Social Media as a Tool for Social Commerce: A Content Analysis of Women Entrepreneurs in Haryana

Social media is widely seen as a low-cost channel through which women entrepreneurs with limited capital or formal infrastructure can reach customers, but little is known about how women entrepreneurs in a specific regional Indian context actually behave on the platforms they use. This study addresses that gap through a quantitative content analysis of ten women-led YouTube business channels selling clothing in Haryana, coding 290 posts across twenty-two variables covering platform choice, channel growth, posting behaviour, and customer-relationship indicators. YouTube was the dominant platform, used exclusively by 70% of sampled channels and combined with Instagram or Facebook by the remainder. Subscriber bases fell predominantly between 1 lakh and 50 lakh (60% of channels), and per-post views most often fell between 10,000 and 100,000 (50.3%). Recorded content (60%) was used more than live broadcasts (22.4%), and business-oriented posts dominated the sample (79.7%). Engagement was largely favourable, with positive comments (34.1%) far outweighing negative comments (0.7%), and most channels offered periodic discounts (58.5%) or free delivery (46.5%). The study concludes that social media, and video-based platforms in particular, function as low-cost, accessible infrastructure through which rural and semi-urban women entrepreneurs in Haryana build visibility, sustain customer relationships in the local Haryanvi language, and grow micro-enterprises largely without formal institutional support, even as gaps in digital and cybersecurity literacy continue to constrain further growth. Keywords: social media; content analysis; digital literacy; Social Commerce; Women Entrepreneurs; Haryana