The Impact of Social Media Promotion on Purchase Intention: An Empirical Study of Sam’s Club Consumers in China

As social media platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu continue to reshape consumer perceptions and purchasing behaviour, social media marketing has become an essential strategy for membership-based retailers to overcome the psychological barrier associated with the “pay first, consume later” business model. Focusing on Sam’s Club in China, this study applies the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) framework to examine how social media promotion influences consumers’ purchase intentions through the mediating roles of brand awareness and consumer trust. A quantitative research approach was employed, with 309 valid questionnaires collected via WeChat and Xiaohongshu and analyzed using SPSS through descriptive statistics, reliability and validity tests, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The findings reveal that social media promotion does not exert a strong direct influence on consumers’ purchase intention. Instead, brand awareness and consumer trust serve as important psychological mediators that indirectly drive purchase decisions. These findings suggest that membership-based retailers should prioritize the development of high-quality and engaging social media content, encourage consumer interaction, and maintain consistent online communication to strengthen brand trust and improve conversion rates. Nevertheless, this study is limited by its cross-sectional design and its focus on consumers in China’s first-tier and new first-tier cities which may restrict the generalizability of the findings. Future research is encouraged to employ longitudinal research designs, include broader geographical regions and examine additional variables such as perceived value, consumer engagement, and electronic word-of-mouth to provide a more comprehensive understanding of consumer purchase behaviour in membership-based retailing.

Social media promotion, brand awareness, consumer trust, purchase intention, membership-based retailing

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