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The purpose of this paper is to explore motivations that drive consumers’ purchase intention in social commerce, and then examine whether social presence can work as a moderator in this process.

A research model was developed based on stimulus-organism-response model by integrating trust, argument quality, social presence and purchase intention. Using the data collected from 288 valid online questionnaires, the proposed model was empirically assessed by partial least square (PLS) SEM.

The results show that trust toward social commerce site and trust toward site members are determinants of purchase intention, and the later one can be triggered by the argument quality of consumer-generated contents (perceived informativeness and perceived persuasiveness). Besides, consumers’ social presence has a moderating effect on the relationship between trust toward site members and purchase intention.

This study indicates a new mechanism of trust based on the context of social commerce. The findings will contribute to social commerce literature by offering a well proven conceptual model that facilitates the understanding of consumers’ purchase decision-making processes.