Impact Of Social Media On Consumer Buying Behavior In Oman

Literature Review

Technological advancements globally have dynamically improved customer shopping experience (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016). Consumer’s preferences from shopping malls have gradually transformed to include online shopping from e-commerce platforms. Online shopping has transformed with enhancement in information and communication technologies, with which consumers are able to shop from different websites. Online shopping, Internet shopping, and online buying behavior are the process of buying products or services by use of the Internet using Social Media. Social media includes Social Networking Sites includes networking of relationships along with interactions with different users, such as individuals or groups (Solomon, Dahl, White, Zaichkowsky & Polegato, 2014). Usage of Social Media can easily be used in facilitating the sharing of varied information and in undertaking communications. Companies make use of social media as it supports various aspects such as marketing, business, education, and advertising. It can be said that business makes use of Social Media (SM) to interact with consumers directly regarding their products. Consumers are making use of technology in a progressive manner utilizing SM as a tool for making online shopping. It is an electronic process which allows consumers to directly interact with people for meeting their purchase oriented meets. Presence of SM has allowed spreading awareness regarding online purchases faster, which in turn increased potential customers being converted into buyers. SM allows customers to share their personal purchase experience amongst other users and friends by providing their positive or negative opinions. It has been noted that approximately 25% of all consumers in SM posts links or updates information related to products. Interacting with customers on social media allows increasing potential customers and in undertaking an important role in persuading consumers. Social marketing has been regarded to be one of the key factors required for persuading consumers to make their online purchases. SM is used by consumers in their decision-making process by way of searching for information regarding the product online. Online shopping is increasing across different categories of customers, who are influenced by SM.           

Research for analyzing social media impact on consumer buying behavior is undertaken. Consumers across the world, especially in Oman, are getting more engaged in social media. Contemporary companies on the other hand in Oman are using social media platforms as opportunities to market their products and services. The increasing use of social media amongst consumers in Oman provides an opportunity for creating purchase motivations amongst consumers (Wiedmann, Hennigs & Siebels, 2009). With the gradual increase in usage of social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and so on, it is becoming easier for companies to design their marketing efforts to create need and demand for their products in customers. Percentage of online customers has increased globally, especially in the Middle East. Oman has seen a steady rise in SM participants. Oman Observer notes that the SM penetration has increased to 43%, which is regarded to be next to Saudi Arabia. Statistica, a UK based online research agency reflects that UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait have the largest usage of search engines. Oman has seen Twitter generating 5 lac to 6 lac tweets a day, whereas YouTube Live Stream usage was also considerably high. Most individuals made use of SM platforms through their mobile phones as compared to computers. Young adults and children are the most significant populace in the SM platforms. A study conducted at the Modern College for Business and Science (MCBS) reveals 70% of Omani youth is engaged up to 15 hours a day.

Social Media Impact on Consumers

Figure 1: Instagram Users in Oman in 2017

Source: napoleoncat (2017)

Instagram alone has over 1M users in Oman with 90% being male and 29% female aged 18 years to 44 years. The increasing usage of SM has provided companies with the idea of using it as a platform for offering their products and services. In Oman, a number of companies are adopting the usage of SM platform to create awareness regarding their products, provide product features and include marketing aspects. Usage of SM has been greatly seen associated with marketing activities, which in turn influences customers. The scope of the current research evaluates the various social media factors influencing consumers.   

The study aims at analyzing the impact of social media on consumer buying behavior in Oman. In order to attain the above aim, the following objectives need to be attained.

1. Objective 1: To analyze potential customer engagement in various social media platforms in Oman
2. Objective 2: To understand factors which contribute towards making a choice related to a product or service
3. Objective 3: To identify the role of social media in influencing consumer behavior

In order to conduct this study, several literary journals and articles have been taken into consideration. Social media is used in businesses across the globe currently and hence there are various articles and studies, which provide literature backdrop, as undertaken within the current heads as below;

Consumers play the most important role in the marketplace. Consumers can be defined as the most significant actor in the marketplace and include those individuals or groups, who consume products or services, either from offline or online modes. There can be two broad types of customer segmentation adopted for this study, which includes Online Insiders and Social Clickers (Kumar, Bezawada, Rishika, Janakiraman & Kannan 2016). Online Insiders includes social media users, who are active over the internet. Consumer’s make choices regarding their purchases from online brands and consumers are also known to influence one another. Consumers currently in Oman are turning towards the Social Media in order that they can get more information for their decision making relative to a product or service. Social Clickers includes individuals, who are regularly active on the internet for various purposes, which includes undertaking research, sharing of information, getting news and in communicating with users from other cultures. Strong influencers are heavy online communicators, who are participatory and affluent in nature.

Analyzing relation between products or service and purchase behavior of consumers can allow prediction of the product suitability to social media (Darley, Blankson & Luethge, 2010). Most products are purchased on social media, includes intangible and tangible products. Intangible products include online videos, computer software, music, financial reports, the stock market, and weather information. Tangible products include electronic devices, clothes, furniture, books, jewelry and so on.      

Factors affecting Consumer Behaviour

Consumer decision-making process includes a complex multi-staged progression leading to consumers finally making a purchase decision. It initiates with recognition of need and demand and then goes onto searching for information. In online platforms, the process is similar, as when a consumer’s faces need for a product then he goes onto the search for various information. Such information is often supplied by social media (Akar & Topçu, 2011). Once the consumer faces versatile information from social media then he goes onto evaluation of such alternatives. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are known to provide a photograph with description and reviews regarding products. Instagram is often known to be the most preferred social media platform as it includes photographs for a product, along with description and reviews. This allows users to undertake an appropriate decision to match need-based purchase decision (Yoon, Cole & Lee, 2009). After purchase and receipt of the product, the consumer makes a post-purchase evaluation of the product to provide appropriate reviews of the product.

Figure 2: Consumer Decision Making Process

Source: Author

In order to understand the impact caused by social media towards influencing consumer behavior, it becomes pertinent to evaluate the several factors which influence consumer decision-making process (Han, Hsu & Lee, 2009). A consumer decision-making process is influenced by several factors which include cultural factors, social factors, psychological factors, and personal factors. These factors have been known to influence consumers towards taking purchase decisions. The pertinent factors of influence which can be derived from SM have to be understood to analyze its impact on consumer behavior.

Figure 3: Factors Affecting Consumer Behaviour

Source: Author

SM is designed and matched to factors, which influences consumers in a varied manner. Elements of social media pages need to include ideas related to unfamiliar products. SM affects consumers information factors, psychological factors, cultural factors, and product-related factors. Information factors are when sufficient information is available regarding a product, which allows customers to take appropriate decisions (Dessart, Veloutsou & Morgan-Thomas, 2015). SM providing information related to warranty and guarantee is likely to create greater impact. Psychological factors are known to affect consumer attitudes while they are making a purchase decision from an SM platform. SM creates the trust for a certain website where consumers make a purchase decision. Consumers are more likely to buy online and reduce uncertainty towards a product.

Cultural factors include cultural trends existing in Oman, which allows ease of decision making (Pookulangara & Koesler, 2011). Oman is gradually converging towards a technologically savvy platform, where an increasing number of customers are selecting their products online. As more and more individuals trust online platforms for products and make their purchase decisions, it will attract more friends, family, and relatives of the customer towards the same product. SM has been known to be influential in affecting consumer lifestyles by communicating and interacting with new technologies. Design factors are the design characteristics of a webpage, which needs to get designed appropriately and frequently updated (Wang, Yu & Wei, 2012). This will attract more and more consumers online to check out newer products, their features, and reviews online. The website theme, color, icons, images, links and so on are some factors, which attract consumers in a significant manner. SM such as Instagram is known to create an urge within consumers on factors which include psychological, design, cultural and informational, which in turn is known to bring about influence on consumer purchase behavior.            

In order to analyze social media impact on consumer behavior in Oman, an appropriate research methodology has to be adopted. An effective research methodology allows arriving at the findings relative to a study through a scanning procedure, which increases efficiency and reduces uncertainties (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015). At the first step a research philosophy has to be ascertained, the study will adopt positivists philosophy by undertaking observation from an objective point of view. Then interpretivism of the subjective intervention to understand the impact of social media on consumer behavior is undertaken.
Research approaches for a study can be quantitative or qualitative in nature, for the purpose of this study a qualitative procedure has been adopted (Bryman, 2016). A qualitative approach is a subjective one, whereas quantitative approach includes mathematical or statistical procedures. In the current study, qualitative data has been collected and then analyzed. The data for this study has been collected by interview and survey method.

This research is developed through theoretical and conceptual framework from literature analysis (Neuman, 2013). Then an interpretive approach is applied for arriving at the findings, through top-down method. The hypothesis is developed for the study through the functional efficiency of the research methodology. A descriptive research method allows analyzing the current situation according to business research methods. Data collected for the study has been checked for reliability and validity. The data collection method using primary sources have been included. Primary data is first-hand data collected for the study, by means of questionnaire and interview methods (Bell, Bryman & Harley, 2018). The data collected will be from 1000 questionnaires across various places. This will ensure broad based focus of data. Then on the collected data sampling technique will be applied. A random stratified sampling technique will be applied on the collected data for the study.  A random stratified sampling technique will divide the population into smaller groups known as strata. Dividing the entire population into homogeneous groups will allow a fair representation from the entire vast population of data that has been collected. The data once collected and samples has been formed for the study, data analysis of the qualitative information has been analyzed using thematic analysis methods will be undertaken. The researcher will undertake various sample transcript for the purpose of analysis and then devise codes along with sub-codes for a thematic analysis. Thematic analysis of the data will ensure that the various codes and sub codes represented within each interview category is adequately analysed and the findings arrived at. The codes for the study will involve various keywords that helps to understand customer behaviour. A brief description of codes and sub-codes for the study is included in the table below. The scholar will undertake ethical consideration for this study.

Table 1: Thematic Analysis Codes & Sub-Codes

Codes	Sub-Codes
1.Good Product	a. Variety: “…there are a lot of variety of products available at Amazon” b. Choices:“…did you check out the colors of the tops…” c. Return: “…I returned the product as I saw a new variant”
2.Affordable Price	a. Variation:”…yes a cheaper alternative was there” b. Installments: “….so I decided to go for easy monthly schemes after getting my bonus..” c. Features:”….prices looked attractive as they were providing free of charge delivery”
3.Meets Expectations	a. Quality:”…it was a gift to my nephew, I felt he was happy” b. Delivery:”….earlier I was apprehensive as her birthday was approaching, but nevertheless, I got it on time”

The study will be conducted in various phases, the below-mentioned timeline schedule depicts time taken for each stage. The time taken has been denoted in weeks for various activities enclosed in the Gantt chart.  

Table 2: Analysing Impact of Consumer Behaviour in Oman

Research for analyzing the impact of Consumer Behaviour in Oman
Topic	Weeks
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Research Proposal
Background
Problem Statement & Research Questions
Research Methodology
Project Budget & Schedule
Data Collection
Literature & Data Analysis
Findings and Analysis
Results and Discussion
Conclusion

The study was aimed at encompassing the key components and impacts from social media on consumer behavior. The study has been developed using various theories and concepts from pertinent literature in order to develop an integrated understanding, then a data collection for the study has been undertaken. Research limitations include challenges faced in regards to data collection, low response rates, time constraints, budgetary constraints amongst others. The study could have enhanced the process for an alternative representation, which could have allowed greater acceptability and transferability of the study. However, there have been some limitations that have been encountered in the study, some of which includes;

• The study was conducted in Jordan in Sultanate of Oman, hence the data has been collected from Jordan only. This implies there is limited applicability of the findings of the study, as it has not taken into account broader data from other countries or areas around the world. Another pertinent challenge in the research data revealed a large difference in participation amongst female and male participants.
• Due to the limitation of time and budget, the study was conducted taking into consideration Instagram only. As various literary articles and journals reflected the broader application of Instagram on consumers, it was considered for the study. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other popular social media platforms had been totally excluded from the scope of the study.
• The study is conducted in a qualitative manner, quantitative analysis and techniques have been totally excluded from the study. The implications of the study would have been broader and better in case quantitative techniques would have been accommodated for the study.    

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