This is a research, which portrays the impact of social media on the buying behaviour of the consumers. The past few decades have witnessed immense change in the buying behaviour of the consumers in the market. Shopping at physical stores such, as Shopping malls were very common but the environment has changed significantly. Globalization has aided the development of the modern and advanced communication systems. The consumers are able to buy their products from the online medium with the help of the social media and other websites. This new buying behaviour of the consumers can be named as online buying behaviour or online shopping. This research deals with the case study of Kubera Technology Ltd that will analyze the impact of social media on the buying behaviour of the consumers.
The most formidable development in the history of commerce is the emergence of the Web 2.0. The buzzword that came along with the Web 2.0 is Social media where the contents generated by the users were encouraged and at the same time, it allowed the users to share content among themselves (Hajli 2014). This has revolutionized the conventional medium of marketing and had lead to the development of the new marketing media, which is popularly known as the Social Media. Social media marketing is the new medium of marketing which has given a different dimension to the relationship between the retailers and the marketers.
Social media are web services, which helps in building a relationship among network of users form all round the world. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram helps allows the users form all the around the world to interact with each other which helps them to share relevant information to each other. Social media has become an integral part of the lifestyle of the consumers and is supporting all the essential segments (Ioan?s and Stoica 2014). However, from business point of view the interaction among the businesses and the buyers has become direct removing the mediators in between. Consumers are using the social media and technology as an effective tool for shopping in the online platform. This is an electronic process, which has helped the consumers to interact with the organization so that they can fulfil their needs. Social media is acting as a catalyst, which has helped the organizations in interacting with the potential consumers (Kumar et al. 2016). This has provided the organization with the opportunity of converting potential customers into real time shoppers. Social media has provided the consumers with a medium where they can describe their shopping experience and give an analysis of the quality of the products they purchased. The negative and positive feedbacks that the consumers provide about the various products will help promote the organizations. The recent study suggests that the consumers are using the social media to gather information about various products and half of these users make their decision of purchase based on the information. Moreover, majority of them shared their experience regarding the quality and experience (Schivinski and Dabrowski 2016).
There has been rapid growth in the online shopping market in the past few years and the percentage of buyers in the online market have increased exponentially. The maximum amount of growth has been noticed in the country such as India, China, Japan and Australia (Hajli 2015). There has been rapid increase in the overall consumers in the online marketing medium and most of them search for information on the social media websites. There are varieties of products that are available at an online level and the consumers are buying these different products and becoming more and more dependent on the online medium. However, there are still countries where the number of online are low when compared to the other countries. The concept of physical stores are becoming redundant and majority of the companies are using an online medium to sell their products otherwise they will lose their competitive advantage in the market (Godey et al. 2016).
The traditional marketing medium is dead and use of mass media for marketing is becoming an outdated concept. The analysis of various data shows that the online marketing medium have a wider area of accessibility and cost of marketing is less when compared to the traditional marketing medium (Lamberton and Stephen 2016). Initially the online marketing media was an option for the companies in the market however; it has become a necessity for the companies in the market. The consumers have taken the centre of attraction in the world of business where the companies are using the innovative ways to make an approach to the consumers in the market.
Kubera Technology Ltd is retailer and wholesaler of laptop, computers and tablets. The company provides solution to their clients regarding all sorts of information technology solutions. The organization is known for providing maintenance services to the consumers regarding all software and hardware related machineries. The organization aims at providing quality services at low prices to all the consumers in Mauritius. As the organization is aiming to provide the consumers at the lowest possible rates, it is feasible for the organization to incorporate the use of online media in grabbing the attention of consumers. The tradition form of media is less effective and costly so it is will be best for the organization to incorporate social media as a tool for influencing the buying behaviour of the consumers. Moreover, it is known that intangible product services are more suitable to the online media so it will best for the organization to incorporate it into the business model of the organization.
This research will focus on the perspectives of the consumers while making a purchase of the product where social media is the influencing media for the consumers. The research will analyze the reasons for the changing trends in the consumer’s behaviour where the consumers prefer online media as the tool for shopping. The research will also indentify the suitable products for the social media and type of consumers who are purchasing these products.
The aim of the research is to analyze the impact of the social media on the buying behaviour of the consumers. The study will analyze the level of influence social media has on the buying behaviour of the consumers. This will help to identify the products suitable for selling in the online media and challenges faced by the various companies who are trying to sell different products on the social media platform.
H0 – Social media has no impact on the buying behaviour of the consumers of Kubera Technology Ltd
H1 – Social media has impact on the buying behaviour of the consumers of Kubera Technology Ltd
Consumers are playing the most significant role in the market and demographics is one of the significant variable which is affecting the buying behaviour of the consumers in the market. There has been significant increase in the number of the buyers in the online market. The two main online segments are Social Clickers and Online Insiders (Solomon 2014). The most active users who have high level of influence on the buying of the consumers are known as the Online Insiders. These consumers are active on all forms of social media websites and have great influence on the buying behaviour of the consumers. The social media has provided the consumers with a platform, which will enable them to share information with other. Thus, these consumers have the capabilities of influencing other buyers, which will affect the repurchase process. The consumers re relying on the information they are getting from the social media websites while buying a new product, which shows that the maximum of the online buyers are relatively younger, better educated, and wealthier and have high rate of literacy in terms of computer proficiency (Ioan?s and Stoica 2014). This has caused them to spend more amount of time on the online media and that is why they tend to reply on social media before the purchase of a product.
Social Clickers are the people who are heavily active on the internet but they use it for different purpose. These people are mainly focused on sharing of information and are the heavy communicators in the online medium (Dessart,Veloutsou and Morgan-Thomas 2015). They are not influencing the purchasing behaviour of the consumers and they are less affluent. These set of consumers have the potential of having strong influence on the buying behaviour of the consumers and could be one of the strongest influence in the future.
The online websites facilitate in helping the consumers to communicate with the other buyers in the market. The interaction with the other users in the social media will be influencing the buying behaviour of the consumers about unfamiliar products in the market. There are several factors that are being affected by the social media and they can be classified as Information factors, Design Factors, Psychological Factors, product factors and cultural factors (Godey et al. 2016). The consumers will buy products at an online platform if sufficient information about the product is available on the internet. The consumers are encouraged to shop online if the products consist of warranties, offers and guarantees. These are the information factors, which affect the buying behaviour of the consumers. The characteristics of the design of the web page also affect the consumers. The websites that are designed very nicely and are updated at regular intervals attracts large number of consumers. The display themes of the sites and the detailed information regarding the different products will also affect the buying behaviour of the consumers. There are psychological factors, which affect the attitude of the consumers towards buying in an online platform (Jung et al. 2016). The consumers are influenced by their friends and family, which will affect their buying decision. Moreover, when the consumers are able to build trust on the company website it reduces the level of uncertainty, which will increase their level of willingness to buy the products. The consumers are affected by the other cultures while making the purchase of the products. The consumer lifestyles are affected when they try to interact and communicate with new technologies (Balabanis et al. 2017).
Various studies and analysis of the products has tried to indentify and predict the relationship between the shopping behaviour and product (Stephen 2016). The findings form the these various studies show that there are mainly two categories of products one is the tangible products and the other is the intangible product.
The most common social media platforms that have been used by the consumers are Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. The study from various author suggest that millions of consumers form all around the use the social media platform to find information regarding the services and products before purchasing of the products (Essani et al. 2017). Facebook is a platform, which has millions of customers who are registered to share information regarding the various products in the market. The study shows that the users on Facebook are able to recommend products to the friends and families as they follow the respective brands on this platform. The majority of the users in the Facebook platform use it to make purchase of diverse products (Obeidat et al. 2017).
Twitter is a major platform where 800,000 followers have shown their positive reception about the various products they have bought from the online media. Moreover, te number of blogs written on the online platform has improved significantly in the past couple of years. The consumers are readily watching various videos regarding the specification of the products offered in the online platform and the number of views is still increasing. The majority of the users in Twitter are able to provide suggestion to their friends and family as they readily follow the various brands and their updates (Reuter and Spielhofer, 2017). The popularity of Instagram has risen in the past few years where large number of users share different photos and videos that contain information regarding various brands and products. The number of Instagram users has increased and is still increasing; this has also become a crucial platform for the gaining information about the various products in the market (Park et al. 2017).
The businesses in the market eventually will face a situation where they will reach their bottleneck where the messages conveyed by the organizations will not reach the desired target consumers. There are instances where the consumers are unable to make their decisions and there consumers who are loyal, enthusiastic and committed to the brands. However, the scenario has changed, the transparency and accessibility of information about the various products will start affecting the decision making process of the consumers (Anninou and Foxall 2017). The decision process will help to identify the various hurdles and hesitations that the potential consumers are facing.
Figure 1
(Source: Anninou and Foxall 2017)
The above model identifies the critical aspects in the behaviour of the consumers. The behaviour of the consumers interpreted the behaviour in five stages. The five stages are need recognition, searching of information, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decisions and post purchase decisions (Lee, Bruwer and Song 2017). When the consumers identify a significant diversity in the actual and the desired state of affairs it arouses and activates a process of decision-making. When the consumer has recognized the need, the consumer will initiate the process of searching of information. There are situations where an individual is affected by the external environment such as advertisement on the television. There is other information that is available on the internet, which will trigger the idea of purchasing a product. There are lot of information that are available in the market so the companies will have to make sure that product have some desirable feature which will create more penetration for the product in the market (Ashton 2017). The information provided by the companies will have to be attractive and should serve a desired need of the consumers, which will cause the product to stand out in the market.
The finalising of the purchasing decision is not made immediately even after the recognition of the need. The consumers would go through a process before purchasing the products, which includes the identification of the options available in the market, analyzing the information of the selected products and finally judging the best option that will provide the user with the best outcome (Pescher, Reichhart and Spann 2014.). There are two types of information sources, one is the external and the other is the internal. The internal search includes the experience and information of a previous consumer, which will indicate the future behaviour of the consumer. A promotional strategy or information may grab the attention of the consumer but it does not mean the consumer will definitely make the purchase of the product. The information that the consumer’s encounters will be stored in the memory and later on it will used to analyze and evaluate the alternatives. The brands provide various alternatives for the consumers in the market, which is aimed at fulfilling the needs of the consumers (Rezaei 2015).
When the consumers in the market have gathered the information, they will evaluate and analyze all the options that are available. The criteria for the evaluation will be dependent on the goals and motives of the consumers. The evaluation parameters can be usability of the products or unique features of the product so that the users can find out whether the information is reliable or not (Shaheen and Lodhi 2016.). The consumers will try to analyze the experience of other users and they require validation before the purchase of the product. The experience can be direct and indirect which will help in making the decision of the process. However, the direct experiences are not preferred as there are lots of products where the consumer has no knowledge about it and it may lead to negative experience. Generally, the negative reputation of any product will have a costly affect as it may lead to hampering of the reputation of the product and the organization. When the consumers have assessed the alternatives, they will develop the beliefs regarding the products, which will act as guidance in the intentions, attitudes and the choice among the various options. The consumers will always try to reduce the complexity of the processes by using simple methods for making their judgement (Joung 2014).
The consumers will develop some preferences during the course of evaluation of the products and there are two factors, which will act as a hindrance between the purchase decision and purchase intention. These two factors are unanticipated situational factors and attitude of others. When another person has a negative attitude towards the alternative chosen by the user then the consumer may readjust its purchase intention. The reviews of the consumers are another big influence, which may change the purchase intention of the consumer (Nawi, Fong and Tatnall 2014.). There are various blogs and bulletin boards, which provide reviews of all the available products in the market. This may totally change the purchase intention of the consumers in the market. This shows that purchase intentions and preferences cannot be considered as the reliable predictor of the consumers buying behaviour. The different stages in this process do not follow a sequence and can rather be considered to be a cyclical or loop.
When the consumption of the product has been done then the consumer will try to evaluate the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The experience of the consumers regarding the usage of the product will determine whether the consumer is satisfied or dissatisfied. When there is dissonance towards the product the consumers has purchased it will change the perception of the consumer (Joshi and Rahman 2015). The consumer will start looking out for options and information regarding other products in the market. This will change the buying behaviour of the consumer and in future purchase the perception of the consumer will be different. The consumer will decide whether they will fully adapt to these products in the market and this will ensure repurchase. The customer experience will determine the whether there will be repetitive buying or not and when the consumers develop a level of comfort with a particular product then they will recommend it to other consumers (Horner and Swarbrooke 2016).
There are many psychological factors, which the consumer decision making process in unable to explain. The information processing theory will explain the various components, which cannot be explained by the consumer buying decision process. The attitude of a consumer is hidden in the buying process and can be considered to be related to the information processes (Gao, Huang and Brown 2017). There are various factor which influence the buying decision of he consumer but attitude can be considered to be the most important among them. The past experience with a brand or any other association will develop the attitude of an consumer towards a product. The process of developing an attitude towards a brand or product will consist of three elements and these elements are cognitive, affective and conative. The awareness and knowledge about different brands can be considered cognitive, the negative and the positive feelings associated with a brand or product are referred as affective and the intention of purchasing a particular product can be considered conative (Albayrak, Aksoy and Caber 2013).
The investigation from various studies suggests exposure of information is selective which means the attitude and the personality of the consumer will determine the initial opinion of a consumer towards a product. This will determine the information, the consumer will try to find as the searching of information will depend on the initial attitude of the consumer towards a product (Fouad and Kortam 2017). The attitude of a consumer is developed based on the positive and the negative impression towards a product. There will be differences in the attitude depending on the type of experiences; it can be direct and indirect. However, the credibility of the information source will determine the experience and the attitude will be based on that.
The process theory of information has explained the the process of decision-making and it consist of three stages. The three stages include perform, evaluation and post evaluation and the framework consist of six components which are dominant in nature. The six components are motivation, processing capacity, perceptual encoding and attention, evaluation and acquisition, effects of consumption and decision process. The exposure of information that the consumer receives from the mass media can be considered as a passive process (Gao Huang and Brown 2017). This form of information is less effective at a cognitive level as the information in this form of media is delivered at a fast pace. However, when the consumer tries to seek out information it can be considered an active approach. When there is overload of information, it is quite tough for the organizations to draw the attention of the consumers towards the product. When the organization tries to provide too much information, then it is tough to register it into the minds of the consumers. The consumers make their buying decision relatively quickly because of the shortage of time and so the organization will have to be particular about extent of information they want to provide at that time. The information processing capacities of the consumers are limited and so the organization will have to consider this during promotion of the product. the information capability of the consumer will affect the overall decision making procedure and the components within it.
The consumers make their choices based on their individual goals and objectives and so the motivation acts as a influence on the direction and the intensity of behaviour of the consumers. Perception and attention of the individual will have a deep impact on the buying behaviour of the consumers. When an individual is exposed to information then the attention of the consumer will determine the amount of information that will be retained by the consumers. The processing of the information will be dependent on the attention of the consumer towards the information. However, attention can be considered selective and the information will be processed in a selective manner (Albayrak, Aksoy and Caber 2013). The consumers pay attention to the important points and trend to neglect the information, which they consider to be irrelevant. The focus on the information can be voluntary and involuntary depending upon the situation. When the consumers have some specific goal and objective in their mind then they voluntarily allocated attention towards a product. However, voluntary attention is selective as the consumer seeks out specific information relating to their goals and objectives. The involuntary attention is the influence of external stimuli, which garbs the attention of the consumer such as novelty, vividness and salience. The consumers are always looking for something new and organizations can make use of innovation to grab the attention of the consumers. The consumers tend to seek for information depending on the values and lifestyle. The consumers are likely to be unaware of that information which is not related to their lifestyle (Dalla Pozza, Heitz-Spahn and Texier 2017). Thus, the consumers are drawn towards the information, which is disproportionate in nature and consist of an initial opinion. The interpretation of the information will be varying from person to person depending upon their perception. The louder the noise of the information more will be the interruption. Interruption is essential for grabbing the attention of the consumers but there are different reactions to the conflict for a consumer. There are consumers who tend to avoid and ignore the information; they will search for new information depending on the requirement of the customer. There are consumers who learn about the different products from the environment of purchasing. Even though the current purchasing requirement is different, the information will grab the attention of the consumer (Horner and Swarbrooke 2016).
The selection of the media determines the type of information the consumer will be exposed to and the consumers are preferring the online media as the most reliable source of information. The exposure of information is highly selective during the initial phases and depending upon the information the consumers may change their goals and shift their attention. The information of the consumer will stop when the cost of obtaining the information is high and a lot of effort is required to gather the information (Joshi and Rahman 2015). There are instances when the consumers are unaware of the environment and the gain the knowledge about the product unconsciously. It may happen that the consumer is not searching for information but the corresponding environment provided the consumer with information, which changed the buying behaviour.
This shows that the buying behaviour of the consumers are getting affected by the information they are searching and obtaining. Social media has become one of the most important tools of providing the information to the consumers. The availability of the large amount of data on the internet is influencing the buying behaviour of the consumers and has totally changed the perspective of the consumers.
This chapter of the study discusses the research method, design and approach. This is one of the significant parts of the study, which determines the outcome of the research. The research methodology helps in the implementation of the various techniques involved in the assignment. The justification for choosing each of the methods is provided later on in the study (Horvath 2017). The model consists of a set of models and frameworks, which will be used to define and conduct the research. The most relevant and important part of the study includes the methodology of the research. Moreover, the model that has been used for the study can be used and implemented in the other similar research topics.
Figure 2
(Source: Horvath 2017)
Research philosophy consist of the development, nature and source of knowledge. It may seem that the generation of the idea and knowledge can be profound an intense but there are only only four research philosophies. The four research philosophies are realism, positivism, post positivism and interpretivism (Humphries 2017). The research philosophy that has been selected for the study is positivism.
Figure 3
(Source: Humphries 2017)
The current study will implement the positivism research philosophy is it will help to identify the scope of the observation and extract the truth that is hidden in the study. The scope of the descriptive study will be provided by the research philosophy of positivism (Creswell and Poth 2017). Moreover, the research philosophy will help in inclusion of the existing theories, which in turn will help in the development of the hypothesis that will be used for testing during the study.
Hypothesis testing is the major factor, which will be relevant for choosing in between the inductive and the deductive approach. According to Schaufeli et al. (2017), the validity of the various assumptions in the study will be indentified with the help of the deductive approach. The inductive approaches are used to formulate and develop new theories. The deductive approaches commences with the testing of the hypothesis where as the inductive approach is based on the implementation of the research questions. However, in this current field of study the deductive approach is best-suited approach.
Figure 4
(Source: Schaufeli et al. 2017)
The hypothesis mentioned current study would have to be tested and validated so deductive approach is used for the very reason. The implication of the data can be done with the help of the deductive approach (Litosseliti 2017). Scientific investigation is included in the deductive approach method and it will help to investigate the findings of the study. This study is based on the existing theories and hypothesis testing so the inductive approach has been rejected.
The primary data for the analysis of the project consist of the quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative analysis includes mathematical analysis of data in various formats and software is used to analyze the overall data. The quantitative analysis includes questionnaires with close-ended questions and calculation of mode, median and mean. The analysis part will also include regression analysis of the two variables in the study. The qualitative analysis of the data will include questionnaires with open-ended question and will not include any sort of mathematical calculation. According to Gould and Taylor (2017), the qualitative analysis is closely associated with the sounds, words, emotions and feelings. The qualitative provides a better understanding of the field of study and focuses on providing a different dimension to the research. This research will consist of only quantitative analysis of data and qualitative analysis will not be considered in this scenario. The quantitative data will be collected through questionnaires by conducting the interviews of the consumers of Kubera Technology Ltd and the total number of respondents for the survey will be 100.
The critical analysis and the interpretation of the data will be done with the help of the quantitative analysis of the data. This analysis will include chart, graphs, figures and numbers; it will also include the regression analysis of both the variable. The rationale behind the final findings can be analyzed with the help of the analysis of the quantitative data (Neuman and Robson 2014). In this present study, the analysis of the data will be used for the discussion of the common patterns and controversies, which will be linked with the secondary data of the research.
There overall population size is too big for analysis so a small sample size will be taken from the overall population. This small sample will be considered as the sample for the analysis of the data in this present study. The primary analysis of the data cannot be done without extracting the target population. As put forward by Mackey and Gass (2015), the specific segment, which can be the best representative of the overall population, can be considered as the primary data for the study. The sampling frame consists of the list of respondents who took part in the survey. There are two types sampling methods that will be used in this study, one is the probabilistic and the other is the non-probabilistic (Edmonds and Kennedy 2016). In probabilistic sampling, the respondents are selected by the random sampling methods where as in the non probabilistic sampling the respondents are selected in a non random way. In this current study, the probabilistic sampling consists of 100 respondents.
Reliability can be defined as the ability of gaining precision with the help of same sets of instruments. According to Else-Quest and Hyde (2016), if a study has a high degree of reliability, it can be used to derive the same result for a similar study. Validity can be defined as the extent to which the scientific research methods can be used for the creating the finding of the research. According to Neuman and Robson (2014), validity can be considered to be a mandatory field for the execution of all types of research projects. Validity is the degree to which all the elements in the study can be measured and how much precision does the measurement has. The current study consist of data that is reliable and as the desired result can be obtained from the data that has been analysed.
When conducting the academic and the business researches ethical ground is one of the significant aspects. The data that has been collected for the study has been kept confidential and the names of the respondents will not be disclosed. According to the code of Data Protection Act 1998, the data has not been used for any other purposes (Litosseliti, 2017). The respondents in the study were not forced to take part in it and they had the right to withdraw from the experiment at any given point of time.
Analysis:
|
Gender |
|||||
|
Frequency |
Percent |
Valid Percent |
Cumulative Percent |
||
|
Valid |
Male |
53 |
53.0 |
53.0 |
53.0 |
|
Female |
47 |
47.0 |
47.0 |
100.0 |
|
|
Total |
100 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
This question focuses on evaluating the gender of the respondents. It is critical for any research study to include the different perception of both the genders to add value to the overall quality of the study. For that reason, the study has selected 53 male and 47 female respondents in order to cover all possible aspects in an appropriate way. It has helped the study to evaluate the popularity of social media across genders.
|
Age |
|||||
|
Frequency |
Percent |
Valid Percent |
Cumulative Percent |
||
|
Valid |
18 to 21 years |
13 |
13.0 |
13.0 |
13.0 |
|
22 to 25 years |
23 |
23.0 |
23.0 |
36.0 |
|
|
26 to 30 years |
25 |
25.0 |
25.0 |
61.0 |
|
|
31 to 40 years |
13 |
13.0 |
13.0 |
74.0 |
|
|
More than 40 years |
26 |
26.0 |
26.0 |
100.0 |
|
|
Total |
100 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
This question has focused to evaluate the age group of all respondents. Proper evaluation of the age group has helped the study to understand the overall popularity of social media across different age. Now, the above table has highlighted that majority of the respondents are above the age group of 40 years. For instance, the study has selected The study has selected 13 respondents between the age group of 18 to 21 years and 23 respondents aged between 22 to 25 years. It has also selected 25 respondents between the age group of 26 to 30 years. It has allowed the study to highlight the popularity of social media among the young people. However, the study has also selected respondents above the age group of 40 years so that it can able to assess the amount of impact social media can have on relatively old generation people.
The study has conducted regression analysis to illustrate the relationship between independent variable social media and dependent variable consumer purchasing behaviour. Utilization of regression analysis has helped the study to evaluate the relationship in numeric terms. The inclusion of Regression and ANOVA table is likely to generate more value to the over quality of the research project.
|
Model Summary |
||||
|
Model |
R |
R Square |
Adjusted R Square |
Std. Error of the Estimate |
|
1 |
.675a |
.456 |
.450 |
.60832 |
|
a. Predictors: (Constant), SocialMedia |
In the first table, the R2 that also termed as coefficient of determination is a very critical measure. R2 measures the overall proportion of total variation in Y about its means explained by the regression of Y on X. In this particular analysis, regression explains 45.6% of the variation of social media. In general, overall values of R2 below the level of 0.2 are regarded as weak, values within 0.2 to 0.4 are regarded as moderate and values of R2 greater than 0.4 are regarded as strong. Thus, the estimated R2 value has highlighted strong correlation between social media and consumer purchasing behavior.
|
ANOVAa |
||||||
|
Model |
Sum of Squares |
df |
Mean Square |
F |
Sig. |
|
|
1 |
Regression |
30.382 |
1 |
30.382 |
82.103 |
.000b |
|
Residual |
36.265 |
98 |
.370 |
|||
|
Total |
66.647 |
99 |
||||
|
a. Dependent Variable: ConsumerBuyingBehaviour |
||||||
|
b. Predictors: (Constant), SocialMedia |
In this particular table, the study has provided entire focus on the F statistic. With the proper evaluation of the F statistic, the study will the test hypothesis that none of the explanatory variables help describe variation in Y about its mean. The information to pay attention to here is the probability described as “Sig.” in the above table. Now, the above analysis has highlighted that Sig value is “.000”, which is below the 0.05. The significance value less than 0.05 reflect that the study has rejected the developed null hypothesis that describes, “Social media does not have any impact on the consumer purchasing behavior”. It also helps to describe any variation in Y, which is likely to add value to the overall quality of the research topic.
|
Coefficientsa |
||||||
|
Model |
Unstandardized Coefficients |
Standardized Coefficients |
t |
Sig. |
||
|
B |
Std. Error |
Beta |
||||
|
1 |
(Constant) |
.934 |
.194 |
4.813 |
.000 |
|
|
SocialMedia |
.675 |
.074 |
.675 |
9.061 |
.000 |
|
|
a. Dependent Variable: ConsumerBuyingBehaviour |
Finally, the last table will help the research project to determine wheatear social media and consumer buying behaviour is related with each other. It also helps to determine whether two focus factors are positive or negatively correlated. Here, the first significant thing to note is that the coefficient of social media value is greater than the constant value. Furthermore, the probability highlighted in the report in the right column is relatively very low, which signifies the slope is a statistically significant. To be little less abstract, the study has recalled those entire coefficient mean. It reflects the slope and the interception point of the regression line. Hence, the analysis signifies that Y= .675X+.934. It reflects that if effective use of social media increases by 1 unit, it will create more favourable consumer purchasing behaviour. Thus, the study has also highlighted strong positive correlation between social media strategies and consumer buying behaviour that can have major impact on the overall popularity level of the businesses.
Thus, the above analysis has highlighted strong positive correlation between social media and consumer buying behaviour. Therefore, the outcome of the study has highlighted the fact that businesses will have to be very careful at the time of initiating different strategies and policies for maximizing the profit level in a major way. Proper utilization of promotional strategies on social media platforms have helped to generate awareness about specific brands and organization. Moreover, social media has provided easy access to the global potential customers for all the organizations. As a result, it has allowed businesses to increase the overall reach of the organization across the global market. Therefore, proper utilization of social media can actually create favourable consumer behaviour across geographical boundaries, which can create major positive impact on the overall profitability of the business. Thus, the above analysis has accomplished the second research objectives in an appropriate manner. It has highlighted the fact that appropriate use of social media is extremely important in order to generate popularity about the different new products or services. Here, the study has also mentioned different social media promotional tools and techniques to assess the exact amount of impact it can have on the overall behaviour pattern of the consumers. Thus, the study has accomplished all the requirements of the research process in a detailed manner.
[a] Gender:
[] Male; [] Female
[b] Age:
[] 18-21 years; [] 22-25 years; [] 26-30 years; [] 31-40 years; [] More than 40 years;
Part B: Social Media
|
How far do you agree that social media sites- |
SA |
A |
I |
D |
SD |
|
Have become part of Individual’s daily life |
|||||
|
Provide opportunity to use blogging, photo sharing and video as promotional tool |
|||||
|
Develop awareness about different products and services |
|||||
|
Can draw the attention of consumers of different geographical boundaries |
|
How far do you agree that consumer buying behaviour – |
SA |
A |
I |
D |
SD |
|
Can determine popularity of any product or service in the competitive market |
|||||
|
Is directly linked with the popularity of any product on social media |
|||||
|
Can be closely monitored with the use of different social media sites |
|||||
|
Can be changed with the effective use of promotion on different social media tools |
Conclusion
Thus, the conclusion that can be drawn from the study is that social media has a lot of impact on the buying behaviour of the consumer. The recent market trends suggest that consumer buying behaviour has changed significantly due to the change in the marketing medium. The social media provides a lot of information regarding the various products and brands available in the market. The findings and analysis of the data shows that social media will facilitate the behaviour of the consumers and act as a platform where a lot of information can be shared. The research shows that the consumers are preferring the use of the social media as a source than the convention medium. There is a strong sense of correlation between the social and the consumer buying behaviour so the consumers will be more and more affected by the social media. The companies will be able to maximize the amount of profit by using social media for providing the source of information for the various products. The testing of the hypothesis shows that there is significance and the alternative hypothesis has been accepted. Thus, the study shows that social media has impact on the consumers behaviour and is increasing at an rapid rate. When taking the future scenario in to consideration the use of social media will be maximized and buying trends of the consuming will keep on changing significantly. Thus, the final conclusion that can be drawn from the study is that social media is instrumental in changing the behaviour of the consumers and the conventional media has become redundant.
The market trends have changed significantly and a lot of companies are using the social media to share information about their products. The companies are able to maintain their transparency with the help of the social media and it is recommended that all companies start using the social media platform to promote their products. The research will be able to provide insights to the companies, which are planning to make usage of the social media for promoting their products. It is recommended that the companies use the social media to communicate with the consumers so that they can grab the attention of the consumers and understand the generation of need among them. The information gathered from the consumers will help the companies to develop products according to the needs in the market. However, the companies will have to maintain their quality of product otherwise the bad ratings and comments will have negative impact on the reputation of the organization. There are lot of advantages of using the social media but at the same time, the organization will be under critical evaluation all the time and various products will fail instantaneously as the information spreads relatively faster in the online media. Thus, it is recommended that the companies should maintain the quality of the product and improve the experience of the consumers so that they gain competitive advantage in the market.
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