This study has contributions for researchers and practitioners. From the theoretical
standpoint, our research model demonstrated the importance of trust in product
recommendations to online consumers’ transaction intentions. The results showed that
trust in product recommendations played a significant role in governing consumers’
intentions to purchase the socially-recommended product. Additionally trust in
product recommendations had a stronger total effect on individuals’ decisions to buy
from that website than trust in the website. The present study provides a
comprehensive understanding of the effects of consumers’ trust in recommendations
and a website as consumers engage in social shopping. Furthermore although trust in a
website has been recognised as a significant factor affecting online consumers’
transaction intentions, few studies have provided empirical evidence on the
relationship between it and trust in product recommendations. Therefore this paper
differentiates these two types of trust and highlights the importance of them in the
context of social shopping.