Do safe buy buttons and integrated path-to-purchase on social platforms improve users’ shopping-related responses?

Abstract Buy buttons are a strategic enabler of social shopping and social platform monetization, but their use is still far from satisfactory. This paper aims to find effective actions to optimize buy button performance. A two-factor (safe shopping vs. unsafe shopping; an integrated path to purchase vs. a separated path to purchase), between-subject experiment was conducted on China’s online crowdsourcing platform, Wjx.cn. A two-way, full factorial ANOVA was used to test hypotheses. The study showed that shopping safeguards and guarantees that a social platform aligns with buy button use can positively influence users’ shopping-related attitudinal and behavioral responses, such as shopping attitude and impulse buying intent. In addition, an integrated purchase path, where the user can complete the entire purchasing process on the platform where the item is offered, can result in users adopting a favorable attitude towards using the social platform to make purchases. However, no interaction was found between these two factors, only additive effects. Although major social platforms do not currently offer security and privacy measures for direct purchases, this paper reasonably explains why as well as what measures a social platform can take to optimize buy button performance. This study also indicates that channel integration of a focal social platform and external commercial websites can provide users with an integrated, seamless path to purchase, and can enable social platforms to enhance their value position in today’s business ecosystem.