A Study on Social Media Marketing Impact on Online Purchase Decisions

This dissertation investigates the impact of social media marketing (SMM) on online purchasing decisions, using Amazon as a case study. It addresses the shift from traditional marketing to social media platforms and examines how SMM influences consumer buying intentions and preferences. A survey of 100 Amazon customers was conducted, and the findings suggest that SMM significantly aids consumers by providing product information, prices, and offers, enabling informed purchasing decisions. The study highlights the importance of word-of-mouth publicity and high interactivity on social media, fostering trust and reliability. The dissertation concludes by recommending that Amazon's marketing division focus on content reliability, consumer engagement, and interactivity to enhance its SMM strategies, and also is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and resources for students.

DISSERTATION
(A study on the impact of social-media marketing on online
purchasing decisions; A case study on Amazon)
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Acknowledgement
I would like to pay a great thanks to my supervisors who had provided me high level of
assistance during the entire investigation and make it possible for me to complete the study
successfully and on time as well. There coherent and unconditional support really proven as a great
help for me in completing the investigation successfully without compromising the quality.
Moreover, I am really thankful to every participants and members in the study i.e. my friends &
family members who provided me enough level of support & inspire to not lose hope and devoted
full mind to carry out the investigation.
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Abstract
In the modern period, social media emergence has revolutionised the traditional and earlier
modes of marketing communications used by the corporations i.e. televisions, print media,
magazines, radio and newspaper ads. Social-media marketing (SMM) is a continuous and ongoing
process whereby companies gain excessive user traffic or millennial audience base through the use
of social-media networking channels. In this, companies promote their offerings on social media
platform & foster the relationship with the stakeholders online. Amazon is a leading American
cloud computing and e-commerce business that has a very broad product portfolio and
headquartered in Seattle, Washington, US. The research aimed at finding out the impact of its social
media marketing on the online buying intentions and purchasing preferences of the consumers. For
this a survey has been conducted to gather the responses of 100 regular online customers of Amazon
using inductive approach and intepretivism philosophy which has been examined by thematic
perception test. The findings of the report concluded that SMM greatly helps the audiences in
diversified ways such as delivery of required information online about product quality, prices and
offers. Thus, users can search any information any time just on a single click which helps them to
make solid buying decisions & satisfy their own needs & expectations accordingly. Word of mouth
(WOM) publicity at the social media encourage the buyers to demand a particular goods and service
that Amazon is offering at its e-commerce and also provide them enough information in selecting
the best item. High interactivity is the main reason why they prefer SNS highly in comparison to the
other traditional mediums of marketing such as TV and newspaper ads & others. Under the online
channel, people can easily read the other persons opinion and know their reviews and comments
thus, it delivers trustworthy & reliable information to the user upon which they can easily believe to
make good decisions. Thus, it must be recommended to the Amazon’s marketing division to
consider the reliability of the content, boosting consumer engagement and establishing greater
connectivity and interactivity using social networking medium.
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER – 1 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................6
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................6
1.1 Background of the study............................................................................................................6
1.2 Statement of the problem...........................................................................................................7
1.3 Research aims and objectives....................................................................................................8
1.4 Research questions.....................................................................................................................8
1.5 Significance of the study............................................................................................................8
1.6 Structure of the dissertation.......................................................................................................9
CHAPTER – 2 LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................10
2.0 Introduction..............................................................................................................................10
2.1 Concept of social-media marketing.........................................................................................10
2.2 Role of Social Media Advertisements in e-commerce business models.................................12
2.3 Benefits and challenges faced in social-media advertisement.................................................13
2.4 Impact of social-media marketing on online purchasing decisions.........................................15
CHAPTER – 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..............................................................................18
3.0 Introduction..............................................................................................................................18
3.1 Research philosophy................................................................................................................18
3.2 Research approach...................................................................................................................19
3.3 Research design.......................................................................................................................19
3.4 Research type...........................................................................................................................20
3.5 Data collection.........................................................................................................................21
3.6 Universe and sampling.............................................................................................................22
3.7 Sampling techniques................................................................................................................22
3.8 Data analysis............................................................................................................................23
3.9 Ethical implications.................................................................................................................23
CHAPTER – 4 DATA FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS........................................................................25
4.0 Introduction..............................................................................................................................25
4.1 Data analysis and examination................................................................................................25
CHAPTER -5 CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................37
5.0 Introduction..............................................................................................................................37
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5.1 Conclusion and recommendations...........................................................................................37
5.2 Limitation and future research.................................................................................................39
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................40
APPENDIX........................................................................................................................................44
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CHAPTER – 1 INTRODUCTION
Research title: A study on the impact of social media advertising on online purchasing decision: A
case study on Amazon
1.0 Introduction
In the first section of the thesis, the background & a brief overview of the study has been
presented to have an idea about the area of investigation. Moreover, the problem statement also has
been analyzed to identify the need of the current study and on the basis of it, target aims and
objectives has been framed. Further, the contribution of the study has been presented along with the
structure that how the study will be progressed.
1.1 Background of the study
In modern times, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has witnessed
considerable change in the global corporate scenario with the emergence of wireless technology,
new and unique enterprise software, applications and others. In the past decade, technological
advancement through internet revolutionised major changes in corporate world by the means of
online presence. Now-a-days, internet becomes an important part of everyone’s life because it
provided an opportunity to the people to interact with others using online networking without the
need of physical meetings. According to the recent statistical data, in Australia, 85.1% proportion of
the population totalled to 20,679,490 is the internet users who access various online medium and
channels for different purpose. The emergence of web 2.0 technology can be considered as a unique
advancement which brought significant change in the online commerce & trading functions by
introducing social-networking channels & social media (Tuten and Solomon, 2014). It built a strong
interconnectivity and boosted the active participation on internet. The technology emphasizes more
upon user-centred content and use social media sites as the channel of developing connection with
the public (Heymann-Reder, 2012). With the rise of web connectivity & social-media users,
establishments started incorporating social networking channels like Facebook, blogs, video sharing
channels (YouTube) and other web applications in their marketing and promotional campaign to
attract greater number of audiences from all around the world. Social-media marketing (SMM) is a
continuous and ongoing process whereby companies gain excessive user traffic or millennial
audience base through the use of social-media networking channels. In this, companies promote
their offerings on social media platform & foster the relationship with the stakeholders online
(Hoffman and Fodor, 2010). It has an ability to reach broad market covering both the inbound and
outbound consumers, facilitates online communication, relationship management and boost brand
popularity to fuel competitive success. It made a significant contribution in the e-commerce by
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boosting strong connection in the cyberspace because, now, customers can inquire any sort of
information using internet and make rational buying decisions to satisfy themselves (Kaur, 2016).
Amazon is a leading American cloud computing business that is listed on NASDAQ and
operates worldwide. It is an e-commerce business that has a very broad product portfolio and
headquartered in Seattle, Washington, US. It is the strongest online retailer firm that has a strong
customer base and offers the best online shopping experience to them. It has number of online retail
websites in UK, Ireland, US, Germany, Netherland, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, Australia, Spain
and others which shows its worldwide presence. It promote its brand through social networking
channels under the promotional campaign wherein the first post each and every information on
social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest and others and get amazing results to build a strong
brand popularity and thereby gain competitive edge (Amazon’s Approach to Social Media, 2013).
The thrust of the current research is to investigate the impact of social media marketing and
advertisement practices on the online buying preferences and decisions of the consumers. The study
will investigate that how social sites can influence consumers purchasing intentions by making an
online communication with the users. Furthermore, it emphasized on finding the key benefits and
challenges that Amazon has gained and might faced in their social-media promotional programs.
1.2 Statement of the problem
With the rapid evolution of social networking medium, companies all over the world has paid
attention to devise many SMM promotional plans and strategies to attract million of users on their
websites so as to strengthen their brand popularity inside and outside the domestic marketplace.
Thus, the investigation will find out the key determinates of customers buying decisions in the
online market and thereby identify that how social-media platform influence the users whether to
buy the particular goods or services or not. The main problems towards which the study pays focus
is determining the impact of social-media marketing and advertisement practices of Amazon on the
purchasing intention & behaviour of customers (Shenoy and Prabhu, 2016). It is important to be
studied because currently, almost each & every entity regardless their size and scope of operations
are involved in the online marketing by the means of social-media networking channels. Moreover,
it will be a two-folded study which will carry out a thorough investigation of both the positive &
negative impact of SMM on the Amazon’s performance. Finding out the key challenges in the
marketing practices of the business enable the investigator to make solid plans & strategies that e-
commerce companies might implement so as to foster the strong online connectivity & build sound
relationship with the existing and potential users to gain large customer traffic (Chitra and Sasikala,
2016). Thus, the main emphasize of the thesis will be upon finding out the impact of social media
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ads on customer behaviour.
1.3 Research aims and objectives
Aim: The focus of the research is “To critically investigate the role of social-media marketing
practices upon the online purchasing preferences and decisions of the consumers in the context to
Amazon”.
Objectives:
 To investigate the role and significance of social-media advertisement & marketing
 To explore the relationship between consumer perception towards online shopping & social-
media ads placed by Amazon
 To identify the major benefits and challenges faced by Amazon in their social-media
advertisement
 To recommend the most viable strategies to the Amazon to reach the crowded audiences
during their buying decisions journey
1.4 Research questions
Q.1. What is the concept of marketing through social-media platform?
Q.2. How Amazon’s social media networking channels can influence the buying decisions of the
consumers?
Q.3. What are the opportunities and risks can be faced by the Amazon’s marketing division in their
SMM?
Q.4. How Amazon and other marketers can utilize the SMM tools effectively in order to reach
millennial consumer base?
1.5 Significance of the study
In today’s period, companies invest a large amount of capital in the online marketing, more
importantly, on social media platform to gain a heavy crowd and large audience base. With context
to Amazon, it also invest a huge fund on online marketing to bring attention of the audiences from
inside and outside market for acquisition of more profit. Although, there are enormous studies has
been investigated prior but majority of the scholars has focused the core attention on the benefits &
drawbacks of the SMM for the businesses instead of findings its impact on the buying decisions of
the consumers. Thus, the study is decided to be conducted focusing the impact of the social-media
marketing practices of Amazon on the buying intention, preferences and decisions of the social-
media users. The outcome of the study presents an unique contribution for the e-commerce
businesses like Amazon to create the innovative plans & strategies to effectively utilize the tools of
social-media marketing to reach the larger audience base. In addition to this, scholars who are
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interested in researching various issues in the related area can use the study as a secondary source of
data and develop a conceptual & theoretical base for their own investigation.
1.6 Structure of the dissertation
Chapter - 1: Introduction: Every research starts with a brief overview & background
knowledge, thus, at the starting point; the chapter consists of a description of the overview,
objectives of the study, problem statement and significance of the investigation.
Chapter – 2: Literature review: This part focuses on data gathering from the secondary
sources, more importantly, previous research papers and articles of the scholars, so that, a
conceptual framework can be developed to provide a base to the study. It enables investigator to
find out the gap in previous studies that will be bridge through the current investigation.
Chapter – 3: Research methodology: Under this section, methodology has been framed
addressing the paradigm, approach and research design. Moreover, the data collection method &
analytical technique also has been decided by which the gathered materialistic information has been
examined to identify the impact of social-media ads on the consumer buying decisions.
Chapter – 4: Data findings and analysis: This chapter deals with the data collection and its
analysis adopting technique of thematic perception test wherein a number of themes have been
constructed to assess and investigate the effect of social-media marketing on the purchasing
preferences and decisions of online consumers.
Chapter – 5: Conclusion & Recommendations: This chapter present a brief conclusion of
the whole research in a summarized format. It also suggests upcoming scholars regarding the area
of further investigations and also recommends the entity about the most effective strategies and
promotional plans to effectively utilize the social media marketing tools to provide best online
experiences to the consumers.
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CHAPTER – 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
This section of the research will design a conceptual base to support the study by gaining in-
depth knowledge and critical research of different theories and use of social media marketing in the
e-commerce model of the businesses. For the same, secondary resources by the means of previous
research papers and articles of the scholars has been studied and examined so that researcher can
develop his or her own opinion and carry out the study in a thoroughly manner.
2.1 Concept of social-media marketing
According to Chung and Muk (2017), shoppers and marketers can now reach or can get
touch directly to the customers through social media. Technology develops the powerful search
engines, social sites etc which connects the people online. Concept of shoppers marketing is a new
that has created an direct communication between business and consumer. It is a planning to
execute the activities that influence the motivation to shop, purchase, recommendation and
repurchase. It can improve product, promoters and can serve as connecting in-store activities.
Besides this, Godey and et.al., (2016), social media is a set which includes blogs, forums or
social networks. It has been a huge platform of web based technology. It is an interactive platform
which brings individual and communities together. Internet has many websites and each of them has
different contributes to different sections of society. Sites like Facebook are for general masses and
linkedIn for professionals networks. You tube etc for media sharing. Social media creates an direct
relationship between organization and customer. Organization can provide information on large
platform to the customers and the customers are also free to publish negative or positive thoughts to
the information.
As per Kedzior and et.al., (2016), culture plays an important role in influencing to individual
on social media. It means that ethnic or culture background influence individual content on social
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media. Social media allows the new culture by new communication ways on sites. Retailers need to
focus on culture to utilize social network. Culture backgrounds and traditions plays an important
role into the formulation of customers attitude towards brand or products. Culture and ethics are
teach to the individual from the birth so it can be the major factor influencing the customer.
(Social media for online shopping decisions in US, 2016)
Despite this, Lamberton and Stephen (2016), stated that social media affects the consumer
attitudes and motives towards the brand or product. In his study he founds those groups on
Facebook response to advertisement and the psychological factor of attitude and self disclosure is
different from the non-member of Facebook groups. Evidencing from the presented graph, it can be
seen that Facebook gains top preferences among online buyers in comparison to the social
networking sites like twitter, Yelp, Google reviews and others. The study concludes that the
members on Facebook are more likely to disclose their personal details than the non-member of
Facebook. Participation in the form of groups online requires personal information because they
promote brand or product through the pass on of advertisement to their friends. Social site users are
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more favourable attitudes towards advertisement on social sites. Positive attitude are more likely to
join brand because they receive the promotional message. He finds that on Facebook mostly the
college-aged users are highly influenced by the advertisement.
However, on the other side, Schivinski and Dabrowski (2016), he founds that the age and
attitude play an important role towards the online advertisement. He found that users between 18-28
have positive attitude towards the video and blogs format of advertisement. This is because they are
eye catching and attractive to them. Online advertisement welcomes positive attributes of customers
more with the pop up or floating format. It also depends on the users perception to the particular
advertisement. Different users from the different age groups, professional etc plays an role in the
influence of customer. The social media connects all the age group of the people at one platform.
2.2 Role of Social Media Advertisements in e-commerce business models
Social media marketing plays a wide role in e-commerce business. We live in a digital age.
In today's era business creates & develops websites, along with having websites for the betterment
& growth. As according to the Lamberton and Stephen (2016), social networking sites like twitter,
facebook etc are essential competitive edges to expand your outreach to social media platform.
The advantages of social media for business are that they can directly interact with the
customer. Improve Responsiveness social media ease the process of receiving instant feedback
about what are the customer's needs & desire. If the customer has any queries regarding business
offers they can let you know all the queries in timely manner. Effective Marketing it is These social
networking sites such as linked, twitter etc. helps to generate interest among customers by advertise
your product on social media without make the customer feel that they are overwhelmed by
marketing campaign. Affordable social media doesn't require any expensive budget to advertise the
business product, this make it fair with the small companies who are competing with the well
known brands. Companies use social media with the aim of creating, boosting their sales &
spreading their brand product digitally. According to the views of Ferguson and et.al. (2014), the
social media should be the part of marketing business because it creates connection with the target
audience. From Instagram to linked, there are many way to interact, give & share the information
related with product to end user. It gives instant value, as if social media is performing effectively
in the organisation. Some examples of popular social media applications are as - Facebook it create
ideal platform for creating brand awareness among the customers.
Twitter helps to encourage interaction among customers & make it easier to share valuable
content. You tube is the excellence choice of businesses to promote their brand & increase their
visibility through videos. Acc. to the Singh, S. and et.al. (2017), firstly organisation should set target
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