Research Project: Social Media's Influence on Retail Purchase Behavior

This research project investigates the influence of social media on customer purchase behavior within the retail sector, specifically focusing on Tesco. The study begins with an introduction outlining the research aim, objectives, and questions, followed by a rationale and the significance of the study. A comprehensive literature review explores the concept of social media marketing, its impact on customer buying behavior, and the relationship between social media and purchasing decisions. The methodology section details the research philosophies, approach, techniques, data collection methods, and sampling strategies employed. The report analyzes the data to draw conclusions and provides recommendations for purchase behaviors. The project aims to evaluate how social media platforms are used to promote goods and services, assess their relationship with customer buying behavior, and analyze the impact of social media advertising on purchasing decisions. This research offers valuable insights into effective social media marketing strategies for the retail sector.

RESEARCH
PROJECT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Research Aim..............................................................................................................................1
Research Objective......................................................................................................................1
Research Question.......................................................................................................................2
Rationale of the study.................................................................................................................2
Significance of the study.............................................................................................................2
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................3
Concept of social media marketing.............................................................................................3
Impact of social media on customer buying behaviour in the Retail sector...............................3
Relationship between social media and customer buying decision............................................4
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................5
Research Philosophies.................................................................................................................6
Research approach......................................................................................................................7
Research techniques....................................................................................................................8
Data collection............................................................................................................................9
Research design.........................................................................................................................10
Sampling...................................................................................................................................10
.................................................................................................................................................11
TIME-SCALE................................................................................................................................11
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................13
Background study.....................................................................................................................13
Research Purpose......................................................................................................................13
Research Aim............................................................................................................................13
Research Objective....................................................................................................................13
Research limitation...................................................................................................................13
RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES...............................................................................................13
Research Philosophies...............................................................................................................14
Research approach....................................................................................................................14
Research techniques..................................................................................................................14

Data assessment........................................................................................................................14
Sampling...................................................................................................................................14
DATA ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................25
Recommendations for purchase behaviours..................................................................................26
Appendix........................................................................................................................................27
References......................................................................................................................................30

INTRODUCTION
In order to get effective success and growth in the competitive business environment, it is
very important for corporation to keep customer satisfy. If buyers are happy with product and
services then company can easily earn expected profitability and growth in the market. Hence, it
is very important for corporation to understand customer behaviour and their requirement
regrading product and services. It is also very important to deliver right information to them
about services and items so as they can acquire correct information about the brand and purchase
product and services according to their requirement (Beard, 2014). At the time of purchasing the
commodity, several kinds of element affects customer behaviour and decision of purchasing.
Thus, it is significant for organisation to understand customer behaviour and associated factors
that may changes their nature f purchasing. Corporation can use several strategies and practices
of effective marketing through which it can promote its brand in more effective manner. With
help of impressive strategies business unit can successfully introduce its brand and influence
customer for purchasing product and services.
Social media marketing is one of the excellent practice in present era by which company
can promote and advertise commodity and services in more effective way. It is the platform
where customer and corporation get connects with each other and share their information with
each other. There are several channel's comes in the social media platforms such as You tube,
Facebook, Twitter etc. With help of these channels, company can promote and advertise their
product and services in the market and influence customers regarding their purchasing decision
of commodities and services.
In the present report, researcher have major aim is to evaluate the influence of social
media on the purchase behaviour of customers in the retail sector. Thus, for address this purpose
scholar will use qualitative research technique along with thematic analysis.
Research Aim
To evaluate the influence of social media on the purchase behaviour of consumers in the retail
sector of UK- A study on Tesco.
Research Objective
 To determine the use of social media in Tesco for promoting goods and services.
 To assess the relationship between social media and purchase behaviour of customers
in Tesco.
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 To analyse the way in which social media advertising impacts upon the buying
decision of Tesco’s customers.
 To recommend effective strategies of social media marketing to Tesco to positively
influence the decisions taken up by the customers while buying goods.
Research Question
 How Tesco uses social media to promote its goods and services?
 What is the relationship between social media and buying behaviours of Tesco’s
consumers?
 How social media marketing done by Tesco impacts upon the purchase decisions of
their consumers?
Rationale of the study
At the time of selecting research topic for proposed report, scholar have affected by
several elements. One of the major factor that affects researcher choice is his own interest and
curiosity regarding social media marketing and its impact upon customer decision making related
to product and services. Scholar actually desires to gain detail knowledge and understanding
about subject because individual has involved in this from long time. Researcher has sufficient
information related to social media marketing and its impact upon the business organisation and
customer buying behaviour.
Significance of the study
In the current research study, researcher have main aim is to examine the impact of social
media on purchasing decision of customer in the Retail sector UK. With help of social media,
company can easily promote and advertise its product and services in the market and influence
customers for purchasing it. There is a huge scope of the social media in the retail sector because
it helps to improve business performance and speed of marketing activities. This research study
provides the detail knowledge and understanding about the significance of social media and its
impact upon the customer buying behavior and nature. By applying this study in the retail sector
manager can easily acknowledge about importance of social media marketing. Furthermore,
manager can also identify the various criteria and tactics to influence customer behavior by apply
social media marketing strategy within the business. Hence, it can be said that in the retail sector,
there is huge importance of social media marketing in the customer buying behavior as social
media marketing affects to the decision of customer at the time of purchasing.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Concept of social media marketing
According to the view of Yuksel, Yuksel and Bilim, (2010) social media marketing is a
procedure under which company uses several channels of social media for promote and advertise
its product and services in the market. In these channels includes You Tube, Facebook, Twitter,
instagram etc. With help of several channels, company gets touch with customer and transfer
information to them regarding product and services. It is a wide platform where everyone can
directly connect with organisation and provide them opinion, feedbacks and review regrading
product and services. In the opinion of Yoshida and James, (2010) company have to create the
account on the page of various channels for operate marketing activities on these platforms like
Facebook, Instagram, twitter etc. Hence it can be said that social media marketing refers to
techniques that target social networks and applications to spread brand awareness and promote
particular product and service in the market. In this marketing, corporation is supposed to use the
social media platforms and websites to promote and advertise commodity and services. Social
networking advertising alludes to strategy that objective interpersonal organizations and
applications to spread brand mindfulness or advance specific items. It is a type of web
advertising that use long range informal communication sites as a promoting systems. It helps to
partnership in getting immediate criticism from client and increment the brand picture in the
brain of client. With help of web-based social networking showcasing, organization can without
much of a stretch advance its item and administrations in the market inside a brief time frame. It
is a wide stage through which everybody can specifically associate with association. During the
time spent online networking showcasing, organization utilizes the different web-based social
networking sites and interpersonal organizations with a specific end goal to advance its item and
administrations. It enables advertisers to utilize a wide scope of strategies and methodologies to
advance substance web-based social networking showcasing is a viable and simple process for
organization in light of the fact that by utilization of this it can straightforwardly connect with the
clients and get the survey and proposal for the item and administrations.
Impact of social media on customer buying behaviour in the Retail sector
In the perspective of Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault, (2015) in the business enterprise,
customer is a king and entire profitability is depends upon customer satisfaction. Thus, it is very
essential for business unit to make satisfy customer and deliver product and services accordingly.
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In order to identify actual customer taste, requirement and feedback regarding product and
services, social media platforms helps to business unit in large manner. By engaging with social
media, company can easily identify actual requirement of customers regarding services and
improve its existing performance of business. In the pinion of Smith, (2015) social media
marketing helps to customers also in getting knowledge and information about services and
items. On these platform, customer can place feedback and review and other customer can easily
read. Thus, it can be said that at the time of purchasing commodity and services, social media
helps to company in influencing service users purchasing decision. By help of social media
corporation place several posts, pictures, video, links etc regarding product and services through
which customer can get detail knowledge and set their perception regarding the same. By seeing
attractive images, pictures, videos etc of product and services customer's purchasing decision can
influence. Thus, it can be said that with help of mentioned channels buyers decision of
purchasing product and service influence. Furthermore, with help of these channels, customer
can get other service users reviews, feedback and opinion regarding product and services. This
helps them in taking the decision regarding purchasing of product and services.
According to the opinion of Ryu, Lee and Gon Kim, (2012) social media affects the perception
of customer regarding brand because they provide regular updates to them regarding changes in
the product and services.
Relationship between social media and customer buying decision
In the opinion of Bruhn, Manfred, Schoenmueller and Schäfer, (2012) social media and
customer purchasing behaviour is very significant relationship because while company post
several images, video, information regarding product and services then it directly affects the
mind of customers. Online networking is considered as a compelling medium, which empowers
the organizations to offer a changed scope of items and administrations, which impact the
purchasers and their purchasing conduct. It can be evaluated that there are distinctive kinds of
organizations who transfer their items via web-based networking media. Further, it can be
noticed that different sentiments and audits can be acquired in the part of the items and
administrations used by different buyers. This will empower the potential purchasers to shape
choices as to the buy of products and ventures. Likewise, as per the perspective of Chan, Ling,
and Guillet, (2011) using online networking, connection between the buyers and brands can be
set up. For an occasion, by having a communication over the rating of a specific brand on
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Facebook or Yelp, criticism of costumers can be gotten. In this way, this is the real reason
through which the decision can be influenced with regards to the items. Likewise, if the
appraisals are bad, at that point buyer decisions will be redirected and inclination will be the high
evaluated item or administrations.
In the opinion of Dinan, (2000) in the retail sector while customer searches the product
and services on the social media then other customer reviews, comments and feedback can affect
the purchasing decision of service users in the high manner. If there is positive comments and
reviews of customer regarding product and services then buyer will automatically influence in
positive manner. On the other hand if there is negative comments of customer on the social
media regarding product and services then customer's buying decision can negatively influence.
In the contradicting view Fotis, John, Buhalis and Rossides, (2012) stated that customer buying
decision of product and services is not only influence by other customers reviews and feedbacks
but also attractive designs, post, video, pictures affects decision of buyers regarding purchasing
of product and services. If company post regular updates regarding the product and services then
it will also affect purchasing decision of customers. Through the assistance of online networking,
business can make mindful the costumers with respect to their image and different viewpoints.
Additionally, with its assistance, it can be evaluated that buyers get perceivability of the business
associations. Further, shoppers are given a considerable measure of decisions of various
organizations and furthermore they can admire scattering of awesome arrangements of data;
notwithstanding it the data with respect to the items and administrations can likewise be looked
through. It empowers the purchaser to sign on to informal communication locales like Facebook
and have an investigation of the thought and input with respect to a specific item. Alongside it,
the more data is probably going to be accessible for the buyers by an organization, the more they
will tend to purchase that item for the fulfillment of their needs and needs.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In the entire research study, research methodology plays a very crucial role by which
investigator can able to analyse and interpret collected information. It is a very important aspect
in the study that assist in addressing solution of research problem. There are various kinds of the
research method included in this aspect such as data collection, sampling, data analysis, research
design, research strategy etc. By applied several methods in the investigation, researcher can able
to investigate the study and find out the best alternative solution to research problem. By
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applying several methods in the study, scholar can easily analyse the information and find out the
best solution of research problem (Zivkovic, 2012). In the absence of research methodology it is
impossible to conduct the investigation and find out the solution of study. In order to obtain
effective solution of research problem, scholar have to apply several methods. In a simple word
it can be said that research methodology is a procedure that is used to collect information and
data for the purpose if making business decision (Khan, 2014). By applying several techniques
of research methodology in the study, scholar can take appropriate decision from the several
alternative option. In the current research study, the main aim of the scholar is to investigate the
influence of social media on the purchase behaviour of consumers in the retail sector of UK. For
address the objective, researcher have applied various kinds of research techniques which are
discussed below-
Research Philosophies
Research philosophies is one of the significant method in the research methodology
which help to researcher in analysing and investigating information in effective and efficient
manner. It allows to scholar in understanding entire research study. With assistance of research
philosophy, investigator can easily address the objective and research issue of study by apply
research theories and models.
The method helps in getting hopeful outcomes and reaching substantial inference. It is
vital for the researcher that to choose amend reasoning technique since that can influence general
importance of study. Reasoning presents researcher's conviction about the way how required
measure of informational index for a given wonder will be remove, broke down and used for
finding and analyzing the issue in-detail (Kitchin and Tate, 2013). It comprises of two most
imperative constituents that are epistemology and hymn. To start with shows what required to be
demonstrated or known while later displays specialist's confidence in getting things genuine. The
motivation behind research worldview is to change trusted things into known means psalm into
epistemology. The two imperative rationalities recognized incorporates positivism, additionally
called logical and interpretivism, likewise named as against positivist. Both these devices are
powerful and are utilized as a part of various kind of studys. On the off chance that individual
chooses wrong sort of technique then it might neglect to get legitimate outcomes. Positivism is
the technique which is for the most part utilized as a part of quantitative sort of research. In this
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researcher focus more on surveying the target. With the assistance of this instrument specialist
find the false certainties. It is the technique in which specialist take after the pre decided
structure and direct intelligent change into it so general target of the study can be accomplished.
Interpretivism theory is another instrument which is utilized as a part of subjective sort of study.
In this sort of study researcher takes support of hypotheses and models. This is the apparatus
which is by and large connected in subjective kind of study in light of the fact that by along these
lines specialist can assemble inside and out data about the topic. Earlier considers that the truth is
steady and with the control in the single autonomous segment or variable, different constituents
of social world can be analyzed Predictions can be made considering verifiable perception and
results which clarified substances (Mercieca and Mercieca, 2013). All the exact investigations
are viewed as logical or positivism that had a relationship with the common and physical science.
Along these lines, it is especially reasonable for the logical investigations. Interpretive, then
again, states that reality must be analyzed and evaluated through subjective translation. Diverse
things might be translated distinctively by different analysts yet all these gathered outcomes give
a base to concentrate the issue deductively.
In the current research study, scholar have major aim is to analyse the influence of social
media on the purchase behaviour of consumers in the retail sector of UK. For address the
objective, researcher have applied positivism research philosophies. By applied positivism
research philosophy, scholar can easily assess and analyse the information for investigate the
affect of social media on the purchase behaviour of consumer in the retail sector.
Research approach
Research approach is another of the huge technique in the study philosophy that serves to
researcher in tending to right arrangement of research issue. Research approach is another kind
of technique which is considered as wagered apparatus that backings in completing the study in
compelling way. It is the most ideal method for surveying standards and hypotheses identified
with the topic. For study the point analyst needs to chose whether singular needs to go from
general to particular way or from particular to general way (VanPatten and Williams, 2014). It is
totally relies on sort of study on which researcher is directing the exploration. Inductive Vs
Deductive two thinking strategies/methodologies can be seen in the above delineated research
feeling. Deductive research approach is the strategy which assumes pivotal part in the study.
With the assistance of this apparatus analyst can create interrelation between included angles.
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That backings in creating theory and coming to the outcomes. That apparatus bolsters in testing
theory and after that get ultimate result. On the off chance that specialist takes support of this
strategy at that point research will be led from specific to general way. On other hand inductive
approach is far varied from deductive approach. It is for the most part utilized as a part of
subjective sort of study (Žikić, 2016). In this system researcher lead study on the bases of
accessible hypothesis and reach to the last conclusion. Previous takes a shot at moving particular
to general, called down to top approach while later chips away at moving general towards
particular, called top-down approach.
In the current study, researcher have applied inductive research approach for assess and
analyse the impact of social media on the purchase behaviour of consumers in the retail sector of
UK with respect of Tesco company. By help of this technique, researcher can conduct
investigation for obtain solution by use of several theories and models
Research techniques
Research technique is another one of the most significant technique in the research study
that assists to researcher in carrying out investigation in more effective and efficient manner. In
the absence of research technique, it is impossible to carry out investigation. With help of
research technique, scholar can easily assess and analyse information for obtain the right
solution. In a simple word it can be said that research technique is an instrument that allows
individual to collect, analyse and interpret information for find out the solution of research
problem (Patino, Au, Lane, Buist and Vollmer, 2016). Research technique is divided into two
parts that is qualitative and quantitative. These both techniques applied in the investigation
according to the objective of study. It is very important for scholar to select one best and
appropriate technique in the study for obtain solution. If scholar selects wrong research technique
then it will affect entire study and its associated outcomes. Thus, at the time of selection of
research technique, it is very important for scholar to consider objective of study. Both these
instruments are utilized as a part of various sorts of study. It relies on nature of research, if there
is inclusion of measurable instruments then analyst needs to run with quantitative research
procedure, On other hand when think about depends on speculations and models then in such
kind of study researcher takes support of subjective research technique. The two expansive
orders of studys are whether an issue will be explored subjectively or subjective. Previous goes
for nitty gritty and finish depiction of the given marvel, nonetheless, later, on the opposite side,
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endeavors to discover vital highlights and outline measurable models to clarify the watched
dataset. In the principal, information or required data is accessible as words, articles, pictures and
others though later is accessible as numbers, budgetary information or factual data. Other than
this, subjective studys are subjective ones in which person's translation increases enough
significance in the meeting or perception led (DeMarco and Lister, 2013). Conversely, subjective
is objective based which looks for overviews, polls and others as exact information accumulation
and estimation apparatuses. Subjective investigations requires some investment though later is
considered extremely productive to test the theory legitimacy however don't gives logical points
of interest like subjective looks into.
In the present research study, researcher have applied qualitative research technique for
analyse the influence of social media on the purchasing decision of customer in the Retail sector
of UK. With help of qualitative research technique , scholar has taken attempts to provide clear,
in depth and contextual information for analyse the impact of social media on the purchasing
decision of customer in the Retail sector of UK.
Data collection
Information collection is one of the essential piece of paper. Without adequate and
quality data researcher can not have the capacity to meet with the goal. For gathering the data it
is basic to choose fitting apparatus. There are two methods for gathering data; essential and
optional information accumulation strategy. Both these systems are varied from every others. In
the essential information accumulation sources scholar takes support of these instruments
through which individual can assemble direct data. These are, for example, poll, perception,
study and so forth. All these are essential information accumulation sources. By making inquiries
from the respondent's agent can know genuine circumstance of business when there is deficiency
of gifted representatives. (Wiek and Lang, 2016.) On other hand there is another technique for
gathering data about the topic that is auxiliary sources. In this procedure researcher takes support
of effectively accessible data, for example, books, diaries and web articles which are on a similar
theme. From these source's analyst can assemble top to bottom data about research subject and
can get hopeful outcomes.
In the current research study, investigator have applied qualitative research technique and
carry out a thematic analysis for acquired the outcome. Thus, researcher have applied primary
data collection for gathering primary data about social media on purchasing decision of
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