The Role of Social Networks in Online Shopping: Information Passing, Price of Trust, and Consumer Choice

摘要

While social interactions are critical to understanding consumer behavior,the relationship between social and commerce networks has not been explored ona large scale. We analyze Taobao, a Chinese consumer marketplace that is theworld's largest e-commerce website. What sets Taobao apart from its competitorsis its integrated instant messaging tool, which buyers can use to ask sellersabout products or ask other buyers for advice. In our study, we focus on how anindividual's commercial transactions are embedded in their social graphs. Bystudying triads and the directed closure process, we quantify the presence ofinformation passing and gain insights into when different types of links formin the network. Using seller ratings and review information, we then quantify a price oftrust. How much will a consumer pay for transaction with a trusted seller? Weconclude by modeling this consumer choice problem: if a buyer wishes topurchase a particular product, how does (s)he decide which store to purchase itfrom? By analyzing the performance of various feature sets in an informationretrieval setting, we demonstrate how the social graph factors intounderstanding consumer behavior.