Impact of E-marketing on Consumer Purchase Decision Making

RESEARCH PROJECT

Table of Contents
TITLE..............................................................................................................................................1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1
Background..................................................................................................................................1
Aim..............................................................................................................................................1
Objectives....................................................................................................................................1
Research questions.......................................................................................................................2
Rationale......................................................................................................................................2
Dissertation structure...................................................................................................................2
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................4
Introduction..................................................................................................................................4
Theme:1 Role of E-marketing on consumer purchase decision-making. ...................................4
Theme:2 Determine the factors that impact on the consumer decision-making. ........................5
Theme:3 Impact of E-marketing on consumer purchase decision-making. ...............................7
Summary......................................................................................................................................8
CHAPTER – 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................9
Research Type..............................................................................................................................9
Research Design.........................................................................................................................10
Research Approach....................................................................................................................11
Research philosophy..................................................................................................................12
Data collection method..............................................................................................................13
Sampling Process.......................................................................................................................14
Data Analysis.............................................................................................................................15
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION-2500...................................................................18
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................26
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................30

TITLE
Title of this research project is “To identify the impact of E-marketing on consumer
purchase decision making.”
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Background
E marketing is a kind of process in which execution and planning of products and
services of an organization is done in a computerized and internet based environment (Chong,
Bian and Zhang, 2016). With the help of E marketing organizations focus on promoting their
products and services in order to satisfy their customers’ demands, needs and requirements. In
retail industry E marketing plays a vital role and helps in influencing purchasing and decision
making of their customers. E marketing is mostly done with the help of online challenges such as
social media, e-mail and many more in order to increase their customers interest within their
products and services. It is one of the main way through which retail industry organizations can
increase awareness about their products and services within their target market segment which
further helps them to achieve their desired marketing aims and objectives (Chong, Man and Kim,
2018). Not only this, e marketing has also provided retail industry organizations to enter into
global market and expand their business. This has also help and changed the way in which retail
industry organizations interact with their customers. Today most of the customers are using
internet for various purposes and because of which with the help of E marketing organizations
can easily get in touch with their customers. Due to advancement in technology many companies
are focusing on E marketing to fulfil their customers’ needs and desires, increase awareness
about their products and services. For retail industry organization It is extremely important to
focus on E marketing and focus on digital marketing strategies. This research project will focus
on retail industry organization and impact of E-marketing on consumer purchase decision
making.
Aim
Main aim of this research project is “To identify the impact of E marketing on consumer
purchase decision making. A case study on retail industry.”
Objectives
Main research objectives of this research project are as follows:
 To evaluate the role of E-marketing on consumer purchase decision making.
1

 To analyse factors that impact on consumer decision making.
 To investigate impact of E-marketing on consumer purchase decision making.
Research questions
Main research questions of this research project are as follows:
 What are roles of E marketing on consumer purchase decision making?
 What are different factors that impact on consumer decision making?
 How can investigation the impact of E marketing on consumer purchase decision making?
Rationale
This topic has been chosen because of personal interest of the researcher in digital and
email marketing of retail industry organizations. It is an important topic to be focused on as
many organizations fail to understand direct and indirect impact of E marketing on consumers
purchase and decision making. Today importance of E marketing is increasing continuously.
Most of the organizations are focusing on implanting digital marketing strategies as it is helping
them to increase their overall sales and is also helping them to expand their business (Siakalli,
Masouras and Papademetriou, 2017). E marketing is directly associated with involvement of
customers in buying of products and services of the organization. This research topic is
important to be focused on as it will help in understanding consumer’s behaviour, purchasing
and decision making in terms of market success and increasing overall sales. This research will
also focus in understanding ways in which consumer’s decision making process is influenced by
brand reputation, digital marketing. This study lay emphasis on ways in which brand awareness,
brand reputation and ways in which e marketing has changed perception of customers towards
retail organizations as well as their products and services. With the help of this research retail
industry organizations can understand roles of E marketing on consumer purchase decision
making, factors that impact on consumer decision making. So, this research is important to be
done as it will help retail industry organizations to understand e marketing and bring required
changed within their marketing strategies.
Dissertation structure
Structure of dissertation includes all the elements that are included within dissertation and
way in which complete research study will be carried out.
2

1. Abstract: Abstract consist of overall summary of the research project i.e. it reports aim and
objectives of the research in order to make readers understand what the study is all about. It
also provides an overview of all the methods that are used within a structure.
2. Introduction: This Chapter justifies the study and helps the researcher to provide an
overview of the research study by presenting aim, objectives, research questions, rationale,
significance and background of the study.
3. Literature Review: This chapter focuses on reviewing past work of other researchers that
have been carried out in this research area. This chapter also helps in exploring answers to
main research questions in a much better ways or it can also be said that it helps in building a
base to research study.
4. Methodology: This chapter provides and overview and justification of research methods that
are used by the researcher to complete the study.
5. Results and Discussion: In this chapter results of primary investigation and analysis will be
presented in order to answer the research questions. Analysis of primary data is one of the
most important part of the project as it helps in presenting overall results of the project in a
much better manner.
6. Conclusion and Recommendations: This chapter provides an overview of literature review,
results and discussion carried out within the dissertation. In this chapter overview of the
research project is given with errors and limitations faced by the researcher during the
project. Based on the findings of the project proper recommendations are also provided so
that recommendations for future study can be provided to other researchers who might want
to investigate this research topic further.
3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
Literature review can be defined as a kind of review in which various previous researches
that have been carried out in this research area are reviewed. It helps the researcher to enhance
their existing knowledge in the field of research and chosen research area (Erum, Rafique and
Ali, 2017). In this most of the Peer reviewed sources such as books, articles, journals and many
more are reviewed in order to gather information about the research topic. In this chapter various
research articles e marketing and consumer decision making process will be reviewed. Based on
the articles few research areas such as role of E marketing, factors that impact consumer’s
decision making and impact of e marketing on consumers purchase decision will be summarised
and discussed.
Theme:1 Role of E-marketing on consumer purchase decision-making.
According to the view of Siakalli, Masouras and Papademetriou, (2017) Today E
commerce, online shopping is continuously increasing which is further helping organizations to
increase or expand their overall business. This is increasing importance for the companies to
bring changes or development within their marketing techniques. E marketing is one of the most
commonly used technique which is help the organizations to increase awareness about their
products and services among their customers. E marketing is further helping the organizations to
strengthen their relationship with their customers and achieve their desired marketing aim and
objectives. It is a process through which companies can exchange or share their products, ideas
and services with their customers that can further help them to satisfy both companies and
customers goals, needs and desires (Chong, Man and Kim, 2018). E marketing is one of the
strategy which is focused on by most of the organizations. Due to advancement in technology it
has become one of the most important factor to be focused on for the organizations’ so that they
can enhance their relationship with the customers. This technological advancement has impacted
buying behaviour and decision making process of customers. Marketing of a product or service
of an organization helps them to increase awareness among their customers so that they can get
to know their products and services, innovation brought by the companies and many more. It has
also helped organizations to bring innovation within their product, increase their customer base,
get to know their consumers’ needs in a better manner which has further impacted purchase
decision of their customers. Siakalli, Masouras and Papademetriou, (2017) further explains that,
4

there are various channels though which E marketing can be done by an organization such as:
search engine marketing, email marketing, interactive marketing, pay per click marketing and
many more. These challenges help an organization to reach to their customers in a better manner.
It also helps them to grab attention of their customers so that they can increase awareness about
their product. Most of the organizations still uses traditional methods of E marketing however it
has risen and various other ways have been developed that are require prominent for the
companies to be used and expand their business.
As per the view of Shabani, Munir and Hassan, (2018) E-marketing is similar to internet
marketing but it has a broader meaning as it includes digital media as well as management of
organizational relationship with digital customers and their data. This has increased importance
of E marketing especially for retail industry organizations. According to a survey it has been
observed that in past 10 years E marketing has increased drastically as it is quite beneficial for
organizations as it is quite cost effective, can increase access for organizations to reach to their
global customers, it is less time consuming, interactivity with customer’s increases, helps
organizations to gain competitive advantage and many more (Shabani, Munir and Hassan, 2018).
Another benefit that E marketing has provided to retail industry organizations is that it has
helped to increase availability of their products for their customers, helped in understanding
issues faced by their customers which has further helped them to bring improvement within their
products and services in a between manner in order to fulfil their needs and desires in a better
manner. This has majorly impacted purchasing or buying decision making of their customers.
Theme:2 Determine the factors that impact on the consumer decision-making.
According to the view of Seddighi, Sharifi and Seddighi, (2018) Different kinds of
consumers have different, needs and desires. In order to understand their decision making
process first of all it is important to understand what are the factors that can impact their decision
making process. There are various factors that can affect or impact consumer decision making
process. Consumer buying decision making is majorly affected by many factors. Marketers are
required to understand and evaluate ways in which consumer’s behaviour is impacted because of
these factors that can impact their decision making in future. Consumers might not even realize
impact of these factors on them but marketers can understand and evaluate its impact on
customers by analysing its effect on them. Seddighi, Sharifi and Seddighi, (2018) further
explains that one of the main factor that impact on the consumer decision-making is social
5

factors. It is one of the main and prominent factor that influence decision making as all the
consumers have one or the other person around them who can influence their decision making
whether they are family, reference group or anyone else. Every customer belongs to one or the
other group who can, not only impact their decision making but can also change or impact their
perception towards a product or a service. These groups develop an environment for the
customers which can impact their values, perception, personality etc. towards a thing. It has been
observed that customers who carries out or develops a brand perception within their early adult
hood can carry out the same perception throughout their lives. Social factors develop a
behaviour, personality and behaviour or customers that further impact their decision making
process.
As per the view of Zhang, Zhao and Gupta, (2018) there are many other factors other than
social factors that impact consumer decision making. Personal factors are one of them,
consumers age and their life-cycle stage affects their buying decision making. Personal factors
distinguish each customer from one another. These factors affect overall behaviour of the
consumers. Due to personal factors customer’s brand choice, their values, believes within the
product gets affected in many ways. Other than this, there are various psychological factors that
can impact consumer’s decision making. Some of the most common psychological factors are:
perception, motivation, beliefs, attitude and learning. When a consumer starts recognizing their
surroundings, and belongingness their psychological need arises. Organizations can focus on
fulfilling psychological needs of their consumers and can focus on motivating them so that they
can impact their decision making. Zhang, Zhao and Gupta, (2018) further explains that, study
and influence of these factors on customer’s behaviour can help the organizations to underline or
develop their own factors that can impact decision making process of their customers. Marketers
need to analyse impact of these factors on customers and focus on motivating their customers in
order to attract them towards their products or services.
As per the view of Sarkar, Khare and Sadachar, (2019) in order to understand behaviour
and attitude of customers, marketers should focus on marketing campaigns organized by the
organization, economic condition of the market, personal preference of the customers, group
influence on the customers and purchasing power of the customers. These factors can directly
help the organizations to understand decision making pattern of their customers. Marketing
campaign impacts decision making of customers drastically. Many times these campaigns also
6