Social e-commerce and MSVA.

Social e-commerce is a new form of e-commerce. With the development of mobile information technology, social e-commerce has become the mainstream forms of e-commerce. At present, scholars have done a lot of research on social e-commerce (Huang & Benyoucef, 2013 [17]; Einav et al., 2014 [11]), but few take clothing e-commerce as an example. Morra et al. (2018) [18] studied the impact of social media marketing on brand equity and fashion brand purchase intention, taking user generated content and company created content on social media as variables. The results showed that user generated content plays moderating a effect in the relationship between company created content and purchase intention. This research is aimed at text social platforms such as micro-blog and Facebook. It is unknown whether the research results are applicable to the current emerging MSVA.

Social e-commerce has attracted the attention of scholars in the field of clothing marketing research. The existing research identified the attraction of clothing social e-commerce to consumers (Nadeem et al., 2015) [19], for Italian Y Generation consumers, and studied how peer recommendation and website service quality affect consumption behavior during Facebook online shopping. The results showed that website service quality affects trust, peer recommendation affects attitude, and the impact on female consumers is significantly greater than that on male consumers. According to Kang and Johnson (2013) [20], social e-commerce realizes clothing social e-shopping through social network stores, by constructing a clothing retail model, discussed the relationship between consumers’ self-confidence, loyalty, perceived credibility, and purchase intention. Their research results showed that consumers’ self-confidence has a positive impact on the perceived trustworthiness of social e-commerce, perceived trustworthiness has a positive impact on purchase intention, and loyalty plays a regulatory role between perceived trustworthiness and purchase intention.

There is little research on the impact of media interaction of MSVA on clothing purchase intention. In the field of social e-commerce, the current research pays little attention to MSVA. Nash (2019) [21] used qualitative design methods such as in-depth interviews and focus groups to explore the impact of social media on the purchase decision-making process in the clothing retail environment. The results showed that social media has a greater and greater impact on consumers’ decision-making. Hasena and Sakapurnama (2021) [22] determined the impact of tiktok’s word of mouth on purchase intention of cosmetics through brand image. Changhan et al. (2021) [23] identified the influencing factors of residents’ purchase intention through the short video platform Tiktok, and determined that the perceived media richness was the most important factor affecting residents’ shopping tiktok short video application. Different from these studies, this paper focuses on the influencing factors of purchase intention of clothing MSVA. The variables of the research framework include media interaction, perceived value, immersion experience, and purchase intention.

SOR model.

The SOR model was proposed by the environmental psychologists Mehrabian and Russell (1974) [24], where stimuli (S) is the external environmental factor of the organism, organism (O) is a psychological transformation mechanism by which the user internalizes the stimulation into information, and response (R) represents the user to the external stimulus information content of the relevant response behavior. According to Eroglu et al. (2003) [25], these three are the basic elements of the SOR model.

Nam et al. (2021) [26] conducted a cross-cultural study on the impact of online service quality on consumers’ trust intention behavior in online clothing shopping. The results showed that consumers’ responsiveness to electronic services under the influence of different cultures is closely related to consumers’ trust, and trust is the main factor affecting purchase intention. The research shows that in SOR model, trust is the key intermediary connecting website design, responsiveness, and purchase intention. Gabriella et al. (2021) [27] used SOR model to verify the impact of eWOM and consumer engagement on clothing consumption behavior. The research results showed that eWOM and consumer engagement have a significant positive impact on consumption behavior. In the impact relationship between eWOM and consumption behavior, consumer engagement does not play an intermediary effect. These studies considered online service quality and eWOM as stimuli to explore the impact on purchase intention or purchase behavior, while media interaction act as a stimulus to explore the impact on clothing purchase intention of MSVA.

The SOR model provides a structured research perspective and a solid theoretical foundation for the study of the influence mechanism of consumers on the continuous purchase intention of fashion products on social e-commerce platforms. Based on the rapid development of MSVA business, this study attempts to determine the influencing factors of MSVA consumers’ purchase behavior through SOR theory. Considering that the most prominent feature of MSVA is its media interaction, which covers the comprehensive characteristics of application platform system, social e-commerce and mobile e-commerce, the perceived value and immersion are some reflections of individual cognition and emotion. Therefore, this study uses social media interaction of MSVA as the external stimulus, the perceived value and immersion as the organism, and the purchase intention of fashion products as a response.

Media interactivity.

Marketers are increasingly using social media platforms as promotion channels. In this way, they prefer highly interactive social media because it allows consumers to better socialize and build networks. According to Lin (2013) [28], based on selected 102 male college students as subjects, media interactivity can significantly affect the behavior of the audience. Through structural equation analysis, it was confirmed that media interaction in video games can significantly improve players’ responsiveness; On the other hand, we can know the important value of interactivity. It can enhance the relationship between consumers and machines, consumers and consumers, and consumers and enterprises, induce purchase intention, and realize consumption behavior in the process of interaction.

In the research on e-commerce, many studies discussed interactivity. For example, Li et al. (2020) [29] explored the impact of interactive experience and interactive characteristics on online reputation of e-commerce. Through online surveys, they obtained 345 valid data and investigated five interactive characteristics of consumers to consumers (reciprocity, sociality) and enterprises to consumers (responsiveness, personalization and perceived control), showing that reciprocity, responsiveness and perceived control have a significant impact on online reputation. In the research of Syuhada and Gambett (2013) [30], they believed that the social media used in the commercial form of Facebook in Indonesia is the basis of market interaction, and interactivity can accelerate the word-of-mouth marketing of social networks. According to Chong et al. (2018) [31], the swift relationship created by the interactivity and existence of social media enhances trust and further increases repurchase intention. In the related research of social media, many scholars also emphasized interactivity. From the study of Meng and Leung (2021) [32], 526 sets of data were collected to investigate the role of satisfaction seeking, narcissism, and personality traits in tiktok’s participation behavior (i.e. contribution, promotion and creation) in China. The results show that interactivity of social media can enhance users’ sense of participation and make users behave more actively. According to Vaterlaus and Winter (2021) [33], taking Tiktok as an example, the influence of interaction on consumers’ social media Tiktok stimulates users’ pursuit of diversity and game satisfaction.

When carrying out clothing marketing through MSVA, the host or model in short video interacts with consumers, and consumers also have open interaction. This multi-dimensional interaction has a very significant stimulation on consumers. This study aims to explore interaction as a stimulus, rather than denying the existence of other stimuli.

Perceived value and immersion experience.

There are many research on perceived value in the marketing discipline, mainly focusing on the perceived value of consumers for various products or services. In the fashion marketing discipline, the research on perceived value is not sufficient. Early studies focused on the perceived value of luxury fashion brands (Li et al., 2012) [34], or the difference analysis of the perceived value between luxury and mass fashion brands (Lloyd & Luk, 2010) [35]. In recent years, the research on perceived value in fashion marketing discipline focuses on the impact of self-concept and perceived value on sustainable fashion (Jeong & Ko, 2021) [36], and the impact of brand trust and perceived value on customer satisfaction and purchase intention (Cuong, 2020) [37]. According to Chae (2016) [38], the consumption orientation of fashion products in mobile shopping centers is divided into four categories: convenience / economy, show off / trend, enjoyment, and impulse. Her research revealed that except impulse, other fashion shopping orientations have an impact on perceived value. Different from these studies, we believe that the influencing factors of perceived value are multi-dimensional. When consumers buy clothes in MSVA, media interaction performance improves consumers’ perceived value of products. Therefore, we focus on the impact of media interaction on perceived value.

Immersion experience is a concept that appears with the development of internet technology and virtual reality technology. Generally, it refers to that users completely immersed in a certain field to achieve selflessness. For example, users often forget time when playing video games (Jennett, 2008) [39]. This concept is similar to the shopaholic in fashion consumption. Immersion experience has been applied in many disciplines. In the field of education, the impact of immersive experience on learning effect is discussed (Cheng, 2015) [40], and the tourism industry studies the feasibility of the application of immersive experience in virtual travel (Shih, 2015) [41]. Hamilton et al. (2016) [42] investigated the impact of social media brand and consumer interaction on customer value and they believed that consumers’ interactive satisfaction and interactive immersion with social media brand can create customer value. Wang et al. (2021) [43] investigated the impact of live broadcast characteristics on consumers’ sense of social existence and immersion experience, and believed that the host’s charm, interactivity, and trust in the host fully affect the immersion experience. These studies have focused on the positive impact of interactivity on immersion experience, but they have not realized the importance of media interactivity, especially the impact of interactivity of MSVA on perceived value, immersion experience, and purchase intention.

Purchase intention.

There are many studies on purchase intention of social e-commerce, most of which focus on the influencing factors of purchase intention of social e-commerce. Zhu et al. (2019) [44] used the effect hierarchy model and commitment participation theory, a three-stage model established to evaluate the impact of product cognition on purchase intention. They believed that involvement, situation, and trust all have a positive impact on purchase intention. Chen et al. (2018) [12] identified the influencing factors of purchase intention of social e-commerce through an empirical study. They believed that perceived value and social awareness factors will affect consumers’ decision-making and behavioral intention. These studies showed that the research on consumers’ purchase intention and purchase behavior has strong theoretical and practical value. Therefore, this study takes purchase intention as response to explore the impact of perceived value on purchase intention.

In the field of clothing marketing, Kamal et al. (2013) [45] investigated whether materialism, an important structure of consumer behavior, is the result of social media use, and also investigated the relationship between materialism and luxury purchase intention of American and Arab users. The results showed that Arab social media users show a higher level of materialism and social media utilization than American users. Materialism has a positive impact on luxury purchase intention. Escobar-Rodríguez and Bonsón-Fernández (2017) [46] believed that the key factors affecting online fashion purchase intention are perceived value, trust and fashion innovation, and time-saving and perceived security are the main antecedents for predicting perceived value and trust, respectively. These studies on fashion social e-commerce were aware of the impact of social media, perceived value, and other factors on purchase intention, but they did not conduct in-depth research on the characteristics of emerging social media, while this paper studies the MSVA, a new force of social e-commerce and mobile e-commerce.

Research model and hypotheses.

This research constructs an SOR model of the influence of purchase intention on fashion products in MSVA. As shown in Fig 1, media interactivity is used as a pre-variable, perceived value and immersion experience are used as intermediary variables, and purchase intention is used as a dependent variable.

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Fig 1. Conceptual model.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273968.g001

Media interactivity.

Social media is highly interactive, breaking the one-way acceptance model of consumers in the traditional media environment. According to the interactive content, it is divided into social interaction and task-based interaction, and according to the utility target of the interaction, it is divided into information-based interaction, entertainment-based interaction, and reward-based interaction. Interactivity has been mentioned many times in the research of information systems, and it is of great significance to the success of communication, marketing, advertising, and commerce. Eggert (2002) [47] verified the impact of interactive experience on user behavior. In view of the characteristics of social media, previous studies have refined interactions into controllability, responsiveness, communication, associativity, and personalization.

Media interaction can enhance consumers’ sense of participation through multi-dimensional senses such as vision and hearing. Dong et al. (2018) [48] believed that the interactive information stimulation of online media brings stronger credibility and positive response to consumers, thus affecting brand attitude and purchase intention. Abdullah et al. (2016) [49] built a conceptual model for hotel online booking websites, and confirmed that the interactivity of online websites can improve consumers’ perceived value and enhance consumers’ willingness to revisit, and perceived value plays an intermediary role in the relationship between online website interactivity and revisit intention. Huang and Liao (2017) [50] used the virtual liminoid theory to explore the factors that induce immersion experience in e-shopping environment. The research results showed that the sense of engagement, self positioning, and tactile intention generated by exploring interactive technology can induce consumers’ immersion experience. Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed.

1. H1: In the MSVA commerce, media interactivity is positively related to fashion purchase intention.
2. H2: In the MSVA commerce, media interactivity is positively related to perceived value.
3. H3: In the MSVA commerce, media interactivity is positively related to immersion experience.

Perceived value.

Perceived value is the result of consumers’ ability to consider products based on the overall perception of gains and losses and product utility evaluation. Perceived value process is the process in which consumers make psychological judgments about costs or benefits based on price comparison in the process of purchasing products or services. From a marketing perspective, perceived value is one of the most effective ways to improve customer satisfaction and maintain continuous purchases.

According to Gan and Wang (2017) [51], in the social e-commerce environment, perceived value has a significant impact on satisfaction and purchase intention, among which utility value has the greatest impact on purchase intention and hedonic value has the greatest impact on satisfaction. Charfi (2014) [52] believed that more and more websites encourage consumers to produce immersion experience, while virtual reality websites can produce immersion experience. Immersion experience is closely related to consumers’ hedonic value and practical value, and the sense of participation and professional knowledge play a regulatory role in the relationship between immersion experience and perceived value. Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed. According to Abdullah et al. (2016) [49], perceived value plays an intermediary role in the relationship between online website interactivity and revisit intention.

1. H4: In the MSVA commerce, perceived value is positively related to fashion purchase intention.
2. H5: In the MSVA commerce, perceived value is positively related to immersion experience.

Immersion experience.

Csikszentmihalyi (1978) [53] first proposed the concept of flow, which belongs to the research category of positive psychology and has been widely used in other disciplines. Tuncer (2021) [54] opined that flow experience refers to the experience of being completely immersed in an activity, which will produce a sense of pleasure, that is, the overall state of consumers when they are completely immersed in a certain behavior or activity while ignoring other things. In the research of communication, marketing and other related disciplines, mobile experience is mainly called immersive experience. From the perspective of human-computer interaction, the flow experience is the perception of the user during the interaction with the computer. Attention will be completely focused on the interaction, curiosity will be fully mobilized, and the interaction process will be very interesting. The main feature of immersive experience is fun, which is an emotional experience that consumers consider interesting and entertaining.

Lee & Hong (2006) [55] believed that the higher the interactivity, the more it can trigger the immersion experience of online shopping. The higher the immersion experience, the higher the perceived utilitarian value, and the higher the purchase intention of fashion products. Wang et al. (2021) [43] investigated the impact of live broadcast characteristics on consumers’ purchase intention in live e-commerce scenarios. The research results showed that the host’s charm and trust in the host significantly affect the immersion experience, and the immersion experience significantly affects the consumption intention. Zhou (2020) [56] confirmed that in the social e-commerce environment, human-computer interaction and social interaction have a significant impact on the immersion experience, and then affect the willingness of social purchase and social sharing.

1. H6: In the MSVA commerce, immersion experience is positively related to fashion purchase intention.