Social Issues, Behaviours and Routines of Ubi-Commerce Users in North America

eCommerce has dramatically changed over the last several years, leaving a gap of knowledge around what these changes mean to—and how they affect—the user and their experiences. To address this gap, I collected empirical evidence through three studies. The first looks at mobile web commerce, and focuses heavily on the issue of trust. The second looks at group shopping sites, an example of social commerce. The third study investigates mobile payment services systems and user challenges and successes. Although each study introduces specific design implications, together they expand extant work in traditional eCommerce to include social and mobile aspects and thus contribute new knowledge toward a more ubiquitous commerce (ubi-commerce) experience.I define ubi-commerce as specifically dependent on the recent mass adoption of mobile devices, social engagement online, and new technologies for payment processing. I discuss these ubiquitous forms of commerce as a North American entity only and thus the design implications are meant to be specific only to this region. My original contribution to knowledge consists of new knowledge and description of ubi-commerce user behaviours; six ubi-commerce design implications, derived from empirical evidence gathered from a variety of studies described in this dissertation; and methodological contributions, by applying existing research methods to new situations and contexts.