Social Commerce, Acquaintance Networks, and Smallholder Income: The Case of Pinggu District Peach Farmers

In the context of digital rural development, social commerce has become a low-threshold channel through which smallholders can connect directly with consumers. Yet limited evidence explains how acquaintance-based social networks shape the income effects of social commerce in fresh agricultural-product marketing. Using survey data from 724 peach-farming households in Pinggu District, Beijing, in 2024, this study examines the effect of WeChat-based direct marketing on farmers’ per capita net income from peach production. Benchmark regression, propensity score matching, and an instrumental variable approach are used to address selection bias and potential endogeneity. The results show that WeChat-based direct marketing significantly increases farmers’ income, with the fully controlled benchmark estimate indicating an increase of 0.287 log points in per capita net income. This finding remains stable after replacing the dependent variable, addressing extreme values, and excluding special samples. Mechanism analysis indicates that the income effect operates mainly through higher average selling prices. Heterogeneity analysis further shows that the effect is stronger among households with higher social expenditure, suggesting that acquaintance-based embeddedness helps transform social relations into market value. Going beyond prior studies that focus mainly on participation, sales performance, or average income effects, this study identifies the selling-price transmission mechanism and shows that acquaintance-network embeddedness amplifies the income gains from WeChat-based direct marketing.