sample is a portion of a population or universe (Tailor, 2005). Population does not necessarily mean a number of people (Walliman, N. 2011) but a total quantity of the things or cases which are the subject of the research. Unlike in quantitative studies where the ideal sampling standard is random sampling, most qualitative studies use purposive sampling (Cynthia & David, 2003). Etikan et al., (2016) also complements that, in nonprobability sampling, randomization is not important in selecting a sample from the population of interest.

Cynthia & David, (2003) stresses two nonprobability sampling in qualitative research: convinience sampling and purposive sampling. Convenience sampling is a nonprobability sampling where participants are primarily selected based on ease of access to the researcher and, geographical proximity, and availability at given time (Lisa M, 2008). Purposive sampling is one which relies on the researcher judgment of participant selection for the study (such as people, organizations, events, pieces of data). Therefore, the sampling will basically focus on the characteristics of interest out of the population, which will answer the research question (Laerd, 2012).

For this research, I decided to undertake a nonprobability purposive sampling because the data collected was meant to contribute to a better understanding of the theoretical framework (Bernard, 2002). In addition, it allows identification and selection of the groups of people (in this case UI designers) who are well informed with this topic of research hence enhancing information richness (Patton, 2002). Furthermore, the availability and willingness of participants and the ability to communicate their experiences and opinions were considered while choosing a purposive sampling technique.

The target sample of this research are the designers of user interfaces for social commerce organizations with knowledge about user interface requirements for usability that enhance the user's behavior in a given usage time.

3.6 Data collection

Data collection is a such a crucial and important step in conducting research, because this data can be used as further contribution to the theoretical framework (Bernard, 2002). It is therefore

of vital importance to attentively select how the data will be obtained and whom it will be acquired to have sound judgment, mostly when the analysis will be invalid with inappropriate collected data.

There are two types of data namely: Primary and secondary data (Merriam, 2002). Primary data is collected by the researcher for the purpose of a specific research and is related to the problem, while secondary data is collected for purposes other than the problem at hand (Smith &Albaum, 2005).

Primary data

Primary data is carried out to find information about the research problem at hand, using procedures that fit the research question best (Joop & Henny, 2005). According to Saunders et al. (2009), primary data could be collected by observation, questionnaires, sampling and interviews. Interview is the most used method for data gathering in qualitative study, as it allows access to vast information, despite of its requirement of extensive planning on the regard of the development of the structure. In addition, decisions about who to interview and how, whether to conduct them on a one-on-one basis or group interviews, and how to record and analyze them need to be put into account. Interviews can be structured, semi structured, or unstructured depending on the level of openness of the researchers to the overarching ideas during the interview. Furthermore, interviews can be face-to-face, telephone, email, and messenger interviews (Raymond Opdenakker, 2006). However, conducting interview study has some challenges for example time limitation as the process can be time consuming; and biasness that need to be minimized during the research design stage (Easterby-Smith, 2015).

In this research, I choose interviews to gather primary data as it helps to gain and discover more insights on the research topic from the firm perspective, while considering that these perspectives and attitudes may vary in practical terms. Interviews were carried out among three different social commerce companies and four respondents. A face-to face interview was used for the company located in Sweden with two respondents. Zoom interviews were used for companies in the UK with one respondent and in China with one respondent. The interviews took around 45 minutes to one hour and the interview questions asked can be found in the appendices. In addition, the method selected to conduct the interview was semi-structured interview because it

allows open-ended questions that allow the interviewee to answer questions according to the flow of the conversation. Also, it allows me to probe and ask questions that clarify the interviewee's response during that interview, thus allowing a better understanding of the explanation from the participants' meaning. Moreover, not only being a flexible method, it also allows the researcher to gain more insights on answers that were not anticipated.

Secondary Data

Secondary data is data collected earlier by other researchers or for other purposes than research such as official statistics, administrative records or routine accounts kept by organizations (Joop& Henny, 2005). Researchers are facilitated with reliable frame of references for further investigation and strengthens case study research credibility (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2012). Secondary data supports researchers with a comprehensive understanding and development of wider knowledge base of the research topic. However using secondary data is associated with some characteristics challenges, such as the ability to locate data sources that are useful to the research problem, ability to retrieve the relevant data, and elevate how well the data meets the quality requirements of the current research and the methodological criteria of good scientific practice ((Joop& Henny, 2005).

The secondary data used in this study gathered data from multiple sources including books, journals, peer-reviewed articles and international conferences. The Primo search engine offered by Jonkoping university library site was utilized for further research. Furthermore, for a quality and rich scientific ground of research and to gain a deeper understanding, other online databases such as, Database A-Z, Scopus, Emerald, Web of science were used. In this regard, I used the phrases or key words in the search process to find relevant data, which are listed in the table 1 below:

Main topic Subtopic 1 Subtopic 2 User interfaces usability in Usability Social commerce success social commerce

Impact of UI usability on User interfaces usability Consumer behavior consumer behaviors (in social commerce) UI design requirements for UI Design requirements Social commerce usable s-commerce systems. Table 1: Illustrates the secondary data key word categories used 3.7 Data Analysis.

This is the next step after data collection, and it requires a series of closely related procedures. During data analysis, data is turned into meaningful messages and builds up an appreciation of the structure and possibilities for analysis (Sapsford &Jupp, 2006). According to Saunders et al. (2009), data analysis is divided into five stages namely: starting from comprehending the data, integrating the data from various transcripts, identifying the key pattern and themes for further exploration, developing theory and drawing conclusion.

According to Bogdan & Biklen, (1982), data analysis in qualitative research is the process of systematically searching and arranging the interview transcripts, observation notes and any other non-textual material to increase the understanding of the phenomena. Analysis of data in qualitative research is not a technical exercise as in quantitative research methods, but more of a dynamic, intuitive and creative process of inductive reasoning, thinking and theorizing (Basit TN, 2003).

In this study data was analyzed through making sense of huge amounts of data by reducing the volumes of raw data and then identified the significant patterns related to my topic. Thereafter, I drew certain meanings from the data while developing a logical chain of evidence from the literature (Patton M, 2002). In order to achieve this, the data was categorized in order to sub

divide the huge amounts of raw information or data and assigning them into categories which allowed finding common patterns in relation to the topic of study. (Dey I, 1993).

3.8 Method evaluation

There is a great importance to utilize a good research design in order to ensure quality during qualitative research, as it reduces the risk of getting wrong and biased results (Saunders et. al., 2015). Therefore, to ensure trustworthiness, Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggest the use of three criteria to focus on; credibility or Authenticity, dependability and transferability, Confirmability. In this regard, a brief description of each of criteria is given below as well as the actions taken to certify that this thesis achieves a high level of quality.

Credibility/Authenticity

Credibility is mainly concerned with the validation of findings and results and the extent which the researcher's account is believed and how appropriate it is with particular references (Seale, Gobo, Gubrium and Silverman, 2004).Assuring credibility is important as it leads the conscious effort to establish confidence in an accurate interpretation of the meaning of the data (Carboni, 1995). In addition, a high level of certainty is needed so as to attain credibility when a researcher is interpreting the data they would have come up with through respondents’ answers in interviews (Miles and Huberman, 1994). Although the respondents volunteered to be interviewed, I facilitated information regarding the thesis purpose and the theme of interview, since they wanted to get rich information which may be hard to answer spontaneously. Thus, this was also helpful for my end as a researcher in order to get rich information. In addition, this saves a lot of time for both the respondent and me since we are oaths persons with busy schedules.

To ensure authenticity, at the start of each interview session with each respondent, I started off by clarifying the method selected plus the ethical part of the study hence allowing them to feel comfortable and freely interact in regard to the interview questions. The interview was carried out in English language which both the interviewer and the respondents understood clearly in order to avoid miscommunication during the interview process.

Dependability and Transferability.

Dependability is concerned with the issues that the research is carried out stably and in a consistent manner (Daymon and Holloway, 2011). Transferability is related to the research generalizability and the extent to which research can be transferred to other settings and therefore requires a clarity and comprehensiveness

Therefore, attaining high dependability means that the same findings would be discovered by the researcher as equivalent to the way conducted with the respondents (Saunders et. al., 2012). For a quality research, respondents were selected according to their knowledge and experience regarding the research topic. For an in-depth analysis, their answers were carefully recorded with recorders and assessed so that a sufficient level of saturation of results was achieved, hence patterns across the data were also examined (Richards, 2005). Summary analysis documents ware also clearly created and traceable for each of the data analyzed. Furthermore, for transferability, details of necessary information were presented to the extent that this study can be applicable to other contexts.

Confirmability

Confirmability is defined as an overriding goal of qualitative research, as it reflects the relativistic nature of truth which is claimed in the interpretivist tradition (Lincoln and Guba, 1985), According to Guba, (1981); Johnson & Waterfield, (2004), confirmability of research results was ensured via four key processes: the creation of an audit trail; an internal audit; an external audit; and the writing of the final research report. In this research, internal audit was done by identifying key themes with similarities and differences in the results and then categorized (Guba, 1981). The categorization of the data was largely interpretive in nature; therefore, insight and language is highly dependent on individual basis (Morse & Richards, 2002. The consistency in the themes identified in the data reinforced that the right course is being pursued. Further it also facilitated me as a researcher to engage with the data.

3.9 Ethical considerations

There are some issues and ethical principles that have been put into consideration when collecting the data as well as how to use and analyze the data during research. The University of Glasgow, (2002) suggests some ethics to be considered such as; , respect, safety, confidentiality, and permission. Saunders et al. (2015) also agrees that respect, privacy, voluntary participation and confidentiality towards the participants is important in order to prevent negative effects on data collection, usage and analysis.

1. Respect was kept in a way that information that was perceived as sensitive to the respondents was treated with maximum respect so as to keep trust and a respectful relationship with them during the study. Also, It was put into account that the interviewee was happy and comfortable with the locations from where the interviews were held.

2. Safety and privacy are co related to respect. The respondent's information was kept private and safe to only be used within the framework of research. The respondents were made aware of the reasons and importance behind the research and the data collection. They were also informed that the usage and storage time of their data was only limited to the period upon which the research takes place.

3. Confidentiality of the data gathered from the participants was also ensured. I made sure that leakage of sensitive information was avoided. Also, before the beginning of the interviews, I asked the respondents that I record the interviews and made sure that the information gathered was only stored on my personal devices. The thesis information is also reviewed by these companies to ensure that there is no false information recorded or which may intrude the privacy of interviewees and the firms. In addition, the respondents' names will not be said unless permitted by them. The company names that participated in the interviews were decided on being kept anonymous for confidentiality reasons.

4. Regarding permission, I ensured that each person taking part in the interview was doing it on their own free will and was not forced in any way whatsoever to conduct the

interview. Also, the recorded information, written forms and any other forms of data will only be used in accordance to the wishes of the respondents.

In conclusion, the methods that this research took form of are; a social constructionist research philosophy, an inductive research approach, with investigation from multiple exploratory case study research strategy. In addition, a non-probability purposive case sampling was chosen because it allowed better understanding of the theory.

The data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data was sought from interviews while secondary data from different sources like including books, journals, peer- reviewed articles, online databases such as, Database A-Z, Scopus, Emerald, Web of science among others. The methods were further evaluated for credibility, dependability, and Confirmability to ensure quality research. Furthermore, some ethical principles were put into consideration for conducting the study, such as respect, safety and privacy, confidentiality and permission. With these, it can be ensured that the findings and analysis of the data has been responsibly managed.

4. Empirical findings. This chapter describes the empirical findings of the study based on the interviews.

The empirical findings were gathered from three different companies that were interviewed with four respondents. The companies were chosen basing on the fact that they are all social commerce companies. The four respondents from the companies; Company A with one respondent, Company B with one respondent and Company C with 2 respondents were chosen because of their expertise "knowledge about the topic" and all these are website designers.

Table 2: Illustrates the information about the company and the respondents from which the findings were made.

4.1 Company A

Company A is a big company situated in Beijing China and with different branches in the USA, Hungary, UAE, Philippines, Turkey, Spain, Russia, and some other China cities. The company was found in 2004 and sells a variety of products such as sports, wedding, Jewelry, house merchandize, apparel, among others. It started operating via e-commerce when it was launched in 2005 and later moved towards using social media platforms in order to extend their market sales. Therefore, it is an affirmed s-commerce company.

The respondent from the company is one of the system operators, maintenance and administration team members of the company. He has experience in design for 12 years and he has worked for this company for 5 years now. Despite not being so interested in many social media platforms, he has learnt to appreciate it since it is part of his daily work

"I have worked for 5 years at this company, but I have been working in this profession for 12 years now...... I do not enjoy social media so much but am learning to appreciate it due to the evolvement with work and it has brought greater impact for us in this company".

4.1.1 Social commerce

As many companies are utilizing social platforms to attract customers and sell, the company uses a number of channels that vary in their range of functionality and scope. This is because they have got a wide range of customers for which they reach differently.

"We use different social media platforms to market and sell such as Facebook, Instagram, our website and an app. We realized that the different platforms differ with effectiveness for example when we sell via Facebook and Instagram to the website, it increases our direct sales because elements are easily accessible there than on the app" Furthermore, the fact that most of their products are attractive to all younger customers who are found to use the Instagram lately, it is currently the mostly used social platform.But Facebook is still perceived as the dominant in the past years because according to them it accommodates both the younger and elderly range of customers.

“Due to the fact that young people prefer to connect through Instagram, we predominantly choose Instagram as our foremost used channel for social media, though Facebook still holds a big part in promoting our sales because it connects a bigger audience of our customers.”

4.1.2 Consumer behavior

As for how the consumers behave with the website, the company's end goal has always been to create a better experience for users to achieve their goal from use of their website interface. In

regard to external environment, they believe that the website interface design will completely affect the consumer behavior depending on its usability.

"Mostly when a customer finds a website or an app confusing and unfriendly, they will get frustrated and will feel bad " According to them, an independent user environment is one that support the users without the help of the support team, therefore they focus on providing user interfaces that allow users to navigate independently.

"We do not appreciate it when customer service receives questions about where to find which user elements, .....we understand how frustrating it could have been for the customer"

As for the use’s internal cognition and emotion, consumers respond according to how they feel. The company says they keep track of users’ internal cognition from the number of users who do not and those who finish their transactions and those who do.

"Users who get aware of the products and can easily navigate through them are most likely to buy whereas those who leave are most likely not happy enough with our website experience" However, on the other hand, they do not rely on this assumption as they believe that sometimes users may not accomplish their purchase because of other issues such as unaffordability of the total purchase prices.

".....Though we know that sometimes high prices on products or in the cart summary may lead the user not to accomplish their purchase." As for the consumer's response, they believe that consumers respond according to what they receive from the interface and are more likely and may give up their intentions to purchase and adopt other companies just to feel better.

"....This sometimes leads them to leave the company and find a better one"

4.1.3 Usability

From the respondent, it is believed that learnability of the website interface allows users to achieve their goal and also retain it for further purchase. The company believes that it is possible

to achieve memorability if the website is learnable because It is always easy for users to remember the website if it's easy to learn.

Something easy to learn is always easy to remember and could be attained by the users. We ensure to create easy features in the website so that users can feel at ease with its engagement"

Furthermore, a website with too many errors becomes an inefficient one for the user therefore minimization of the errors involved with usability increases efficiency. In order to improve usability, the company designers work cooperatively with the customer service who provide end user feedback on such issues. According to them, if users retain or continue to use a website, this may be prominent results of satisfaction with it. Also, they believe that their best design can only be achieved through the users since they basically own the product which is the website.

"We usually carry out maintenance and upgrades on the website basing on the customer's feedback in order to minimize errors and increase efficiency. We believe that good design today is achieved through the user's views and perspective since they are the ones we design for"

Figure12; Represents company A’s perspective of the relation between the usability attributes

4.1.4.User interfaces

Regarding interfaces, the friendliness and navigation of a user interface allows users to access important information and that is why it is important to give attention to the user interface of a s- commerce company.

"the user-friendly user interfaces is very important and has to promote easy navigation to allow easy access to important information"

They believe that users are more likely to change to another company ifthey find the website interface of the company not user friendly. The respondents mentioned some elements of navigation, page formats as stressed in the theory that need to be considered very important to achieve a friendly user interface.

"Usually when users find a non-user friendly website, they will get annoyed and frustrated and sometimes will move to find a better one, it is important that they can easily navigate through the interface and clearly move through the pages of the website"

In this regard, the quality website Interface requirement of navigation, it should allow users to move around the website whenever they need to. Navigation according to them if being able to move through the pages to access desired information through search that is sorted to improve findability. As for products categories, they are sorted differently and can be chosen according to the user's preference.

"Navigation tabs are present on any page at any time. Users will be able to move back and go to a certain page during the process at any time they want" "From search of specific products, results are sorted as 'best match' by default, but users have the option to change the sorting option such as price, best-selling, customer review etc.

Regarding page formats, they play an important role to the usability of the company website. The company is currently facing some issues and they are taking measures to minimize customer inquiries on such issues by making features easily accessible. Furthermore, they endeavor to

place familiar tabs in places that the users are familiar with in order to minimize these user frustrations and confusion.

",,Yes, bad formatted pages lead to user confusion, we do encounter situations where users did not find some elements on the pages for example return and refund tab and we are working upon making it easily accessible for them to minimize such inquiries on the customer service end"

As for registration, it needs to be as simple as possible and should not be imposed on to a customer if they are not willing to. For unregistered users, the company allows unregistered buyers to accomplish their purchase.

"Our users only need a valid email address and password for registration" "Non-registered members can purchase and still track their order as long as they don't logout their guest account or clear the cache and cookies of their browser"

Checkout information is clearly displayed at the checkout point. In addition, payment security information is clearly displayed as well as the delivery information. However, some elements such as consumer protection and privacy are not located at checkout but rather at the help page which requires users to always move back and read this information.

"Shopping carts will be kept in the guest user's account as long as they won't be logged out. For registered user, it will stay as long as they don't remove the item from the cart" "Our payments are secured with PCI-DSS certification, QPS & Payment facilitator certification and are released after the buyer receives the product" "Delivery guarantee is provided and expected delivery time is provided once the product has been shipped" "The consumer protection and privacy does not show at checkout, but can be found at the help page"

The respondents believe that personalization keeps their buyers loyal and gives them a compelling experience, for example users have the choice to keep or lose their browsing history

on their website. In addition, the website allows users to manipulate their checkout and registered user information such as names, address and more. However, regarding product sharing, their website does not allow direct sharing of products with other social media platforms between buyers but only downloads. Therefore, they think that it is something they can improve for their personalization.

"Buyers have the option to choose if they want to keep their browsing history" "We have a profile setting page where buyers can customize their address, their contact name and contact information and their product interest" "Our website does not currently allow direct sharing of products on other social media, they can only download the image and then share it"

As for product catalogs, the users have all the information about available products and are informed of the actual change in prices for products on sale. In addition, only available products are displayed for users. However, the company does not currently provide how-to videos on their products, but they believe it could be an important feature to their product catalogs since some users usually ask for them.

"...Yes, the original prices are shown during sales" "out of stock products cannot be added to the cart and do not even show the option to purchase" "the products unfortunately do not have how-to videos but can be provided upon special request"

Customer service is also perceived as important requirement for the company website. According to them customer service provides a reliable and efficient interface for customer support such as availability of 24/7 with different options as live chats, FAQS, plus telephone contacts. In addition, their customer servicesis very active as mentioned before that they mostly work on issues to do with return and refund policy with users.

'We provide customer service 24 hours and 7 days a week with live chat, FAQ, and telephone contacts" "Our customer service mostly receives users help with questions and issues of return and refund issues"

In conclusion, all the requirements were perceived relevant and necessary for their website interface even though they are still facing issues with some features of these requirements in the interfaces. However, they believe that navigation is the most intuitive and important requirement for a quality s-commerce website because for them it connects all the other requirements to work well.

"In my opinion, I think the worst user interface in social commerce are those that have bad navigation systems"

4.2 Company B

Company B is a fashion industry company for both men and women and their market focus is specialized on mostly casual wear for the young people. The company sells a variety of products such as shoes, shirts, dresses, bags, trousers. among other clothing types and accessories. They are situated in the UK and are selling to markets around Europe, and USA now. They are planning to expand to bigger markets such as Asia, and some parts of Africa.

The respondent from this company is one of the website operator, maintenance and management team of the company and has experience in web designing for 7 years. She has worked at the company for 3 years now after working in another web designing company for over 4 years.

"I have been working here for three years now but i worked for a web designing company for 4 years before I started working here."

4.2.1 Social commerce.

The company is selling through different social media platforms that they believe suits their target market such as Facebook, Instagram, and email. But they intend to adopt others as they believe that the focus is now moving more towards the others

"We are using Facebook, Instagram, and email as our social media platforms, but Facebook is our main platform for now because it allows users to create communities of users through groups. We also have an Instagram page which are considering to boost as well because we believe it is such a prominent platform especially with our target market .We also plan to extend through twitter because the younger generation is adopting it lately, we believe it can be a prominent platform."

4.2.2.Consumer behavior

Regarding the external environment, the company creates a convenient and favourable environment for the buyers by ensuring genuinty of their websites. Furthermore, this genuinty of the service affects the buyer's internal cognition and emotions in a way that if their website performs as the user expected, they are likely to move forward with their goal. The comfortability and usability of the website will enhance positive cognition and emotion.

"We believe that If the user receives a clear picture of what we do and the service we render at the website, there is every chance that they will stay around and find out more." "We know that if our website information is genuine and makes the user feel comfortable, they will continue to use it and visit it again." In regard to consumer's response to emotions, they believe that consumers are more likely to leave the website if they cannot achieve their goal with it because it causes frustration to them.

"If the website does not have a good design to interact with, no buyer will want to waste time on it "

4.2.3. Usability

Usability is such an important aspect to impart user interfaces and is perceived as the flexibility with findability of information on an interface. In this regard usable website interfaces lead to user frustration.

"...... if the information findability from the interface is not flexible enough for users, we shall lose as a company and the users are going to feel frustrated."

Therefore, in regard to learnability and memorability, the users’ interface should be easy to learn which make it easier to remember. The participant believes that something easy to remember becomes even more interesting to use again for the users.

" .....for example, if I was a buyer and I can pretty much understand where to find stuff on the website, I will find it interesting and even be interested in finding out even more."

Furthermore, the efficiency and user satisfaction of the interface is implemented by ensuring that there is minimal or no errors for the users. The participant acknowledges that it is the companies' designers' responsibility to work on such issues and that they are working together with the customer support team to monitor such issues.

The company also recognizes that there is a lot of competition in their market and therefore are utilizing the promotion of usable interfaces to outstand in their market

"We work towards making our website interface standout with the many competition that is going around social commerce companies globally"

Figure 13; Represents company B’s perspective of the relation the usability attributes

4.2.4 User interfaces

Navigation connects different aspects of the website and should be as easy as possible. For example, allows boldly stated information, easy location of functions at the interface. In addition, it determines a lot if the user will use the website as well as refer it to other friends especially in social commerce.

"We perceive navigation as being able to connect different parts of the website and therefore this should be made as easy as possible for the consumer"

Furthermore, categorization of products affects navigation because a disorganized sorting of products gets it messy for the user. The company endavors to maintain consistency in categorization of their products differently in terms of gender, seasons and location, as well as other constantly changing such as promotion and sales.

"We categorize our products basically basing on gender, season and location, and sometimes we update them to for example products on sale but those are the basic ones we use"

As for page formats, the designer in this company relate it a lot to navigation as it allows users achieve an easy and efficient navigation scheme from the interface. The placement of elements on the page can affect how users access them on an interface. Furthermore, the color display, information and font used affect the visuals of the interface pages and these should always align with the purpose of the business. For example, brightness of colors for the young women categories which may not be the case for the men sector.

"We mind keeping our page formats standard, and to place different elements in areas where users are familiar and can easily be located.

"The colors used on the women categories always differ from those in the men categories...."

Regarding registration, the company believes that it should not be made compulsory for all users because they perceive it differently and some users usually doubt brands that are not as popular yet. Also, for the privacy of the user's information, the companies work on this in time while improving their privacy policies. They ensure to inform users the benefits of registering and guarantees to their private information. They intend to add such information at the registration sector.

“It tricky for us now since we have not operated quite long in the business yet with a wider reach of users, we understand that users may always have issues with data privacy and security and therefore we are working towards availing this information even more on the registration part of website...."

In addition, registration is perceived as a way of keeping track of customers information. For them, non-registered users may always miss out on information about certain company benefits such as sales, promotions on for example free shipping, seasonal gifts among others

"We allow all users to access and achieve their goal on the website, and then they can register when they want though we would like all users to register in order to benefit from the company's gifts".

For registered users, registration is kept easy. However, the company is considering removing the telephone contact information due to users’ complaint that they do not want to disclose their phone numbers, to maintain and keep customer loyalty.

"Our websites' registration requires only the name, email address or social media account, location, gender, telephone contact and password, but we are planning to remove the telephone contact details soon because many users complain about anonymous calls which affects their privacy and safety on that matter,...... our customer loyalty is most important"

Check out determines to whether the users accomplish their goal or not. Information displayed at this point should guide the buyer on how to accomplish their purchase. Information such as delivery information like shipping time, costs and methods, payment methods, order summary, and privacy information

"even if the other user elements on the interface were that cool in the customer's journey, checkout is the last stage in the buyer's customer journey and we work carefully at making it even more clear, easy and safe"

Privacy and safety is very emphasized because of the common issues related to scum with users on other websites. Moreover, being a relatively new company in the business, they make this very relevant to the users by making it mandatory for users to accept if they understood this information before checkout.

"It is mandatory for all users to accept if they understood that privacy information before completing their purchase".

The shopping cart for registered users is kept for 2 months whereas for unregistered ones, there is no guarantee that they will find their cart if logged out

"We keep our registered user's cart for 2 months (60 days) but for unregistered one, we cannot guarantee that because our system handles them as spontaneous visitors ".

Personalization gives the company the chance to sale better as well as an improve experiences for the user. Through customer search history, they study customer needs and make those exact products available for them. Furthermore, they notify users who are registered users on the readily available products from their interests. However, they allow users to activate this function because they understand that it can sometimes be frustrating for the users.

"We get this information from their recently viewed items and search history" "....but some customers do not like notification, so we provide an" accept notification" button, otherwise we do not send them the notifications if they do not accept" Regarding product sharing, the company makes the experience social for users and allows them to share directly to other social platforms or download the picture if they want to. This allows them to reach bigger markets as it is still a growing company.

"As a growing company, we would like to reach a larger number of customers therefore we allow users to easily share products with friends on social media through downloads or direct sharing from the website. "

For the product catalogs, lack of enough product information hinders user from understanding the actual value of the product. But also, too much information may only confuse the buyer which frustration. The designers therefore endavors to provide precise and yet relevant information about the product. Furthermore, the products are displayed in their respective colors and available sizes.

" For our website, we make sure to provide only relevant information on the products,.....we display pictures with different specifications such as front, side, back view of the product"

However, how-to short videos is something they have not considered yet adding to their product catalog but they believe it is a good idea as it can be appealing and entertaining to the user.

We do not have how-to videos on the products for now...... but it can be a really good aspect and entertaining for the users which we believe can increase our sales."

Regarding prices of products, the company promotes transparency and shows all the original and new prices of the products, Also, their interface allows users to choose the currency of prices depending on the country selected by the buyer.

"For our website, we want to be as transparent as possible so we display both the original and current price for products on sale and sale percentages, in fact our system makes it possible to see the prices in the currency that the buyer like as long as it is registered in our system" The customer reviews are prioritized on each product as they promote customer trust and increases sales on those products.

"The products that have a number of reviews and ratings attached are the ones that tend to sell more in the company, so we are definitely working to make the architecture in the reviews even clearer".

Customer service is like the seller's voice on the website and the company works in consideration of this perspective by improving response time on messages, and calls. They are apparently using a "ticket system" where users submit tickets of questions and wait for feedback within 24-48 hours. According to them, inefficiency of customer service can lead the user to change to other companies.

" We have emails, and a message section through tickets which we answer in 24 hours, but we intend to add live chat to the interface in order to reduce this response time to at most 10 minutes. ". Also, the customer service works in hand with other departments on questions well known to them, and as designers in this case they usually help with technical related questions.

"We usually help and work with the customer service to answer question related to the technical usage of the website".

In conclusion, the company believes that user interfaces that can harmonize all of the above elements are very important for usability of user interfaces and promoting good consumer behavior and increasing sales for the company hence growth in the company. However,there is still the belief that page formats and navigation are the most intuitive feature for their website interface in a sense that these are things that every s-commerce website should think of first..

4.3. Company C

The company is a service-oriented company which means that they do not deliver a tangible product to the customer but a service through their social commerce website. The company provides services of short term and long term stay at their hotels, apartments, and cottages. It has existed for over 36 years and is located in different parts of Sweden's big cities such as Stockholm, Malmo, Jonkoping, Gothenburg among others.

The two respondents are part of the IT team of the company and work with the website maintenance, upgrade and development for the company. One of them has worked in the company for 4 years and the other for 3 years.

Respondent 1 -"I have been a systems developer for 8 years now and I have worked at this company for 4 years" Respondent 2-"I began my design carrier from this company and I have worked at this company for 3 years now".

4.3.1 Social commerce

The company confirmed that they are using social media and that they do not take any bookings through social media directly but link their website through social media. They are basically social media to advertise their seasonal promotions and sale, activities, among others. The company uses the largely used social media platforms such as Facebook, and instagram at the time. They also mentioned the use of emails to advertise and communicate which they are apparently reducing due to a smaller reach of users and moving towards Facebook and Instagram. Respondent one stressed that;

"We use Facebook and Instagram to advertise our services, it could be anything from campaigns, short holidays, advertising a certain city event".... but we also use emails to communicate to our member customers.

4.3.2 Consumer behavior

Regarding the consumer behavior, according to them consumer behavior will always vary depending on the users' expectations. Some people like to receive the fact in the first place while other may like to get some mood before getting into the real deal of the website. But for their company and in regard to the users' environment, it is important to make the interface clear enough because first impression communication is key for the consumers' comfortability.

"....what is important for our consumers is that it is very clear what the service we offer is so we endeavor to clearly communicate exactly that on the interface."

In that same sense, about their internal cognition and emotion. the users are likely to easily interact and find out even more from the readily available information. The company emphasizes on reducing the steps taken to get to actual information, moreover, to also reduce the amount of customer service inquiries from the website. Respondent two replied to this that;

"We believe that users will feel comfortable finding information easily on our website which will encourage them to buy"

Lastly regarding user responses, if the users can find what they want they will accomplish their journey and if not, they will leave the website. Both the respondents stressed that they know how competitive environment is and that they consider this for the quality of their interfaces.

"We are working under a competitive market, and therefore we know that without a good interface, our customers are more likely to leave and find another company",

4.3.3 Usability

The link between their social media and the website interface allows easy accessibility for the users. In regard to usability measurements of learnability, memorability the company works around with making the journey of the user as short and clear as possible. The interface is made in a way that users can already choose a service they want from the first page to reduce the number of clicks.

"It is a link from the social media that is measured with tools, to reduce the number of clicks for the user" "Our users have no issues finding our services, we rarely get no complaints like that"

As for low error errors, efficiency and user satisfaction, From the end of the company staff, the system allows company staff to see the number of bookings made which proves the user's success in using the interface.

"our system supports both the customers and the staff to perform their duties easily. According to us as designers, if the users can easily and successfully make their booking with the interface then it is probably efficient and satisfies the user" Therefore, they think that their website usability works well but can always be improved in case there is need

"The interface works well as far as we can see, but it can always be improved"

Figure 12; Represents company A’s perspective of the relation between the usability attributes Figure 12; Represents company A’s perspective of the relation between the usability attributes

Figure 14; Represents company C’s perspective of the relation between the usability attributes

4.3.4 User interfaces

As mentioned earlier, the company and its designers are working together to provide a usable website interface to the users and are open to updates and changes that may improve the behavior of their customers.

"The interface works well as far as we can see, but it can always be improved for the well- being of our customers" The user interfaces requirements regarding their website are discussed as below:

Navigation is absolutely an important element for a website because it promotes user friendliness. The company believes in navigation that can be easily adaptable by different groups of users of their website. such as young and elderly users. Their service focuses different groups of people who are interested in traveling and finding places to stay.

"We are working towards an interface that can be adapted by different groups of people because our user group comprises of different age groups, so we put all these into consideration....".

In regard to categories, the company categories may be dynamic due to the nature of their business. It depends on the seasons and the pressure that may always come with bookings which can always change the company's strategy on those categories(For example availability, and prices categories are always changed). But generally, they do categorize according to availability, location of service, prices and size and number of accommodations.

"The company categories can be dynamics depending on the season and how it gets affected, for example now that we have the corona virus, prices are so low and non -profit. But usually we have categories such as room, apartment or cottage availability, location, and size."

Regarding Page formats, according to them it may always be very difficult to consume all the necessary information in one page. Otherwise it will be hard for customers to navigate through everything and many users get bored with too much information.

"...But we think simple categories that are well highlighted can help pages look better"

The positioning of menus and icons on the pages help users to find categories of products and services quite easy hence improving usability of the interface. But the company emphasized to display exactly what they want the seller to see while considering familiarity of placement of elements.

"What you want to sell should be in the right place for example we tend to separate our cheap service pages from the more expensive ones"

In regard to registration, the element should be able to add value to a customer if they should do it. The company creates certain privileges for registered members and makes it clear for them before they register. But they also know and consider users that are not comfortable with registration, so they allow them to complete their purchases.

"Of course, it is worth it to register because it can be cheaper for those customers sometimes, or they get to know about important information earlier hence adding value to them." "But it should not be mandatory because otherwise some users can come by the locations to book for the services"

As for simplicity with registration, the company requires little information from the users so as to make the process less frustrating such as name, email and password. The user email may be used for recovery information through the system.

"We only require for user's name, email address, and password for registration" "...The system guides and helps users to remember their information such as password through the registered email"

According to the company, checkout is an important element in consumer behavior process and attention of how users clearly see their shipping information for lost and found items, refund policy, payment methods and this information is displayed at this point. However, they do not think that the privacy and safety information of the company need to be displayed or linked somewhere at checkout. According to them, it is the consumer's responsibility to navigate through the system and find this information before making decisions to buy. This information for them is located at main page from the menu tab

We use very high security systems related to payments and the company itself which are governed by the European union rules with GDPR"

".....it is the responsibility of the user to feel secure about the website before using it, for us this information can be found at the home page of the website in the menu tab".

As for the cart, the company keeps registered users' cart for only 48 hours after their visit at the website and for un-registered users the cart is not kept at all.

".....the user cart is kept for only 48 hours, because we do not like to cause congestion for bookings on our services especially on rooms. For un-registered ones we do not keep their cart information unfortunately." .

In regard to personalization the company endeavors to engage mostly with their member and registered customers through communications about several occurrences such as promotions and discounts, seasonal activities, property upgrades among others through their emails. Furthermore, these also receive certain privileges such as free parking spaces, among others.

" our members and other registered customer do receive information about our upcoming events and can always directly link to the website if they access the emails."

Regarding online sharing, the website allows users to share experiences through downloading the images and then sharing them to other users. But it does not allow direct sharing from the website to other social media platforms like that of (Pinterest.com).

"Our users can download the image and share it to others or share the link of the website, .....no currently there is no option of direct sharing of website images"

For registered members, it is possible for users to access the history of purchase, cart, recently viewed items, whereas this is not possible for non-registered members.

As for catalogs, the company endeavors to display enough and relevant information about the services they offer. According to them the enough information available, the less pressure for the management and customer service team, therefore the designers endeavor to work in consideration of such issues.

"For this company, information about our services is key and we make it possible to be accessible, our team works together with the management and customer service on relevant information need on these catalogs" The company currently have a few short movies about their services, but they are planning to avail more of these for almost all their services at the website

...... we have quite a few, we are not early there yet on the short movies, we have a lot of pictures at the moment, but it is something we plan on improving"

Customer service is handled both at the company premises and on the website interface. In order to help users to access it efficiently on the interface the company uses different ways to help reach the customer's needs such as through stories, emails, social reviews, live chats LinkedIn in 24 hours and 7 days a week.

"We have links through emails at the website, user stories, social reviews, live chats and operate 24 hours and 7 days a week."

In conclusion and according to the company, interfaces should really be enticing for a buyer as it is the face that they use to interact with a company at a given time. The respondents believe that all the requirements should be focused on as they are important, but from further discussing which one may be more intuitive than the other, it was argued that navigation, and page formats are much more important.

5. Analysis In this chapter, the empirical findings of the study are discussed considering theoretical framework and connected to previous research and described concepts.

5.1. Social commerce

Social commerce is currently the trending way of extending markets among companies as compared to the traditional e-commerce systems. The companies are increasingly utilizing social media to communicate their brand to their larger audiences across different social platforms and the companies are emphasizing how this is improving their revenue and markets in their respective industries. The companies' usage of these different social media platforms vary depending on the market reach and audiences intended.

From the questions asked such as: Which social media channels do you mainly use? and How do they choose these channels? The companies are utilizing multiple trending channels to reach their audiences, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and emails as mentioned by Marsden and Chaney, (2012). All the companies use Facebook as one of their main platforms because of its usage by all groups of people, young or old hence capturing a bigger audience of customers. However, the companies with a more younger generation target are shifting more to Instagram because it is currently catching the attention of so many young people compared to Facebook; for example company B mentioned that they are planning to shift to Instagram due to their market audience being young people. Although Facebook remains the overall and mainly used social media platform currently among s-commerce companies.

It is also important to mention that all the companies agree with Kem, et al, (2016) idea that s- commerce creates an online community for buyers. The companies are using the social media platforms to advertise and provide tools to facilitate social interactions and sharing among their users who in turn make other users aware of their brand hence expanding the companies' market. Below is the summary representation of the usage of social media platforms by the social commerce companies.

Social media Facebook Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Emails platforms used

Company A √ √ √

Company B √ √

Company C √ √ √ √

Table 3; Illustrating the use of the different social media platforms in the social commerce companies interviewed. 5.2 Consumer behavior

Defining consumer behavior has been quite a challenge as its meaning was expressed in deeper terms and in the context of social commerce. It entails consumer motives, benefits, values, emotions, in relation to the brand as stressed by Davis, et al, (2014). In other terms, the Stimulus- Organism-Response SOR model breaks consumer behavior down by explaining how individual behave as a learned response to external stimuli (environment) (Zhang, et al, (2015). From the perspective of the SOR model, the companies agreed with this model in the sense that the external environment is the users; presence at the company interface, which can be affected by the interfaces' usability (internal emotions) hence resulting into either good or bad responses (users' decision to purchase or not purchase using their website)

It is agreed that quality websites create a conducive environment for the users which encourages them to stay. Moreover from the view that a user environment is affected byits usability, the respondents mentioned different factors of usability such as user friendliness, navigation, preciseness, genuinty, findability and clarity of the information at the interface as related to the five attributes of learnability, memorability, low errors, efficiency and user satisfaction(Nielsen & Mack,1994). Furthermore, it was acknowledge that the usability of website interfaces determines a lot how users will respond, for example the companies' respondents mentioned that the users(buyers) are more likely to leave their interfaces if they cannot achieve their goal (purchase intentions) with it especially that the s-commerce market is very competitive currently.

It is also important to mention that consumer responses as a result of the user interface is perceived as such a relevant issue for the s-commerce companies. All the respondents

mentioned how they keep track of the successful purchases made through their social media links to measure the usefulness of the interface. However, company B still doubts the accuracy of this measurement because according to them, there can be other reasons why users do not complete their purchases: such a unaffordable prices among others. But on the other hand, company C strongly believes that this measurement can be accurate and it works for their company. It is important for companies to pay attention to both aspects of completed purchases and hearing from the users' perspective because it is possible that users can still complete their purchases but with some usability difficulties in place.

Figure 15; Represents the companies' perspectives in regard to the SOR model of consumer behavior in social commerce. 5.3 Usability

The approach and perspective of usability was mostly perceived through attributes of low errors o the interface, efficiency, ease of use and user satisfaction. From the literature more attributes like learnability and memorability were discussed and most of the companies' perspectives were that these two are related to each other in a sense that a learnable system is always easy to memorize. However, the accuracy of this theory may need to be tested and approved as it has got no rich stances.

Some companies are basing usability on the efficiency and amount of errors that are involved with use of the website and that these should be as minimal as possible (Arnold M. Lund, 2001) for example company A and B. The designers are implementing these measures by collaborating with customer service to monitor the customer stories, reviews and feedback related to such issues (Madsen. K, 1999). In addition, it was found that the some company designers also consider themselves as the first website's users, and endeavor to experience the interface before even releasing it to the other people for example Company A and B mentioned that they always perform in-house tests of the interface before updating their websites. This practice agrees with Stuart Hogg, (2018) perspective of the things that social commerce can do to enhance the journey of their customers: which is experiencing the customer journey yourself. Also, it is a good way for designers to enhance design that empathizes with the users.

The ease of usage of a website was related to findability of information on a website interface, which may be also related to efficiency, learnability and user satisfaction. For example, company C mentioned that their main measurement of usability for the users is the ability to find all the information they need over the website. This may be right because simple and easy interfaces are easier to learn.

In conclusion, the attributes of usability: learnability, low errors, memorability, efficiency and customer satisfaction as suggested by Nielsen & Mack,(1994) were perceived relevant. Although there was difference in perspectives among companies about each of them. For example, company A and B considered efficiency and low errors as more important and company C believed that learnability and efficiency were more important. In addition, the difference in perspective can be concluded that each of the attributes is related to the other. But it is also important to mention that all the companies' goal with usability is to enhanceuser satisfaction which is as well considered part of the attributes. Furthermore, all the companies agreed with Hassanein and Head, (2007), and (Mack & Sharples, 2009) that usability of a website's interface contributes a lot to its quality.

Figure 16; Represents the summary of the overall perspective of therelation between the usability attributes by the companies.

5. 4 User interfaces

The companies' respondents agreed upon the fact that a website user interface is the interaction face between them and their buyers (José, Peiro & Patrick, 1994). While some of the companies for example company C which is service oriented, still operates strongly over their physical points, they agreed that their interfaces play a very big role to the loyalty of most of their customers. In other terms, user interfaces were also referredto as the channel for interactions, communication, and business activities (Liang and Turban, 2011).

5.4.1 Design requirements for quality social commerce user interfaces

There was a difference in perspectives in regard to quality dimensions addressed by J. Kim and Lennon (2013); service quality, system quality and information quality. Company C mostly relates quality to information and system. As mentioned before, this is because their industry requires the consumers to reach the premises of the company where most of the service is delivered from. They are therefore mostly interested in availing all the necessary information for the users over the interface.

The other companies A and B which are product oriented believe that all the dimensions of information, service and system quality are strongly important, although information and system quality seem to be the dominant ones. The difference in these perspectives aligns with Liang and Turban, (2011) argument that a good interface is one that is able to accommodate the needs, characteristics and capabilities of a certain intended audience therefore the companies are all right in their stances.

Lack of quality interface is believed to cause user frustrations and anxiety which can lead them to find a better one for example the companies mentioned that users are likely to find another company if their interface frustrates them. Therefore, the designers of the companies are working upon providing user interfaces that support a warm and friendly interaction among users (Costabile M, 2001).The company designers agree with (Najjar, 2000) perspective of the quality design requirements which are, navigation, page formats, registration, catalogs, personalization, checkout, and customer service as discussed below.

Navigation

As stressed by Najjar, (2011), good navigation was perceived as one that is simple and gives the users the ability to move through the site. Although there is still some difference in perspective to navigation and usability for example company A stresses that a good navigation is one that can be adapted by different users of the website whereas company C claims that it is one that provides all the information needed by the user.. However company A's theory may not be true for s-commerce companies that focus of a specific group of users for example company B who sell products for only young people may be more focused in creating features that interest that age group.

In regard to Rogers and Chaparro (2003) theory of the "bread crums", it is believed that a good navigation should allow users to trace their steps in the process. As for navigation that allows users to browse products in few clicks (Tracy 2000), different companies categorize according to the products or services they sell, for example Company A which sells much of products from different types of products categorizes by bestselling, prices and customer reviews whereas company B which specifically sells fashion wear categorizes by size, color, price, fashion trend like among others. However, the mostly used categories by the companies are; mostly viewed,

sales, most trending, among others. Furthermore, in regard to navigation through search, respondents relate this to the product categories made to allow users access products easily. The designers use different tools as database engines, thesauruses and alternate spelling to enable search functions (Najjar L, 2011).

It is also important to mention that categories can be dynamic for some companies which for example company C which is service oriented said that their categories can always change due to the dynamics used to sell at the company.

Page formats

Page formats are believed to play a major role in the quality of a user interface because a poorly formatted page leads to confusion to users which may lead them to leave a website immediately. As stressed by Bernard, (2001), it is believed that pages should be formatted with tabs in familiar locations. This may be true because loyal users usually like familiarity. Moreover, the tabs should be placed clearly and visible enough for users to locate as this may cause frustration to the users and the company as well. Company A states that they receive several questions concerning where to find the return and refund tab in their interface. If they had placed this tab at the user's purchase history page, it would have been easier for the users to locate

In regard to color, font, and font size used on pages, this is an important feature for the s- commerce companies. For example, company B mentioned that color, font and the overall appearance of their page are part of the first impression and communicates a lot about the brand they are selling. Company B uses brighter color backgrounds for women section than for the men section of the website to give them a compelling feel in relation to their usually interests

Registered user information should be displayed at the top of the home page in order to recognize their presence during usage of the website. Social commerce websites can provide links to user pages with all the user information where users can rather access this information to reduce the number of tabs on the home page.

Furthermore, regarding privacy and security information, the different perspectives are that this information may or may not be provided at checkout pages because it crowds that page of the interface with too much information. Company C and B stated that it is always a users'

responsibility to locate and read this information before making purchase decisions. However, company B on the other hand believes that this information is important for the users at checkout and they provide a privacy and security information tab for users to accept before continuing with purchase.

Users of social commerce are usually very spontaneous users of the company website. Mostly, they get blown away by the prices and appearance of the products which entices them to visit the websites Therefore it can be agreed with company C and Stanley, McCarthy & Sharrard, (2000) perspective that providing this information at checkout is very important in order to keep customer trust for the careless customers as opposed by company C.

Catalogs

The companies agree with Freedman,(2008a) that product catalogs should provide precise, clear and relevant information because too much information is more confusing for the user than companies may think. The catalog information such as product/service specifications, images, product summaries, customer reviews, engaging how-to videos (Najjar L, 2011) enables users to create loyalty to the products which enhances sales. For example, company A mentioned that they generate more sales on products with customer ratings and reviews. Furthermore about customer ratings and reviews, the s-commerce companies recognize the fact that people (users) play a big part in selling the brand, for example Company C which was not providing enough information about the user reviews on their services mentioned that they intend to implement more information on their catalogs as users are frequently demand for it before they can book the services..

All the companies are still reluctant about the "how-to" videos for which some of them mentioned that it has not yet been considered as very important feature for their catalogs. However, company A was quite positive about the including more videos and asserted how it has promoted sales on the few products they have tried it on, for example on the fashion products.

As for product availability, it is believed that only available products should be displayed and that the interface should not allow users to add unavailable products in their cart. In addition, the update on cart summary was perceived as important element that allows users to keep track of

their purchases. Furthermore, in regard to prices, it is also believed that users feel more loyal and company transparency if the new and original price are shown on sales.

In conclusion, the companies are implementing all the possible features for quality catalog interfaces, and from the findings they consider catalogs as important to the company's sales as possible.

Registration

Registration is believed to be more efficient if kept as easy and simple as possible (Agrawal, Arjona, and Lemmens, 2001). However, the level of simplicity varied from different companies’ perspectives. Companies A and C stressed that simplicity means only a username/email and a password. But company B's perspective of simplicity "name, gender, location, email and password" which is even double the required amount of data. As argued by Goldwyn, (2010), companies A and C perspective may be better because the rest of the information about the user can be attained at checkout during shipping and billing information to reduce the amount of registration actions for users.

As for unregistered users, the companies still agree with Goldwyn, (2010) view that it is important to allow unregistered users to complete their purchase but also be informed about the benefit of registration before they checkout. For example, company C mentioned that their interface asks unregistered users if they may want to register to enjoy the company benefits. However, they stated that according to them, users should only be asked to register if the feature adds value to them. In my perspective this is true because users usually like to receive something in return for the business actions they take.

The availability of privacy and security of information was perceived necessary at registration e especially for payment terms. Company A mentioned how this has been helpful for their customer loyalty, therefore they endeavor to show which companies secure the users information privacy on all registered information.

Personalization

In order to enhance personalization, user registration information such as usernames should be displayed at the top of the pages with information about the user's recently viewed products.

(Freedman 2008a). The content and messages with online communities should easily and freely be shared among users as argued by the respondents (Najjar L, 2011). However, some company A and C mentioned that they are still working on improving the function for users to share images and videos directly from the website to other social media platforms like the one of (Pinterest.com). Their interfaces only allow users to only download the images and then share currently.

In regards to user notifications, The two different perspectives are that the system can automatically send notifications for all registered users, to promote personalization whereas the other is that which agrees with Charron et al., (1998) that users need to accept the notifications first as it can be frustrating for some users. The two different perspectives could be true depending on which kind of business and industry it is, for example company C may want to remind their users of what services they have in a particular season regardless of their desire to know. On the other hand, it is important that users accept to receive notifications from the companies. As mentioned by eMarketer,(2009b),product oriented companies may send notifications for sales and promotions depending on the user's product interests to avoid un wanted notifications on some products.

Checkout

As argued by Rehman, (2000), it is believed that many customers leave s-commerce interfaces without accomplishing their purchases due to bad checkout features. In this regard, the checkout forms and fields should be made as easy as possible preferably in a single page with all the necessary information needed. For example, information about cart summary, shipping and delivery costs and guarantees, payment methods, privacy and security information, plus consumer protection features like return policy, security protection, delivery guarantees, and customer service email response time. Although company A mentioned that consumer protection information is instead at their help page rather than the checkout page.

However, there is still an argument about having a privacy and security information tab/link at checkout/ registration or not. Company C believes that it is always the user's responsibility to find this information from the menu-tab and then privacy and security at the home page. Although in my opinion I believe that it would be nice to provide this information at check out to

promote safety to the so-called unbothered customers who may be unaware of scum incidences in order to create customer loyalty.

As for payment security, legitimate security and privacy companies are need enhance payment safety for customers over the interfaces For example company A mentioned that their payments are secured with PCI-DSS certification, QPS and payment facilitator certification and company C uses the European union rules with GDPR and these company logos are displayed at their checkout page (Rehman, 2000).

Shopping cart is handled differently for registered and unregistered users in the companies. For company A the cart for registered users stays if they do not remove the items, company B it stays for only 60 days, company C for only 48 hours. For all companies, unregistered users' is removed automatically if they are logged out of the website. However, I would recommend companies to give longer time for users who are registered but also what may matter most is the companies; selling policy therefore I do not disagree with any of the companies.

Customer service

As argued by Agrawal and Lemmens, (2001), the companies are utilizing customer service of 24 hours a day and 7 days a week on their interfaces. However, the response time in the companies differs depending on the response times and availability of staff. For example, company B is still struggling with the response time of 20-30 minutes on their tickets whereas companies A and C always have available staff to respond immediately. The companies are operating quite well with viable methods as online live chats, messages through emails, FAQS, calls, user stories, reviews which they endeavor to respond in time.

In other terms, it was found that customer service is being utilized to get feedback on information regarding different departmental issues such as managerial, technical among others, For example company B continuously works with customer service to know the pains of the users with use of the interface.

6. Conclusion This chapter presents conclusions and attempts to answer the research questions.

The reason for this research was to explore the impact of user interface usability and consumer behaviors in social commerce. Therefore research questions that sought to achieve this purpose were formed such as; 1.What attributes of user interface usability affect consumer behaviors in social commerce?; 2.Which design requirements are required to promote usability and consumer behavior in social commerce? and were answered as follows.

The factors of user interface usability that can impact consumer behavior in social commerce were found to be learnability, memorability, low error rate, efficiency and user satisfaction. The learnability of a website interface depends on how easy and simple it is for the users. The simplicity promotes user friendliness of a user interface which can enhance usability. In addition, the easier it is to learn an interface, the easier it will be to memorize.

An usable s-commerce is one with a manageable amount of errors and that can be easily be managed by the designers because too many errors causes frustration to the users which affects their consumer behaviors. Errors also lead to inefficiency of use of a website because they prevent users from accomplishing their goals with the interface. In simple terms, errors are as bad as a physical shop with no products and sellers.

The learnability, memorability, low errors and efficiency of a website interface promotes user satisfaction. Therefore it can be concluded that the different factors of usability are related in one way or the other and s-commerce companies need to combine each of them into one in order to implement interfaces that promote usability and improve consumer behaviors.

Regarding user interfaces, the design requirements needed to promote usability of the interfaces are navigation, page formats, registration, personalization, catalogs, checkout and customer service are need for usability user interfaces. Navigation allows users to move through the site through few clicks. The social commerce companies should promote user interface navigation by creating categories that help users browse through the interface easily. The page formats are concerned with location of information on the interface and are related to the navigation in a way that a poorly formatted page restricts the user from browsing through the site. The positioning, location, size of tabs on the pages, with the color, font, and font sized used on a page

communicate a lot to the user. In this regard, the architecture used should be that which does not confuse the user on where to find and go next on the site.

The catalogs should provide precise, clear, and relevant information about the product/service. As for efficiency of the registration, it should be as easy and simple as possible and should be a user’s choice on the interface. Furthermore, personalization should create a personal presence of users on the website and this is the s-commerce companies' responsibility to create such an environment for the consumers through registrations, notifications, and information on privacy and security. It should be that which promotes users' personal presence at the website interface. The checkout point is where buyers go to pay for the cart items and is believed to be one of the most important parts of the interface. All the necessary information here should be clearly displayed to allow users achieve their goal without confusion. Lastly is the customer service which is the communication between the buyers/consumers and the company. It should be as clear, efficient and available for users all the time to enable them to answer their doubts and questions during usage of the website interface.

Regarding these requirements, the perspective of importance of each of the requirements varies due the difference of companies' industry, cultures, audiences, and sale orientation (product/service). The different companies pay more attention to certain requirements than others, which may limit the usability and the level of quality for their interfaces.

This research is therefore believed to have a step in the right direction for social commerce companies. If the design requirements discussed in this research can all be adopted by developers and designers of social commerce websites, the online shoppers would have pleasure in shopping which will as increase the companies' revenue. There is need from the designers to harmonize the frame of these requirements to design acceptable and usable interfaces for the users. I hope that social commerce company designers and other developers will adopt this harmonization of quality requirements to achieve maximum results of websites that improve consumer behaviors through usability. Designers can also take part in visualizing the consumer journey with use of their website interfaces that contain the suggested requirements to enable them experience and understand the online customers' pains and gains.

7. Discussion

This chapter discusses the outcomes of the research with respect to limitations in order to provide a valid and reliable interpretation of the results. Furthermore, opportunities for future studies and managerial implications are discussed.

7.1 Limitations and self-criticism

Positive

This thesis has presented the evidence of how social commerce companies with use of social media to reach and sell products and services to their customers. The factors of usability that impact consumer behaviors with interfaces through response to emotions and cognition in a behavioral environment has been highlighted. Furthermore ,it had discussed the user requirements that s-commerce companies can adopt to their website interfaces in order to enhance and improve consumer behavior in social commerce. Therefore, to achieve the research objective, different mechanisms have been examined and found to be relevant.

The research topic is updated which is a good aspect for both future and current researchers. Many companies are undertaking the social media trend of selling and hence moving from e- commerce to social commerce sector, which may be a good field for future researchers to explore.

Negative

The fact that the research was carried out from dimensions of both product and service oriented social commerce companies, some results were analyzed from more general than specific perspective. This could have affected the accuracy of those results. For example for company C which is (service oriented), their physical customer service was perceived even more important than which is received from the interface because their service needs more physical than virtual presence of the seller as compared to product oriented companies

The difference in cultures among the respondent may also have affected the acquiring of more accurate and precise results due to difference in cultural perspectives. For example company C which is based in Sweden (with independent culture) did not agree that privacy and security

information should be at checkout as they believe it is always the user's responsibility to look for this information before even deciding to buy. Whereas company A and B located in China and UK believes otherwise.

In this limited time of the thesis, the corona pandemic outbreak did not even make it better which affected the samples that were taken from findings. More samples would have been needed since the research was taken from different industries and cultures. Probably if it was from specific industry results would have been more precise.

7.2 Suggestion for further research

Apart from the answers to the research questions reported in the conclusions, other valuable information has been gathered for future research and here some suggestions:

From the design requirements perspective, it is believed that the proposed requirements were true and viable for a quality social commerce user interface. However, the different companies perceive some requirements being more important than others for a quality interface. The question whether there are more important ones than others still remains, and this can be a good suggestion for future researchers.

There is still a question of whether it is the user's responsibility to know about their information privacy before deciding to buy from a website. One company mentioned that due to this, it is not a companies' responsibility to put this information at checkout. The question is, should companies help users' by adding this information at checkout or is it the users' responsibility to find it somewhere on the interface? This can be further searched upon.

The research was taken from different company cultures and industries such as fashion, general merchandize and housing industry which is believed to have caused more general results. Further usability studies can be conducted from specific-industry and culture to investigate which features would fit each of these industries and cultures. Although it may be more challenging, but it has a bigger potential of resulting into more accurate and precise information about preferences of the online shoppers in those specific industries

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Appendices

Interview question

1.Which social media platforms do you use to sell. how do you chose the ones you use?

2.What is your perspective about consumer behavior on social commerce websites?

3.What is your view about usability in terms of Learnability Memorability, low error rates, efficiency and user satisfaction?

UI features

5. What is your view on design that allows users to navigate, understand, and use your UI successfully? b. Are your navigation searches sorted by availability, prices, or anything?

6. Do you think that a page format affects the users' behavior on an interface? If yes, how, and why?

7. What are your views about registration on UI? a. Do you think these features could ruin the user' behavior? b. Should users be able to purchase products without registration? c. Users tend to forget their user information, how do you help them to move forward with this problem?

8. Which aspects of the checkout feature may hinder the user to accomplish their purchase behavior? a. Does your website show payment security information at the checkout? b. How about delivery information? c. How about consumer privacy and protection?

9. Are customer service features important for a usable UI? b. In which ways do you communicate with your customer service on any inquiries? c. To what extent do you think that customer service pages affect user behavior on User Interfaces?

10. Personalization is ensuring a personal feel of the information used by users? How do you implement this in your company? b. Can users directly share images and other information from your website to other social media platforms?

11. UI catalogs allow users to see the products easily. How does your UI show availability of products to users? b. When you have sales, do you also show the original price of the product? c. Are your customer reviews and ratings available for customers before purchasing the product? d. Do you have engaging how-to videos on your products?

12.What is your thought about the most important features of a usable UI in s-commerce?