Impact of Social Media on Consumer Purchasing Decisions: XYZ Ltd Study

This managerial project investigates the influence of social media on consumer purchasing decisions, particularly within the electronic market. The research, using a qualitative approach and inductive reasoning, explores the factors associated with social media, the impact on consumer behavior, and the challenges faced by companies. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources, with a sample of 30 consumers. The study aims to determine how social media affects buying decisions at a global level and provides recommendations for improving consumer engagement. Key findings indicate a positive correlation between social media usage and consumer buying behavior, with an increased dependency on social platforms. The project includes an introduction, literature review, research methodology, data analysis, and conclusions with recommendations. It provides valuable insights for businesses in the electronic industry to understand and leverage social media for effective marketing strategies and consumer engagement.

Managerial Project

ABSTRACT
The role of social media in the life of people today has undoubtedly increased and there is no one
today who is unaware or unaffected by the social media. The extensive marketing campaigns that
are carried out by the companies on such social media platforms has become revolutionary in the
past few years and the creativity level is being set at a higher level every day by the innovative
advertisements. In the current research, the influence of social media tools and platforms on the
buying decision made by the consumer at a global level particularly in relation to the electronic
markets have been evaluated. The researcher has undertaken qualitative research, chosen
inductive research approach, selected Interpretivism philosophy and has used descriptive
approach selected under conclusive research design. Data was collected from primary and
secondary sources and 30 consumers of social media were selected as a sample for the research.
The major finding was that the buying behaviour has been positively affected by the social media
and the dependency of the consumers has increased.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research project would not have been possible without the guidance of my mentor and
professor under whom I completed my entire study. I would also like to thank my teachers and
guide who helps me at every point. I would like to acknowledge her the support of my friends
and family who constantly motivated me for undertaking research activity. Lastly, I would like
extend my gratitude to the respondents who helped me in drawing relevant interpretations related
to the research.

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background.............................................................................................................................1
Aim and Objectives................................................................................................................1
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................4
Theme 1: To understand the factors associated with social media........................................4
Theme 2: To critically examine the impact of social media on consumer purchasing decision
at international level...............................................................................................................6
Theme 3: To determine the challenges faced by the company due to impact of social media on
consumer purchasing decision..............................................................................................10
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................12
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS................................................................................................19
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................34

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Topic: “To ascertain the impact of social media on consumer purchasing decision at
global level in the context of electronic market: A study on XYZ Ltd”.
INTRODUCTION
Background
Social media is considered to be one of the most impelling platform which in turn is used
by the consumer in order to make certain purchase decision. Social media is referred to as an
application or a website which helps individuals to share content quick and easily on a real time
basis. Social media is widely used for creating brand awareness which in turn is considered to be
very useful in building relationship with the existing and potential customers. Social media
platforms like social networking (Google +, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter,
Pinterest), Micro blogging (Tumblr, Twitter), personal website, etc. Social media is considered
to be very useful in creating brand awareness which in turn largely influences consumers to
make strategic purchase decision (Impact of Social Media On Consumer Purchase Decisions,
2020). This study will highlight on critically investigating the influence of social media on the
purchasing decision made by the consumer at an international level in relation with the electronic
market. Furthermore, this research project tends to highlight on critically examining the
challenges which has been faced by electronic market due to social media and it also helps in
gaining better perspective on effective recommendation strategies in order to improve the
purchasing decision making at an international level in association with the electronic market.
The XYZ ltd. is considered to be one of the leading company in electronic market. It
tends to deal in several electronic products and services.
Aim and Objectives
Aim
“To ascertain the impact of social media on consumer purchasing decision at global level
in the context of electronic market: A study on XYZ Ltd.”
Research Objectives
 To understand the factors associated with social media.
 To critically examine the impact of social media on consumer purchasing decision at
international level.
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 To determine the challenges faced by the company because of impact of social media on
consumer purchasing decision.
 To provide effective recommendation strategy to improve consumer purchasing decision
with social media.
Research Questions
 What are the key factors associated with social media?
 What is the impact of social media on consumer purchasing decision at international
level?
 What are the challenges faced by the company because of impact of social media on
consumer purchasing decision?
 What are effective recommendation strategy to improve consumer purchasing decision
with social media?
Rationale
The researcher of the study has opted for analysing the impact of social media on the
purchase decision making of the consumers in electronic market because it is considered to be
one of the major issue currently. This topic is selected by the researcher because it is considered
to be of the academic interest of the researcher (Kumar and et.al., 2016). This is the current issue
because consumer tends to focus on evaluating the reviews of the user. This in turn helps in
effectively carrying several business operations. This is considered to be the research issue
currently because rating, reviews, feedback, comments and offering of the competitors on the
social media tends to largely influence the buying decision making of the consumers. The
researcher of the study can resolve the particular issue by effectively gaining broader and wider
perspective on the research study by critically evaluating various themes and variables. The
researcher of the study has opted qualitative research methodology who in turn focuses on
effectively addressing each research questions. The key potential outcome of the study is to gain
better understanding and knowledge related to the subject matter which in turn helps in attaining
aims and objectives of the research (Lindlof and Taylor, 2017)
Research significance
The key significance for carrying out this research study is because carrying out this
research study is considered to be very beneficial for further investigation in the future. This
study material will help journalist and researcher to wider their knowledge related with the
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impact of social media on consumer purchasing decision at global level in the context of
electronic market. This study is also relevant for companies which tends to exist in the electronic
industry. This will help the management of the company to understand how social media
platforms results in influencing the decision making capability of the consumer. It also helps
management in analyzing which social media platform is considered to be the most effective to
gain attention of the consumers towards a particular brand in relation to the electronic market.
Social media is considered to be very vital for promoting the knowledge and capabilities
associated with the personal branding. The helps researcher in grasping to various aspects of the
study.
Chapter structure
Research chapter structure is considered to be the outline of particular set of work which
in turn is very useful in providing appropriate structure of the research towards the particular
dissertation.
Chapter 1: Introduction: This chapter tends to include brief explanation of particular research
background and it also includes aim and objectives of the research study. The introduction
chapter of the study will provide rationale for the particular area of the research topic and in turn
also provides research significance for the particular area of the research.
Chapter 2: Literature review: This chapter consists of the theoretical framework who tends to
provide critical viewpoints of various authors in order to bridge the gap on the particular subject
matter. This part helps in analyzing each themes in order to resolve the research problem using
secondary source.
Chapter 3: Research methodology: This chapter is useful in selecting the right methodology
which tends to contain explanation associated with research philosophy, research design,
research approach, data collection, sampling, data analysis and ethical consideration in order to
carry out research in appropriate and relevant manner.
Chapter 4: Data analysis: This chapter is useful in summarizing, analysing and interpreting the
data collected for the research study through primary source i.e., questionnaire, survey,
interviews, etc. This chapter also includes presentation of the data findings using bar graphs,
tables and pie charts with brief discussion and interpretation of each theme.
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Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendation: This chapter is useful in summarizing the data in
order to gain conclusive results and findings. Furthermore, this study also helps in giving
recommendable measures and strategies which can be used further to resolve research problems.
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review (LR) is the type of review articles which includes the current
knowledge along with substantive findings. Therefore, LR are the secondary sources which is
linked with academic oriented literature i.e. articles, journals and books. In the same way, the
current section helps to understand the the impact of social media upon the customer buying
behavior. Hence, by reviewing different journals and articles, researcher uses author's point of
view in order to describe the factors which are directly associated with the social media and
identify range of challenges which a company faces while using social media to access customer
decision.
Theme 1: To understand the factors associated with social media
The authors, Barger, Peltier and Schultz (2016), in their research paper have emphasized
the point that the with time, the aspects related to social media have evolved and marketing only
through the traditional mediums of newspaper, radio and television is no longer sufficient. The
authors state that social media involve use of different tools and techniques under which the
importance of using this evolved techniques has been highlighted. The majority of the target
population being connected to the social media through different platforms has forced the firms
to incorporate this evolved marketing field into consideration while developing strategies. As a
result, the bigger companies have now been hiring separate personnel and department that is
entirely responsible for such social media marketing budgets and strategies. As it has been
illustrated in the research paper, the major factors that organization must take into considerations
while shifting from the traditional marketing methods to the more evolved and developed social
media marketing involves different aspects. The first factor that affects social media marketing is
reliability of sources where the authors have claimed that the platforms that must be used for
implementing such social media marketing strategies must be reliable i.e. the targeted customer
segment must be familiar with those platforms.
The authors, Guesalaga (2016), have further illustrated that the selection of the correct
audience that needs to be targetted by the company is another major factor in this where the
marketers must value different types of users of the social media platforms and then select the
ones that match their criteria of targeted consumer segment. Another major criteria that has been
discussed by the authors relates to the quality of the content that is used in such marketing
strategies. Content is everything today and the more eye catching and appeasing it is, more will
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be the viewers and influencers of such marketing strategies thus increasing the chances of the
targeted customers turning into potential customers. Marketers must emphasize heavily on the
creative context aspect while developing strategies for social media platforms because the
retention level of the marketing done through such social media platforms is significantly much
lower and therefore creative and impactful content is of extreme relevance. The next important
factor that the authors emphasize upon is that the volume and the timing of the content and
strategies that are being used by the marketers. Marketing strategies must not be imposed in a
bulk or in a monotonous manner because it will soon lose its intended purpose of keeping the
consumers engaged. Timing on the other hand signifies that there should be an appropriate
strategy regarding when and what is required to be posted or updated on the social media
platforms and the frequency between each consequent post. For instance, the auhtors have
illustrated that Christmas and New year is a busy time when the posts marketing the company
must be regular and extremely creative because it gets difficult to catch the eye of the customer
amongst the myriad of advertisements that are being made by the competing and non-competing
firms.
However, in the research paper presented by Agnihotri and et.al., (2016), the above point
regarding the has been criticized where they have stated that the prominence of social media
marketing and its ease has indeed risen the amount of companies that are choosing to go for this,
but the significance of the traditional methods is still relevant. They have argued that only
relying on social media marketing and avoiding the use of other methods that are still a medium
of awareness for various other segment of the consumers that are attached with the company is a
redundant activity and the phase of success of such companies soon passes out. The authors have
further highlighted that many companies are still using excellent marketing strategies and content
for the traditional methods such as billboards, radio and television ads where the visual and audio
creativity is highlighted.
Another research paper by Ramanathan, Subramanian and Parrott (2017), highlight that
the negative publicity aspect is heavily interlinked with the promotional and marketing strategies
that are being used by the company. The ease of giving negative reviews and the threat of fake
criticism acts as a major threat for the companies where their brand reputation and goodwill can
get destroyed in seconds and the business can come crashing down. The authors have further
stated that creativity is a very tedious and time consuming process where the strategies that have
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been developed after putting in significant efforts can be easily copied by other rival or
competing firms and in some cases these might be used in a more effective manner. This can
lead to a more loss making situation for the company and the losses that they might incur in a
non-monetary and monetary way can be too impactful.
The authors, Jamali and Khan (2018), in their research paper highlighted a particularly
innovative stint carried out by the Samsung company in Stockholm where they were marketing
their new phone's key feature that was to give live notifications was marketed brilliantly
traditionally. The company put up a digital billboard on the street corner and the editorial team of
the company kept sending notification on the screen that were personalized for each passer-by,
i.e. for instance, when a car driver was found to be looking for a parking spot, there was
immediately a notification on the screen regarding available parking space just round the corner.
The authors claimed that this was not a social media marketing technique and yet it was much
more effective in creating an impact in the mind of the consumers thus highlighting the
importance of suing traditional marketing strategies as well along with the modern methods. The
authors, therefore concluded that using social media is effective but a better approach for bigger
and more widely operating companies would be to develop those strategies that would ensure
that they have implemented proper plans for both traditional and modern marketing strategies
and platforms that the companies should use while marketing.
Theme 2: To critically examine the impact of social media on consumer purchasing decision at
international level.
According to Lim and et.al., (2017) social media is widely used for creating brand
awareness and it also creates positive impact upon customer purchasing decision because it
increases the audience reach and also helps to build the relationship with the existing customers.
Therefore, as per SproutSocial 74% of the consumer rely on the social network in order to guide
purchase decision. This is further support with the help of Customer buying process which is a
theoretical model that is divided into six stages. This model is mostly used by range of
companies in order to determine the customer views while purchasing. Thus it is the standard
model which is used for the customer purchase decision making and it includes the stages which
are as defined,
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Problem recognition is the first stage of buyer decision process, in this stage, consumer
recognize a need or a problem. Through this, buyer feel a difference between their actual state
and some desired state. Such that through social media, customer may analyses the needs and
wants by asking a question in the official website, this help to determine the actual need. Next
stage is Information Search, in which when the problem is identified, the customer search
process begins (Alam and et.al., 2020). Therefore, customer may get information from through
different sources such that commercial sources (through social media), personal sources (family,
friends) etc. Such that company may allow to increase the search rankings and also provide a
sense of customer security by displaying company's status on the website. Third is, Evaluation
of Alternatives in which the customers proceed to alternative evaluation through the
information. Moreover, while purchasing any specific products, customers uses different bases
such that they may consider attribute of product, degree of importance, belief of brands and
satisfaction etc. Hence, through this, customer reach to conclusion by comparing other options to
make sure that the decision is right.
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Illustration 1: Customer buying process