Impact of Social Media on Consumer Buying Behavior

This research paper explores the impact of social media on consumer buying behavior. It discusses the role of social media in influencing buying decisions and explores the reasons why consumers make purchases using social media. The study focuses on Australian consumers and their use of different social media platforms for purchasing goods.

Running head: IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR 1
The Impact of Social Media on Australian Consumers Buying Behavior
Name
Institutional Affiliation

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR 2
Introduction
The advances made in the field of information technology and communication
particularly the worldwide web in the recent past have made novel systems presented to
organization particularly social media. Generally, the presence of the worldwide web it has
permitted persons the chance to use social networking sites that range from email, Twitter and
Facebook to interrelate minus the need for physical gatherings (Erkan & Evans, 2016). Indeed,
all this interactions have been made possible through the Web applications, which has
revolutionized the internet to a social setting by the advent of social networking sites where
people are able to interact and generate data content online. Certainly, some few decades ago,
individual’s shopping way has significantly improved and gone through transformation. In the
past customers used to physically avail their selves at stores and shopping malls. Nonetheless,
with the advent of information technology and new communication machineries, customers are
currently, capable of shopping online via the internet using a range of social media podiums
(Friedrich, 2015). With the intensification of social media as well as online societies, individuals
can effortlessly share and access information. Social networking sites and online communities
have become an operative web technology for social interactions and sharing of information.
Currently, Social Networking Sites (SNSs) have taken a center-stage in electronic commerce,
where consumers are able to make social consumers to take part in cyberspace. In the modern
era, shoppers have accessibility to multiple information sources as well as experiences that have
been propelled by different consumers’ recommendations and information. Accordingly, social
media has become a significant marketing platform that proactively involves customers.
Social networking sites provide a range of values to companies such as improved product
popularity, rises sales and facilitates worth-of-mouth communication Fulgoni (2015), generating

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR 3
social support for consumers and information sharing in business contexts (Godey et al., 2016).
Additionally, the interacting of persons through social media offers collective values leading to a
key influence on trust. With the progress of social media and social networking sites there is
need to study shopper’s behavior on these podiums in a study objective. Social media has the
potential to improve marketing strategies amongst organizations to build trust mechanisms and
customers’ intends to purchase online goods (Ellison, Gibbs, & Weber, 2015). The core thrust of
this research paper is to investigate the role played by social media platforms and how they
influence people’s buying intentions.
Objective
The focus of this study is on the buying perception of buyers who utilize dissimilar social
media platforms to purchase their favorite goods. The paper uses the following research
objectives to explore on the research topic:
 To find out the exact role played by social media at diverse levels of individuals’ buying
behavior and decision-making process.
 To determine the reasons as to why consumers make purchases using social media.
Research questions
The researcher will use the following questions that will act as a guide in investigating about the
study topic:
1. What role does social media at different levels of individuals’ buying behavior and
decision-making process?
2. Which reasons drives consumers in making purchases using social media?

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR 4
Literature Review
Introduction
The marketing landscape has undergone drastic transformation over the past two decades.
In the past, corporations and their clients had no straight connection to the perspective of each
other’s worlds. The advent of social media has significantly revolutionized the way in which
shoppers interact amongst themselves and their companies. Through the rising usage of social
media through the word-of-mouth, consumers have become a significant and great inspiration on
peers (Husnain & Toor, 2017). Social networking sites and social media platform are vital tools
that allow people to recommends products, share information and tell both positive and negative
experiences with different company products.
Recognize the type of consumers influenced most by social media
In the present world, consumer are playing a critical role on the marketing landscape. In
simple terms, consumers are described as persons who purchase services and products online or
offline. These are the main variables that has been described to be a key variable that influence
consumers is demographic variables. The report shows that the sum of female as well as male
consumers has extensively improved in the recent years (Khatib, 2016). In regard to online
division, there is a minor dissimilarity, whereby there exists two major online subdivisions:
“social clickers” and “online insiders”.
Consumers that browse the internet minus buying online (Social clickers)
Social clickers are defined as people who are proactive on a daily basis who have a
tendency to use the internet for a range of resolutions like sharing information, research on
different content, receiving news and communicating with friends (Vanden Abeele et al., 2018).

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR 5
Social clickers are intensive online conversationalists, nonetheless a majority of them are young
and less affluent. Therefore, these young social clickers are not often influenced to make
purchase decisions as at now; however, they are likely to become strong influencers in future
(Kim & Johnson, 2016).
Consumer who actually make purchases online (Online insiders)
Describes online insiders as lively users of the internet who are greatly influenced by
online shoppers through a variety of social media networks to purchase and vend goods and
services. Ordinarily, consumer’s purchasing varieties are highly predisposed by online products
and at the same time consumers can sway one another. Indeed, this kind of event often impact
the repurchase process as well. Thus, users are increasingly revolving into social media to get
more information that they base their buying decisions. According to Lim, Radzol, Cheah, and
Wong (2017) a majority of online consumers to be better educated, young, and computer
knowledgeable wealthier and probable to spent time on the internet as well as shop online.
Realize why consumer use social media to make purchases
The essence of most people visiting websites is to interconnect with other users for
purposes of accomplishing certain things. Through interaction over the internet advertisers’
impact internet users in various ways that play an essential role in enabling to become aware of
unacquainted merchandises. The usage of social network sites has turn out to be a necessity in
the modern world that is used to influence consumers through various aspects. Some of these
factors include design factors, psychological factors, and information factors (Schivinski &
Dabrowski, 2016).

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR 6
Design factors: Often users are influenced by the design features of a website page. If a webpage
is elegant and regularly restructured, users tend to become more fascinated to purchase online.
On top of that, the design approach is impacted the detail of information offered in regard to the
product as well as the display themes used by the webpage such as colors, images, links and
icons.
Information factors: Stephen (2016) suggest that consumers are more willing to make purchases
online if a range of products and information is provided. In addition, warranties, offers as well
as guarantees that are offered alongside the products wins the attention of consumers to shop
online (Sudha & Sheena, 2017).
Psychological factors: Psychological factors are used to influence the consumer’s approach
toward online ordering. For example, if a consumer build confidence on a given website, hence
become more willing to buy online with a lot of easy and reduced uncertainty for online products
(Utz & Breuer, 2017). Furthermore, consumers are influenced by their friends as well as relatives
which affects their approach to use of social networking sites.
Cultural factors: Research has found that customers can be influenced by other people beliefs in
terms of decision making and making choices in regard to certain products (Swani, Milne,
Brown, Assaf, & Donthu, 2017). Similarly, cultures affects consumers’ interaction lifestyle as
well as communication over new technologies.
Which products are most appropriate for social media?
Many studies have conducted numerous analysis to identify and forecast the relation amongst
shopping behavior and products (Yahia, Al-Neama, & Kerbache, 2018). Through these analysis

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR 7
it has aided many researchers to come up with lists of goods that are appropriate to be sold
through the internet. These lists include tangible products and intangible products.
 Palpable products (high discrepancy) group: These are merchandises that have various
classes such as electronic devices, automobiles, jewelries, clothes, books, and
accessories.
 Intangible merchandises (information) group: These are merchandises that offer
information to customers like computer software, online video, financial reports, music,
stock market and weather information.
Types of social media mostly used by consumers
The most frequently used social media platforms by consumers for the numerous
purposes include Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. A study by Song and Yoo (2016) has found
that more than 12 million users use approximately 70% of social media to make their purchases
on services and products, which provides enough information regarding certain products and
sharing commentaries with other users. For example, Facebook has over 7 million users who are
registered to purchase and share info about products (Fulgoni, 2015). A recent research has
shown that more than 60% of Facebook users are more likely to commend products and services
to their relatives as well as friends after following a certain trademark on social media (Xie, &
Lee, 2015). Facebook has attained over 50% users who make purchases online by using their
platform. On the other hand, Twitter has recorded over one million followers who have shown
their indebtedness to the services delivered as well as products over its platform. A similar study
has found that written blogs have increased in the past two years from 50% to approximately
75%, and watching videos related to a variety of products increased from 30% in 2013 to 80% in
2017 (Kim, N., & Kim, W. (2018). Another study by Xie and Lee (2015) indicated that

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR 8
approximately 80% of Twitter operators said that they are more capable to applaud a service or a
product to their associates or relatives after following the product on social media. In addition to
that over 60% of the users use Twitter to purchase different products and services.
In the recent past, Instagram has been spreading extensively because of proactive users who
upload and share dissimilar product photos. In regard to the activities offered by users using
Instagram, the findings have shown that approximately 20 billion photos have been shared by
users over their Instagram accounts (Evans, Phua, Lim, & Jun, 2017). According to an interview
to Phil Gonzalez the initiator of Instagram recognized that there is an increase in Instagram users.
Based on the interview Gonzalez said that the number of operators with Instagram account has
enlarged in less than three years to over 2 billion users across the globe (Järvinen, Ohtonen, &
Karjaluoto, 2016). Nedra, Hadhri, and Mezrani (2019) suggests that in the near future,
Instagram will become a fully-fledged commercial business that will launch a checkout feature
to mobile apps. With the checkout feature it will be possible to for people to store their payment
information with Instagram to allow them make purchases easily. As a result, Instagram will in
turn charge retailers a selling fee. Currently, Instagram has eligible in-app checkout with a huge
blue “Checkout on Instagram” button bellow them. The checkout on Instagram has enabled
consumers to provide delivery information and payment methods once they have reviewed a
product details.
Research Methodology
In this study the researcher will majorly focus on the secondary methods by utilizing
published information sources to analyze the correlation between social media and its influence
on consumer buying behaviors exercised by Australian consumers in the various business sectors
such as apparel, electronic and accessories industries. The secondary data sources will include

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR 9
Woolworths Company, Circuitwise Electronics Manufacturing and Designa Accessories
Company sales reports.
Research Design
The research design provides the plan to be followed at the time of the research process.
The research design explains the plan about how the research objectives are answered in addition
to the significance of a clear framework in the research objectives. Therefore, the research design
defines the framework for the entire research which comprises data collection, justification of the
research methods and analysis.
Study Population
The population that will be used for this reports will include Woolworths Company,
Circuitwise Electronics Manufacturing and Designa Accessories Company. The research will
analyze in detail the companies’ social media advertising strategy for the past three years.
Data Collection Method
The data about consumer’s buying behavior will be gathered from the selected companies
websites and the social media platforms used by these organization to market their products. The
advertising annual reports will act as vital source of information. During data collection period
the researcher will use a quantitative data gathering approach. Qualitative research method is a
systematic empirical investigative strategy that employs secondary data that has been previously
gathered by other scholars and researchers on the study topic. The essence of the investigator
utilizing a qualitative research method is because it provides an in-depth and extensive picture
captured in regard to how social media has impacted the buying behavior of consumers
particularly in the apparel industry, accessories industry and electronic industry. On the same

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR 10
note, qualitative method has the capacity to create more openness regarding the subject under
research, which will motivate the investigator to broaden their understanding on the study subject
(Chowdhury, 2015). On top of that, qualitative research has the ability to collect views and
attitudes. Some of the qualitative research will include:
Formal as well as informal conversations with consumers regarding their satisfaction with their
businesses.
Reviews and visits of rivals to help understand different company products and customer service
practices.
Focus groups with consumers and potential customers to help understand their attitude and
feelings toward the services and products that they purchase online.
Data Analysis Method
Data analysis is core to this report. The data collected from different companies
advertising report sources will be analyzed based on content analysis. All the data is related to
the impact of social media on consumers purchasing behavior, which will be detailed based on
sales reports recorded through different social media platforms. The analysts will analyze the
collected data by examining the qualitative information to guide the exploration based on
company sales reports registered through different social media platforms. The analyst will
embrace qualitative data analysis since it offers the analyst with a clear understanding in regard
to the research objectives by unmasking consumers buying behaviors and patterns (Forrester &
Sullivan, 2018). Furthermore, the analysts will utilize a deductive approach in analyzing the
qualitative data. The deductive approach enable the investigator to utilize the research objectives
as a guide in categorizing and analyzing the data.

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR 11
Conclusion
The research conclusion will be drawn once the whole research has been completed. The
hypothesis will be drawn based on the reviewed literature and it will be tested in order to come
up with a valid conclusion about the research topic.
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