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From Commerce to E-Commerce and Social Commerce:

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Industry 4.0 and Global Businesses
This page intentionally left blank
Industry 4.0 and Global
Businesses: A Multidisciplinary
Investigation

EDITED BY
ENIS YAKUT
Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Emerald Publishing Limited
Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2022

Editorial matter and selection © 2022 Enis Yakut. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald
Publishing Limited.

Individual chapters © 2022 the authors. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing
Limited.

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or
by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the
prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the
UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center.
Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every
effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation
implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties,
express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80117-327-8 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80117-326-1 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-80117-328-5 (Epub)
Table of Contents

List of Figures vii

List of Tables ix

List of Contributors xi

Acknowledgment xiii

Chapter 1 Industry 4.0 and the New World of Work 1

Deniz Dirik

Chapter 2 Decentralization of Finance and Global Businesses 19

Tuna Can Güleç and Selim Duramaz

Chapter 3 Internet of Things and Big Data Analytics 31

Sultan Nezihe Turhan

Chapter 4 Effects of Technological Innovations on Consumer

Behavior: Marketing 4.0 Perspective 55
Enis Yakut

Chapter 5 Industry 4.0 and B2B Websites as Global

Marketplaces: A Content Analysis 69
Ismail Metin and Ahmed Yusuf Sarihan

Chapter 6 Carbon Emission and Global Trade Sustainability 81

Hakan Tunahan and Halil Şimdi

Chapter 7 From Commerce to E-Commerce and Social

Commerce: How Global? How Local? 95
Ramazan Nacar and Kadir Ozdemir
vi Table of Contents

Chapter 8 Industry 4.0 and Applications in Manufacturing Industry 111

Muhammet Enes Akpinar

Chapter 9 The Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on International

Trade and Production in the Age of Industry 4.0: New Evidence from
European Countries 125
Ayberk Şeker

Chapter 10 Internet of Things for Individuals with Disabilities 137

Ayşe Dilşad Yakut

Chapter 11 The Impact of COVID-19 on Football Industry:

Implications and Future Perspectives 153
Ümit Hasan Gözkonan, Selim Baha Yıldız and Erdi Bayram

Chapter 12 Logistics 4.0 and Smart Supply Chain Management 163

Askın Özdağoğlu and Sezai Bahar

References 185

Index 229
List of Figures

Figure 1.1. Five Skills of Human Capital 4.0. 8

Figure 2.1. The Potential Pathways of the Chain
Structure. 22
Figure 2.2. The Potential Pathways of Regulatory
Response. 24
Figure 2.3. The Potential Pathways of the Market
Evolution. 25
Figure 2.4. The Potential Pathways of the Revolution
of the Financial Intermediation. 27
Figure 3.1. The Estimated Increase in Digital Data
Production over the Years. 36
Figure 4.1. Key Elements of Internet of Things (IoT)
Ecosystem. 60
Figure 6.1. Responsiveness Scores Distribution
(Model 1). 91
Figure 6.2. Responsiveness Scores Distribution
(Model 2). 92
Figure 7.1. E-commerce Overview. 101
Figure 7.2. E-commerce Adoption of Countries. 101
Figure 7.3. E-commerce Sales Growth (Billion $). 102
Figure 7.4. Number of Social Media Users (Billion). 105
Figure 7.5. Pre- and Post-Covid-19 Global e-commerce
Revenue Change (Billion $). 106
Figure 7.6. Global e-commerce Growth by Category. 107
Figure 8.1. Relationship Network Diagram. 121
Figure 9.1. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Trade
Share of Asian and European Countries. 128
viii List of Figures

Figure 11.1. The Total Revenues of the Top 10 Clubs in

the Deloitte Football Money League. 155
Figure 12.1. Integration Framework for the Development
of Digital Supply Chain. 178
List of Tables

Table 1.1. Changing Fabric of Skills on Demand. 6

Table 1.2. Jobs in High versus Low Demand. 7
Table 5.1. B2B Websites Approved by the
Turkish Ministry of Trade. 74
Table 5.2. Sources of Criteria and Proposed
Website Assessment Framework. 74
Table 5.3. First Step Criteria’s Findings. 76
Table 5.4. Second Step Criteria’s Findings. 77
Table 5.5. Last Step Criteria’s Findings. 78
Table 6.1. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emission per Capita
(Tonnes) Descriptive Statistics of Countries
(1959–2018). 89
Table 6.2. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions log(t)
Convergence Test Results. 90
Table 6.3. Single Factor Responsiveness Scores
(Model 1). 90
Table 6.4. Single Factor Responsiveness Scores
(Model 2). 92
Table 7.1. Social Commerce Design Principles. 103
Table 8.1. Binary Comparison Scale. 117
Table 8.2. 3D Printer Alternatives and Criteria. 119
Table 8.3. Direct Relationship Matrix (Z). 119
Table 8.4. Normalized Direct Relationship Matrix (X). 120
Table 8.5. Total Impact Matrix (T). 120
Table 8.6. Importance and Relationship Matrix. 121
Table 8.7. Initial Matrix for Analytical Hierarchy
Process (AHP) Calculation. 122
Table 8.8. Criterion Weights. 122
x List of Tables

Table 8.9. Initial Matrix for VIKOR Calculation. 123

Table 8.10. S, R, and Q Values of VIKOR Method. 123
Table 9.1. Cross-sectional Dependence Test Results. 133
Table 9.2. Second-generation Panel Unit Root
Test (PESCADF) Results. 134
Table 9.3. Westerlund (2007) Panel Cointegration
Results. 134
Table 9.4. Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) Panel
Causality Test Results. 135
Table 10.1. Principles of Universal Design. 149
Table 11.1. Impact of COVID-19 on Selected
European Football Leagues. 157
Table 12.1. Literature about Logistics 4.0. 167
Table 12.2. Literature about Smart/Digital Supply
Chain Management. 169
Table 12.3. Historical Evolution of Logistics. 172
List of Contributors

Muhammet Enes Akpinar Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey

Sezai Bahar Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey
Erdi Bayram Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey
Deniz Dirik Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey
Selim Duramaz Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey
Ümit Hasan Gözkonan Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey
Tuna Can Güleç Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey
Ismail Metin Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey
Ramazan Nacar Bursa Technical University, Turkey
Askın Özdağoğlu Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey
Kadir Ozdemir Şırnak University, Turkey
Ahmed Yusuf Sarihan Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University, Turkey
Ayberk Şeker Bursa Technical University, Turkey
Halil Şimdi Sakarya University, Turkey
Hakan Tunahan Sakarya University, Turkey
Sultan Nezihe Turhan Galatasaray University, Turkey
Ayşe Dilşad Yakut Ibn Haldun University, Turkey
Enis Yakut Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey
Selim Baha Yıldız Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowledgment

First, I would like to thank the authors for their time and expertise. Without their
contribution, this book would not be possible.
Second, I would like to thank the reviewers for their insightful comments to
enhance the quality, coherence, and content delivery of the chapters. Most of the
authors also served as referees; I greatly appreciate the burden that they volun-
tarily undertook. Specifically my special thanks go to the respected reviewers
Selim Baha Yıldız (PhD), Tuna Can Güleç (PhD), İlayda İpek (PhD), Ayberk
Şeker (PhD), İsmail Metin (PhD), Aşkın Özdağoğlu (PhD), Taner Taş (PhD),
Esra Akgül (PhD), Selim Duramaz (PhD), Ebru Sürücü Balcı (PhD), and Özlem
Yılmaz Metin.
Third, I would like to thank the editorial and production team at Emerald
Publishing and their support from the beginning to the end.
Lastly, I am always grateful to my family for always being there and sup-
porting me.
Enis Yakut
This page intentionally left blank
Chapter 7

From Commerce to E-Commerce and

Social Commerce: How Global? How
Local?
Ramazan Nacar and Kadir Ozdemir

Abstract
Nowadays, the Internet usage rate is rising continuously with the impact of
globalization which has led to a significant increase in the use of e-commerce
and social commerce. Since the fast spread of Internet usage, globalization
has affected all areas of life. Especially with the Covid-19 pandemic, lots of
social, commercial, and economic transformations have occurred, and many
activities transferred to online environment worldwide. However, in this
period, people try to avoid physical contact, staying at home, and started to
use e-commerce and social commerce more than before. Therefore, with
Covid-19 pandemic, the structure and the relations of globalization, e-commerce,
and social commerce has changed. In this regard, within the pandemic
period, globalization is going through a great transformation, and, therefore,
commercial activities have to be not only global-oriented but also local-
oriented. Since many countries closed their borders to protect themselves, the
pandemic period has turned into the global crisis which forced nations and
companies to focus on the local environment. In this study, it is argued that
advancements in Internet technologies affect globalization; globalization
affects e-commerce and social commerce usage positively. But, with the
discovery of social media platforms, e-commerce has shifted to customer-
oriented social commerce, and this has turned people’s tendency toward
localization, not globalization, especially with the effect of Covid-19
pandemic period. Also, this study discusses how pandemic period changed
globalization, e-commerce, and social commerce from global-oriented to
local-oriented.

Keywords: Covid-19; pandemic; globalization; localization; e-commerce;

social commerce

Industry 4.0 and Global Businesses, 95–109

Copyright © 2022 Ramazan Nacar and Kadir Ozdemir
Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited
doi:10.1108/978-1-80117-326-120211007
96 Ramazan Nacar and Kadir Ozdemir

Introduction
Globalization is defined as the integration and interaction among people, com-
panies, institutions, and governments (Cenat, 2020; Green & Keegan, 2015). This
process is often expressed as the globalization of commerce, capital movements,
and communication (Stiglitz, 2004) because communication, commerce, move-
ments of capital, information flow, and transportation have become easier and
speed with globalization around the world (Block, 2004). Although there are many
diverse elements which globalization has affected and changed, commerce is one of
the most significant one (Stiglitz, 2004). Especially with the advancement of the
Internet, globalization has impacted almost every area of life, and commerce has
started to be conducted on the Internet (Borcuch, Borcuch, & Świerczyńska, 2012).
Therefore, traditional commerce has begun to move into electronic environment
with e-commerce (Nair, 2017; Thompson, Tuzovic, & Braun, 2019).
E-commerce is defined as a trading method that uses electronic environment
and the Internet for transactions without barriers of distance and time. In e-
commerce, all transactions like trading and data exchange are carried out on the
Internet. In recent years, Internet usage is rising with technological advance-
ments and innovations. The spread of the Internet around the world has made
people’s life easier in many ways (Nair, 2017; Shiau & Luo, 2012; Thompson
et al., 2019). This situation gave companies a chance to promote products and
reach new customers on the Internet. Many companies started to sell products
and services in an online environment (Faraoni, Rialti, Zollo, & Pellicelli, 2019;
Franco & Regi, 2016; Mainardes, Souza, & Correia, 2020). Besides, in recent
years, social commerce has emerged, also known as social business, and generally
defined as e-commerce activities conducted on social media platforms (Mclachlan,
2020). Social commerce, as a new approach in e-commerce, has transformed
information accessibility, shopping experience, and commercial interaction of
customers. Also, it has caused important advancements in e-commerce activities
(Bugshan & Attar, 2020; Zhou, Zhang, & Zimmermann, 2013). With the social
commerce, which is conducted on social media platforms, commerce has become
completely customer-oriented (Huang & Benyoucef, 2013). In this context,
especially in recent years, increasing adoptions and usage of social media has
made social commerce popular for both companies and customers because it
enables and facilitates cooperation and collaboration among companies and
customers in commercial transactions (Bugshan & Attar, 2020; Zhou et al., 2013).
Especially, in the Covid-19 pandemic period, many commercial and social
changes have occurred, and lots of activities have been transferred to the Internet
environment. Because in this period, customers want to avoid physical contact and
commenced to use e-commerce and social commerce more. Therefore, e-commerce
sales numbers and revenues increased noticeably because of people’s fear of getting
infected by virus, and staying at home and avoiding physical contact with other
people have led them to shop using e-commerce (Pantelimon, Georgescu, &
Posedaru, 2020; Tran, 2020). However, although Internet and e-commerce positively
affected globalization because of the pandemic, several questions have occurred
about the future of globalization. It’s because the Covid-19 pandemic has turned
 From Commerce to E-Commerce and Social Commerce 97

into a global economic crisis and forced the companies to focus on the local
market (Sforza & Steininger, 2020). In this regard, with the Covid-19 pandemic,
globalization is going through a great transformation, so traditional or electronic
commerce need to be not only global-oriented but also local-oriented. Many
countries closed their borders during this period, which strengthens national
governments further giving rise to localization (deglobalization) tendencies
(Sulkowski, 2020). According to some studies conducted in this regard, the rapid
increase of globalization indicates that other pandemics and epidemics will
perhaps occur in the future (Mas-Coma, Jones, & Marty, 2020).
The aim of this study is to put forward that the Internet has increased glob-
alization and e-commerce usage, e-commerce has shifted to customer-oriented
social commerce with the discovery of social media, and this has turned people’s
tendency toward localization, not globalization, especially with the effect of the
Covid-19 pandemic and also to show how Covid-19 pandemic changed global-
ization, peoples’ and countries’ perceptions about e-commerce, social commerce,
and international trade.

The Interplay of Globalization and Internet and Their Effects

Globalization refers to integration and interaction between people, companies,
institutions, and governments (Cenat, 2020). It has interchanged many things like
people, businesses, and countries in terms of culture, attitude, logistics,
manufacturing, marketing, communication, policy, commerce, and economy. In
short, with globalization, the world has revolutionized, and borders disappeared
(Green & Keegan, 2015). That means it simplifies communication, the flow of
information, movements of capital, transformation, and transportation all around
the world (Block, 2004).
In the Industrial Revolution, globalization is subdivided into distinctive eras
known as Globalization 1.0, Globalization 2.0, Globalization 3.0, and Global-
ization 4.0 (Baldwin, 2018; Borcuch et al., 2012). Globalization 1.0, covering the
years 1492–1800, began with Columbus’ initiation of trade among old and new
world (Borcuch et al., 2012). It refers to the growth of world trade (Jindal, 2019).
Globalization 2.0, covering the years 1800–2000, was cut off by world wars
and the Great Depression. In this era, the main factor of developments and
changes was multinational companies which ensure global integration and
interaction. These companies pioneered the industrial revolutions and globalized
the workforce, capital, and markets. In the first half of this era, transportation
costs significantly decreased, thanks to railroad and steam engine (Borcuch et al.,
2012; Thomas, 2018). In addition, in the second half of this era, communication
costs diminished due to the dissemination of telephones, satellites, telegraph, the
fiber-optic cable, and computers. The dynamic forces of this era that led to
globalization started with the steam engine and railways and continued with
telephones and computers (Borcuch et al., 2012). Also, it refers to the interna-
tional industrialization after world wars (Jindal, 2019).
Globalization 3.0 began around the year 2000. In Globalization 1.0, countries,
and in Globalization 2.0, companies globalized. But, in Globalization 3.0, groups
98 Ramazan Nacar and Kadir Ozdemir

and individuals are easily globalized with software and new applications instead of
horsepower and hardware (Borcuch et al., 2012). It refers to the technological
developments, including sprawl of Internet. This phenomenon made it easy for
various production systems based on diverse locations all around the world to create
modern supply chain applications. In addition, companies moved their operations
to cheaper locations to reduce production and service cost (Jindal, 2019).
Globalization 4.0 started with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which was first
originated in Germany in 2011, and has been sparked by global trends and tech-
nologies. With the Globalization 4.0, advanced technologies significantly affect the
global economy. These technologies are autonomous robots, simulations, cyber-
security, cloud computing, big data, Internet of things, artificial intelligence,
nanotechnology, 3D printings, augmented reality, additive manufacturing, and
system integration (Jindal, 2019; Lu, 2017; Pezzuto, 2019). With Globalization 4.0,
not only manufacturing systems have been revolutionized, but also access to many
services has become easier all over the world. While previous eras of globalization
mainly concerned with merchant goods trade, Globalization 4.0 is entirely based on
the digital transformation (Jindal, 2019; Pezzuto, 2019).
The globalization process is generally perceived as the globalization of com-
merce, capital movements, and communication. Although there are many distinct
elements of globalization, commerce is among the most vital one (Stiglitz, 2004).
Because technological innovations due to globalization have significantly
strengthened the bridges and connections between countries and this facilitated
and developed commerce, globalization has an essential role in increasing trade
and reconfiguration of the global economy. The increasing imports and exports
have created a demand for the industrial labor force. Especially developed
countries covered rising demand of workers because of advanced transportation
facilities. In addition, lots of new markets have emerged for manufactured
products (Thomas, 2018).
Countries which are economically globalized generally have low tariffs and
trade barriers, more free trade agreement, more regulation for foreign investment,
and more safety regulations on export and import (Statista, 2020). The global
economy depends on free movements of ideas, capitals, services, and goods.
However, globalization of markets causes economic and social changes in one
region of the world to affect the countries in another region. In this perspective,
globalization is based on the usage of technology and digitalization in trade and
economic activities (Borcuch et al., 2012).
In particular, the Internet emerges as the most visible aspect of globalization.
The development of the Internet has enabled both the observation of globaliza-
tion in almost all facets of life and the global integration of people (Borcuch et al.,
2012). Internet is a digital configuration in which millions of computers connect
each other and create useable information. In this context, the Internet has
restructured the relations of time and space for people and companies. Thanks to
the Internet, mobility and advances in communication have eliminated the
importance of time and space in exchanging and acquiring information. Besides,
the Internet is available 24/7 and emerging as a borderless economy (Cherribi,
2003).
 From Commerce to E-Commerce and Social Commerce 99

Since the discovery of the Internet, it has contributed to and accelerated

globalization. The Internet has also improved international trade and the global
economy due to companies reaching new customers and emerging markets
(Gabrielsson & Gabrielsson, 2011). Especially multinational companies try to use
these developments as an important opportunity for global sustainability, long-
term profit, and obtaining advantages in global competition. This causes pro-
ceeding advancements of technologies, the emergence of innovations, and new
trends (Pezzuto, 2019). One of the most significant innovations and trends which
make life comfortable and change the operations of companies and habits of
customers is e-commerce.

E-commerce
In recent years, Internet usage is rising with technological advancements and
innovations. The spread of the Internet around the world has made people’s life
easier in many ways. This situation gave companies a chance to promote products
and reach new customers on the Internet. Thus, lots of companies commenced to
sell products on Internet, and traditional commerce has moved to the electronic
environment. In this respect, e-commerce has emerged (Nair, 2017; Shiau & Luo,
2012; Thompson et al., 2019).
E-commerce is defined as a trading method that uses an electronic environment
and Internet for transactions without barriers of distance and time. In e-commerce,
all transactions such as trading and data exchange are carried out on online
platforms. E-commerce is the most important innovation of recent times which has
changed the way of doing business around the world. It has created new business
models and offered new opportunities to customers and companies (Faraoni et al.,
2019; Franco & Regi, 2016; Mainardes et al., 2020).
The first usage of e-commerce dates to the 1970s, and at that time, e-commerce
was used to transform documents and orders in electronic environments like telex,
fax, electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic fund transfer (EFT) system, and
telephone. After that, with the advancement of Internet and Web technologies,
the term e-commerce commenced to be used as commerce on the Internet (Nair,
2017; Nanehkaran, 2013; Santos, Sabino, Morais, & Goncalves, 2017). Thereby,
companies easily crossed borders, and they have access to new customers and
emerging markets. In addition, customers have started to access better quality and
cheaper products and services all over the world (Barkatullah & Djumadi, 2018).
Additionally, e-commerce connects buyers and sellers with each other in an online
environment and increases productivity and speed of delivery while reducing the
cost of doing business (Nair, 2017).
E-commerce provides lots of advantages to companies and customers. These
advantages are (Franco & Regi, 2016; Nair, 2017; Niranjanamurthy, Kavyashree,
& Chahar, 2013):

• Time saving;
• Convenience;
• Easy product comparison;
100 Ramazan Nacar and Kadir Ozdemir

• Chance to find reviews;

• 24/7 – 365 days service;
• Reach to new customers and emerging markets;
• Easy payments;
• Paper saving;
• Increase service quality;
• Easy to obtain lots of data about customers, suppliers, and competitors;
• Easy to stock control;
• Elimination of market entry barriers;
• Easy to communicate;
• Increase customer satisfaction;
• Easy international trade;
• Increase globalization.

Due to these advantages of e-commerce, many companies and customers

prefer e-commerce instead of traditional physical shopping. In this context,
worldwide 81.5% of active Internet users searched online for products to buy,
90.4% visited an online retail store, 64.4% used shopping applications on a mobile
phone, 76.8% purchased products online, and 55.4% purchased products online
with mobile phone in 2020, shown in Fig. 7.1.
According to the Hootsuite and We Are Social’s Digital 2021 Report, the
world population is 7.83 billion. 4.66 billion (59.5%) of this population are active
Internet users. The number of Internet users has increased by 7.3% in one year,
and these users spend average 6 hours 54 minute on the Internet; 55.7% of users
access the Internet with mobile phones, 41.4 % with laptops and desktops, and
2.8% with tablets (Hootsuite & We are social, 2021).
E-commerce adoption worldwide in 2020 is 76.8%, and e-commerce adoptions
of some countries are shown in Fig. 7.2. According to Fig. 7.2, it is seen that many
countries are at least 75% adapted to e-commerce.
Especially in recent years, e-commerce usage is rising rapidly due to increasing
Internet usage (Statista, 2021a). Because customers have started to search and
purchase products and services on the Internet more, many companies were
forced to start up e-commerce (Kotler, Kartajaya, & Setiawan, 2017). Therefore,
according to research and predictions, the borders among “electronic” and
“traditional” commerce will disappear because more companies and customers
started to use e-commerce. In Fig. 7.3, sales made through e-commerce have
increased significantly in recent years worldwide and are expected to increase.
According to Fig. 3, e-commerce sales are $1.336 billion in 2014, $4.206 billion in
2020, and forecasted to rise $6.542 billion in 2023 (Franco & Regi, 2016; Statista.
2021a). In this context, raising globalization due to the usage of Internet causes to
develop e-commerce and importantly increase its usage rate worldwide.
In addition, many countries have raised usage of e-commerce and have largely
adapted to it. As in Fig. 7.2, this situation accelerates commerce on the Internet
and increases globalization. Internet and e-commerce have a meaningful and
significant effect on globalization in matters such as physical location, transaction
 From Commerce to E-Commerce and Social Commerce 101

90.4%
81.5%
76.8%
69.4%

55.4%

Searched online for Visited online store Used shopping Purchased product Purchased product with
products to buy application online mobile phone

Fig. 7.1. E-commerce Overview. Source: Hootsuite & We are social

(2021).

cost, finding workers, foreign competition, coordination with suppliers, saving

time and money, expanding market, efficient and effective operation system, and
information flow (Aydın & Savrul, 2014). On the other hand, Internet and
e-commerce have gradually removed culture, language, legal and national bor-
ders, values, and attitudes, and accelerated international trade with globalization
(Elbeltagi, 2007).

87.1% 85.5%
81.6% 80.9% 80.9% 79.7% 79.7% 79.3%
77.4% 76.0%
75.0% 74.4%

60.0%
56.6%

Fig. 7.2. E-commerce Adoption of Countries. Source: Hootsuite &

We are social (2021).
102 Ramazan Nacar and Kadir Ozdemir

6,542

5,695

4,927

4,206

3,535
2,982

2,382
1,845
1,548
1,336

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Fig. 7.3. E-commerce Sales Growth (Billion $). Source: Statista

(2021a).

Social Commerce: E-commerce in Social Media

Social commerce, which is also known as a social business, is generally defined as
an e-commerce activity conducted on social media platforms (Liang & Turban,
2011; Mclachlan, 2020). Social commerce is a subset of e-commerce mostly used
with social networks and Web 2.0 tools. Also, it refers to using social media to
assist e-commerce activities and transactions. Additionally, it contributes to social
interactions and user content by combining commercial and social activities
(Liang & Turban, 2011).
Social commerce, which is a new approach in e-commerce, has transformed
shopping experience, information accessibility, and commercial interaction of
customers. Also, it has caused significant developments of e-commerce activities.
Especially in recent years, increasing adoptions and usage of social media have
made social commerce popular for both companies and customers because it
enables and facilitates cooperation and collaboration among companies and
customers in commercial transactions. This enables companies and customers to
create value together and collaborate in marketing, branding, production, and
sales (Bugshan & Attar, 2020; Zhou et al., 2013).
Social media platforms allow users to interactively share information, expe-
riences, and thoughts with each other in online environment. Social media are
Web-based platforms that depend on sharing and discussion, without time limits
(Safko & Brake, 2012). Especially with Web 2.0, social media platforms have
advanced, and Internet has been started to be used more collaboratively and
interactively. Also, with Web 2.0, Internet environment and social media plat-
forms became user-centered and encouraged users to communicate more (Huang
 From Commerce to E-Commerce and Social Commerce 103

Table 7.1. Social Commerce Design Principles.

Participation Conversation Community Participant System

Identification Quality
Creation of user Communication Impact of Representation Features of
content networking of content interface
Sharing of Interaction Collaboration Identity Simplicity
information
Participation Connection Multimedia
intensity and tools
Creation of task Crowdsourcing
User control
Transparency
Source: Adapted from Huang and Benyoucef (2013).

& Benyoucef, 2013). In this context, social media platforms and, therefore, social
commerce are based on the user-centered design with following characteristics
which are participation, conversation, community, participant identification, and
system quality as shown in Table 7.1.
Participation principle allows users to create content, share information,
engage more often, and create different tasks. Conversation principles incite
intense interaction, establish effective communication with diverse topics, and
encourage permanent connection in online and offline environment. Community
principles enable long-term networks and relationship, and allow collaboration
between participants. Participant identification principles identify participants
and user content to be observed with pictures and videos. System quality prin-
ciples ensure a user-friendly and responsive interface, provide simple features and
design, and allow, obtain, and control participant’s data (Almeida, Neris,
Miranda, Hayashi, & Baranauskas, 2009; Huang & Benyoucef, 2013; Koch,
Füller, & Brunswicker, 2011; Najjar, 2011). Social commerce practices designed
in regard to these principles and characteristics provide companies an advantage
in global competition and encourage customers to use social commerce more
because social commerce practices designed in the context of these principles are
completely more effective and user-centered, which is one of the most significant
issues for customers (Huang & Benyoucef, 2013).
The increasing usage and popularity of social media platforms such as
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, etc., has increased the value and share
of social commerce in e-commerce activities. In social commerce, customers
often consult followers or social communities for advice on purchasing deci-
sions. For this reason, social media platforms provide lots of functions for
customers to comment and rate products and services. These reviews and
information sharing functions have the greatest impact on the advancement of
social commerce because according to research, 83% of customers who pur-
chase online are willing to share shopping experiments and product
104 Ramazan Nacar and Kadir Ozdemir

information with followers and friends. In addition, 67% of customers tend to

purchase based on recommendations and advises that they get from followers
and friends. One of the most significant reasons for this is that getting infor-
mation about products and services from followers and friends is more valu-
able (Liang, Ho, Li, & Turban, 2011). In this context, information-sharing
activities like recommendations, ratings, reviews, comments, referrals, and
electronic word-of-mouth (E-WoM) increase the impact of social commerce.
These activities play a key role in consumer purchase decisions together with
provided product information by companies (Hajli, 2015).
Today, social commerce continues to get momentum, and some of the
established social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Link-
edIn, Pinterest, and Snapchat are trying to improve their e-commerce capabilities
because customers desire to view and purchase products from social media
platforms that they already use and spend time with, rather than newly estab-
lished platforms. This reduces the chance of new social media platforms in terms
of social commerce in global competition (Llewellyn, 2019). Also, many com-
panies use Internet and social media to expand their business and reach more
customers. Therefore, social commerce attracts great attention because accessing
information sources related to customers, companies, brands, and products has
become easy with social media (Zhou et al., 2013).
In addition, various social events on social media platforms that users are
involved in have made social commerce more indispensable for users. Features
which are provided by social media platforms such as games, rewards, chat, etc.,
prolong the visit time of users and encourage them to visit and shop more often on
social commerce. This increases the popularity of social commerce and leads to
the growth of sales (Sun, 2011). In this context, social media usage statistics are
shown in Fig. 7.4.
According to Fig. 7.4, social media usage is increasing day by day around the
world. While there were 2.86 billion active social media users in 2017, there are
3.6 billion active users in 2020. Additionally, in 2025, active social media users are
projected to be 4.41 billion (Statista 2021b). These users use social media for
average 2 hours and 25 minutes per day (Hootsuite & We are social, 2021).
Raising usage of social media also causes increasing usage of social commerce.
Today, social commerce market value is $89.4 billion around the world, and it is
expected to grow to $604.5 billion in the next seven years (Mclachlan, 2020;
Research & Markets, 2020).
Social commerce positively affects the sales performance of companies
because, according to the research, it has been determined that 90% of the top-
performing sellers use social commerce. In addition, 74.9% of companies which
get benefit from social commerce desire to develop their social media strategies
and make new investments. Contrary to what is thought, social commerce
enables a salesperson to spend less time. According to research, 50.1% of
companies that are using social commerce spend less than 10% of their time on
it. In addition, more than 70% of salesperson use lots of social media together
 From Commerce to E-Commerce and Social Commerce 105

4.41
4.27
4.12
3.96
3.78
3.6
3.4
3.14
2.86

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

Fig. 7.4. Number of Social Media Users (Billion). Source: Statista

(2021b).

such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. (Gerencer,

2021).
Companies that optimize multiple social media channels and different plat-
forms for sales activities establish a significant and strong advantage in global
competition (Llewellyn, 2019). Because 87% of online shoppers believe that social
media platforms help them make purchasing decision, 30% of these users also
purchase directly on social media platforms (Absolunet, 2020). Especially com-
panies that want to have an advantage in global and local competition use
influencers to enhance loyalty, affinity, and association with their brands and
products because ascended competition has made it difficult to stand out in social
commerce and attract customer attention. In this context, companies need to
constantly struggle with and find new strategies to differentiate from others and
generate customer’s awareness. According to the GlobalWebIndex, approxi-
mately 20% of social media users utilize to follow celebrities, and according to
research, celebrities have a very strong impact on 25% of Gen Z. Also, 14% of
online shoppers desire to purchase products and brands approved by celebrities
and influencers (Llewellyn, 2019).
E-commerce and social commerce have accelerated international trade and
positively affected globalization. However, despite the increase in globalization,
cultural consumptions and attitudes are examined in social commerce sites, and
the sites are culturally designed in accordance with local patterns because it is not
enough for social commerce to be successful globally focusing without thinking
local. Therefore, social commerce websites need to engage with users culturally
and mediate their local identity (Sun, 2011). In this context, it is said that unlike
e-commerce, social commerce is more locally oriented and triggers localization
106 Ramazan Nacar and Kadir Ozdemir

with globalization. In literature, this is expressed as global–local (glocal) which

refers to the adoption of political, legal, behavioral, technical, and cultural aspects.
Glocalization is defined as applying the constraints of globalization in accordance
with the restriction of local environment (Tixier, 2005). Glocalization has been
raised especially with social commerce.

Commerce in Turbulent Times: Covid-19 Pandemic

There are many pandemics that caused significant changes in human life in his-
tory. Covid-19 pandemic, which emerged in Wuhan city of China on December
12, 2019, is one of them. While millions of people were infected with this virus
within a week in China, the disease quickly spread to hundreds of countries. Thus,
this situation has turned into serious problem and has affected several economic
activities from a global perspective (Nakhate & Jain, 2020). During the Covid-19
pandemic, several commercial and social changes have occurred, and lots of
activities have been transferred to Internet environment. Because in this period,
customers desire to avoid physical contact and started to use e-commerce more
(Pantelimon et al., 2020; Tran, 2020). According to research, 52% of customers
shop on e-commerce websites in this period because they want to maintain social
distance and avoid physical contact with other people. Accordingly, some of the
largest e-commerce websites announced that e-commerce sales and expending
increased rapidly in pandemic (Andrienko, 2020; Bhatti et al., 2020). In this
context, the change in global e-commerce revenue in Covid-19 pandemic is shown
in Fig. 7.5.
Global e-commerce revenue before the Covid-19 pandemic was $1.920 billion
in 2019. This revenue has normally increased by 15% in 2020; however, with the

Fig. 7.5. Pre- and Post-Covid-19 Global e-commerce Revenue

Change (Billion $). Source: Eden and Hoyer (2020).
 From Commerce to E-Commerce and Social Commerce 107

impact of Covid-19 pandemic, global e-commerce revenue grew by an extra 10%

in 2020 ($2.412 billion). In addition, without Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, an
increase of global e-commerce revenue is expected to be 12% compared to 2020,
but increase of revenue was estimated to be 22% with the effect of Covid-19
pandemic ($2.696 billion) (Eden & Hoyer, 2020).
Covid-19 pandemic has affected and spread the use of e-commerce much more
than expected worldwide as seen in Fig. 7.5. During the pandemic period, not
only the use of e-commerce raised, but the purchasing behavior of customers has
changed significantly. Lots of changes have occurred in the purchased products
on e-commerce shopping, and, in particular, the demand for some products has
raised. Accordingly, demand for luxury products decreased during the pandemic
period because people focused on basic needs to survive (Deloitte, 2020b). In this
regard, the most purchased products during pandemic period are bread machine
and toilet paper (Andrienko, 2020). Different changes for other product cate-
gories are also shown in Fig. 7.6.
According to Fig. 7.6, there have been significant changes in people’s con-
sumption and shopping habits on e-commerce with the effect of Covid-19
pandemic. Especially travel mobility and accommodation expenditures have
decreased by 51% because of staying at home and restriction of travel due to the
risk of virus infection. However, examining other categories, sales of these
products like furniture and toys, hobbies, fashion, digital music, etc., increased
more than the pre-Covid-19 period. Especially, sales of food and personal care
products increased on e-commerce by 41% in this period.
The Covid-19 pandemic has positively affected e-commerce activities in many
ways. People’s fear of getting infected by virus has forced them to stay at home

Fig. 7.6. Global e-commerce Growth by Category. Source:

Hootsuite & We are Social (2021).
108 Ramazan Nacar and Kadir Ozdemir

and avoid physical contact with each other; these have led them to shop using
e-commerce (Pantelimon et al., 2020; Tran, 2020). However, this situation indi-
cated itself generally local-based because the virus was spreading rapidly, the
ways of infection are not known exactly, and countries desired to protect them-
selves from the countries where the virus is intense. Increasing mobility between
countries increases sprawl and the impact of disease, and gets virus out of control.
According to studies conducted in this context, the rapid increase of globalization
indicates that other pandemics and epidemics perhaps occur in the future
(Mas-Coma et al., 2020).
The Covid-19 pandemic has turned into a global economic crisis as countries
are interconnected by the influence of globalization (Farzenegan et al., 2020;
Sforza & Steininger, 2020). Ease of transportation, and tight connection among
countries which are provided by globalization, made Covid-19 much more diffi-
cult than the pandemics in the past and accelerated its spread. Globalization
offers companies in different countries the opportunity to produce, purchase, and
sell in the country they want. Therefore, global supply chains and production
networks have been disrupted by the pandemic. This forced companies to focus
on the local even if through e-commerce in Covid-19 pandemic (Sforza &
Steininger, 2020).
In this regard, with the Covid-19 pandemic, globalization is going through a
great transformation. Therefore, traditional or electronic commerce need to be
not only global-oriented but also local-oriented since the national governments
gain ground upon the closure of borders. Therefore, strengthening the national
governments gives rise to localization (deglobalization) tendencies. Especially,
many structural, social, and economic changes to reduce the impact of pandemic
reveal that tendencies to localization will increase (Sulkowski, 2020).

Conclusion
Nowadays, with the advancement of Internet and the Internet technologies,
commercial activities have been transferred to the online environment, thanks to
e-commerce. E-commerce refers to the trading method which uses an online
environment for transactions without barriers of distance and time. E-commerce
is the most significant innovation of recent times that has changed the way of
doing business worldwide. It has created new business models and offered new
opportunities to customers and companies.
Moreover, in recent years, with the discovery of social media platforms, social
commerce has emerged which is defined as conducting e-commerce activities on
social media platforms. According to research, the usage of e-commerce and
social commerce is rising day by day around the world, which positively affects
globalization and accelerates it. In this regard, with the increase of globalization,
communication, commercial activities, movements of capital, information flow,
and transportation are simplified. In short, the world has revolutionized, and
borders disappeared with globalization. However, increasing adoptions and usage
of social media have made social commerce popular for both companies and
 From Commerce to E-Commerce and Social Commerce 109

customers because it enables companies and customers to create value together

and collaborate in marketing, branding, production, sales, etc.
Since social commerce is more customer-oriented, it is not only completely
global-oriented like e-commerce but also local-oriented. Because cultural con-
sumptions and attitudes are examined in social commerce sites, the sites are
culturally designed in accordance with local patterns. It is not enough for social
commerce to be successful with globally focusing without thinking local. There-
fore, social commerce needs to engage with users culturally and mediate their
local identity. In this regard, unlike e-commerce, social commerce is more locally
oriented and triggers localization with globalization. In literature, this is expressed
as global–local (glocal), which is defined as applying the constraints of global-
ization in accordance with the restriction of the local environment.
While e-commerce is completely globally focused and positively affects glob-
alization, social commerce is not only global-oriented but also local-oriented.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic which caused significant social and commercial
changes has transformed this situation. The Covid-19 pandemic has turned into a
serious problem and affected several economic activities worldwide. During
Covid-19 pandemic, lots of commercial and social changes have occurred, and
many activities have been moved into online environment. Because customers
want to avoid physical contact in this period, they commenced to use e-commerce
more. Some research which are conducted in this perspective indicated that usage
of Internet, e-commerce, and social commerce has increased a significant level
during the pandemic period.
Lots of e-commerce companies announced that e-commerce sales and
expending raise rapidly. But this situation demonstrated itself generally local-
based because the virus was spreading rapidly, the ways of infection are not
known exactly, and countries desired to protect themselves from the countries
where the virus is intense. Because the increase in mobility among countries surges
the spread of disease and takes the pandemic out of control. In this regard,
companies had to focus on local sales rather than international trade because of
closing borders of countries. In this phenomenon, with the Covid-19 pandemic,
globalization is going through a great transformation; thus, traditional or elec-
tronic commerce, and social commerce must be not only global-oriented but also
local-oriented. Due to the border closures all around the world, national gov-
ernments gathered strengths, and this led to the localization (deglobalization)
tendencies.
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