Impact Of Social Media On Consumer Purchase Intention In India

Abstract

newline Creation of social media was one of the major events that take place in the last years newlineof 20th century with the launch of social media website Sixdegrees.com in 1997, newlinehowever becomes a real game changer in 21st century with the launch of social media newlinewebsites like Facebook , Twitter etc. The rapid proliferation of social media and its newlineacceptance among every section of population across the globe come as a surprise for newlineeveryone. Today, people are connected to each other irrespective of their location newlinethrough social media. Also, they spent on an average up-to 4 hours per day on social newlinemedia. The sudden boom in the sales of smartphones has also supported the growth of newlinesocial media. With the launch of smartphones, people do not have to log in their newlinecomputers to visit social media websites, instead they can operate these websites on newlinetheir smartphones anytime and anywhere. In case of India, it has also become one of newlinethe highest consumers of social media with 191 million active social media users newlinegrowing at a rate of 40% per year. Out of 191 million active social media users, 167 newlinemillion users are mobile social media users. In terms of time spent on social media, newlineIndia is again not behind with an average 2 hours 36 minutes consumption of social newlinemedia (Kemp 2017). These traits of social media have made social media a favourite newlineweapon for marketers to advertise their products and target their probable customers. newlineSocial media has given the power to marketers to target even at an individual level to newlinemarket their products and services. The above facts have made it important to study newlinethe growing impact of social media on consumer behaviour which in-turn will affect newlinetheir purchase intention. newlineOn reviewing literature related to social media studies, we have not found any newlinestudy which has discussed all the variables that can impact customer purchase intention newlinedue to social media. There was no study which can give a comprehensive model where newlinedifferent social media factors that can impact customer purchase intenti