Social Media Marketing's Impact on Electronics Purchases

Abstract:

The Internet has become the primary source of information for a large number of marketers and consumers. In developing countries like India, the rapid growth in social media provides both marketers and consumers a platform for communication and sharing information. This research paper aims to study the impact of social media in consumers' decision-making process for purchasing of electronic goods. The study is conducted in Kothrud Pune, the respondents were consumers from the age group of 18-60 years. While purchasing electronic goods most of consumers consider different factors like Price, warranty for the product, quality, brand, delivery services, security, etc. This paper concludes with social media marketing having an impact to overcome these risk factors involved and being helpful for product analysis.

Keywords– Social media marketing, electronic devices, consumer behavior, Buying behavior, E-Commerce, E-WOM, etc.

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I. Introduction

Businesses are increasingly using the Internet for commercial activities. The presence of the Internet and its access has made it an extremely effective mode of communication between businesses and customers.

The mid-’90s that is 1995 – 2002 was a critical event that allowed the internet to become a viable marketing tool. In 2003 – 2004, the arrival of social media sites like Facebook, and LinkedIn led to a shift of internet users into social networking sites. Eventually, businesses picked up on the positive effects of a social media site presence on e-commerce and started creating their own profiles on popular networking sites. Nowadays, over 90% of marketing executives are utilizing social media as a key marketing strategy. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube channels, and others are useful in notifying the latest commodities and brands. All product details, specifications, and reviews will be analyzed by using different tools like Content Writing, E-WOM, Google search, blogs, and reviews on E-Commerce sites. etc.

Major Electronic products used in daily routine life consist of mobile phones, Laptops, Computers, refrigerators, Washing machines, Kitchen appliances, Air conditioners, Entertainment systems, and other accessories, etc.

Electronic equipment account major share of an individual’s shopping. While purchasing electronic goods most of consumers consider different factors like Price, warranty for the product, quality, brand, delivery services, and security etc. The price is a major factor as electronic products are costly in nature so people hesitate to take purchasing decisions. Now, Social media help them to take purchasing decisions. Shopping of electronic goods with the help of social media marketing tools results in great convenience to the life of the people as it helps in price comparison, product selection, quality comparison and gives service security. Indian consumers have started to buy smartphones, televisions, refrigerators and large-capacity washing machines online, leading to an increase in average billing sizes for these categories in the major e-commerce marketplaces like Flipkart and Amazon. The industry players and analysts said that the average billing size for televisions sold online has gone up 50%, while for appliances and smartphones it has increased by up to 20% in the last year. Industry executives said that now consumers show a willingness to purchase costly products online even last year. Smartphones, televisions, and appliances together account for over 60-65% of total e-commerce sales in India and online accounts for 35% of total smartphone sales, while for television it is 15% and 6-8% for appliances.

For this reason, this study will be carried out in order to determine the main impact of social media marketing on consumer attitudes and intentions toward purchasing of electronic devices.

The sub-goals for the research are:

• To determine the main impact of social media marketing on purchasing decisions of electronic devices
• To study consumers' attitudes and intentions toward the shopping of electronic devices online.

II. Literature Review

In today’s scenario, Social media marketing is an interesting topic among researchers and academicians. Most of businesses are using these social media marketing strategies for communication with consumers. Consumer purchase decisions are highly affected by Reviews on social media, content writing, and in different ways. Nowadays, customers are showing a willingness to buy products having high prices with the help of social media.

Funde, and Thakur (2014), in their paper titled “Effect of Social Media on Purchase Decision”, the paper examine the usage pattern and its influences the five stages of the purchase process. The paper concludes that social media reviews and opinions affect the purchase decision process; however, the tendency of sharing experiences post-purchase is surprisingly low.

Cristina, and Castronovo (2012), in their paper titled “Social Media In An Alternative Marketing Communication Model” to develop an integrated alternative marketing communication conceptual model that can be applied by industrial practitioners to help them achieve their marketing objectives. The paper concludes that WOM marketing, alternative marketing communications, and social media as viable components of integrated marketing communications.

Assistant Prof. Ali YAYLI and Murat BAYRAM (2013), in their paper titled “Ewom: The Effects Of Online Consumer Reviews On Purchasing Decision Of Electronic Goods”, the paper examine the impact of, one type of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), the online consumer review, on purchasing decision of electronic products. The results show that consumer reviews have a causal impact on consumer purchasing behavior and they have an effect on choosing the products by the consumer. Finally, the results and their implications are discussed.

Anastasiya Oshchepkova (2017), in a project titled “E-Commerce in Nicaragua: Consumer Behavior towards Online Shopping of Electronic Devices”, study consumer behavior online and create a well-developed E-commerce site for the sale of electronic devices which will make it easier for the Nicaraguan consumer to search and purchase all sorts of electronic devices without the need to do it from an abroad retailer.

III. Research Gap

The researcher has done an extensive review of the literature, and the available literature hardly comments on how social media has an impact on consumer buying behavior of electronic devices. Hence it provides a research gap. That proves the novelty of the topic. Therefore the research paper is aptly titled as “Impact of Social Media Marketing on Consumers' Purchasing Decision of electronic devices”.

IV. Objectives

This study will be carried out in order to determine the main impact of social media marketing on consumer attitudes and intentions when purchasing electronic devices.

The sub-goals for the research are:

• To determine the main impact of social media marketing on purchasing decisions of electronic devices
• To study consumer attitudes and intentions toward the shopping of electronic devices online.

IV. Research questions

To meet the main goal and sub-goals, the following research questions were set:

• RQ 1: What is the impact of social media marketing on purchasing decisions of electronic devices?
• RQ 2: What are the main barriers consumers have when shopping for electronic devices online?

V. Research Methodology

5.1 Method of Research:

This research is of Descriptive and Exploratory in nature.

5.2 Primary Data:

This describes the impact of social media marketing and the main factors driving the consumer toward shopping for electronic devices online. The strategy will be used in order to accomplish that: quantitative analysis in order to broaden understanding knowledge on the subject at hand. As quantitative research is a self-administered online survey. The self-administered survey is a type of questionnaire, either in paper or electronic form, that a respondent completes on his/her own point of view, and it enables researchers to reach a large number of potential respondents.

The online survey is distributed to the members using Google forms and respectively is used in order to reach people from different age categories. The study is conducted in Pune the respondents were consuming from the age group of 18-60 years.

5.2.1 Quantitative Strategy –

The online survey is distributed to the members using Google forms and respectively is used in order to reach people from different age categories. Members from a different regions in Pune India participated in the online survey. The figure below shows that the average age of respondents is between …….

5.2.2 Questionnaire –

The first part of the questionnaire was related to the general information of respondents. The other part drew upon shopping for electronic devices online, the impact of social media marketing, and the factors that influence their shopping behavior. Followed by the question about the use of social media marketing tools for both online as well as offline purchasing, to avoid risk factors involved and is the social media marketing help for purchasing decision of electronic goods.

The survey questionnaires are as follows -

1. Name :
2. Your Age :
   1. 18 - 30 years
   2. 31-45 years
   3. 46-60 years
   4. Above 60 years
3. What do you prefer for buying Electronic products/devices? *
   1. Online Shopping
   2. Visit the store for purchasing.
   3. Depends on the type of product. (Headphones, Mobile, refrigerator, etc )
   4. Other
4. Do you prefer to social media, e-commerce websites or other sites before purchasing electronic products? *
   1. Yes
   2. No
5. Which social media platform do you find useful in getting information about the latest electronic commodities and brands? *
   1. Instagram
   2. Facebook
   3. Twitter
   4. YouTube channel
   5. Other
6. How frequently do you shop for electronic product devices online? *
   1. Very Often
   2. Once a month
   3. 2-3 times a year
   4. Rarely
7. what type of electronic device you usually buy online? *
   1. Mobile Phones and wearable devices
   2. Laptops/ computers and their accessories
   3. Refrigerator / Washing machine
   4. Kitchen Appliances
   5. Air conditioners/coolers
   6. Home Entertainment Systems ( speakers, home theaters, television sets )
   7. Camera and its accessories
8. From the following, what do you refer for analyzing the product details? *
   1. Content is written on websites / Google search
   2. Reviews regarding the product
   3. Actually communicate with people who had purchased the product
   4. Description and specifications on e-commerce sites
9. What factors from the following affect your decision of purchasing an electronic device online? *
   1. Best prices offer
   2. effortless and time-saving
   3. non-availability of products in stores
   4. product reviews
   5. Well description and specifications of certain product
   6. Different substitutes of products shown on social media e-commerce site
10. What factors restrain/ restrict you to buy electronic goods online? *
    1. Unsecure payment method
    2. Trust Factors ( Quality, Quantity, brand, etc)
    3. Warranty and claims offered
    4. Safe delivery factors
    5. Refund Policies
    6. Other
11. Does Social media marketing help you to overcome the risk factors of purchasing an electronic device? *
    1. Yes
    2. No
12. Has Social Media marketing increased your frequency of shopping for electronic devices? *
    1. Yes
    2. No
    3. Other
13. What according to you is a satisfactory level of purchasing electronic devices online? *
    1. Not satisfied at all
    2. less satisfied
    3. satisfied
    4. more satisfied

IV. Analytical part

Graph 1: Age of the respondents –

Graph 1 shows that most of the respondents are young people who shop online. of their respondents are in the range of … and… of respondents are in the….group. These young people are capable of making decisions and consistent in their thinking and acting; people who assign particular importance to the quality of the products they wish to acquire and not afraid of using the Internet for shopping online, in comparison to the older generation

Graph 2: Gender of the respondents –

By analyzing buying intention with different demographics the only clear factors that affect buying intention is gender and age. Other factors like education and income were also analyzed however were not meaningful enough, thus education and income do not decide the intention of buying something online in a high extent.

Graph 3: Preferred Social media marketing tools –

Graph 3 shows the dominance of with of the respondents have chosen it. Followed with as the second preferred tool for shopping online.

Graph 4: Frequency of shopping online and actual buying behavior for electronic devices –

Graph 4 shows the relationship between the frequency of shopping online and the actual buying behavior of electronic product shopping online. When comparing respondents who have previously already purchased electronic devices online with those who have not, it can be seen that respondents with no experience have lower frequency of shopping online, except for the 4-6times a year group than those who have already purchased electronic devices online. A similar percentage for each range of frequency can be seen, except for 2-3 times a year with, meaning, that more frequent shopping online would result in more likely to have actual buying behavior on electronic devices online.

Graph 5 Crucial factors in the final selection of purchasing a product online –

Respondents were also asked to select a crucial factor for them that can influence the final decision of purchasing a product online. The majority of the respondents believe that what really makes them make the final decision

Graph 6: Impact of Social media to overcome risk factors –

Respondents were also asked whether social media marketing tools help them to overcome a crucial factor for them that can influence the final decision of purchasing a product online or offline.

V. Conclusion (11 Bold)

A conclusion section must be included and should indicate clearly the advantages, limitations, and possible applications of the paper. Although a conclusion may review the main points of the paper, do not replicate the abstract as the conclusion. A conclusion might elaborate on the importance of the work or suggest applications and extensions. (10)

References

Journal Papers:

1. Funded Yogesh, Mehta Yesha, Effect of Social Media on Purchase Decision, Pacific Business Review International, Volume 6, Issue 11, May 2014.
2. Cristina Castronovo, Lei Huang, Social Media in an Alternative Marketing Communication Model, Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 6(1) 2012.
3. Ass. Prof. Ali YAYLI, Ins. Murat BAYRAM, eWOM: THE EFFECTS OF ONLINE CONSUMER REVIEWS ON PURCHASING DECISION OF ELECTRONIC GOODS.

Internet Sites:

1. The Evolution of Social Media Marketing, https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/evolution-social-media-marketing-043109995.html