How Does Online Shopping Shape the Sense of Community? The Mediating Role of Various Social Activities

The rapid expansion of digital commerce, particularly same-day-delivery and next-day-delivery online shopping, is transforming daily life and community dynamics in urban settings. This study explores how these shopping behaviors impact the sense of community by mediating various social activities at both individual and community levels. Using an online survey design, this study analyzes the mediating roles of different types of social interactions, including informal social gatherings and organized community events, in shaping a sense of community. The findings reveal that while both unplanned, low-threshold interactions and more structured, organized activities contribute to a sense of community, their effects vary in strength. Stronger, more deliberate social interactions, such as resident-led events, show a full mediation effect, whereas casual, spontaneous encounters provide partial mediation. Similarly, organized community events demonstrate different levels of influence, with community-organized activities fully mediating certain sense of community dimensions and resident-engaged activities providing more comprehensive impacts. These findings highlight that same-day-delivery and next-day-delivery online shopping behaviors significantly shape the sense of community by facilitating both informal and organized social interactions.

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