The term “social commerce” is used to describe a subgroup of e-commerce that uses social media to allow users to share input, thus helping them make decisions about whether to purchase services and products. This study explores the relationships that affect consumer satisfaction in the context of social commerce. The relationships between trust and other factors associated with it, as well as the role trust plays in affecting consumer satisfaction in social commerce, were measured using a survey method. A total of 314 students from Saudi Arabia at Saudi Arabia’s UBT University and at various Australian universities were surveyed. To test the structural model, as well as to study the relationship between variables, the researchers used partial least square (PLS). The results showed five constructs as having a significant relationship with consumer satisfaction: trust, communication, information quality, reputation, transaction safety and word of mouth (WOM). This research also recognizes that in the social commerce field, the factors that influence trust may be different compared to those that influence the consumer in face-to-face transactions. This research is expected to help businesses devise effective sales strategies, and ultimately build successful social commerce businesses. The results obtained from this study will add depth to existing literature relating to social commerce, and will also serve as an opportunity for future researchers to delve more deeply into the different factors that correlate with trust in social commerce.

Keywords: Social commerce, Trust, Customer satisfaction, Saudi Arabia, Australia, SEM, PLS