International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)

ISSN: 2249-8958 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-1, October, 2019

Role of Social Media in Customer Buying

Behavior
Shaik Abdul Mazeed, Mahesh Chandra, G. Murali Mohan, Vunnam Hari Babu
Abstract: Social media has become an inseparable part of In a nut shell, it can be concluded that social media
human life. It allows customers and prospects to communicate marketing has changed the shape of the business and it has
directly about various products/services with their friends. This is become indispensible part of marketing. Social media has
just a replacement of word of mouth, which place a vital role and modernized; in fact, It has transformed the way businesses
cheapest way of promoting product in traditional marketing. The
other important and unique feature of social media is immediacy,
are done. The two important and key factors behind this
which allows the customers to approach directly with the revolution are information and technology. It has distinct
business people. Indeed it is helpful to both business people and features like, a huge amount of data can be stored virtually
customers as they can get the solutions with in no time unless it with zero cost, ease of use and access and no technical
is a big damage. With the process, business people can maintain qualifications are required to operate social media sites.
a sound relationship with the customers very easily as they are Social media especially provide a platform to connect with n
responding to their queries instantly. It is nothing but customer number of people. The aim of this research paper is to find
relationship management. It is another pivotal element in out the impact social media marketing on customer buying
marketing. All these features will influence the customers a lot in process.
making their purchase or buying decisions. Consumer behavior
is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not
buy product. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, II. LITERATURE REVIEW
social anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the Mangold & Faulds (2009): This study reveals that social
buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups.
media will influence the customers significantly right from
The customer buying or purchasing behavior is an evergreen
marketing concept despite ample research has been done on the information acquisition to after sales behavior such as
topic over last few decades. It would be an exaggeration, if we say postitive and negative word of mouths in expressing their
without covering this concept no marketing text book will perceived experiences.
complete, that’s the significance of this particular concept. One Mersey, Malthouse, & Calder (2010): Social media
cannot imagine a marketing book without finding a concept of marketing gives an opportunity for business people to
customer buying behavior. Usually a customer buying behavior interact with their present and future customers, establishes
will be influenced by a set of internal and external factors like an instant relationship with them and in building loyalty.
social, economical or financial, cultural, demographic, Hanna, Rohm, & Crittenden (2011): The single and
psychological and of course personal factors. In this day and
exceptional feature of social media is its huge popularity
age, online marketing, social media marketing, digital marketing
are buzz words and strongly influencing the customer behavior and user friendliness which helps the companies in
and in making purchase decisions subsequently. promoting products very cheaply.
M. Nick Hajli (2013): In this study the author focuses on
Keywords: Social Media, Customer buying behavior, reviews and its trust via social media. He emphasized on the
Purchase decisions, Word of mouth significance of social media interaction and its contribution
to the growth of business.
I. INTRODUCTION Ivona Stoica, Elisabeta (2014): The study reveals that,
customers will not pay much attention towards reviews as
The way we do shopping has been changed. Even the way they read them in haste. Indeed they are much attracted with
of doing business is also taking new dimensions to reach the the features of the product/service displayed in advertising.
targeted customers conveniently. Customers have changed This study also reveals that people who are buying goods
their mind sets and they are no longer interested in buying online are mostly in between the age of 25-30. In his
products/services through stores and/or physical markets. research work he found that customers bank on reviews only
The trend is changed; they just click on a brand image and if they are not sure about the product which they are
purchase the product in a simplest way through online purchasing.
mode. Ghulam Rasool Madni (2014): This study reveals that
Revised Manuscript Received on October 30, 2019.
social media plays an important role when customers want
* Correspondence Author to buy or purchase the products through online. However
Shaik Abdul Mazeed, Research Scholar (Part-Time), Yogi Vemana social media is not only the factor which influences them for
University, YSR Kadapa-516005, Andhra Pradesh final purchase there are other factors also, but by continuous
Dr. Mahesh Chandra, Associate Professor, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
exchange of information, companies can built a strong
Institute of Management and Technology, Baghlngampally Hyderabad-
500044, Telanagana. rapport with customers.
G. Murali Mohan, Associate Professor, Dr. K.V. Subba Reddy School
of Business Management, Kurnool-518218, Andhra Pradesh III. NEED FOR THE STUDY
Vunnam Hari Babu, Research Scholar (Part-Time), Yogi Vemana
University, YSR Kadapa-516005, Andhra Pradesh The aim of the study is to conduct a survey in online mode
regarding the factors, which influenced them to buy the
© The Authors. Published by Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and
Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC products and also to know the
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) satisfaction level among
existing customers.

Retrieval Number: A1348109119/2019©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.A1348.109119 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijeat.org & Sciences Publication
2411
 Role of Social Media in Customer Buying Behavior

In addition to that knowing the source of information and VI. SOURCE OF DATA
behavior patterns of customers, which leads them to arrive
There are two types of data collection methods i.e. Primary
at a particular purchase decision.
data collection method and Secondary data collection
method.
IV. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
Method of gathering primary data
The preliminary objective of this research paper is to study Two types of methods of gathering primary information
the impact of social media on customer buying behavior. In were used namely the survey method and the personal
addition to prime objective, it also analyzes electronic word interview method.
of mouth patterns and its creditability on customer purchase
A. Survey Method
decisions.
A survey consists of gathering data by interviewing people.
V. RESEARCH DESIGN The advantage of a survey is that information is firsthand.
Infant, it may be the only way to determine the opinions.
Research design specifies the methods for collecting and The researcher in person did survey interview.
analyzing the data
The research design gives the following: - B. Personal Interview
1. How the data is being collected Personal interviews are more flexible than any other type of
2. Which instrument is used to obtain the data interview because the researcher can probe more deeply if
3. What the size of the sample would be. an answer is incomplete.
In order to understand the impact of social media on
customer buying behavior, a random sample of 100 VII. DATA ANALYSIS
customers is selected from social media sites. A
The data collected is modified and tabulated and the
questionnaire was administered to know the level of
information is represented into table. Simple statistical tools
awareness among the customers about social media and its
like Mean, Percentages, Averages, Graphical tools and Chi-
impact to arrive at a particular purchase decision.
square Tests are used.

Table-1: Factors that influence customer buying behavior

Factors No. of respondents % of respondents
Print media/ newspapers 6 6%
Internet/social media 61 61%
Advertisement 5 5%
Hoardings 9 9%
e-Word of mouth 19 19%
Total 100 100%

Interpretation: From the above table is very clear that news papers, advertisements and the reaming factors are
customers will prefer social media is the best source, nominal.
followed by e-word of mouth, hoardings, Print media or
Table-2: Preference of various attributes by customers
Attributes No. of respondents % of respondents
Price 61 61%
Design and Model 26 26%
Comfort and maintenance 13 13%
Total 100 100%

Interpretation: The above table interprets that 61% of arriving at purchase decision followed by 26% about design
respondents have opined that they see price first before and model and 13% about comfort and maintenance.
Table-3: Impact of various social media sites on customer buying behavior
• Types of Social Media Level of agreeability Total

• Excellent • Very good • •F P

air oor
• Face book 39 14 2 0 55
• YouTube 18 4 2 1 25
• Twitter 8 1 1 5 15
• Linked-in 1 0 2 2 5

• Total 66 19 7 8 100

Table-4: Test Result

Retrieval Number: A1348109119/2019©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.A1348.109119 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
& Sciences Publication
Journal Website: www.ijeat.org 2412
 International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249-8958 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-1, October, 2019

Calculated Value Table Value Degrees of Freedom (DOF) Level of Significance (LOS)
16.91 12.12 9 0.05

Null Hypothesis (Ho): The two attributes viz. levels of culture’, Journal of Customer Behaviour, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp.127–
146.
agreeability and types of social media are independent. It
4. Bronner, F. and Hoog, R. (2010) ‘Consumer-generated versus
means that all the respondents have the same level of marketer-generated websites in consumer decision making’,
agreeability on customer buying behavior. International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp.231–
Alternative Hypothesis (Ha): The two attributes viz. levels 248.
5. Chu, S.C. and Kim, Y. (2011) ‘Determinants of consumer
of agreeability and types of social media are dependent. It
engagement in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in social
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differs. 6. Constantinides, E. (2014) ‘Foundations of social media marketing’,
Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 148, pp.40–57.
Analysis: Chi-square (χ2) table value is 12.12 and Chi-
7. Darley, W.K., Blankson, C. and Luethge, D.J. (2010) ‘Toward an
square (χ2) calculated value is 16.91. As Chi-square integrated framework for online consumer behavior and decision-
calculated value is lesser than Chi-square table value, reject making process: a review’, Psychology and Marketing,Vol. 27, No.
null hypothesis and accept alternative hypothesis. It means 2, pp.94–116.
8. Du Plessis, P.J., Rousseau, G.G. and Blem, N.H. (1991) Consumer
that respondents do not have the same agreeability on
Behaviour. A South African Perspective, Sigma, Pretoria.
impact of various social media sites. 9. Engel, J.F., Blackwell, R.D. and Kollat, D.T. (1978) Consumer
Behavior, 3rd ed., The Dryden Press, Chicago.
VIII. SUGGESTIONS 10. Engel, J.F., Blackwell, R.D. and Miniard, P.W. (1990) Consumer
Behavior, 6th ed., The Dryden Press, Chicago.
As rightly said marketing starts from the customer and ends 11. Goh, K.Y., Heng, C.S. and Lin, Z. (2013) ‘Social media brand
with the customer. In this day and age understanding the community and consumer behavior. quantifying the relative impact of
user-and marketer-generated content’, Information Systems Research,
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There are several tools for that. Among those several 12. Goodrich, K. and De Mooij, M. (2014) ‘How ‘social’ are social
factors, one of the important one is to understand the media? A cross-cultural comparison of online and offline purchase
importance of social media. Now a day, every one is using decision influences’, Journal of Marketing Communications, Vol. 20,
Nos. 1–2, pp.103–116.
social media. Hence without using this medium a marketer 13. Grant, R., Clarke, R.J. and Kyriazis, E. (2007) ‘A review of factors
cannot be succeeded in his or business. Social media users affecting online consumer search behaviour from an information
can made decisions quickly compared to other sites because value perspective’, Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 23, Nos.
here they interact with many which helps them with 5–6, pp.519–533.
14. Hayes, A.F. (2012) PROCESS: a Versatile Computational Tool for
processed data. Even the marketers can also keep an eye on Observed Variable Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process
customer reviews, opinions, feedback, their perceived Modelling [online] http://www.afhayes.com/public/ process2012.pdf
experiences etc which in turn helps them to modify the (accessed 15 October 2016).
changes in the coming products. Most of the customers are
seeing price, design and model, comfort and maintenance AUTHOR (S) PROFILE
while purchasing the products. Therefore a company must
focus on the following parameters or areas to attract the Shaik Abdul Mazeed Research Scholar (Part-Time),
customers or to win the choice of the customers. Yogi Vemana University, YSR Kadapa-516005 Assistant
Professor, Dr. B R Ambedkar Institute of Management
IX. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY and Technology, Baghlingampally, Hyderabad-500044,
Telangana. e-mail ID: mazeed22@gmail.com, Contact
1. The survey was conducted within the limited time No.: +91-7842819899
period. As time changes, the preference levels of
customers can also be changed. Therefore the Dr. Mahesh Chandra Associate Professor and Head-
suggestions are time bounded and are not universal. Corporate Relations, Dr. B R Ambedkar Institute of
2. While filling the information or telling the customers Management and Technology, Baghlingampally,
Hyderabad-500044, Telangana. e-mail ID:
could not provide accurate information because their mahesh.india@hotmail.com
personal limitations.
3. Some of the customers were not interested to answer
the questionnaire. G. Murali Mohan Associate Professor, Dr. K.V. Subba
4. The survey is not 100% accurate because some Reddy School of Business Management, Kurnool-518218,
Andhra Pradesh. e-mail ID:
customers were not revealing the correct information gollamuralimohan@gmail.com
due to their low confidence level.

REFERENCES Vunnam Hari Babu Research Scholar (Part-Time),

Yogi Vemana University, YSR Kadapa-516005
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College, Kanumalla, Sigaraya Konda, Prakasham-
Context, SSRN [online] http://ssrn.com/abstract=916566 (accessed 8
523101, Andhra Pradesh. e-mail ID:
March 2016).
vunnam74@gmail.com
2. Arndt, J. (1967) ‘Role of product-related conversations in the
diffusion of a new product’, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 4,
No. 3, pp.291–295.
3. Ashman, R., Solomon, M.R. and Wolny, J. (2015) ‘An old model for
a new age: consumer decision-making in participatory digital

Retrieval Number: A1348109119/2019©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.A1348.109119 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijeat.org & Sciences Publication
2413