E-commerce is undergoing an evolution through the adoption of Web 2.0 capabilities to enhance customer
participation and achieve greater economic value. This new phenomenon is commonly referred
to as social commerce, however it has not yet been fully understood. In addition to the lack of a stable
and agreed-upon definition, there is little research on social commerce and no significant research dedicated
to the design of social commerce platforms. This study offers literature review to explain the concept
of social commerce, tracks its nascent state-of-the-art, and discusses relevant design features as they
relate to e-commerce and Web 2.0. We propose a new model and a set of principles for guiding social
commerce design. We also apply the model and guidelines to two leading social commerce platforms,
Amazon and Starbucks on Facebook. The findings indicate that, for any social commerce website, it is critical
to achieve a minimum set of social commerce design features. These design features must cover all
the layers of the proposed model, including the individual, conversation, community and commerce
levels.