Utilization Of Social Networking Sites On Buying Behavior Of Marketing Students
Social Information
Social media provides consumers with informational value. Informational value motivates participants to gather information and share that information with a group. As social creatures, humans are concerned with what others think and want to have that information. Social networks can be linked to a positive association providing instrumental value that assists these consumers in making decisions about what, when and where to buy products. Instrumental value gives users a sense of participation and assists them in reaching their set goals.
Advertisers are diversifying their advertising dollars to meet the demands of inform on-line consumers. Retailers attempt to reach a community of like-minded individuals who may wish to purchase similar items through social media, print advertising, television, WebPages, and radio. The satisfaction received from sharing information about the purchase online is verified by seeing others purchase similar items based on their recommendation. Using recommendations of celebrity spokespersons to influence purchases was established by television advertising and now celebrity spokespersons are “liked” or “followed” on social networking sites. Retailers use consumers’ friends on Facebook by posting their recent purchases in hopes of persuading their “friends” to purchase the same or similar items.
As a transaction channel, social networking sites allow consumers to buyitems or, by clicking a link, send the consumer to another website. Distribution channels may be achieved by locating the outlet nearest the consumer or arranging shipping to their home. The power of the internet as a shopping tool can be shown by the total number of users in North America (78% of the population) and Oceania/Australia (60%).
Social networks are defined to be websites which link millions of users from all over the world with same interests, views and hobbies. Blogs, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook are examples of social media that are popular among all level of consumers. Users are using several online formats to communicate, (e.g. blogs, podcasts, social networks, bulletin boards, and wikis) to share ideas about a given product, service, or brand and contact other consumers, who are seen as more objective information sources. Social media has also influenced consumer behavior from information acquisition to post-purchase behavior such as dissatisfaction statements or behaviors about a product or a company. Company and users help create a favorable or less favorable image of other users who read information posted and consider them in the information or purchase.
According to Chu (2009) that the transmission of information on the Internet gives consumers unlimited access to a great amount of information and a variety of product and brand choices. In the online world, consumers have the ability to make comparisons on price and quality of brands or services, and possess the opportunity to communicate with marketers as well as with other consumers. As a result, it has become apparent that consumers use the Internet to exchange product-related information and share brand experience in the same way they do offline.
However, social networking sites (SNSs) are among the fastest growing segment, and they are a valuable information source for a variety of domains, especially ecommerce. Information sharing within SNSs (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter) is not as well understood, with limited research relative to information sharing in other social media platforms (e.g. blogs). With these particular social networking services, the investigations have primarily focused on the social network connections and reach. There has been less research into the use of these SNSs (social networking sites, social media platforms, or social media technologies) for information sharing, especially in the ecommerce area. Although there are certainly data privacy concerns, an understanding of information sharing on SNSs can be a significant aid to companies and other organizations as they develop marketing, advertising, and other information disseminating strategy.
Focusing on teens and young adults’ on SNSs, this research investigates the relationship between being connected and being engaged with online information sharing on these platforms. Born approximately between 1981 and 2000, this demographic is the first generation raised with online SNSs being readily available. As such, this demographic may be the harbingers of generalized SNSs information sharing behavior. The potential for ecommerce information sharing makes these SNSs of interest to marketers, advertisers, and others in the commercial arena, although certainly the information sharing potential of SNSs is of interest to many domains. However, much of the prior work in information sharing has investigated factors that motivate people to exchange information.
According to Kang (2013) online social shopping using SNSs can provide consumers with information about current styles and others’ opinions about those styles in addition to providing an indication of others’ approval of new products. Previous researchers noted that consumers who enjoyed new experiences were likely to look for others’ information about products and sales and have favorable attitudes toward online shopping. Thus, it was proposed that novelty/fashion-conscious consumers would seek opinions from SNSs and hold favorable attitudes toward online social shopping using SNS. Consumers were likely to explore various shopping sites and seek information regularly.
Shopping Orientation
Shopping orientations as related to general predisposition toward the acts of shopping. This predisposition may be demonstrated in different forms such as information search, alternative evaluation, and product selection. The concept of shopping orientations as a specific portion of lifestyle and operationalized by a range of activities, interests and opinion statements that are relevant to the acts of shopping. They also added that shopping orientations is regarded as a multi-dimensional construct.
With the emergence of online shopping activities, customers’ online shopping behavior may be different in terms of their shopping orientations. Shopping orientations is one of the important indicators of making online purchase. Based on the relationship study between shopping orientations and online shopping orientation.
According to Kwek et al. ,(2010) there are seven types of shopping orientations, such as in-home shoppers who liked to shop from home; economic shoppers who shopped around before making purchase decisions; mall shoppers who preferred to shop at malls; personalized shoppers who liked to shop where they knew the salespeople; ethical shoppers who liked to shop in local stores to promote the community; convenience shoppers who placed a premium on convenience when shopping; and enthusiastic shoppers who enjoyed shopping. As the result of the study, it was found that customers who prefer traditional in-home shopping, such as by mail order via catalogs, tended to show high intentions toward online shopping, whereas individuals with a preference for mall shopping tended to have how online shopping intentions. In the emergence of diverse retail outlets and increasing competition in the marketplace, online retailers must understand customers’ shopping orientations in order to maximize customers’ online purchase intention that leads to the increase in online sales. Several researchers have demonstrated that shopping orientations have significant impact on customer online purchase intention. Shopping orientations is regarded as a multi-dimensional construct. There are 7 types of shopping orientations which include recreation, novelty, impulse purchase, quality, brand, price, and convenience. However, the present research will only explore three types of shopping orientation that includes impulse purchase orientation, quality orientation, and brand orientation. Thus, impulse purchase orientation, quality orientation, and brand orientation will be grouped under the category of shopping orientations. This together with online trust and prior online purchase experience will be tested as the independent variables for customer online purchase intention.
Liang & Dang (2005) state that the online purchase environment is considered to be a collection of different purchase orientations, which describe a general predisposition of potential e-shoppers towards shopping. With the emergence of online shopping activities, customer online shopping behavior may vary due to shopping orientation. Individual consumers have different dispositions towards purchases. Consumer purchase orientations may influence both their purchase behavior and purchase intention in online shopping. This resembles the findings who find that shopping orientations are an important indicator of online purchase behavior. Shopping orientations thus could be considered an important influence on customer online purchase intention via SNS.
Kang (2013) added that consumers who enjoyed online social shopping held positive attitudes toward a social shopping web site and were likely to spend time on the site. Thus, we reasoned that consumers with recreational shopping consciousness may seek opinions from SNSs and hold favorable attitudes toward online social shopping using SNSs. Moreover individual shopping orientations determine whether consumers will use the internet for purchases, make recommendations, or review recommendations and purchase. The literature identifies numerous shopping orientations include economic, ethical, apathy, thrifty innovator, inflation-conscious, brand-loyal, and time oriented. By using orientation research, retailers are able to make better choices about where to place their advertising dollars. Buying on-line has increased significantly and is preferred by consumers who value the convenience and time savings. Consumers who prefer to experience a product before buying are less likely to purchase on-line. With the new GPS applications on Smart Phones and Black Berrys, retailers can identify a nearby outlet where the consumer can see/touch the merchandise. These features put experiential consumers at ease when purchasing. Non-store shoppers, on-line or catalog shoppers, are characterized as young, adventurous, and recreational. However, large portions of on-line shoppers are those who buy on-line for convenience. A consumer’s shopping orientation must be considered in determining whether or not he or she will purchase on-line or rely on social networking sites to influence the buying decision. Social networking sites reach consumers with a variety of shopping orientations and capitalize on their needs while increasing awareness and sales.
However, shopping orientation could be defined as a shopper’s style that places particular emphasis on a shopping-specific lifestyle encompassing shopping activities, interests and opinions, and reflecting a view of shopping as a complex social, recreational and economic phenomenon. They are conceptualized as a specific dimension of lifestyle and operationalized on the basis of activities, interests and opinion statements pertaining to acts of shopping. Shopping is not only an economic activity but also psychological and social. According to consumers, shopping orientations are various; include economic, convenience, experiential, leisure, and self-fulfillment.
Consumers often shop out of personal motives (diversion from the routine of daily life, self-satisfaction, and sensory stimulation) and social motives (social experience outside the home, peer group attraction, and pleasure of bargaining). This construct is important as a shopper tends to shop at the store that meet his/her perceived expectations on certain attributes perceived as important to him or her. According to Hassan et al. (2010) shoppers are classified into four types: the economic shopper, the personalizing shopper, the ethical shopper and the apathetic shopper. Economic shoppers are those who express a sense of responsibility for their household purchasing duties. An economic shopper will shop in stores based on their perception of price where they are likely to shop at stores that are perceived to offer goods at cheaper prices than other stores. A shopper who does not like shopping tends to shop in stores that are close to their homes. Personalizing shoppers include those who prefer shopping at a store “where they know my name’. Personal attachments formed between them and the store personnel will greatly influence their patronage of a store. Economic factors like price, quality and selection of merchandise are less important. Ethical shoppers are those who sacrifice lower price or wider selection of merchandise in order to help their small neighborhood stores to survive against the big shopping mall. Apathetic shoppers do not discriminate between kinds of stores. They consider shopping as a necessity and thus the main criteria used is location convenience. Numerous other versions of shopper classification have been. The most distinct typologies that appear consistent across studies are economic, social and apathetic shoppers. Whatever the basis of shopper taxonomic approaches adopted, it should be noted that customers are taking a new shape with the adoption of new lifestyle. Past studies have found support for the influence of shopper orientation on the perceived image of a store. As such causal links between shopping orientations and store image as proposed in the model is consistent with past studies.
Park & Sullivan (2009) added that consumers who engage in shopping is to satisfy emotional needs and/or to complete shopping tasks such in purchasing a product and/or service. Identified two categories of shopping orientations: hedonic orientation and utilitarian orientation. Hedonic orientation reflects the potential entertainment value of shopping and the enjoyment arising from the experience. Utilitarian orientation is concerned with efficient and timely purchasing to achieve goals with minimum irritation. These shopping orientations have both subjective and objective aspects and they are essentially considered as more abstract constructs than product attributes because they are extracted from both qualitative and quantitative factors. These two different orientations lead customers to engage in shopping both offline and online.
