Platform-Related Stimuli and Purchase Intention in Content-Commerce: The Roles of Trust, Perceived Value, eWOM Adoption, and Gender among Malaysian Generation Y Skincare Consumers

Content-commerce integrates product information, social interaction, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), recommendation systems, and transactional functions within a unified consumer journey; however, existing research remains fragmented regarding how multidimensional platform-related characteristics jointly shape consumers' psychological evaluations, information adoption, and Purchase Intention. This study therefore develops an integrated framework. The framework proposes that Information Quality, Service Quality, Convenience, Information Quantity, and Perceived Ease of Use influence Purchase Intention through Trust, Perceived Value, and eWOM Adoption among Malaysian Generation Y skincare consumers. Drawing on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) framework and the Information Adoption Model (IAM), the study conceptualises the five platform-related characteristics as stimuli, Trust and Perceived Value as psychological evaluations, eWOM Adoption as the information-adoption mechanism, and Purchase Intention as the behavioural response. Gender is further proposed as a boundary condition in the eWOM Adoption–Purchase Intention relationship. For subsequent empirical validation, the study proposes a positivist, deductive, quantitative, and cross-sectional design using non-probability purposive sampling; minimum sample adequacy will be determined through G*Power, while the proposed model will be evaluated using PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 4. The study contributes in two ways. It integrates platform-related, psychological, and information-adoption perspectives within a coherent multistage framework and clarifies conceptually related constructs. The framework also delineates theoretical, conceptual, practical, and national-level implications for content-commerce platforms, skincare brands, retailers, and digital marketers, and offers insights for strengthening Malaysia's consumer-oriented digital-commerce ecosystem.