Business Models and Transactions in C2C Social Commerce: Practices of Selected Social Commerce Practitioners in Thailand

There has been an increase in the popularity of using social media for commercial purposes, and this is commonly known as consumer-to-consumer (C2C) social commerce (s-commerce). Thailand is among one of the world’s largest C2C s-commerce markets; however, its C2C s-commerce has different characteristics from traditional e-commerce. This study investigated the patterns of various C2C s-commerce business models and purchasing processes being used in Thailand, based on data collection from interviews and direct observations. The findings revealed the patterns of the transaction process, including advertising, searching, negotiation and ordering, payment, and delivery. It also been found that there are six business models in C2C s-commerce: S-retailing, S-specific market, S-preorder, S-auction, S-reverse auction, and S-portal. The activities in C2C s-commerce were presented by using the logical process diagram to show differences in user interaction patterns and business arrangements. A solid understanding of business models and purchasing processes will help sellers to improve process effectiveness, as well as helping buyers reduce the risk when making purchases using C2C s-commerce in Thailand.

Identifying User Interaction Patterns in E-Textbooks

We introduce a new architecture for e-textbooks which contains two navigational aids: an index and a concept map. We report results from an evaluation in a university setting with 99 students. The interaction sequences of the users were captured during the user study. We found several clusters of user interaction types in our data. Three separate user types were identified based on the interaction sequences: passive user, term clicker, and concept map user. We also discovered that with the concept map interface users started to interact with the application significantly sooner than with the index interface. Overall, our findings suggest that analysis of interaction patterns allows deeper insights into the use of e-textbooks than is afforded by summative evaluation.