Editorial Board

A Refereed Monthly International Journal of Management

Impact of Social Media on Consumer Purchasing Decision Making

1. Deepa

Research Scholar,

 Vels Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies,

Velan nagar, Krishnapuram, Pallvaram

Dr. V. Krishna Priya

Assistant Professor,

Vels Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies,

Velan nagar, Krishnapuram, Pallvaram

Abstract –social media have inhabited a powerful role as a medium of communication. In order to interact with other individuals or organizations, people around the world use social networking sites. The increasing use of social networking sites mainly in developing countries such as India provides a new medium for marketers to reach consumers. Opinions and reviews on social media today have begun to influence the consumer's buying decision process. Social networking helps customers, via status notifications, to make suggestions and compare the product. It allows the satisfied customer to highly recommend the product to other intended consumers. Industries are hoping to take advantage of growing consumer trends for their purchases, based on the social media. This paper aims to examine the impact of social media on the decision-making process for consumer purchases. In this research, the main objective is to recognize the component that consequence, consumer purchasing decision-making on social media, to determine the impact of respondents' demographic factors on purchasing decision-making through social media. A descriptive study was conducted among three sectors in Chennai, among 100 respondents. A Convenience sampling was used. The factors influencing the social networking sites are ease of use and e-Word of Mouth. The result concludes that social media is highly influenced the purchasing decision making of consumers.

Keyword – Social media, E-Word of Mouth, Ease of Use, Consumer, Purchasing, Decision making.

Introduction

In recent days, there are number of consumers purchasing the products via various social media sites. The broad usages of the internet and the rise in the utilization of social media have prompted marketers to look for new channels to engage with consumers. Social networking sites have made it simpler and quicker for people to post feedback and discuss their thoughts and ideas on the use of such products and services; it also offers the user the ability to promote internet purchases and to provide an alternative comparison of goods and services. These marketing strategies have distinct impacts on the behavior of women purchasing decision making. Various researches show that social networking has a remarkable effect on the decision-to-purchase making process. This study focuses on the back in research questions like

• Do social media have a consequence of the buying decision making of consumers?
• How can women's buying decision making process be influenced by e-Word of Mouth (e-WOM) and ease of use?

Literature review

Social Media:

Both consumers and companies have seen significant changes as a result of social media. Consumers are extremely selective when making purchases, according to studies. Despite the abundance of data and knowledge available on social media, the customers' individual perceptions play a significant role in product selection and purchase. (Vargese, Agrawal, 2021).  In 2020, 2.60 billion of its 3.81 billion worldwide social networking users, Facebook is the most popular social network. With 2 billion, followed by YouTube, and Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, all with 1 billion or even more consumers. The 1 billion consumer teams will be met by newcomer TikTok in 2021. Global life expectancy is estimated by the WHO to be 73 years. They would devote 5.7 years / 2,080 days on networks in the qualifying lifetime unless the common individual continued with the similar social networks use. (Brian Dean, 2021).    40 percent of Facebook utilizes in Turkey are feminine and 60 percent are men. Furthermore, 88% of Facebook utilizes are ranging from 13-39 (Kemp, 2016). The influence of social media sites on the behavior of consumer has currently been examined by many scholars, but typically not in the factor of aspiration process of perspective (Xie, Lee, 2015; and Chu, Kim, 2011). Social networks have generated a 'participatory culture' where consumers connection with other accordant individuals to interchange ideas, regulate updates, and seek feedback and assessment on all sorts of products, services and events in an continual (Ashman et al., 2015).

            Unlike their professional peers, homemakers were never strapped for time and often need an excuse to go outside and interact socially, so shopping online for them is restricted to paperbacks and small-value products that give strong discounts. The research also indicates that the size of the buying ticket is often more offline than online, mostly because offline contributes to buying urges and instant gratification. Research shows that purchasing is a family tradition for Indians and a justification for shopping trips. The research also shows that social media's impact is restricted to developing understanding, generating interest that leads to seeking information. It does not affect purchasing for homemakers (IndrilaGoswamiVarma, 2014). It is found that the content of web product feedback, distinguished by perceived instructive and reasonableness, along with the discern amount of reviews, has a substantial positive effect on the buying intentions of users (Zhou et al; 2013; Zhang et al; 2014). In contrast to business communications and marketing, social media is viewed as a much more credible body of wisdom. There seems to be a strong feeling of distrust of the mass media, as per Constantinides (2014).

            For the advantage of real - time entry at their convenience, customers use social networking sites. Buyers are also shifting away from conventional media like TV, print media as platforms to direct their buys (Mangold and Faulds, 2009), allowing them to determine what to purchase or learn something about unique brand or product, how and where we need. A major problem with virtual judgment is knowledge saturation. In its massive magnitude of knowledge, social media has driven users to just a level of research paralysis, generate the unachievable to outbreak, complete data occurs (Powers et al., 2012). Website comments were manifesting a direct effect on user goods choice and buying behaviour (Yayli and Bayram, 2012). In all stages of buying decision making, social networking sites resources are used, in other words, in the mechanism of realizing necessity, assessing data and possibilities, determining what, where, when to purchase and choice of responses (Yadav et al., 2013). Although social media platforms (Marketing = LinkedIn, Ethnicity = Asian Avenue vb.) cater to several divisions, the largest is Facebook, that is available to all. With 42 million active users in Turkey and 2.2 billion utilizers globally, Facebook accounts for around 50 percent of the global social media industry (Kallas, 2013; Park, 2018). There seems to be a finite amount of knowledge which can be interpreted by people owing to limited sanity (Simon, 1960; Thaler and Mullainathan, 2008), then it is not practical to analyze all chosen options in detail (Karimi, 2013).

            Many years after the internet's invention, social media came into the world; social media has become more famous. Its communicative role may be the explanation. It also notes that social networks are described as internet sites that connect users worldwide with the same preferences, opinions and interests from around the world. (Sin, Nor, & Al-Agaga, 2012). The rapidly growing social media has been used by 2.8 billion people, 73% of which are Internet users. In this respect, it can be said that social media has opened a unique place for itself in the communication (Torlak and Ay, 2012). The social media framework that can measure Word - of - mouth online with Artificial Neural Network: Perception Seeking 186 suits the desires of several consumers has so far been successful in prompting the user.

            In terms of vocabulary, use and intent variations, the resources of social networks could be examined through different sub-titles including such microblogs (Twitter, etc.), social media (Facebook, etc.), media exchange (YouTube etc.) viewers sites (TripAdvisor etc.), and discussion boards. As per their requirements, customers will use each or even more resources. Consumers, for instance, may enter the experiences of many other buyers in the groups more about the goods they are going to purchase, glance at the comments of the film reviewer, they are following in microblogs, schedule the trips as per feedback on the review pages, and just get the viewpoints of friends about its facilities on social media platforms.

            Cavazza (2010) reported that Digital Marketing relates to the method and techniques being used to define and interpret the connections within groups and therefore customers, to engage and initiate social interactions. Social networking provides more ways for advertisers to engage with clients and have genuine experiences with them in comparison to conventional media.

            Parr (2010) argues that social networking as the use of the internet and electronic resources to more easily communicate and explore information and insights with other individuals. Social media is defined as "a collection of Web applications which develop upon on Web 2.0 opinions and technical structures and enable user-generated activity to be created and exchanged" (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Buyers are also shifting away from conventional media like TV, print media as platforms to direct their buys (Mangold and Faulds, 2009).  Even so, social networking sites represent the greatest number of regular people on social media resources. The social network's key features are that users can draw up a list of accounts and connections and those others can access them (Ellison and Boyd, 2007).

Ease of Use:

            Significant findings, including the positive effect ease of use, perceived utility and pleasure on the desire of customers buy from social networking websites strengthen the desire for social media platforms to enhance their purpose and benefit in addition to just being user-friendly and go to them for a happy buying experience. (In 2017, Tan Pei Kian)

            In a developing economy, Laura et al. (2014) studied key drivers impacting consumer behavior in order to buy goods and services online. The findings indicate that the main drivers are utilitized, ease of use, stability, confidence and confidentiality. Subject for the purpose of the research, several slants to framework consumer behavior, however a beneficial tool is the decision-process detain that examines the activities that accompany and involve a transaction and describes how decisions are taken (Karimi, 2013).

            The ease of use of online platforms enables people to instantly search for product details and finish the purchasing process avoiding obstacles. The findings also showed a positive relation linking the perceived utility of products and the intention of consumers to buy. This suggests that participants choose to buy products from social media platforms, although their shopping experience is improved. In addition, consumers make purchases via social networking websites so it lets users save the time looking for lower-priced goods and improve their chances of searching for the exact needs. Furthermore, a positive connection between social factors and the desire of customers to buy is evident. This outcome is stable with previous research done in Malaysia by (See, S.S., Khalil, M.N., 2012)

            As significant predictors for online purchases, Yulihasni et al. (2011) found comparability, utility, ease of use and protection. The survey was carried out on 300 respondents in Penang, Malaysia, generally on university students. Ease of use is the amount, whereby an individual understands that utilizing a specific process can be conveniently with much less work (Davis, F, 1989). Ease of use customers ’ perceived not just to include the willingness of individuals to include an invention without trouble, but also demonstrates their capacity to discover the perfect goods or brand mostly with an opportunity to evaluate the role and advantages of a sequence  goods and services. From the viewpoint of users, the perceived ease of use demonstrates their perception that, after following the instructions or during utilizes a good or service within a sufficient amount of time; people are ready to be using a service or product properly. In the background of social media platforms, individuals are encouraged to check for data using social network resources (Borgatti, S., & Cross, R, 2003).

            All factors at 0.05 significant levels were checked to be relevant. With a clear assumption, 0.911, R2 presented. All the five variables as evaluated can describe about 91.1 percent customers' buying intent. The modified R2 value is 0.909. From the table described, it indicated that the largest level Beta (β-value = 0.355) influenced by perceived utility (β-value = 0.337) is the perceived ease of use. This suggests that the most vital independent characteristics that impact customer buying intention across social media platforms are perceived ease of use and usefulness.

e-WOM:

Social media users’ WOM significantly influences consumers’ purchase intentions.(Feng Ming Tsai & Tat-Dat Bui, 2021).It is understood globally that with only one touch of a button, social media has revolutionized all around us; each of us can exchange their opinions and practices with a huge number of individuals who can share them with a lot of others. The press of a button has therefore become a monetary, social and political energy; this can raise millions of charities, demolish businesses and brands and even create representatives. The main part is that it shows the ways a business can advertise its items and/or services, the next most successful is "word of mouth" from consumer to consumer (Oumayma, 2019).

            Buyers may discuss ideas about goods and services through the internet or meeting in person. Word-of-mouth (WOM) considers the one-on-one form of contact, and the virtual method is named as electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). The primary aim of all these channels of information is to consider and to get some information about the opinions and knowledge of other users that are important to customers. The need for knowledge, which, in particular, increases during the buying process, just after the need occur, is updated through social networking sites. For users, it is a benefit that access to the World Wide Web and social networks is disseminated in a short amount of time. Buyers are also able to obtain information on goods or services immediately and with no difficulty (Ibrahim TOPAL, 2018).

            As users expect, the most conservative site for social networking sites is Facebook (Kemp, 2016). It's really important for users to engage with people who are acquainted with around goods or services on Facebook often. Word of mouth – It is a vital origin of consciousness for decisions about purchasing among users, consequence the brand, goods and helping hand  manners, proclivity and longing and affecting all stages of consumers ’ decision - making: from brand recognition to availability and post-purchase assessment (Kimmel and Kitchen, 2014).

            WOM has a bigger effect than social networking websites, the results suggest. The explanation behind it is word of mouth reliability. The theory found is that individuals trust the opinions of the friends/family rather than other marketing media. While there is a high reach on social networking platforms, it is less productive than word of mouth even then. In addition, a favorable relationship exists between household earnings and monthly purchasing activity. And from the other hand, family income and the inclination for designer clothes are not co-related. This implies that in choosing designer clothing, family income doesn't really play a part. People, particularly less - income communities have been found to enjoy purchasing designer clothes as well (SaadiaNasi et al; 2012).

            An analysis showed that 92% of people worldwide believe friends and family word-of-mouth suggestions 85% of customers claim that before making a purchase of a small business they refer to online reviews. Users are more inclined than a celebrity who is paid to endorse the item, to trust others who offer an unbiased account of a product (Nielsen, 2012).

            Digital otherwise e word-of-mouth is a kind of Word of mouth where online consumers give response and grade on view sites for every kind of products, trade name and helping hand (Bronner and Hoog, 2010). Word-of-mouth interactions have permitted businesses to target and manipulate consumer perceptions on the platforms that consumers construct in their groups within society (Kozinets, et al. 2010). The Web is numbered 1.0, 20 as per the evolving age (Fuchs et al., 2010). Well, after the Web 1.0 era, material growth has accelerated on Web 2.0, whereby users are also mostly viewers. Web 2.0 improved customer content creation and allowed viewpoint investigators to obtain information due to the wide variety of personal experiences. Web 2.0 has provided a technological platform for social networking around the same period.

            It's really important for users to engage with people who are acquainted with around goods or services on Facebook often. Social networking e-WOM may be used for several essential reasons, including such perception, mood, purchasing and post-purchase behaviors (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). Since use e-WOM success on social networking sites, the motivation in the back of this activity needs to be understood. The three features of Word of Mouth are that it is 1) credible: users trust and admire those they recognize (Kotler, et al. 2008). Their comparison community affects them. Word of mouth therefore proves to be an authentic and reliable set of information. 2)  Personal: They express their thoughts and perspectives while people interact amongst each other. Word of mouth thus represents (most of the time) a polite opinion and/or suggestion. 3) Timely: When people are generous in discussing their knowledge or expertise, word of mouth is carried out and thus includes relevant details, promotional events and experiences (Kotler, et al. 2008).

            There's been an increasing concern regarding how word - of - mouth is created in the Network (eWOM) and how it affects customer buying decisions at convenience stores (Duan, Gu and Whinston 2008). As this WOM represents a e-WOM, new ways of recording, evaluating, interpreting and handling the effect that one customer might have on another may be implemented (Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan 2008). In online Marketing campaigns, Word of mouth communicates knowledge about product or service successfully among consumer (Brown, Broderick and Lee 2007).

            According to Hennig-Thaurau and al (2004), Electronic word of mouth is a favorable or unfavorable statement made about a product or a company by possible, real or former customers that are given access via the internet to a large segment of the population and organizations."

Social Media on Consumer Purchasing Decision Making:

Only income and regular time spent on social networking sites had positive substantial moderating effects on the significant connection between social networking sites and buying decision processes, according to the moderation effect of comparative characteristics (Abdallah et al., 2021).Social media affect user purchasing decisions given the rise of internet purchases and the extent to which individuals waste on social networks. 4 times more probable to invest so much on purchases are customers who have been affected by social media. There have been 4 aspects wherein the social networking has a significant effect on the decision to buy. The client path was reduced by social networks and online purchasing.  The influence of social evidence or WOM has been intensified by social media. Among the most successful solution to engage the viewers is the marketing of social networks influencers. A modern form of communication with the audience is with tales and intangible material. Each forum for social media is dissimilar and might be beneficial for multiple objectives. (AlehBarysevich, 2020).

            As per this study, users in Sri Lanka rely primarily on social media resources to share their product experience, to check for necessary information and to compare the different choices before making a purchasing decision. Consumers favor social networking sites in the decision-making phase, primarily because of its large network, huge knowledge, exposure, peer reliability, etc. (Wickrama Hewage 2019).

            Overall, the findings show that in explaining the decision process of consumers in this era of social media, the traditional decision-making model is accurate. Easiness, happiness, loyalty and belief are phase characteristics positively interact with greater customer satisfaction. In the 3 phases and the final buying, someone who has appreciated the decision making procedure had higher contentment (Duangruthai Voramontri, 2019) 

            The effect of social media on the purchasing decision by Noémie Meslat(2018) has highlighted the impact on consumers.  (Fahed, 2016) suggests that the usage of social networking sites by Pakistani consumers in its post-purchase consideration stage is limited because they feel obliged to distribute their product understanding through social networking sites. But it can be argued that Sri Lankan consumers often use social networking sites in their post-purchase decisions as opposed to the study of current research. They also use social media as a medium for exchanging their brand impressions and in particular, think that by offering their real ideas and thoughts, they can give back to the society.

            According to Schiffman (2007), consumer buying behavior can be described as the behavior displayed by consumers in the search, purchase, use, evaluation and disposal of the product they anticipate to satisfy their expectations." The study stated that social media feedback often affects potential sales and that social media conveys the happiness and disappointment of the customer to the producers. The research also stated that social media tools allow it to express their opinion after a purchase decision is made and to check the perceptions and the results of a product after purchase.

            Consumers request and pay for the goods and services purchased online during the purchasing stage of the online shopping process. The shopping plan is extremely dependent on the e-commerce site's usability and the payment method is highly dependent on the e-commerce app's protection. Online shopping cannot provide immediate gratification because there is a temporary distinction between buying goods and services and actual use (Suki and Suki, 2007).           

            The buying decision of the customer is the ultimate decision taken on which product to purchase, along with the store, the wrapping, the purchasing process. Other attitudes and unexpected situations, such as the affordability of the commodity, will affect the purchasing decision. Since the consumer has finally made his choice to purchase a particular product, a negative rating reads during the last moment about the poor experience of a consumer can affect this decision and therefore can make the consumer refuse to buy it (Silverman, 2001). There has been a small volume of evidence that individuals can perceive because of bounded information (Simon, 1960; Thaler and Mullainathan, 2008), therefore it’s not realistic to examine in depth all the choices selected (Karimi, 2013). They further indicate that the impression of user usability of feedback and comments on Facebook goods, the satisfaction of consumers using the Facebook social network for knowledge browsing for brands and products, and the usefulness and ease of use of the resources offered affect the attitude of buyers when using the program mostly as preprocessing step for the buying decision. They often show a comfortable, strong association between consumer behavior and psychological intent regarding social networking sites.

Theoretical implications

Social media provides opportunities for consumers for interaction with others, getting and analyzing information, evaluating reviews, commences and experiences that are useful for them to make a buying decision in diverse ways (Saravanakumar, 2020). Previous studies indicated that 35% of the respondents feel that Instagram influences their purchase decision, 32% get influenced by Facebook, 15% get influenced through YouTube, 13% by WhatsApp, 3% through pinterest, 2% through Flickr, LinkedIn and Twitter.

            For electronic word of mouth, previous studies used Confirmation Biased Theory (Liu, 2017). Confirmation biased theory and tendency to look for, or presume, data in a manner that provides one's prejudices, leading to apparent statistical flaws. Some other previous study has investigated the theory of social identity to investigate e-word - of - mouth (Smith et al., 2016).The theory of social identity describes how well a person defines oneself, the class, rank, caste, his involvement in a community, recognizes himself and strengthens the self-esteem on the base of the community to which himself belongs. Dual Process Theory was used in earlier studies to research e-WOM (Hussain et al., 2016).

            Theory of planned behavior (TPB), the technology acceptance model (TAM), and the social influence theory is used for measuring ease of use towards Social Networking Sites (Ilyoo Barry Hong, 2018; SeokPyo Hong et al; 2016). The latest research is an implementation of 3 theories: e-Word of Mouth and perceived power, the theory of social exchange and the theory of social penetration, to calculate the effect of the use of social media, e-word of mouth, ease of use on decision-making on consumer purchases. TAM and TPB theory is used for measuring ease of use on consumer decision making process.

Fig 1: Theoretical Framework

H₀₁: There is no significant relationship between ease of use and CPDM

H₀₂: There is no significant relationship between e-WOM and CPDM

Materials and methods

            For the current study, a descriptive analysis was considered. For research purpose, both primary and secondary information was gathered. Primary data were gathered from the questionnaire, and secondary data from journals, magazines and websites. Data were collected online mode. A sample of 100 Women respondents from Teaching, Health Care and IT sectors answered the questionnaire. Social media sites that considered in this survey such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp.  A convenience sampling was used.

            To the respondents, a structured questionnaire was distributed. A questionnaire consisted with 47 items. The Impact of social media in the Consumer Decision making was measured using a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree). Questions on demographic information have been included in the first section and social media, e- word of mouth, ease of use and consumer purchasing decisions was included in the second section. The Impact of social media in the Consumer Decision making was measured using a 5-point Likert scale from 5 (Strongly Agree) to 1 (Strongly Disagree). Cronbach's alpha was used to evaluate the reliability test. Correlation and Regression were the statistical tools adopted for the analysis. Using SPSS (20.v) software, statistical analysis was conducted.

Results

Testing of hypothesis

Table–1: Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's alpha was used to evaluate the reliability test. The overall reliability score is 0.847 (Goerge and Mallery, 2003). Hence the questionnaire can be used for further analysis.

H_01: There is no significant relationship between e- WOM and Ease of use.

Table-2: Correlation

We applied Correlation test to determine whether there is a relationship between e Word of Mouth and Ease of Use. We found that the p value for test was lesser than the value of alpha i.e. 0.004> 0.05 therefore we conclude that there is a co-relation between the two variables.

In Table 2, the significant value is 0.04, which is less than 0.05. Hence the null hypothesis is rejected and there is a linear positive correlation between ease of use and e-WOM.

H_02: There is no significant relationship between ease of use, e-WOM on Consumer Purchasing decision making (CPDM)

Table– 3: Regression

In Table 3, simple correlation value is 0.771 which denotes a high degree of correlation. The R Square value denotes the degree of determination. The R square shows the extent of ease of use, social media, and e-WOM influences the Consumer purchasing decision making (CPDM). The R-Square and Adjusted R-square between Social media e-WOM and ease of use on consumer purchasing decision making were 0.594 and 0.581respectively. Hence the consumer purchasing decision making is determined by the extent of .771 by ease of use, social media, and e-WOM.

Table– 4: ANOVA^a

The Table 4 denotes that, significant value is less than 0.05. Hence consumer purchasing decision making is significantly predicted by ease of use, social media and e-WOM.

Table – 5: Coefficients^a

CPDM = - 831 + 0.384(SM) + 0.655(e-WOM) + 0.335(Ease of use)

Discussion

Previous research designates that there is a great statistical significance for the ease of use and an expedite interconnection on the decision process of purchasing via networks (Allahawiah et.al, 2018, Pietro and Pantano (2012). Ease of use plays an important role in influencing virtual women consumers (MadasuBhaskaraRao, 2018).This research shows that respondents are impacted by the purchase of products via social networking sites. The ease of use highly influences consumers to buy products via social networking sites (Mahashree, 2020). Studies have examined the hypothesis and have concluded that EWOM does have an impact on consumer decision on, purchasing (NthabisengMkhwanazi, 2018). Similarly, in this study it was found that there is a positive correlation between social media, e-WOM, and ease of use. The researcher recommended finding that social media, e-WOM and ease of use strongly influence consumer purchasing decision making. Women could be much more likely than males to be using social media and also have a greater intention of engaging in e-WoM. (Hafsa Abdul Hafeez, 2017). This study considered only the women employee to find the impact of social media on consumer purchasing decision making process. (Song, S., &Yoo, M. 2016) mentioned that researcher considered only for overall social media study, 5 beneficial variables like gender dissimilarity in electronic Word of Mouth, Social Networking Site write ups, consumers decision of buying, and experience can be valid. Researcher indicated that forthcoming examinations are vital to improve the theoretical and empirical context by adding several variables which might influence the buying decision of the consumer. In this current study, e-WOM and ease of use were considered as the variables that impact consumer purchasing decision.

Conclusion

Social media plays the vital role in consumer purchasing decision making process. Research can be conducted to assess the influence of social media on purchasing decision making by consumers. The study revealed that there is a positive correlation between social media, e-WOM and ease of use. This study also shows that extent of ease of use, social media and e-WOM influences the consumer purchasing decision making. It was explored clearly that consumer purchasing decision making is significantly predicted by ease of use, social networking sites and electronic word of mouth. As a result, social media have an effect on consumer purchasing decision making  consumers and women's purchasing decision making process can be influenced by e-Word of Mouth (e-WOM) and ease of use.

            This study considered only the women employee in IT, Teaching and Health sector. As for future research, expanding the dimensions of social networking sites to include elements other than ease of use and e-word of mouth will be a good future research area. The same investigation perhaps ended in profuse sectors to assess the social media impact on consumer purchasing decision making.

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