From Scroll to Sale: A Service-Journey Perspective on Trust Formation in Generation Z's Social Commerce Behavior
Keywords:
Generation Z, social commerce, parasocial relationship, livestream commerceAbstract
Generation Z now drives much of the growth in Thai social commerce, yet most research explains their buying behavior with a single snapshot of trust — usually measured right before a purchase decision. In real platform use, trust is not built once; it is formed, tested, and revised across several distinct moments, from scrolling past a video to posting a review after the product arrives. This conceptual paper proposes a simple way to organize those moments: the Digital Trust Journey (DTJ), a five-step model — Discovery, Engagement, Verification, Transaction, and Advocacy — describing how a Generation Z consumer's basis for trust changes as they move from a short-video feed toward a completed, shared purchase. Each step is paired with the type of trust that matters most at that point and the kind of response a seller can use to address it. Three simple propositions make the model testable, and the paper closes with practical implications for Thai small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) selling through platforms such as TikTok Shop and Facebook Live, and a short research agenda for scholars studying Generation Z as digital consumers.
Downloads
References
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211.
Digital Marketing for Asia. (2025). Social media and social commerce trends in Thailand 2025 [Industry report]. https://www.digitalmarketingforasia.com/
Dimock, M. (2019). Defining generations: Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins. Pew Research Center.
Djafarova, E., & Foots, S. (2022). Exploring ethical consumption of generation Z: Theory of planned behaviour. Young Consumers, 23(3), 413–431.
Horton, D., & Wohl, R. R. (1956). Mass communication and para-social interaction: Observations on intimacy at a distance. Psychiatry, 19(3), 215–229.
John, D. R. (1999). Consumer socialization of children: A retrospective look at twenty-five years of research. Journal of Consumer Research, 26(3), 183–213.
Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69–96.
Sun, Y., Shao, X., Li, X., Guo, Y., & Nie, K. (2019). How live streaming influences purchase intentions in social commerce: An IT affordance perspective. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 37, 100886.
Thongkruer, P., & Wanarat, S. (2020). The mediating role of trust in the leading premium cosmetic clinics in Bangkok: The relationship of the media, trust, and beauty enhancement repurchasing. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, 41(3), 659–664.
Thongkruer, P., & Wanarat, S. (2023). The relationship between air travel service quality and factors of the Theory of Planned Behavior: Evidence from low-cost airlines in Thailand. Sustainability, 15(11), 8839.
Wongkitrungrueng, A., & Assarut, N. (2020). The role of live streaming in building consumer trust and engagement with social commerce sellers. Journal of Business Research, 117, 543–556.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 AEE-T Journal of Environmental Education
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Articles in this journal are copyrighted by the x may be read and used for academic purposes, such as teaching, research, or citation, with proper credit given to the author and the journal.use or modification of the articles is prohibited without permission.
statements expressed in the articles are solely the opinions of the authors.
authors are fully responsible for the content and accuracy of their articles.
other reuse or republication requires permission from the journal."
