Industry partner
Discuss about the Effect of Social Commerce Factors on User Purchase Behavior.
Woolworths is a renowned superstore in the region of Australia. It has over 995 stores in across the country of Australia. It has recruited more than 115,000 employees in their retail stores and distribution in order to offer the prompt and quality services to their consumers. It also purchases the raw material through producers along with farmers. It also makes sure to deliver the finest services to consumers.
The key issue of Woolworths is to decline the retention rate of consumers and gaining the turnover of the consumer because of a lack of effective marketing strategies. This investigation is practiced to assess the “Impact of social media on consumer buying behavior in the case of Woolworths Limited, Australia” (Woolworth’s group, 2018). In an organization of Woolworths limited, social media is implemented in marketing strategy as it can be significant to obtain the immediate feedback and reviews from customers. This marketing strategy is also significant to persuade the purchasing behavior of consumers with regards to products and services.
The key aim of this research is to address the “Impact of social media on consumer buying behavior: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia”. Following objectives will be used to attain the key aim of investigation:
RO1: To analyze the conceptual understanding regarding social media and consumer buying behavior: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia
RO2: To evaluate the impact of social media on consumer buying behavior: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia
RO3: To recommend the social media strategy to enhance the consumer buying behavior towards the products and services: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia
Conceptual understanding regarding social media and consumer buying behavior: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia
According to Solomon et al. (2014), social media marketing is defined as the process of advertising the products with the help of social media platforms and digital communication techniques. Furthermore, a number of aspects are related to marketing techniques like keeping persistence, engaging contents and developing a loyal base for customers who actually react to the content posted on digital sites. Social media is used by the customer to assess the review of products. It also makes link amid advertisement and leading taglines to influence the consumers. These related concepts act as a catalyst to develop the business by leveraging customer attention with regards to particular advertisements.
Research problem
In opposed to this, Godey et al. (2016) evaluated that these related concepts such as influential taglines, and engaging contents can have a negative impact on the operation of marketing. Since, there is a need for the company to give extra efforts during the implementation of marketing activities. Moreover, eye catchy contents, taglines, effective product’s description can adversely impact on the emotional sentiments in case of using the improper content.
In the view of Ioan?s and Stoica (2014), there are different conceptual models and theories that are based on social media marketing. These theories should be used by an organization to gain competitive benefits. In the way, AIDA model is used by different dynamic business companies in order to develop the brand and create awareness regarding products among an individual. This model is related to data analysis tool which aids a company to build awareness regarding the products and generate a sense of interest and desire between the customers.
According to Schivinski and Dabrowski (2016), the capability of persuading the desire of customers can aid to generate the favorable action of consumers regarding the products. This model aids to resolve the needs of people and generate the product’s strategies with considering needs through consumer behavior assessment.
In contrast to this, Erkan and Evans (2016) stated that the implementation of social exchange theory is beneficial to influence the consumer buying behavior. This theory focuses on the perception of an individual regarding a specific brand on the social media page.
In support of this, Dessart et al. (2015) stated that buying decision of an individual can be relied on both favorable and unfavorable aspects illustrated by consumers socially. For illustration, a favorable review of customers regarding any product can generate a positive impact on sales rate and negative reviews can generate unfavorable impact on the sales rate. Woolworths limited can use this theory to assess and determines the comments regarding particular products and community page to make enhancement in a certain idea in future.
According to Stephen (2016), the social media generates the awareness with regards to products and services between customers as it may help to make their own judgment. By using the social media, organizations can enhance the communication with the customers. In contrast to this, Zhang and Benyoucef (2016) illustrated that social media is an effective tool that may increase the attractiveness of existing globalization time. Social media marketing is incorporated by an organization for marketing the products as well as services. It can be cost-effectively for the company because it broadens the marketing area in terms of sharing the valuable information in less time among the bulk of customers. Social media provides the global connectivity. The communities and forum on social media support an individual to interact with others and distribute their opinions. This can lead the customers to make ultimate purchasing judgment.
Research aim
In the view of Xiang et al. (2016), target advertising can be applied through online social media channels at the workplace. It is an essential strategy to distribute the facts and figures of Woolworths limited in front of the high amount of customers. It can be used for 24*7 hours. Social networking plays a fundamental role to enhance the satisfaction degree among customers. It is also an essential technique for a corporation in order to launch the products as per the customer’s needs. This can favorably influence the consumers by reacting quickly.
In contrast to this, Sigala (2016) exhibited that there are certain social media platforms within the marketplace that can be applied by an organization to advertise the products and services. These platforms are Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. There are large numbers of companies which cannot survive without applying the social media platform as Woolworths limited should use it to communicate with targeted customers without trouble.
Social media strategy to enhance the consumer buying behavior towards the products and services: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia
According to Kim and Johnson (2016), recognized people can generate five times more faith as compared to brand marketing. Hence, a corporation should hire celebrities, recognized person, and sportsperson in order to promote their brand as it would be effective to persuade the purchasing judgment of consumers.
In opposed to this, Kim and Johnson (2016) stated that customers are spending a longer period on surfing the social media sites and makes a judgment with respect to buying the products. Moreover, customers can persuade their friends and the other person. The social media has made quite rapid and made keenness to customers as they want to get immediate gratifications. Consumers also want the instant answer and services hence the corporation should offer instantaneous virtual dialogue to customers with regards to the brand. Furthermore, the company should offer fast service as compared to make a delay in services as it would be beneficial to influence the purchasing behavior of consumers.
From the above conceptual framework, it can be stated that there are two variables involved in the research such as an independent and dependent variable. In this way, the independent variable is social media on which consumer buying behavior depends (Hajli, 2014).
RQ1: What is the conceptual understanding regarding social media and consumer buying behavior in the case of Woolworths Limited, Australia?
Literature review
RQ2: How social media has an impact on consumer buying behavior in case of Woolworths Limited, Australia?
RQ3: Which social media strategy can improve the consumer buying behavior towards the products and services in the case of Woolworths Limited, Australia?
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The above time plan would be beneficial for the investigator to complete the investigation in a pre-determined time. Moreover, through a timescale, an investigator can be competent to build knowledge regarding activities, which would be performed (Ioan?s, and Stoica, 2014). The above research plan demonstrates that data gathering via primary sources will take more time as compared to other activities.
With the intention of this research, a mixed research design would be selected by an investigator to complete the investigation in a particular time framework. This research design would be selected as it contains the attributes of both quantitative and qualitative designing of research. In such way, quantitative research design would be beneficial to gather numeric information associated with research concern and qualitative research design would be effective to pool the conceptual understanding regarding research issue (Khare, 2015). It would be also feasible for evaluating the association amid consumer behavior and social media. This research design would be chosen as it will enable an investigator in order to avoid the limitation and barriers of investigation that may create during the investigation. Since, this design will be selected to frame the theoretical knowledge and gain the practical understanding about the impact of social media on consumer buying behavior (Jung, et. al., 2016).
In this study, the researcher will use a probability sampling method by considering the simple random sampling method to conduct their research and obtain a reliable outcome. Simple random sampling method will allow the researcher to select research participants in randomly basis and conduct the particular research. It is an imperative tool for selecting a sample of the population from a different region. Through this model, each sample size is selected from the whole population without any biases. The random sampling method declines the possibilities of biases from the research (Bai, Yao, and Dou, 2015).
For conducting this researcher, the researcher will use a survey through questionnaire and interview method to conduct the research. Researchers will select 55 research participants from the different region. A researcher will select 50 consumers for the survey through questionnaire and 5 managers for conducting the interview method. From this method, the researcher will collect the opinion of research participants towards the research matter.
Impact of social media on consumer buying behavior: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia
The researcher will use the Data Protection Act 1988 for securing the information of the research participants and main the relationship with them. The researcher will also use the ethical norms at the time of conducting their research and eliminating possibilities of ethical issues. In addition, the researcher will consider the guidelines of research participants to conduct the research in an ethical way. The researcher will also not demonstrate the manipulative information in a research report to conduct a study in an ethical way. For involving the managers in research, an investigator will inform regarding the purpose of the investigation to the manager prior to pooling the data (Jung, et. al., 2016).
For this research, both primary and secondary data collection method will be used to gather the information regarding research concern. Primary data would be gathered via using different sources such as interview and survey through a questionnaire. Along with this, secondary data would be collected through several sources like academic publication, journal articles, textbooks, online articles, and offline articles. These data collection methods would be beneficial to gather the reliable and valid data (Khare, 2015).
Please specify your gender
Male
Female
Please mention your age-group
26-30
31-35
36-40
Above 40 years
Objective based questions
RO1: To analyze the conceptual understanding regarding social media and consumer buying behavior: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia
Do you agree that social media is used by you to gain the information regarding products and services?
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Strongly disagree
Disagree
What is the key reason for using the social media?
Interact with customers
Shopping of products
Share views regarding products
Access review about Product
Do you believe that social media is used to gain depth awareness regarding products and services?
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Strongly disagree
Disagree
RO2: To evaluate the impact of social media on consumer buying behavior: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia
Do you agree that social media has a favorable impact on their purchasing decision?
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Do you believe that social media affects you to move towards competitor’s brand?
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Strongly disagree
Disagree
RO3: To recommend the social media strategy to enhance the consumer buying behavior towards the products and services: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia
Which social media channel is highly used by you to make a purchasing decision?
Social media strategy to enhance the consumer buying behavior towards the products and services: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia
Do you agree that the company should provide offer fast service as compared to make a delay in services?
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Do you believe that a corporation should hire celebrities, recognized person, and sportsperson in order to promote their brand?
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Interview questions
Demographic-based questions
Please specify your gender
Male
Female
Please mention your age-group
26-30
31-35
36-40
Above 40 years
Please specify your experience in the retail industry?
Less than 1 year
2-5 years
6-9 years
More than 9 years
RO1: To analyze the conceptual understanding regarding social media and consumer buying behavior: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia
Do you agree that social media marketing is defined as the process of advertising the products with the help of social media platforms and digital communication techniques?
Do you agree that AIDA model can be used by Woolworth’s limited in order to develop the brand and create awareness regarding products among an individual?
RO2: To evaluate the impact of social media on consumer buying behavior: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia
Do you agree that social media has a positive impact on consumer buying behavior? If yes, why and if no, why?
Do you agree that social networking plays a fundamental role to enhance the satisfaction degree among customers?
RO3: To recommend the social media strategy to enhance the consumer buying behavior towards the products and services: A case study of Woolworths Limited, Australia
Which social media strategy can enhance the consumer buying behavior towards the products and services?
Do you agree that communities and forum on social media supports an individual to interact with others and distribute their opinions?
References
Bai, Y., Yao, Z. and Dou, Y.F., 2015. Effect of social commerce factors on user purchase behavior: An empirical investigation from renren. com. International Journal of Information Management, 35(5), pp.538-550.
Dessart, L., Veloutsou, C. and Morgan-Thomas, A., 2015. Consumer engagement in online brand communities: a social media perspective. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 24(1), pp.28-42.
Erkan, I. and Evans, C., 2016. The influence of eWOM in social media on consumers’ purchase intentions: An extended approach to information adoption. Computers in Human Behavior, 61, pp.47-55.
Godey, B., Manthiou, A., Pederzoli, D., Rokka, J., Aiello, G., Donvito, R. and Singh, R., 2016. Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior. Journal of business research, 69(12), pp.5833-5841.
Hajli, M.N., 2014. A study of the impact of social media on consumers. International Journal of Market Research, 56(3), pp.387-404.
Hajli, N. and Sims, J., 2015. Social commerce: The transfer of power from sellers to buyers. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 94, pp.350-358.
Ioan?s, E. and Stoica, I., 2014. Social media and its impact on consumers behavior. International Journal of Economic Practices and Theories, 4(2), pp.295-303.
Jung, J., Shim, S.W., Jin, H.S. and Khang, H., 2016. Factors affecting attitudes and behavioral intention towards social networking advertising: a case of Facebook users in South Korea. International Journal of Advertising, 35(2), pp.248-265.
Khare, A., 2015. Antecedents to green buying behavior: a study on consumers in an emerging economy. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 33(3), pp.309-329.
Kim, A.J. and Johnson, K.K., 2016. Power of consumers using social media: Examining the influences of brand-related user-generated content on Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior, 58, pp.98-108.
Kumar, A., Bezawada, R., Rishika, R., Janakiraman, R. and Kannan, P.K., 2016. From social to sale: The effects of firm-generated content in social media on customer behavior. Journal of Marketing, 80(1), pp.7-25.
Schivinski, B., and Dabrowski, D., 2016. The effect of social media communication on consumer perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), pp.189-214.
Severi, E., Ling, K.C. and Nasermoadeli, A., 2014. The impacts of electronic word of mouth on brand equity in the context of social media. International Journal of Business and Management, 9(8), p.84.
Sigala, M., 2016. Introduction to Part 1. In Social Media in Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality (pp. 29-32). UK: Routledge.
Solomon, M.R., Dahl, D.W., White, K., Zaichkowsky, J.L. and Polegato, R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). London: Pearson.
Stephen, A.T., 2016. The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, pp.17-21.
Woolworths group. 2018. About us. [Online]. Available at: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us (Accessed: 9 July 2018).
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