Abstract： Virtual gifts become a new tool for people to exchange sentiments and a new profit pattern with the development of social network sites(SNSs). Using consumers with virtual gift purchasing experience in SNSs as samples, this paper explores the influencing mechanism of virtual gifts’ shopping value on consumers’ purchase intention, analyzing the direct influence of virtual gifts shopping value on purchase intention and the indirect influence of shopping value on purchase intention via interest. This study gathers 303 valid questionnaires by way of issuance of electronic questionnaires in social network sites, snowballing and then uses multiple linear regressions to test the hypothesis. The results show that the shopping value of virtual gifts include four dimensions: idea, customization, convenience and costsaving. Among these four dimensions, idea, customization, convenience influence customers’ purchase intention indirectly through consumers’ interest, costsaving directly influences consumers’ purchase intention. These conclusions would provide implications for corporations to design and utilize virtual gifts in social network sites.
2013, Vol. 10 
