The objective of this study is to investigate how social network and website characteristics play a
significant role in vitalizing social shopping, as well as to examine how two types of trust affect purchase
intention from the website. Structural equation modeling(SEM) of AMOS 18.0 was used to test the
hypotheses. The findings demonstrated that perceived ability and perceived benevolence of social network
characteristics and trust in a website are positively associated with trust in product recommendation. Second, perceived website reputation and perceived website quality of website characteristics are positively associated
with trust in a website. Third, trust in product recommendation is positively associated with intention to
purchase products and intention to purchase products from the website. Fourth, intention to purchase
products is positively associated with intention to purchase products from the website. However, trust in a
website is not associated with intention to purchase products from the website. Thus, it is identified that
trust in product recommendation is more significant factor to improve intention to purchase products and
intention to purchase products from the website. Some implications are derived from the analysis results
and research limitations are also provided with the conclusions.