Project analytics

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IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA
ON CONSUMER’S BUYING
BEHAVIOUR
Comprehensive Project PRE-VIVA Report
SUBMITTED TO
International Management Institute
Bhubaneswar
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT FOR THE AWARD OF
POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA
in
MANAGEMENT
By
SHINJON SENGUPTA
2020

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I, Shinjon Sengupta, a student at International Management Institute, Bhubaneswar, am
extremely grateful for the confidence bestowed upon me and entrusting me with the project
titled ‘Impact of Social Media on Consumer Buying Behaviour’.
I express my profound gratitude to Prof. Rohit Vishal Kumar, Project Guide and Mentor,
who gave me valuable guidance, suggestion, and helped me throughout the project. He
encouraged me and supported me to effectively channelize my thoughts in the report making.
Finally, I shall be expressing my deep regards and sincere thanks to my family for their love,
well-wishers, and deep inspirations, who always been encouraging me to build up myself
better than yesterday. My vocabulary fails to express my thanks to my friends and seniors for
all their well wishes and encouragement.

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DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this project titled ‘Impact of Social Media on Consumer Buying
Behaviour’ is done by me and has been carried out under the guidance of, Prof Rohit Vishal
Kumar, faculty guide in International Management Institute, Bhubaneswar in the partial
fulfilment of Post Graduate Diploma in Management.
This research project is a part of the course curriculum and all the work has been kept
confidential and is used for academic purposes only.
All care has been taken to keep this report flawless and I sincerely regret any unintended
discrepancies in this report.
Shinjon Sengupta

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Chapter 1 – GENERAL INFORMATION
o About the Industry………………………………………………………………………
Overview of World Market...........................................................................................5-6
Overview of Indian Market........................................................................................... 7-8
o Growth & Penetration of the industry .............................................................................. 9-10
o Major Social Media platforms..........................................................................................11-12
o Introduction of the Study..................................................................................................13
Literature Review ...........................................................................................................14
Background of the Study...............................................................................................15
Objectives of the Study..................................................................................................16
Research Design .............................................................................................................16
 Chapter 2 – PRIMARY RESEARCH
o Research Methodology......................................................................................................18
Data Collection...............................................................................................................18
Population.......................................................................................................................18
Sampling Method...........................................................................................................18
Data Collection Instrument........................................................................................... 18
o Data Analysis & Interpretation..........................................................................................18
o Factor Analysis ................................................................................................................22-28
o Multiple Regression Analysis .........................................................................................29-30
o Crosstab Analysis.............................................................................................................31-32
o Results & Findings............................................................................................................34
o Recommendations.............................................................................................................35
o Annexure…....................................................................................................................... 36-38

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CHAPTER 1 – GENERAL INFORMATION

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ABOUT THE INDUSTRY
 OVERVIEW OF WORLD MARKET
Social Media in the last decade has evolved to a great extent from a small platform
to being a part of life for users every day. The social media marketing is gaining
popularity with each passing day due to the fact of increasing participation from the
users across various platforms. According to a report the active monthly users on
Facebook is approximately 1.79 billion as of 2016. In the current market, businesses
are using social media platforms such as Facebook and twitter to their advantage to
portray their brands/products, to build brand image, to reach various segments etc.
One of the factors behind the growth of global social media market is that social media
is constantly acknowledged as a medium that helps in directing keywords towards the
company website. This in turn leads to improvement in the traffic and visibility of the
brand among the users off social media. Smartphones are playing an important role
behind the growth of the industry since there is a high number of users who use social
media from their mobile phones. The applications designed specifically for
smartphones track the activities through code and increase the relevance of social
media marketing.
The marketing teams of the organization must now understand how the social media
has impact on the patterns of the consumer buying behavior. There are 3.96 billion
users worldwide in July 2020 and this number is rising day by day. The United States
currently stands 24th in the world in terms of social media usage time by two hours
while Canada is placed 30th at one hour and 48 minutes. Countries such as Germany
and Japan have lower social media usage rates with 40% and 39% respectively. In
the advanced European countries women tend to use social media more compared to
men such as in Sweden 72% of women use social media where areas 63% men use
it and in Spain the number is 63% for women compared to 54% for men.

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With over 2.6 billion users, Facebook is the most popular platform among the other
social media platforms today followed by YouTube and WhatsApp standing at 2
billion users. Facebook was the first platform to surpass the one billion mark in terms
of active user in the year of 2012. It has been seen that approximately two-thirds of
U.S adults report that they are Facebook users.
Philippines is considered as a social media leader for user generated content that is
available and the number of people that visit the country. In Europe most of the people
get news from social media, with countries like Italy getting half of their news through
social media. In countries such as Spain, Denmark 40% of the people in adult
category get their news from social media.

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 OVERVIEW OF INDIAN MARKET
The adoption of social media in India in the past few years has been strong as large
business organizations, government, political parties are using social media platforms
to their advantage to reach the population. 75% of the people who are actively using
internet services use social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
Pinterest, Instagram etc. to interact with friends and colleagues. Currently, social
media adoption is around 85% among the users in India and amounts to 110 million
people.
According to reports in 2019 the number of active users in India was around 330 million
and it is expected to rise to 448 million in 2023. Most users access social media
through their mobile devices. The main contributor for the social media is Millennials
and Gen Z with 52.45 from millennials and 28.5% from Gen Z. The sites that are most
popular in terms of usage are Facebook and YouTube. Amazon and Flipkart also in
terms of online shopping. WhatsApp’s emergence in the digital market has increased
the app usage, especially in the rural areas.
The scope is immense in India in terms of Social Media and as India has the 2nd largest
population in the world a survey in 2019 showed that about 15-20% of the budget of
the company is allocated for advertising on social media. The Indian government has
helped in promoting the digital media as from 69 million in 2016 the number of online
shoppers has increased to 100 million in 2017.
The number of users in rural India 260 million and is expected to rise further. Among
the various states, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi has a greater number of female
users who use internet or social media. The maximum users lie in the age-group 12-
29 years. The users of social media are increasing more and more in the urban areas

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as one-third of social media users live in towns and there has also been increase in
the number of mobile users in social media.
The number of app downloads is very strong in India with the amount standing at more
than 19 billion which was downloaded by the Indian population in 2019. The average
time that an individual person spend each week is approximately 17 hours that is more
than China and U.S. Facebook is the most popular and selected social media platform
in the country and there are about 270 million users present in the country at the
moment making India as the country with highest Facebook user base in the world.

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GROWTH & PENETRATION OF THE INDUSTRY
The number of users has been increasing day by day in rural as well as urban areas.
It was expected to cross 640 million by December 2020. According to reports in 2019,
India has 560 million active users. Among these users most users are mobile phone
internet users. After the 4G introduction the data traffic has increased hugely in India
by approximately 47% in 2019. The 3G use had a huge decline as usual after the
introduction of 4G and most of the users had an average consumption of 11GB of data
each month.
The worldwide social media penetration currently stands at 49 percent. The global
growth of social media is because there has been increase in the use of mobile
devices. In the mobile social media penetration Eastern Asia stood at number one
position followed by powerhouses such as America and European countries. India is
currently second in the online market behind China. The internet penetration rate
before five years was standing at 27 percent.
According to reports, there are currently more than three hundred social networking
sites and the users present across these sites are approximately 150 crores in
number. In today’s world, it has become easy to make friends through social
networking sites and having similar interest in activities or other things and it is easy
to transfer photos, media or share views on different topics.

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The highest internet penetration in India is in the state of Delhi followed by Kerala,
J&K, Haryana, Himachal, and Punjab. The states which have low penetration rate is
Assam and North East. Throughout India the penetration level has been on the rise
with high rate in the metro cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, and Delhi. The
number of female users is more in the states of Kerala and the government has taken
few initiatives to bring high speed internet to provide every household and the poor
families who would be eligible to get free service which will help them to use internet
to their benefit and increase potential internet users.
The digital advertisement spending includes the amount spent on advertising on social
media by the companies. The companies mostly choose YouTube, Facebook to
advertise their products as the users there are large in number and the Indian
consumers are consuming content through digital platforms more. The increase in the
internet penetration and use of mobile device has eventually led to increase in the
consumption of content on social media.

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MAJOR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
 FACEBOOK – Facebook is currently the largest social media platform in the world with
over 2 billion monthly active users. If the primary audience is over 30 for a brand to
market their product then a presence on Facebook is more likely to be better for that
brand. Facebook Groups is also an option to build a community for the brand to gather
customers as they can interact and know about the products and services of the brand
and they can be helpful in creating conversation. The more the content posted on
Facebook is interesting, engaging the more likely it is to go viral on Facebook.
Marketing through this platform builds a bond and a sense of trust and motivates the
users. The marketing function through Facebook includes sharing engaging, short
videos, posts on page etc.
 INSTAGRAM – This platform is mostly preferred by influencers, brands, bloggers, and
small business owners to position their products. The users in this platform is over 1
billion per month. This platform is one of the most popular among teens and young
adults, especially in the US. Men and women both use it and people below 40 are
consistent users of this platform. A lot of travel companies, lifestyle brands and
photography companies use this platform to showcase the company and reach target
segment through this platform. The content that is involved more in photography,
stunning visuals, unique designs connected with the audience with a cohesive theme
helps to stand out on Instagram.
 YOUTUBE – This platform is currently the 2nd most popular social media platform after
Facebook and the 2nd most popular search engine company after Google. There is an
average of 2 billion monthly users of this social media platform. It has been reported
that around 73% of US adults use YouTube regularly with the age-group of 15-34
years using mostly and it is popular among both men as well as women and the usage
increase along with income level and education level as you search for product
reviews from this platform. The content that works here is only video but engaging
videos with good sound quality and it depends on the business and the type of
audience it wants to connect with. Anyone can open a YouTube channel and become
a sensation by creating engaging videos gradually and these social media innovations
are now part of mobile devices. The various functions of this platform include
combination of education and entertainment videos i.e. if you are teaching the
audience with specific topics and exam related videos. There is also emerging tactics
of unboxing videos posted of various products and partnering with YouTube
influencers can be a great option for the business to make a name for their brand and
improve the presence across this platform.
 TWITTER – This platform has an active user base of around 300 million and around
40% of those users are active on the site numerous number of times on a daily basis

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which suggests that if the audience uses the platform they are likely to get engaged.
This platform is popular among the users who are tech-savvy and people in B2B
related to business and marketing or politics. The age group who are most active on
twitter are in the range of 35 to 65 and two thirds among those are male. It allows to
share your views on current issues in the world and is particularly for B2B
professionals and the image of the brand can be boosted with the help of this platform
using hashtags. Videos works in connecting with your audience but a tweet through
this platform can also cause wonders if targeted properly on trending topics and witty
as well.
 PINTEREST – This platform has become popular for bookmarking tool and saving
ideas and finding creative ideas and imagination when it comes to topics such as
cooking, DIY, vacation ideas, designs etc. The audience in this platform consist of
mostly women in the millennial age group. The most shared content here images,
keywords related to the search. This platform works by pinning pictures on the board
in the respective account of the users. The board consists of a collection of pictures
saved by the user based on his/her preferences and it is helpful as they are able to
find new products from different brands from the people that they follow on Pinterest.
 SNAPCHAT – Snapchat is also one of the most widely used application mostly
preferred by young adults below 25 years of age. It has a user base of over 300 million
monthly and in this app, content is shared frequently by the users to share updates
and communicate with friends and family through short video or intriguing pictures.
78% of the users fall under the age-group of 18-25 and the users are mostly females
and used daily by them mostly. Storytelling video works best on this application to
encourage youths and educate the young audience to form a connection with
customers.

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INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY
There is huge change in the channels of communication in today’s world. Social Media
has come into play and has become a convenient way among all the age-groups to
become a mode of communication. It has also made shopping and communicating
with the marketers and shoppers easy by communicating their needs and problems
through social media. The internet has the function of storing huge amount of data,
using search engines, function a physical distribution medium as software at relatively
low prices. The social media has come in help of business to globally market their
products or help in expansion of their brand and make customers globally with a few
clicks. The consumers has more information with them before purchasing a product
and the customers can now search for the product or an alternate product with the
same price or a substitute product with relatively low price offered by different brand
and see the reviews before making the purchase. The consumer purchase decision is
influenced by social media through communication by the group. Social media has
become a channel of communication between the seller and the buyer and a new way
of exchanging information about products & services. The goal here is to find out the
impact that social media has on the consumer buying behavior. In urban India, the
penetration of social media stands at 65% compared to 60% in 2016 and the
penetration in rural areas has grown by a small margin. While selling products
nowadays analyzing the consumer based on their needs and preferences in an
important activity for the seller since majority of the consumers use social media.
Some of the popular examples of social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter,
WhatsApp, YouTube etc. which have become an integral part of the users life as it
helps the businesses to market the products accordingly and connect with their
customers and create a new business out of it. The consumers have been ever more
connected with the brands than they were previously.
Many social networking sites came into existence for users to make communication
easy but very few among them were accepted by the users. In 2002, Friendster came,
and many people started using it and after that Myspace, LinkedIn followed. In 2004,
Facebook which is currently the most popular social media platform was launched.
The study aims at integration of social media marketing and the message
communicated via social media. Social factors are made up of one’s peer groups and
the influence that social media has. Social media has created various opportunities for
consumers in adapting different aspects in life. The study portrays the consumer
buying behavior in selecting various brands and how they choose between different
brands while going to purchase a product, how people research and shop and which
factors affects their buying behavior. Several companies now place considerable time
and effort as well as focus on how social media can be better used to shape the brand
perception and influence the buying intention of customers.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
 Michael Putter (2017) in his research paper “The Impact of Social Media on
Consumer Buying Intention” mentioned about how companies are adopting
new ways to reach the consumers and the fundamental marketing strategies
i.e. television and print media advertising among the traditional marketing
strategies are used to market products and how social media can be effectively
used by companies to interact with target groups. It is also mentioned how
brand perception is built with the help of social media and how the companies
are building strategic approach based on that.
 Constantinides (2004) found out in a research paper why consumers use
social media to purchase products and understood the important elements of
visiting websites. This paper also mentions how interaction with other users can
affect the buyers which play a critical role in consumers having clear ideas
about various or unfamiliar products. The factors were-
o Information Factors
o Design Factors
o Psychological Factors
o Cultural Factors
 Manju Ahuja (2003) in her research paper found out the factors that influence
the shopping behavior and the browsing behavior during online shopping. The
study has been conducted using B2C sites and the researcher also
investigated the buying preferences of consumers.
 Garima Gupta (2013) in her paper analyzed the influence of social media on
buying behavior of consumers. The paper involves the results which proved
that social media influences the intentions of consumer buying products. The
paper mentions 3 factors namely information about the product, peer
communication and the extent of product involvement on purchase
intentions of shoppers with respect to social media.

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BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
From companies’ point of view Social media advertising is a way to connect the brand
with the target customers and then drive profit from them. Social Media advertisement
involves free as well as paid advertisements on various social media platforms such
as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, to achieve the objective. Large companies spend a
considerable amount of money of their marketing budget to have an impact of their
advertisement on the consumers’ minds and they can purchase the product. The other
social media factors which influence consumer buying behavior are-
 Reviews from influencers – The influencers are those who has significant
amount of following or a presence in social media. As they have a huge
following, so the posts made by them are viewed by their followers each day
and that is why they are targeted by businesses to promote their products. The
main factor lies in the content shared by the influencer whether the consumers
feel connected with the brand through the content shared by the influencer.
 Store’s presence on Social media – An organization’s presence on social
media plays an important role behind the purchasing behavior of the
consumers. The brand must stand out with the presence and give valuable
information to the customers on their website so that the consumers can easily
get all the information before purchasing the product and get a favorable
experience in the pre-purchase stage with all the updated information on the
company’s feed.
 Reviews from friends & family – Social media allows us to connect with our
friends and families and the product or service availed or purchased by them
from social media can be reviewed by them and we tend to share the
experience which has influence on our lives. So, I would most likely trust my
family to purchase a product and take suggestions from them rather than
listening to reviews from strangers. 80% of consumers are most likely to
purchase products based on reviews received from friends/family.
 Social Media Advertising – Advertisement on social media has become
simpler with each passing day and targeting has become much more detailed.
There are targeting and retargeting which is placing an ad and when the
customer clicks that ad that takes the customer to a next ad and retargeting ads
are placed to move people through the sales funnel. Ads on social media also
helps in repeat sales. Brands can give reminder to customers to restock by
purchasing their customized product or show complementary product to
increase the customer’s lifetime value.

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
 To establish the impact of social media on consumer’s decision-making
process across different levels of the society.
 The study will aim to understand the reasons or factors that tempts consumers
to purchase online and analyze the stated factors.
 To determine how social media influences the pre-purchase stage, the
purchase stage and post-purchase stage in consumer’s buying process.
RESEARCH DESIGN
This research requires a definite and structured plan to find the relation between the
various factors of social media which has impact on consumer buying behavior. Thus,
we will conduct the research by following the below research design. I will use Factor
analysis and multiple regression analysis to find out the relationship between various
factors which influence consumers buying process and then find out which are the
important factors behind consumer’s decision-making process while purchasing
online.
The study is an empirical study and the target segment to collect the data will be
mostly college students or more precisely students. The sampling method should be
simple random sampling and the data collected will be mostly from different parts of
the country by floating google forms and floating a structured questionnaire. The data
will then be analyzed with the help of Excel and SPSS.
RESEARCH PLAN
1 Type of Research Descriptive Research
2 Sources of Data Primary & Secondary
3 Research Instrument Google Forms, SPSS, MS Excel
4 Location of Study Questionnaire to be floated
through social media platforms to
students.
5 Sample Plan Simple Random Sampling

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CHAPTER 2 – PRIMARY RESEARCH

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study is a descriptive and exploratory research study conducted with the help of primary
as well as secondary data to understand the research problem and provide conclusive
recommendations.
DATA COLLECTION
 Primary Data – A questionnaire was distributed to various people who are involved
in the insurance industry and are involved in some form of investment. The
questionnaire was circulated via social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram,
WhatsApp, E-mails. For a period of 1 month the questionnaire was distributed to
collect the responses for further analysis.
 Secondary Data – This data was collected from the internet through various
legitimate site and sources as well as websites and articles.
POPULATION
The sample size of the study is limited to 164 respondents.
SAMPLING METHOD
The sampling method used in the study is Simple Random Sampling.
A simple random sampling is basically a subset of individuals chosen from a larger subset of
individuals. The individual is chosen randomly and entirely by chance so that the individual
has the equal probability of being chosen at any moment during the process of sampling.
DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT
The analysis of data collection is completed and presented successfully and systematically
with the use of Microsoft Excel, MS Word, SPSS. The various tools that were used for
analysis of the demographic factors were Bar Graphs, Pie charts and Column graphs and to
do an exploratory research Factor analysis was used with the help of SPSS where the
respondents were asked to rate 14 independent factors involved while they purchase online.

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GENDER
Female, 66
Male, 98
Female Male
AGE-GROUP
7%
16%
26%
21%
30%
Less
than 18
18-23
24-28
29-35
Above
35
DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION
DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY
GENDER
Interpretation
From the above pie chart, we can interpret that out of 164 respondents 98 were male which
is about 59.8% and the rest 40.2% were female which were 66 in number.
DISTRIBUTION OF AGE
Interpretation
The above pie chart shows that most of the respondents lie in the age-group of 24-28 which
is 30% (50), 21% (35) fell under the group of 29-35, 16% (26) fell under the group of Above
35. 42 respondents were in the range of 18-23 and the rest 7% were below 18 years of age.

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INCOME-LEVEL
ABOVE 50000 35
31000-50000 34
11000-30000 20
LESS THAN 10000 11
NOT APPLICABLE 64
EMPLOYMENT STATUS
80
Student, 77
EMPLOYMENT STATUS
70
60
50
40
Service, 38
30
Business, 20
Professional, 29
20
10
0
Student Business Service Professional
Series1 77 20 38 29
Interpretation
From the column graphs we can see that out of the 164 respondents there were 77 students,
20 people (12.2%) who were under the business class category, 38 people i.e., about 23.2%
of the people were doing service and the rest 29 people (17.7%) were professionals.
INCOME-LEVEL
Interpretation
The above bar chart shows the income range/month of the respondent. Out of all the
respondent 35 people (21.3%) falls under the category of above 50000, 34 people (20.7%)
in the 31000-50000, 20 (12.2%) of them falls under 11000-30000, 11 of them under less than
10000 and the rest 64 (39%) of them which is the most among the collected responses are
student category.

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HIGHEST EDUCATION
15%
44%
41%
X / XII
Graduation
Post-
graduation/Masters
PREFERENCE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM
Snapchat
WhatsApp
10%
7% Facebook
20%
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
WhatsApp
Snapchat
YouTube
26%
Instagram
37%
EDUCATION LEVEL
Interpretation
From the pie-chart we can see that out of the 164 respondents there were 24 people, 14.6
people (12.2%) who were in X/XII, 68 people i.e., about 41.5% of the people were Graduated
and the rest 72 people (44%) were professionals.
PREFERENCE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM
Interpretation
From the above pie-chart, we can see that the platform which is most used by the respondents
is Instagram which is 37% i.e., 60 people, 26% of them i.e., 42 people think that YouTube
is the platform which influences their purchase decision followed by Facebook (20%),
WhatsApp (10%) and Snapchat (7%).

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FACTOR ANALYSIS
Factor Analysis was performed using the SPSS Software. Factor analysis is a data
reduction tool which helps to reduce the factors for better analysis. The correlation was
determined between the total variance and the items which give the value of cumulative
variance. There are many methods of conducting factor analysis. However, Principal
Component analysis is used for this study and there are different types of rotations as well.
Here varimax rotation is used as the data is uncorrelated and rotation only applies when 2
or more components are retained. Varimax rotation falls under orthogonal rotation which is
done when there are factors or components are more than 1. The factors were determined
by this process.
The number of factors to be extracted need to be decided. The different analysis can reach
to a different result coming out after analysing the same data. Factor analysis is almost like
cluster analysis. The difference is that in factor analysis the same variables are grouped
into dimensions. In this study factor analysis has helped to reduce the initial number of
factors for further analysis of the data collected from the survey.
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett’s Test
The KMO and Bartlett’s test of sphericity shows or explains that the data collected for the
study is appropriate for conducting factor analysis or not. This test is the measure of the
adequacy of sampling that must be used when one is conducting factor analysis. The
calculation always gives a value between 0 and 1 and it is easy to decide by finding out by
taking the value closer to 1 into consideration.
The Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity checks the hypothesis of the correlation matrix in the identity
matrix and the significance level of 0.000 suggests that factor analysis is useful with this
data.
KMO and Bartlett's Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .634
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 334.629
df 78
Sig. .000
From the above table we can see that after the calculation the KMO value came out to be
0.634 which is relevant and significant at the point of significance of 0.000 percent. It also
states that the correlations between the pair of variables can be explained by other variables
and it will be appropriate to conduct factor analysis. It also implies that the item-by-item matrix
of correlation is not an identity matrix, so the data generated from the questionnaire is relevant
and it is suitable to apply factor analysis. A value of 0.5 is suggested to be minimum to conduct
the factor analysis.

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Communalities
Initial Extraction
Social media ads are more
informative as compared to
traditional media
1.000 .388
I get information about
different products through
social media i.e., Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, blogs etc.
1.000 .650
The reviews from my friends
and family over social media
helps me in purchasing that
particular product online
1.000 .691
Social media advertising
provides two-way
interactions between the
buyer and seller
1.000 .503
The popularity of the brand
over social media helps me
in purchasing products from
that particular brand
1.000 .580
I prefer to watch the reviews
of influencers before
purchasing products online
1.000 .703
I usually tell my friends
about the advertisement of
social media and the product
then share it
1.000 .616
The brands presence over
social media helps in
providing information about
the brand and their product
range or new product
launches
1.000 .542

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The credibility of YouTube
influencers, bloggers
influences my buying
decision
1.000 .730
Social media allows to
interact with the brand
community to know more
about the products of the
brand
1.000 .614
I prefer to purchase directly
from the social media page
of the brand
1.000 .553
I like to compare products
from different brands over
social media
1.000 .746
Social media reduces the
purchasing time as well as
the cost while purchasing
products online
1.000 .563
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Communalities chart basically shows the amount of variance of each variable given in the
chart that can be explained by the other factors. The values in the initial column is same for
all the variables but in the extraction column the values are different for all the variables so
the extraction column gives the amount of each variable’s variance that can be explained by
the factors that are retained after running the factor analysis using the principal component
analysis. The variables that have high value are represented in the common factor space and
those whose values are low are not very well represented.

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Total Variance Explained
Compone
nt
Initial Eigenvalues
Extraction Sums of Squared
Loadings Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings
Total
% of
Variance
Cumulative
% Total
% of
Variance
Cumulative
% Total
% of
Variance
Cumulative
%
1 2.983 22.946 22.946 2.983 22.946 22.946 1.754 13.490 13.490
2 1.444 11.109 34.055 1.444 11.109 34.055 1.626 12.504 25.994
3 1.275 9.806 43.861 1.275 9.806 43.861 1.619 12.457 38.451
4 1.136 8.740 52.601 1.136 8.740 52.601 1.502 11.550 50.001
5 1.042 8.016 60.617 1.042 8.016 60.617 1.380 10.616 60.617
6 .948 7.289 67.906
7 .814 6.261 74.167
8 .741 5.701 79.868
9 .716 5.505 85.373
10 .640 4.925 90.298
11 .511 3.927 94.225
12 .429 3.299 97.524
13 .322 2.476 100.000
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
 There were 14 variables of which 1 was the dependent variable. So, out of the 14 factors
or variables not all 14 are retained only the first 3 factors or variables are retained.
 Eigenvalues are the variance of factors. The total column contains the eigenvalues. The
first factor accounts for the most variance thus having the highest eigenvalue and the next
factor accounts for the left-over variance and so on.
 The % of variance column gives the percentage of total variance accounted for by each
component.
 The cumulative % column gives the cumulative percentage of variance accounted for by
the current and preceding factors. Here the cumulative % for the fifth component is 60.617
that means that first 3 factors account for 60.617% of the total variance.

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Rotated Component Matrix
The Rotated Component Matrix contains all the loading of the factor that are rotated which
represents both the weighting of the variables of each factor but also the correlation in
between the factor as well as variables.
Rotated Component Matrix
Component
1 2 3 4 5
I usually tell my friends about the
advertisement of social media and
the product then share it
.769
Social media reduces the
purchasing time as well as the
cost while purchasing products
online
.591
I prefer to purchase directly from
the social media page of the brand
.555
The reviews from my friends and
family over social media helps me
in purchasing that particular
product online
.514
The credibility of YouTube
influencers, bloggers influences
my buying decision
.839
I prefer to watch the reviews of
influencers before purchasing
products online
.834
I get information about different
products through social media i.e.,
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
blogs etc.
.751

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Social media advertising provides
two-way interactions between the
buyer and seller
.693
Social media ads are more
informative as compared to
traditional media
.482
Social media allows to interact
with the brand community to know
more about the products of the
brand
.761
The popularity of the brand over
social media helps me in
purchasing products from that
brand
.704
I like to compare products from
different brands over social media
.833
The brands presence over social
media helps in providing
information about the brand and
their product range or new product
launches
.642
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization
Component 1 – Referral
Component 2 – Trust
Component 3 – Awareness
Component 4 – Communication
Component 5 – Convenience

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Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive Statistics
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Referral 164 1.50 5.00 3.4192 .76088
Trust 164 1.00 5.00 3.4482 1.02667
Awareness 164 1.67 5.00 3.8496 .70378
Communication 164 1.50 5.00 3.8598 .79212
Convenience 164 1.50 5.00 3.7805 .84395
Valid N (listwise) 164
 N – This is the number of valid observations or total number of observations which is
164 in this case.
 Minimum – The minimum or smallest value of the variable in all the cases.
 Maximum – The maximum or largest value of Reliability is 5 in case of all the variables.
 Mean – This is the average across the observations. This is the average value of the
responses of all the variables combined to form 1 component or factor.
 Std. Deviation – This is the square root of the measure of variability.

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Multiple Regression Analysis
Model Summary
Model R R Square
Adjusted R
Square
Std. Error of the
Estimate
1 .912a
.832 .827 .282
a. Predictors: (Constant), Convenience, Trust, Awareness,
Communication, Referral
In this study, multiple regression analysis has been used to find out the determinants
of the impact of social media on consumer’s buying behaviour. The model summary
shows that R value is 0.912 which is correlation of five independent variables with
dependent variable. R square value is 0.827 which means that 82.7 percent of the
variations in the dependent variable (Customer buying behaviour) is been described
by the independent variables (Referral, Trust, Awareness, Communication,
Convenience) taken into consideration in the model.
Hypothesis Testing
Coefficients
Model
Unstandardized Coefficients
Standardized
Coefficients
t Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
1 (Constant) -.356 .169 -2.104 .037
Referral .439 .032 .493 13.515 .000
Trust .312 .022 .473 13.902 .000
Awareness .233 .034 .242 6.786 .000
Communication .054 .030 .063 1.797 .074
Convenience .054 .027 .067 2.001 .047
a. Dependent Variable: On the overall, considering everything how would you rate the overall impact of
social media on your buying behaviour
H1 – Referral significantly impacts customer buying behaviour.
H2– Trust significantly impacts customer buying behaviour.
H3– Awareness significantly impacts customer buying behaviour.
H4– Communication significantly impacts customer buying behaviour.
H5– Convenience significantly impacts customer buying behaviour.

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Testing H1
From the table, the result shows that there is a significant and positive relationship between
Referral and customer’s buying behavior while purchasing online with Beta = .439 and p-
value is 0.000 which is less than 0.05. This means that Referral impacts more than 43 percent
customer buying behavior while purchasing online. Thus, we accept H1.
Testing H2
From the table, the result shows that there is a significant and positive relationship between
Trust and customer’s buying behavior while purchasing online with Beta = .312 and p-value
is 0.000 which is less than 0.05. This means that Trust impacts more than 31 percent
customer buying behavior while purchasing online. Thus, we accept H2.
Testing H3
From the table, the result shows that there is a significant and positive relationship between
Awareness and customer’s buying behavior while purchasing online with Beta = .233 and p-
value is 0.000 which is less than 0.05. This means that Awareness impacts more than 23
percent customer buying behavior while purchasing online. Thus, we accept H3.
Testing H4
From the table, the result shows that there is no significant relationship between customer
buying behaviour and Communication in online shopping with Beta= .054 and p value is .074
which is greater than 0.05. Thus, we reject H4.
Testing H5
From the table, the result shows that there is a significant and positive relationship between
Convenience and customer’s buying behavior while purchasing online with Beta = .054 and
p-value is 0.047 which is less than 0.05. Thus, we accept H5.
Based on SPSS results, the Regression Model of the study is Customer buying
behaviour = -.356 + 0.439(Referral) + 0.312 (Trust) + .233 (Awareness) + 0.054
(Convenience)
It can be interpreted that -
The Customer buying behaviour while purchasing online is mainly been impacted by three
variables namely Referral, Trust and Awareness.

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CROSSTAB ANALYSIS
 Age x Preferred social media platform.
Please specify your Age * The social media platform which most influences your
purchase decision Crosstabulation
Count
The social media platform which most influences your
purchase decision Total
Facebook Instagram Snapchat WhatsApp YouTube
Please specify your
Age
18-23 8 19 2 4 9 42
24-28 4 19 6 5 16 50
29-35 11 9 1 4 10 35
Above 35 years 9 11 0 3 3 26
Less than 18
years
1 2 3 1 4 11
Total 33 60 12 17 42 164
Chi-Square Tests
Value df
Asymptotic
Significance (2-
sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 27.097a
16 .040
Likelihood Ratio 27.776 16 .034
N of Valid Cases 164
Interpretation:
The above cross tab shows relationship between Age and the preferred social media
platform. This crosstab is basically conducted to show that different age-group prefers
different social media platform before purchasing online. We can interpret that the platform
Instagram impacts most in the age-group 18-23 and 24-28. YouTube impacts the most in the
age-group 24-28. The people in the age-group 29-35 feel that Facebook and YouTube
influence their purchase decision.
From the chi-square test we can see that the p-value is 0.04 which is less than 0.05 which is
the designated alpha value, so the result is significant, and we reject the null hypothesis that
asserts that the two variables are independent on each other, but we see that the two
variables i.e., age and the preferred social media platform has association between them and
influence over one another.

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 Employment Status x Preferred social media platform.
What is your current employment status? * The social media platform which most
influences your purchase decision Crosstabulation
Count
The social media platform which most influences your purchase
decision
Total
Facebook Instagram Snapchat WhatsApp YouTube
What is your current
employment status ?
Business 2 6 3 4 5 20
Professional 13 11 1 2 2 29
Service 8 11 2 3 14 38
Student 10 32 6 8 21 77
Total 33 60 12 17 42 164
Chi-Square Tests
Value df
Asymptotic
Significance (2-
sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 23.882a
12 .021
Likelihood Ratio 23.020 12 .028
N of Valid Cases 164
Interpretation:
This cross tab shows us the relationship between Employment status or occupation and the
Preferred social media platform. We can see that people in business category are impacted
evenly by Instagram and YouTube, professional people are more inclined towards Facebook
and Instagram when they purchase online, and the students are heavily impacted by
Instagram and to some extent YouTube as well.
Here the p-value is 0.021 which is less than 0.05 which is the standard p-value so we reject
the null hypothesis which states that the two variables are independent of each other, but we
can see that there is association between them.

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RESULTS & FINDINGS
 The study examines and lists out the factors of the social media that influence an
individual consumer before purchasing online.
 After running the Factor Analysis, the five factors that came out were Referral, Trust,
Awareness, Communication and Convenience which the customers look at before
purchasing online.
 The multiple regression analysis is conducted in this study to find out the most impacting
factor. The five influential factors were taken as independent variables in the study.
 The findings of the study also indicate that Referral and Trust are the most significant
factors for customer buying behaviour in the online shopping.
 With the help of crosstabs, I could figure out the preferred social media platforms across
different age-groups and people across different backgrounds.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
 The 4 factors that has significant impact on the customer buying behaviour suggests
that social media has a major impact on consumer buying decisions.
 The brands should focus on these 4 factors when they are looking to market their
products on social media as it impacts the consumers in the pre-purchase stage.
 The age-group 18-23 and 24-28 are mostly impacted by social media platforms
Instagram and YouTube when they purchase online so the brands should focus on
the social media handles and work on the 4 factors mentioned in the study if their
target segment falls under this age-group

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ANNEXURE
1. Gender – Male Female
2. Occupation – Student Business Service Professional
3. Age – Less than 18 years 18-23 24-28 29-35 Above 35
4. Your Highest Education
a) X/XII b) Graduation c) Post-graduation/Masters
5. Monthly Income
a) Less than 10,000 b) 11,000 - 30,000 c) 31,000 – 50,000
d) Above 50,000 e) Not applicable (if student)
6. The social media platform which most influences your purchase
decision.
a) Facebook
b) Instagram
c) YouTube
d) WhatsApp
e) Snapchat
Please Rate according to your preferences(on the basis of 1-5)
7. Social media ads are more informative as compared to traditional
media.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree
8. I get information about different products through social media i.e.,
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs etc.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

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9. The reviews from my friends and family over social media helps me
in purchasing that particular product online.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree
10.Social media advertising provides two-way interactions between the
buyer and seller.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree
11.The popularity of the brand over social media helps me in
purchasing products from that particular brand.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree
12.I prefer to watch the reviews of influencers before purchasing
products online.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree
13.I usually tell my friends about the advertisement of social media and
the product then share it.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree
14.The brands presence over social media helps in providing
information about the brand and their product range or new
product launches.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree
15.The credibility of YouTube influencers, bloggers influences my
buying decision
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

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16.Social media allows to interact with the brand community to know
more about the products of the brand.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree
17.I prefer to purchase directly from the social media page of the
brand.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree
18. I like to compare products from different brands over social media.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree
19.Social media reduces the purchasing time as well as the cost while
purchasing products online.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree
20.On the overall, considering everything how would you rate the
overall impact of social media on your buying behaviour
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree