Impact Of Social Media On Business Growth In The Retail Industry Of Australia

Significance of Social Media in the Retail Industry of Australia

Social media has become a cornerstone in the field of business and marketing. Rapid penetration of social media on the society has influenced the marketing strategies of business enterprises. According to Tsimonis & Dimitriadis (2014), business enterprises are emphasizing significantly on the social media marketing techniques to expand their brand awareness. This report, therefore, reflects on the significance of social media in the retail industry of Australia. In order to assess the immense impact of social media on the business growth of multiple retail giants, secondary qualitative research has been performed. Henceforth, development of an ultimate aim along with a specific question has helped the learner to carry out this project in deep. Besides this, a detailed discussion of applied methodologies is included in this report, which has contributed to identifying significant social media strategies for better business expansion of retail organisations. The retail industry in Australia has been developed massively in the past few decades. Due to this immense growth, organisations are facing fierce competition to maintain the status quo. Therefore, this report has been developed from a managerial perspective and seeks to identify the most significant social media strategy for business entrepreneurs.

The retail industry in Australia is booming as the presence of retail giants like Woolworths, Coles, Distributors, and others have doubled the competition for start-ups and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). However, a change in the spending patterns of Australian consumers has been cited. Besides this, threats of new entrants have also been estimated by experts. This statement is supported by Pash (2018), as they have termed Amazon and Lidl as the future of Australian retail industry. Therefore, it is essential for domestic retail companies to take a better approach to significant business expansion. Making a note from this assumptions, this research report has been designed to identify the impact of social media marketing and possible marketing strategies for retail giants.

Aim

This research aims to identify the significant impact of social media in ensuring proper business growth.

Objectives

• To assess the impact of social media on the retail industry of Australia
• To analyse the major factors that allow business managers to incorporate social media strategies
• To identify possible, yet effective social media strategies used by retail companies in Australia

This research will look after in developing a significant knowledge on the impact of social media on the retail industry of Australia. Extensive research on different types of social media marketing strategies will help to understand the managerial approaches in generating a high amount of profit. Due to significant growth in social media usage in recent times, business organisations have taken various strategies to enhance brand recognition. As per a recent report published by Sensis, 79% usage of social media in Australia has encouraged business giants and SMEs to promote their products and services on social media (Sensis.com.au, 2018). Henceforth, this research will ensure a detailed statistical and content analysis of multiple social media strategies that can be taken into consideration.

Objectives and Methodology

2.1 Introduction

 This segment of this report highlights the critical statements and arguments placed by literary scholars on the impact of social media on business enterprises. Tsimonis & Dimitriadis (2014) discussed that a vital literature review allows researchers to evaluate a specific agenda critically. Therefore, a discussion on multiple social media marketing strategies has helped to develop a clear understanding of knowledge and the critical impact of social media on the organisational growth.

It is identified that social media is generally characterised by the user-generated content and can be interpreted as much practical as the traditional business communication methods of marketing. As determined by Parveen, Jaafar & Ainin (2015), due to a vast process of information flow, social media platforms have been developed as a significant driver to enhance business profitability. Therefore, a constant change has been cited in the Australian industry. It is observed that due to the rapid development of internet technology, internet services are getting more collaborative than consumer-based applications. In this context, it is essential that social media platforms are creating further opportunities to ensure a smooth business operation of business organisations (Paniagua & Sapena, 2014). Social media, as the updated and modernised form can optimise web-based and mobile technologies. Besides this, researchers have also identified the high level of efficiencies of social media, comparing the other traditional technique available for marketing. However, researchers contain different perspectives regarding the application of social media in business (Taneja & Toombs, 2014). As commented by Ainin et al. (2015), the adoption of social media is very limited in the organisational context, and most of the retail organisations might face severe issues for relying on social media. On another hand, Del Giudice, Caputo & Evangelista (2016) argued this view by providing a specific explanation of different social media tools and their impacts on an organisational context. As identified by Valos et al. (2016), social media demonstrates an appropriate communication between organisations and their consumers. Henceforth, a direct communication channel between consumers and organisations helps to develop brand values in a precise manner.

Focusing on the integration of global markets, a technological update has allowed organisations to maintain a better management system through social media. In this regard, Alqahtani & Saba (2013) opined that an array of application of web-based technologies helps organisations to maintain and transmit media monologues to a social media broadcast. Henceforth, it is identified that social media technology helps consumers to provide opinions, share contracts and conceptualise any perspective (Schaupp & Bélanger, 2013). Due to development of web-based applications and advancements in internet technology, social networking sites are getting immense priorities by the business organisations as those organisations are constantly making connections with consumers through different techniques (Lyon & Montgomery, 2013). The main reason behind such interaction is to involve consumers in the marketing procedure of this company. Henceforth, a high level on consumer engagement can be interpreted as an effective marketing strategy in nowadays. Beside the development of brand popularity, social media has some serious influence on business organisations. According to Hajli (2014), word-of-mouth communication technique gets enhanced by the social media, which helps organisations to increase their sales and allows to generate support for consumers. Furthermore, a trust-based value creation has also identified in the existing literature (Hassan, Nadzim & Shiratuddin, 2015). Therefore, it can be said that social media imposes a significant contribution to the development of any organisation.

Critical Statements and Arguments on the Impact of Social Media on Business

Existing literature has identified the different use of social media types that can be employed by organisations. As identified by Jussila, Kärkkäinen & Aramo-Immonen (2014), broadcasting can be interpreted as the significant use of social media, which allows organisations to keep in touch with their consumers. Henceforth, broadcasting helps to construct a preconceived message to a wide consumer base. In this regard, the significance of internal broadcast cannot be declined (Keinänen & Kuivalainen, 2015). It is identified that an internal broadcast method ensures organisations to convey messages from executive management to lower and midlevel employees (Rauniar et al. 2014). Scholars have also identified external usage of social media as another pivotal driver for promoting and expanding a business. It is identified that the external use of social media usage helps organisations to estimate marketplace reactions, communities and customer relationship management (Whiting & Williams, 2013). Besides this, it is also identified that external application of social media helps organisations to promote new services through social e-commerce. However, an influence of social media cannot be estimated through this limited discussion. As identified by Hildebrand et al. (2013), social media allows organisations and service providers to collaborate with consumers, which is essential for the better development of a business. Trainor et al. (2014) argued that the generation of new business ideas and refinement of products could be observed through a better application of social media. Therefore, it is recommended by scholars to consider social media strategies for demonstrating innovation in business.

3.1 Research philosophy

Three types of research methodology (positivism, interpretivism, and realism) are generally used in conducting research. In order to identify the impact of social media in developing the growth of retail business in Australia, interpretivism research philosophy has been applied. According to Hughes & Harrock (2016), interpretivism research philosophy involves human interests and allows researchers to interpret general elements from the study. Furthermore, this philosophy also facilitates the qualitative study significantly. Based on these advantages of interpretivism research philosophy, the researcher has selected this philosophy.  

The research approach is an essential part to advance any research in a suitable direction. In this research, a deductive approach has been selected to evaluate the impact of social media on the retail industry of Australia. Furthermore, this approach has ensured a proper interpretation of facts and information available on the web. This approach has also helped the researcher to demonstrate an effective analysis of collected data. On another hand, an inductive approach has been rejected because it would have created a bias in interpreting the facts and information available in secondary sources.

Different Use of Social Media Types Employed by Organizations

The research design involves exploratory, explanatory, descriptive and casual techniques, which can be applied in a research study. In this context, a descriptive research design is preferred over other available research designs for several reasons. Descriptive research design has allowed the researcher to investigate and analyse the relationship between dependent variables and independent variables of this study. Therefore, a detailed descriptive design ensured the quality of the research and helped the researcher to execute this research professionally.

There are three research types available through which, a researcher can be able to set the standards of research. Qualitative research helps researchers to interpret and analyse data that is rich in quality and can help to develop a new theme on a general or critical agenda. On another hand, quantitative research ensures a solid construction of data and a detailed statistical interpretation of it. Focusing on the current topic of this research, the researcher has undertaken a mixed methodology that ensures researcher to analyse data both qualitatively and quantitatively. In this context, a proper interpretation of qualitative and quantitative data helped the researcher to enhance the outcomes of this study.

In order to increase the reliability and coherency of any research, a proper data collection is highly recommended. As identified by Hughes & Sharrock (2016), a researcher can collect primary or secondary data as per the requirement of the study. In order to identify the impact of social media and effective social media strategies on business organisations, the researcher has selected secondary data collection. The main reason behind the rejection of primary data collection is to avoid the bias that can be observed from the primary data collection. Henceforth, in order to protect this research from personal opinions, secondary data collection data method has been applied.

In order to increase the professionalism and quality of the outcomes of this research, statistical analysis has been done for quantitative data collected. Besides, content analysis has been performed by the researcher to extract qualitative data to identify the major social media strategies that can be implicated in the retail industry of Australia.

The researcher has properly considered the ethical guidelines for secondary research and also obeyed the data privacy act of 1998. Therefore, proper credit is given to the researchers, from which data for this research has been taken. Besides this, the researcher also ensured the academic misconduct policy as no plagiarism is done while developing this research. It is disclosed that taken data will not be used for any commercial activity.

4.1 Secondary qualitative analysis

Social media marketing strategy helps to develop brand enhancement of organisations

Brand recognition is an important factor for organisations in today’s dynamic business market. Effective use of social media allows organisations to maintain a high brand reputation. According to Hollebeek, Glynn & Broodie (2014), marketing strategies are becoming more, and that has helped to shift the view from the contemporary understanding of brands. It is observed that social media helps to create a better value of brands. In this context, Leeflang et al. (2014) identified brands as developing social progress. Therefore, it can be interpreted that the brand value of any organisation can be increased through building a better relationship. Henceforth, the impact of social media is negligible as it helps organisations to develop a proper brand as per their requirements. Prior brand literature has identified brands as a social and simplified form of marketing, whereas recent literature has termed brand value as a complex nature. Henceforth, to manipulate this nature of brand awareness, an influence of social media is appreciated. As identified by Brodie et al. (2013), the social nature of brands has helped scholars to embed high value in expanding the business of any organisation.

Due to the growing popularity of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, organisations are highly focused on using these channels as a better method for marketing and promotion of brands and services. From a detailed qualitative study has helped to develop this understanding about the impact of social media on the business organisations in Australia. Cost is a significant factor for organisations to adopt and utilise a specific technology. In this regard, studies have identified cost-effectiveness as a significant factor that allows organisations to maintain better profitability. As defined by Ainin et al. (2015), social media can become a cost-effective option for organisations as no extensive knowledge of IT skills is required to start a promotion or campaign on social media. Furthermore, it is observed that low cost and low barriers to participating in social media campaign might help organisations to get an effective outcome cost-effectively. Therefore, it can be said that the use of social media as a marketing platform allows organisations to control cost expenses.

Quantitative data has been taken from the annual report published by Sensis in 2018. This report reflects on the percentage of users on social media platforms. Henceforth, a statistical analysis of the gathered data has helped to evaluate the active social media platform for implementing social media strategy for business development.  

4.2.1 Descriptive study

From the descriptive statistical analysis of the study, it can be interpreted that data on usage of social media platform rates tend not be close with each other. From the standard deviation rate of Facebook, it is underpinned that it differs in a significant manner than of usage of Instagram and snapchat. On another hand, the mean value of Facebook is much higher than other social media platforms that effectively denotes the significance of Facebook.

Correlation analysis of variables helps to identify the strength of relationships of different variables taken for the review (Yong & Pearce, 2013). From this interpretation of this table, it is recognized that relationship between Facebook and snap chat variable is too weak than other identified variables. Henceforth, a rigidness between different social media platforms might create discrepancies in managerial decision to implement social media marketing strategies.

This regression analysis table highlights the relationship between different variables taken for this study. 0.437 value of R square identifies that changes in usage rate in other social media platforms might provide influence on the usage of Facebook.

 From the mixed approach conducted in this study, it is found that Facebook is a better social media platform to implement marketing strategies by organisations in the retail industry. Besides this, from the qualitative analysis and literature review of this research, multiple social media strategies have been identified. It can be said that internal and external broadcast and promotion in Facebook might help retail organisations to expand their business correctly.

Furthermore, it can be discussed that impact of social media on retail industry is significant. It is found that social media helps to develop brand awareness of any organisation. Furthermore, the creation of added value and cost-effectiveness nature of social media platforms might help retail organisations to build an effective business strategy.

6.0 Conclusion, Recommendation, and Limitations

This study was designed to identify the impact of social media on the retail industry in Australia. In order to evaluate the findings, a mixed method approach was developed that helped to meet research objectives. From the above discussion, it can be said that the influence of social media is highly crucial as social media platforms help organisations to build a better brand identity. Besides this, another profitability of using social media marketing strategy has been discussed in this study. However, a rigidness between different social media platforms has been addressed in this study, which might create an issue for retail organisations.

It is resolved that a rigidness in social media platforms might hamper the selection of managers to incorporate social media marketing strategy. Henceforth, it can be recommended that retail organisations should check the cost-effectiveness of social media platforms before pitching any marketing strategy. Besides this, many usage rates on social media platforms are also required to be assessed. In this way, managers of retail organisations might improve their selection of proper marketing strategy.  

In this research, the researcher has encountered various limitations that have restrained the success of this research to some extent. Due to unavailability of time, the researcher was unable to conduct thorough research on different industries in Australia. That research would have more statistically represented the impact of social media on business. Besides this, a lack of in-depth knowledge of data analysis might have reduced the quality of this research.

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