Impact of social media on consumer buying behavior in UK fashion and retail industry Business Plan

Research Proposal Assignment 

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Impact of social media on consumer buying behavior in UK’s fashion and retail industry

Introduction

 For this research project, the three main ideas identified are the infleunce of social media, the impact of Covid 19 on the economy as well as the evolution of the integrated marketing communication concept. For this research project, the influence of social media channels on consumer buying behavior is chosen. The main reason behind choosing this topic is the increasing utilization of social media for the purpose of marketing and the increasing popularity of the consumer buying behavior concept and theories. On the other hand, in the practical world, this research will help the business managers in formulating the marketing strategies accordingly to positively influence the buying behavior of consumers.

Literature Review

Social media is an increasingly popular channel of communication as well as marketing for the common people and business managers. Through these channels, people can interact, share content as well as pass on the information. The marketing managers of different fashion brands are also using social media channels to influence the decisions of the consumers regarding the purchase of any product which has made it very important to conduct research on the evaluation of such influence (Kumaradeepan, 2021). There are various types of social media channels such as Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Pinterest. The companies are using these channels to promote their businesses and attract maximum numbers of customers. There are various researches published to fulfill the given objectives of research:

• To evaluate the impact of social media channels on purchasing behavior of consumers.
• To evaluate the changes in the view of customers through social media engagement and content.
• To recommend the strategies to business managers regarding formulating the marketing strategies for better performance.

As per the research performed by Liu et al. (2020), social media is offering the chance to the customers to get feedback and reviews of existing consumers regarding any product or service. The results of this study conducted through primary as well as secondary data reflect that the product suggestions can create an impulsive buying behavior among the consumers. This behavior of consumers depends upon the trust of the recommender as well as the need for such a product by the consumer.

Varghese and Nandhini (2020) published in their research the affect of demographic aspects on the purchase decisions of customers. This study has also focused on the pattern of usage of the internet among various consumers. The paper has provided the link between the increasing usage of the internet and social media and the increased engagement of the consumers with social media to know more about any product.

In the research performed by Godey et al. (2016), it is identified that the use of social media is increasing day by day by the marketing professionals as well as the consumers. social media helps businesses in increasing awareness regarding the products as well as the services. This research includes a survey conducted to interpret and analyze the link between the use of social media as well as consumer buying behavior. Statistical evidence is also provided to show that social media have a higher influence on customer buying behavior.

Research Limitation  

The limitations of exiting research include the minimum focus on any particular industry while identifying the influence of social media on consumer buying behavior. The existing studies do not present the specific influence of each social media channel and there is also a lack of sufficient evidence on influence over the fashion and retail industry. This current study is aimed towards highlighting the impact social media has on the purchase intention of consumers in the UK's fashion and retail industry.

Methodology

The methodology is an important section highlighting the strategies and approaches chosen for the purpose of conducting the study. Here, the study will be completed by analyzing the qualitative information collected from both primary and secondary data sources.

Participants

In order to collect the information from primary data sources, the questionnaire will be prepared and the key participants will be the consumers of the fashion and retail industry within the United Kingdom. There will be taken 100 participants into consideration and a random sampling method will be used. The participants will be chosen randomly and the questionnaires will be sent to them on their email addresses. These consumers will be from the age group of 18 to 50 and it will include both female and male consumers (ALShaer, et al., 2020).

Procedures

A set procedure will be followed by the researcher in order to conduct the study. Below is presented the list of steps taken to perform the study:

• Selection of the topic
• Writing background of the study, problem identification, and determination of aims and objectives
• Review of the existing literature
• Identifying literature gap
• Collection of data through primary and secondary sources
• Ethical consideration while collecting information from primary sources
• Analysis of collected information
• Discussion and findings
• Conclusion and Recommendations

Design

The qualitative information will be used by the researcher for this study using the primary and secondary data sources. There will be a prepared questionnaire to collect the information from participants. A cross-sectional time horizon is considered due to the limited availability of time to complete this research. The descriptive and review research design is adopted here by the researcher for primary as well as secondary information (Gupta and Shome, 2020).

Data Collection

The data will be collected from both primary and secondary sources. For the primary data collection, the questionnaire will be prepared which will include 12 questions including the demographics and qualifications of the consumers. These will be multiple choice questions regarding social media and its influence on their behavior while purchasing any product. These questionnaires will be circulated on the email addresses of selected participants. Ethical considerations will also be taken to collect the information without any coercion. For the secondary data, existing journal articles and reputed websites will be reviewed for the years after 2016 to ensure the validity and reliability of the information.

Data Analysis

There will be utilized the graphical representation for the questionnaire responses and thematic analysis approach to reviewing the secondary information. Thematic analysis is highly useful for the analysis of qualitative information in which the data is categorized into different themes on the basis of their homogenous characteristics.

References

• ALShaer, D. S., Hamdan, A. and Razzaque, A. (2020) “Social Media Enhances Consumer Behaviour during E-Transactions: An Empirical Evidence from Bahrain,” Journal of Information & Knowledge Management, 19(01). doi: 10.1142/S0219649220400122.
• Godey, B. et al.(2016) “Social Media Marketing Efforts of Luxury Brands: Influence on Brand Equity and Consumer Behavior,” Journal of Business Research, 69(12), pp. 5833–5833.
• Gupta, Y. and Shome, S. (2020) “Social Media Advertisements and Buying Behaviour: A Study of Indian Working Women,” International Journal of Online Marketing (IJOM), 10(3), pp. 48
• Kumaradeepan, V. (2021) “Social Media Advertising As Strategy on Consumer Buying Behaviour: Conceptual Paper,” Journal of Management, 15(2), pp. 30–30. doi: 10.4038/jm.v15i2.7601.
• Liu, Q. et al.(2020) “Exploring Consumers' Buying Behavior in a Large Online Promotion Activity: The Role of Psychological Distance and Involvement,” Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 15(1), pp. 66–80. doi: 10.4067/S0718-18762020000100106.
• Varghese S and Nandini (2020) “The Influence of Demographic Factors on the Customers of Online-Shopping with Special Reference to Kochi City,” Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems, 12(1 Special Issue), pp. 856–860. doi: 10.5373/JARDCS/V12SP1/20201137.