Impact of Social Media on Consumer Behaviour

Abstract

The era of bricks and mortar for the sale and purchase of products is slowly moving towards the concept of e-commerce. The consumers not only are moving towards the e-commerce construct for purchasing good/services but they are also going online to consult and form an opinion about various products/services. In this information age keeping oneself informed is becoming easy as all the information is available on a click of a mouse. The technology is growing rapidly and thus the consumers are getting more empowered with all the information available online. Social media is a technology where people from around the world connect with each other. The social media has no longer restricted itself to socializing with friends and family but has gone much above; people use products and give their honest opinions which influence the potential users to make a decision to buy or not to buy the products. Social media gives the consumers power to explore products that they are willing to purchase. They scrutinize the reviews available online and make a positive or negative opinion about the products in question. Social media has gone so big in influencing the potential consumers that the companies now have their own social handle to give the consumers the information they require and also to make information available easily. A new concept of bloggers has also popped right out where people dedicatedly use different products from various brands and provides their opinions on it. This paper studies the impact of social media on the consumer decision-making process, the way social media is developing trust in consumers, the impact social media on the buying intentions of consumers. Benefits derived by the brands from social media, the effect of social media in reducing consumer dissonance.