Impact of Social Media Marketing on Customer Engagement in Retail Industry

This study explores the impact of social media marketing on customer engagement in the retail industry. It investigates how social media marketing can increase customer engagement towards a brand. The study focuses on the retail industry and its use of digital marketing strategies.

Digital marketing
(An investigation into the impact of social media
marketing as a type of digital marketing in increasing
customer engagement towards the brand. A study on retail
industry)
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LITERTURE REVIEW...................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Background of the research
Digital marketing is also called online marketing that help business organisation in
promoting of its brand effectively. Digital marketing is a better use of mobile device, internet,
search engines, social media and many other channels to reach potential and new customers. This
type of marketing facilitates business organisations in attracting of larger customer base through
search platforms, content marketing, email, social media and many more (Dolega, Rowe and
Branagan, 2021). Digital marketing targets a particular segment of customers in accordance to
the brand. According to the current dissertation, social media marketing as an important type of
digital marketing is used for increasing customer engagement towards the brand. Social media
marketing introduces to the effective use of social network and social media to market or
promote a company’s services and products.
Customer engagement refers to the emotional connection between a brand and a
customer. Customer engagement monitors the relationship between company and customers.
This is essential for encouraging customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and increasing brand
awareness (Black, Jeseo and Vincent, 2021). Highly engaged customers are more important part
of business success and growth because they purchase more and promote more as well as
demonstrate more loyalty. This is highly essential for a business organisation in increasing of
sales and improving brand image. This turn to impact in increasing profitability and sales.
Social media marketing provides an effective way for engaging existing customers and
reaching new ones towards product, brand or service. In simple word, social media marketing is
the better use of social media platforms and network to connect with audience to build brand,
drive website traffic and increase sales. There are number of social media platforms such as
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest and LinkedIn. These are some
platforms that are essential for company in promoting of its brand in market. There are various
advantages or benefits of social media marketing for an organisation such as brand awareness,
brand loyalty, customer insights, customer experience, lead generation and sales etc. All these
are biggest advantages of social media marketing that helps company in improvement of its
brand awareness and growth (Gaffar and et. al., 2021). Therefore, social media marketing is
important in increasing customer engagement towards the brand.
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For this dissertation, retail industry is a chosen study. Retail is the process of selling
products or services to the customers via multiple channels of distribution with purpose of
earning profit. There are 10 key facts and stats regarding the UK retail sector. These are
mentioned as below in tabular form:
10 key facts and stats Facts
Total value of UK retail sales in 2020 £403
Billion
Proportion of consumer spending that goes through retail 1/3
People employed in UK retail in 2020 2.9 million
Proportion of retail sales made online in 2020 28%
Growth in UK retail sales in 2020 2.2%
Total number of VAT-registered retailers in the UK in 2019 208,760
Total number of retail outlets in the UK in 2019 306,655
Amount retail generates of total GDP (GVA) 5%
Average annual growth of online retail sales in 2020 45%
Online sales have risen three fold in the last 10 years 324%
From the above mentioned table, it has been interpreted that, there are some key and facts
that define retail industry is the main industry for United Kingdom. Along with this, there are
number of clothing online and supermarkets in United Kingdom. Main retailers are H&M, Marks
& Spencer, Amazon, Asda etc. These are main retailers of United Kingdom that serve their
services in all over the world. In year 2020, total value of retail sales of UK is around £403
Billion that is high and help in improvement of economic growth of country. Employment in UK
is approximately 2.9 million that is beneficial in improvement of living standard of people (UK
RETAIL STATS & FACTS. 2021). Therefore, retail industry in United Kingdom is more
successful that are essential for the growth and success of country or an individual. It is an
effective opportunity for an organisation to setup their business within retail industry.
Rationale of the research
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Main rationale behind conducting of this research is to identifying the impact of social
media marketing as a type of digital marketing in improving customer engagement towards the
brand. This is a main reason behind doing of this dissertation. This research is important and
significant at persona as well as professional level (Marques, Casais and Camilleri, 2021). At
personal level, present study facilitate investigator in enhancing of its different types of research
skills that are time management, decision making, presentation and many more. All these are
main skills that are essential for investigator in completion of each activity of dissertation in
systematic and successful manner. At professional level, present investigation facilitate
investigator or an individual in searching of job within retail industry. Therefore, present
investigation is important at personal and professional level by increasing their understanding
about the effectiveness of social media marketing as a main type of digital marketing in
increasing customer engagement.
Research aims and objectives
A research aim expresses the aspiration or an intention of the research study. Aim is
important part of dissertation because entire dissertation is based on them. Aim of the
dissertation is developed according to the title. This is important for researcher in achievement of
each objective successfully. Research objective is essential for investigator that developed
according to the research aim (Shahbaznezhad, Dolan and Rashidirad, 2021). Research aim
includes two variables that are dependent and independent. According to the current dissertation,
increasing customer base towards the brand is a dependent variable that is dependent on social
media marketing, it means social media marketing is an independent variable. Therefore,
research aim and objectives of the current research are mentioned as below:
Research aim:
"To identify the impact of social media marketing as a type of digital marketing in
increasing customer engagement towards the brand ". A study on retail industry
Research Objectives:
 To determine the types of digital marketing used by retail sector.
 To identify the significance of social media marketing as a type of digital marketing for
retail industry.
 To explore ways for increasing customer engagement towards the brand within retail
industry.
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 To examine the challenges faced by retail industry while increasing of customer
engagement.
Research questions
 What are the main types of digital marketing used by retail sector?
 What is the significance of social media marketing as a type of digital marketing for retail
industry?
 What are the effective ways for increasing customer engagement towards the brand
within retail industry?
 What are the major challenges faced by retail industry while increasing customer
engagement?
Structure of the dissertation:
This is a part of dissertation that includes some chapters or activities. These are important
for researcher in completion of full dissertation in systematic and successful manner. These
chapters are explained as below:
 Introduction: This is a first activity that includes different number of sub-activities such
as background of the research, aim and objectives of the study etc.
 Literature Review: This part of dissertation is based on secondary information that will
be gathered from secondary sources such as articles, magazines, books and many others.
All these are useful sources of collecting secondary data about the topic.
 Methodology: This is an important part of dissertation that helps investigator in
gathering and evaluating of data from effective type of methodology. There are different
types of methodologies such as positivism philosophy, deductive approach, quantitative
research, questionnaire and many others (Yoganathan, Osburg and Bartikowski, 2021).
All these are major types of methodologies used by researcher for collecting accurate
data regarding the impact of social media marketing as a type of digital marketing in
increasing customer base towards the brand.
 Discussion of results/analysis and findings: This section of dissertation facilitate
investigator in analysing of gathered information effectively. According to the existing
topic, quantitative data will be gathered from questionnaire. In order to evaluate
quantitative data, frequency distribution analysis will be applied as an analytical
technique.
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 Conclusion: This is a main part of dissertation that includes information about the entire
chapters in short and clear manner. This chapter facilitate investigator in achievement of
each objective and aim in successful manner.
 Recommendations: This part of dissertation includes some suggestions regarding the
improvement within research topic. This is essential for investigator in achieving all
objectives successfully.
Summary of the chapter
Introduction chapter is an important chapter of the dissertation because it included
different activities in systematic manner. These activities are research aim, objectives, questions,
background and rationale of the research etc. All these activities helped investigator in
conducting of next activity i.e. literature review is systematic and successful manner.
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LITERTURE REVIEW
Literature review is the process of gathering data from various secondary sources that are
articles, books, magazines and many others. There are various purposes of literature review in
dissertation such as provide foundation of knowledge on topic, identify inconstancies i.e. gaps in
research, conflict in previous studies etc. According to the existing topic, main gap is the impact
of social media marketing as a type of digital marketing in increasing customer engagement
towards the brand. In previous studies, there were lots of data available regarding the types of
digital marketing, but there were lack of information regarding the significance of social media
marketing in increase customer engagement towards an organisation or brand. For addressing
research gap, research questions are used by researcher.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Black, H. G., Jeseo, V. and Vincent, L. H., 2021. Promoting customer engagement in service
settings through identification. Journal of Services Marketing.
Dolega, L., Rowe, F. and Branagan, E., 2021. Going digital? The impact of social media
marketing on retail website traffic, orders and sales. Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services, 60, p.102501.
Gaffar, V. and et. al., 2021. Like, tag and share: bolstering social media marketing to improve
intention to visit a nature-based tourism destination. Tourism Review.
Marques, I. R., Casais, B. and Camilleri, M. A., 2021. The Effect of Macrocelebrity and
Microinfluencer Endorsements on Consumer–brand Engagement in Instagram.
In Strategic corporate communication in the digital age. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Shahbaznezhad, H., Dolan, R. and Rashidirad, M., 2021. The Role of Social Media Content
Format and Platform in Users' Engagement Behavior. Journal of Interactive
Marketing, 53, pp.47-65.
Yoganathan, V., Osburg, V.S. and Bartikowski, B., 2021. Building better employer brands
through employee social media competence and online social capital. Psychology &
Marketing, 38(3), pp.524-536.
Online
UK RETAIL STATS & FACTS, 2021. [online], Available through:
<https://www.retaileconomics.co.uk/library-retail-stats-and-facts>
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