Literature Review

Based on observations from prior researches, it can be said that the shopping habits of people have changed significantly. Social media impacts the buying behaviour and the decision-making process of the organization. Internet and social media has been a communication tool over the years. Technology and social media gives the power to the consumers to investigate a product, read reviews and analyse the quality of the product before buying. Therefore, majority of the companies nowadays maintain social media pages in different social media platforms which include, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and others. With the presence of social media, people’s way of shopping changed considerably (Al-Dhuhli and Ismael, 2013). This research project sets to analyse the role and impact of social media consumers’ buying behaviour. The report will be focused on a large-sized supermarket Tesco. The utilization of social media has resulted in several new ways of seeking and obtaining the information about a product or services in the market. The use of social media thus, influences the decision-making process of the consumers associated with specific product (Goh, Heng and Lin, 2013). Technology offers that power to the consumer to investigate products and criticize the products acordingly. This helps the other customers in gaining knowledge about a particular product prior to buying it. Social media here act as an electronic word of mouth. Over the years, word of mouth has been  a primary information source related to buying decision of the consimers. Word of mouth has become more significant and prominent today because of greater inter-connectedness of people on social media. The electronic word of mouth is a type of word of mouth where the internet users provide reviews and ratings to different kinds of products and services on different review sites (Hajli, 2014). The reviews can be described as any positive and negative statements that are generally made by potential consumers on different social media platforms. These comments are made available to different multitude of people (Solomonet al. 2014). Thus, it becomes easier for a consumer to understand the functionality, quality and correctness of a particular product.

The research aim is to analyse the impact of social media on buying behaviour of the comsumer. A case study organization Tesco is chosen for this research project. The buying behaviours of the consumers of Tesco will be analysed in this research to understand the impact of social media on consumer buying behaviour. Tesco is one of the greatest supermarkets in UK.  The study will further analyse the role of social media in increase or decrease in selling of goods. The objectives for this research are identified in the sub sections below.

Research Methodology

The objectives of this research study are as follows-

• To identify the impact of social media on consumer buying behaviour.
• To Evaluate the Impact of Use of Social Media on Tesco’s Performance/Profitability
• To identify the influence of social media on marketing strategies of Tesco
• To recommend different strategies for Tesco to make use of social media in an effective manner.

The primary research question that the research project will evaluate is as follows-

1. What is the role of social media in influencing consumers buying behaviours?

Based on this primary research question, the consumers’ buying behaviour of Tesco will be evaluated. The secondary research questions are as follows-

1. Does Social Media Influence Buying Behaviour of Tesco Customers?
2. Does Social Media affect Tesco’s Performance?
3. Does Social Media Influence the Marketing Strategy of Tesco?
4. What Strategies can Tesco use to effectively apply Social Media to the Business?

The set hypothesis for this research study is as follows-

H₀: Social media does not significantly influence buying behaviour of customers of Tesco

H₁: Social media significantly influences customers buying behaviour of Tesco

With the help of technology, prospective buyers can easily investigate the products to criticize them or to get an idea about a product. The increasing use of internet and virtual communities has transformed the consumers, societies and corporations by providing enhanced communication abilities (Rishikaet al., 2013).

The different aspects and characteristics of social media and its extensive popularity among the masses have revolutionized the marketing practise. These marketing practises include advertising and promotion. Over the years, social media had a large influence and impact on consumer behaviour as it provides a platform for information acquisition related to a product or services provided by a business (Malthouseet al., 2013). The research project will be evaluating the buying behaviours of the consumers of Tesco. It has been observed that good reviews on social media works in favour of selling a particular product. The research report aims in analysing the impact of social media on the buying behaviour of the consumers in Tesco.

The entire research study is divided into a number of chapters that will help in analysing the impact of social media on consumer buying behaviour. The overview of each chapters of this research project are analysed in the following paragraphs-

Chapter 1- Introduction: This chapter of the research study introduces the background of the research project and identifies the objectives of the research

Chapter 2: Literature Review: The literature review chapter of the research study identifies and evaluates the secondary sources of data. This chapter will give an idea of the influence of social media on buying behaviour of consumers in Tesco.

Chapter 3: Research Methodology: The research methodology chapter will identify the different methods through which the research will be conducted. The research will be based on primary data and therefore identification of proper research method is necessary to perform a high-quality research.

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion: The collected data will be analysed in this chapter. This is a significant chapter of research project as it will test the hypothesis of the research

Findings and Discussion

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations: The last chapter of the research project will conclude the findings of the research study.

The aim of the literature review chapter is to analyse the information available from the secondary sources that is related to the research project.  Previous research papers that are written for analysing the impact of social media on buying behaviour of consumer will be evaluated in thus section. Collection of data from secondary sources such as previously published research papers and journals gives the researcher an idea about the possible structure of the research project. The literature review forms the base of the research project. The impact of social media on buying behaviour of a consumer will be analysed in this chapter. Based on the findings of this research project, the data collection and analysis of the collected data will be done in the later section of this paper.  Therefore, this chapter is significantly important for successful completion of the project.  In this chapter, the impact of social media on consumer buying behaviour will be analysed along with the evaluation of the use of social media on Tesco’s performance and their profitability. It has been observed that the social media use has a great influence on the marketing strategies of Tesco. Evaluation of secondary data sources in this chapter therefore aims in identification of the influence of social media on Tesco’s marketing strategies.

Social media has lately become a good marketing tool. Thus, social media has a large impact on the consumer behaviour and consumer’s decision making process.  With the advent of social media, a new grid of personal connections is established (Ioan?s and Stoica 2014). Businesses see enormous opportunities to advertise their business in this grid. Advertising in social media is a benefit mainly because a large number of audiences can be accessed within a considerably lesser time.  A number of researches prove that social media has a large impact on the consumer decision making process. One of the primary objective of the research is to explain the process by which social media has impacted the decision making behaviour of the consumer over the years. The theoretical framework associated with the research mainly rests on the consumer decision making process, social media usage and social media marketing.  

Social media emerged with the emergence of web. The traditional marketing approaches are revolutionised by the use of social media and technical revolution.  Social media usages are expected to increase over the years because of the increase in technological usages and technological focus on global development (Kumar et al. 2016). Social media has a huge impact on the consumers buying decision mainly because social media has improved the different relationships that the marketers have with retailers, distribution channels and the final consumers. Companies make effective use of social media to directly communicate with the consumers. This can improve customer’s satisfaction. Increase in customers’ satisfaction has a positive impact on the buying behaviour of the consumers. A closer look to the strong social media campaigns and e commerce websites, it can be said that companies irrespective of their size has been converting their marketing approaches to a more internet friendly manner. The only reason behind the same is increasing the customer reach.

Conclusion and Recommendations

According to Lee et al. (2013), consumers are the major actor associated with the marketplace. Thus, consumers are considered to be the most important part of a business. It has been observed that business encounter bottlenecks in reaching out to their consumers. Social media helps in easier management of all the bottlenecks. Lee et al. (2013), argues that analysis of the customer decision making behaviour can help in analysis of the impact of social media on customers’ buying decision.  Since the old concept of word of mouth is replaced by the word of web the consumers tend to refer to social media reviews before purchasing any product. Thus, it can be said that social media has a large impact on buying behaviour on the consumers. Consumers increasingly rely on social media mainly because advertisements do not always give a fair idea. Thus, it can be said that people who have already used the product can provide a better product review than that of advertising (Chaturvedi and Barbar 2014). People or the consumers are likely to trust the words of  those who have used a product personally than a celebrity who has been paid a huge amount to endorse a product. Furthermore, social media helps in connecting the people around the globe and helps in forming a community of fellow consumers. This community has the power to harm or herald a company. Thus, different organisations irrespective of their size tend maintain a good online image.  The social media companies that are mostly used by companies to support marketing include Twitter, YouTube and Facebook (Hutter et al. 2013). The comments and the reviews in these social media platforms have a large impact on the buying behaviours of the consumers.

In order to successfully implement this research study, a case study organization has been chosen in order to analyse the use of social media on customers’ buying behaviour. In this section of literature review chapter, the impact and use of social media on Tesco’s performance and profitability will be identified.  As analysed in the previous section, managing and maintaining active social media accounts have been a significant need for different organizations (Schivinski and Dabrowski 2016).  The use of social media has increasing focus on global development. Similarly, Tesco maintains different social media accounts to stay in touch with their consumers. Tesco is a large scale supermarket with over 3400 stores nationwide. Thus, it becomes important for Tesco to ensure customers satisfaction (Roblek et al. 2013). The social media handles and accounts maintained by Tesco are interactive in nature and Tesco provides a 24/7 support to their consumers. This, in turn improves customers’ satisfaction (Stephen 2016). The Supermarket remains open 7 days a week and with their online presence, they are able to serve their customers 24/7.  Thus, it can be said that social media presence of Tesco works positively in terms of marketing and customers’ satisfaction.

Researches prove that e-commerce and social media has transformed the method of working in Tesco. The integration of the computerised systems with the business process of Tesco has helped the organization in easier management of the customers’ queries and needs (Rishika et al. 2013).  The effective management of customers’ queries and better management of the services offered by Tesco have helped the organization in gaining a positive feedback in social media. Thus, social media act as an effective marketing tool for Tesco.

Tesco could achieve this success with social media mainly because it has been at forefront of new technology (Malthouse et al. 2013). It has been observed that social media team and the customer service team of Tesco has been an industry leader in terms of providing social customer service and engagement of the customers with the company.

Tesco could achieve this effectiveness in resolving the customers’ queries mainly because it had well defined business strategies. With the growing operations across the multiple branches of the organization and increase in the customers’ base, it is necessary for the supermarket to offer personalised services to the clients (Mount and Martinez 2014). Improved online presence and prompt response to the customers’ query has helped Tesco in gaining improved customers’ satisfaction. Social media has helped Tesco in redesigning their marketing strategies as well.  Redesigning the marketing strategies according to the need of the customers is necessary branding strategy, which further helps in retaining the competitive advantages of the organization.  Thus, it can be said that social media as a large influence on the buying behaviour of Tesco customers.

In Tesco’s case, the social media use has positively impacted the buying or purchasing behaviour of the customers.  Tesco tends to serve the customers in an efficient manner.  The positive reviews of the consumers remain flooded in social media that increases the customer base of the company (Meske and Stieglitz 2013).  This can be achieved since the happy customers are more likely to recommend services of Tesco to the other customers thereby increasing the profitability of the organization. Thus, social media not only improves the customers’ buying decision for Tesco but also improves the profitability of the organization by increasing the customer count of the organization. Tesco is a multinational company and therefore the designing appropriate business strategies for delivering effective services to the clients are equally important.  Tesco has worked on their business strategies over the years for development of customer centric services (Tiago and Veríssimo 2014). This in turn has helped in gradual expansion of the company.  The following section of the research report discusses the social media’s influence on marketing strategies of Tesco.

In order to evaluate the influence of social media on marketing strategies of Tesco, it is required to analyse the social media usage as a good marketing tool.  

Earlier, it has been established that social media considerably has a huge impact and influence on the buying behaviours of the customers. Apart from influencing the buying behaviours of the customers, social media can be considered as a great marketing tool (Öztamur and Karakad?lar 2014). With the emergence of social media, various changes have been observed in marketing strategies of different companies including Tesco.  Social media can be considered as one of the digital platforms that are considered to be most stress free and profitable.  The social marketing efforts increase the brand visibility that helps in keeping up with the competitive advantage of the company (Leeflang et al. 2014).  Furthermore, marketing through social media is considered as versatile and cost effective strategies that even small companies make use of.  Even Tesco is making use of this marketing strategy to reach a wider audience.

However, use of social media as an effective marketing tool should be implemented in a planned manner. 24/7 online presence is necessary in order to provide appropriate customer services.  In this context, the influence of social media on marketing strategies of Tesco can be evaluated.

Effectiveness of Social Media as a Marketing Tool 

In this era of technology, marketing strategies and tools are needed to be up to date. Adaptation of marketing process with the help of social media therefore becomes necessary. The effectiveness of social media as an effective marketing tool can be measured with analysing the benefits it brings to a company or an organization (Yadav and Pavlou 2014).  One significant majorbenefits of making use of social media as the marketing tool involves its cost efficiency and easier audiences reach. One most challenging aspect of social media marketing is maintaining competitive position of a company in marketplace. Social media presence can have both positive and negative effects in a company (Holliman and Rowley 2014).  The positive social media reviews can make a company while the negative social media reviews can break a company as well.  Thus, it is essential to effectively design the social media marketing strategies so that greater business benefits can be achieved.   

For analysing the influence of social media on marketing strategies of Tesco,  it is essential to identify how Tesco make use of different social media platform such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and so on. Researches prove that Tesco has most appropriately made use of the Facebook for social media marketing. The Facebook timeline of Tesco is filled with engaging visual content that keeps the social media followers of Tesco engaged with the recent happening and offering of the Company. Same is the condition of the Twitter handle of the organization as well. The customer care account of Tesco on twitter has over 49000 followers. Thus it can be observed that Tesco has worked on their marketing strategies to make it suitable and appropriate for social media (Kannan 2017).  This includes the use of more visually appealing content for the social media news feed and timelines.

Tesco maintains two twitter handles since Tesco experiences a large number of Twitter feeds each day. Having a large number of Twitter feeds can be confusing. Tesco, quite intelligently separated their Twitter handle to a separate brand messages and a separate customer service (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis 2014). The customer service account has a greater number of followers. The Tesco’s customer casre is incredibly active for providing a response to hundreds of customer queries each hour. This increases the customers’ trust which is one of the most important marketing strategies of a company.

Thus, it can be said that the use of social media has a large impact on the marketing strategy of Tesco.  The relationship between a brand and consumer has changed over the years as an impact of social media. Similar is the case for Tesco.  The top executives and the business owners of Tesco have therefore taken the opportunity of building effective and interactive social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.  

One of the major changes that Tesco has brought about in their marketing strategy includes working on search engine optimization.  With the growth of social signals, search engine optimization endeavour was a prime necessity (Filo Lock and Karg 2015). Apart from that, Tesco has been promoting the company branding and consciousness through social media.  Tesco has targeted the word of mouth or word of web advertising. This is one significant change that has been implemented in the marketing strategies of Tesco.  The appropriate use of social media sites has given the business a way of enforcing tough competition to different popular brands and rivals of Tesco. Tesco has worked for clearly defined business goals, which in turn has helped in easier business marketing through social media.

Although Tesco maintains a good online presence, certain recommendations can be made for even more effective use of social media in an effective manner. These recommendations are as follows-

1. For better designing of social media presence, Tesco needs to audit its current social presence. This step will help in easier identification of processes that needs amendments.  
2. Although Tesco maintains an active customer service, it is essential for the organization to have an understanding of the customers, as the main aim of marketing is to understand the requirements of the target customers.
3.  A social media mission statement is needed to be developed by Tesco for designing efficient marketing strategies.
4.  It is recommended for Tesco to identify the success metrics of the company for redesigning their business strategy.

Apart from these, it is essential to create engaging content in social media in order to gain attention of maximum number of target customers.

It has been observed that social media usages can have positive as well as negative impact on the buying behaviour of the customers. The marketing strategies of Tesco are largely dependent on the customer’s feedback on social media. Thus, it is essential to understand whether the use of social media can have a positive impact on the buying behaviours of the consumers or can have a negative impact.

The research methodology chapter is an important chapter of this research project.  Research methodology chapter is important as it helps in identification of the different tools and techniques necessary for the research project (Al 2013).  Better understanding of these tools and research techniques is required for this research project as it aims in analysing the role of social media on affecting the consumer buying behaviour in Tesco. The tools and methods that are identified in the research project are used in the entire research study (Alvesson and Sandberg 2013). Thus, the main aim of this methodology chapter is to offer a detailed insight to the methods, theories and concepts that are used in conducting the research work. The research methodology chapter will further analyse the ethical considerations associated with the research.

The research outline gives an idea of the chosen tools and techniques of the research. A positivism philosophy is chosen for the research that will follow a descriptive research design. A deductive approach is considered for the research (Brown and Stowers 2013). Since the research study is primarily based on interviews, a qualitative data analysis process is followed in the research project. The researcher has made use of most significant and appropriate tools for this particular research.  The chosen tools for the research project are as follows-

Research philosophy deals with exploration of logic to choose a specific nature of research project.  Accurate identification of the philosophy of the research  is essential as it provides certainties and ideas for directing the research study in a more legitimate way (Eaton 2013.).  The research philosophies that can be used for research study include positivism, realism and interpretivism. The research philosophy that is considered for this research project is positivism (Silverman 2016).  The positivism research philosophy adheres only to the factual knowledge that is gained from observation in the research.

Positivism research philosophy is chosen for thus research project as this philosophy mainly depends on quantifiable observations that in turns lead to statistical analysis. The researches that considers positivism research philosophy are generally independent researches and is purely objective (Mitchell and Jolley 2013). This particular research is independent as well and therefore, the choice of this research philosophy is justified. However, in researches that make use of positivism research philosophy, it is essential for the researcher to explain and predict the activities and the result associated with the research.

It is needed to identify the approach of the research project.  The research approaches that can be considered for academic researches include deductive research approach, inductive research approach and abductive research approach.  Deductive research approach is used by the researcher to conduct the research in a proper way (Novikov and Novikov 2013).  The inductive approach in a research project deals with new speculations. While in the abductive research the process, research technique is generally detailed in portrayal. Identification of accurate research approach is essential to consider as it is one critical piece of the research (Flick 2015). For this particular research project, deductive research approach is chosen. The justification for making use of deductive research approach is discussed in the following section.

The researcher has considered a deductive approach for this research as no new data will be generated in the research process. The existing data and the ideas will be evaluated to analyse the problem that this particular research will be evaluating.  The choice of deductive approach is considered appropriate for the research project since the researcher has sufficient data to carry on the research project (Neuman 2013). The use of deductive research approach is generally based on speculation and makes use of a static data set. Therefore, for analysing the impact of social media on buying behaviour of the consumer  in Tesco, the use of deductive approach is justified.  

Research design associated with a research study deals with general technique of conducting a research study. The use of research design ensures that the research can be distinguished appropriately for information gathering and investigation of the gathered information.  The research design that is chosen for this research topic is descriptive research design

The choice of descriptive research design is justified for this research project as it helps in assessing the key factors associated with the research. With the use of a planned approach the researcher is able to portray the results and analysis of the research in an appropriate manner. Thus, it is found out that the choice of the descriptive research design is appropriate for the research project.  

A primary and qualitative data analysis process will be considered  for this research project. The primary data will be collected in form of interview (Uprichard 2013). There are mainly three methods of collection of primary data, which are, survey, interview and observation. The details of the sample size for the interview are provided in the following section.

For this research project, interview will be conducted with two managers of Tesco. The data of the interview will undergo qualitative analysis.  Interviewing the managers of Tesco is essential to evaluate the impact of social media on consumer buying behaviours. The managers of Tesco will be chosen in a random manner depending on their availability and their interest to participate in this research project.

The major ethical considerations associated with this research project are as follows-  

1. The anonymity of the respondent is maintained
2. The researcher has the responsibility of maintaining the privacy of the information shared by the respondents
3. Obtaining the permission of the respondents is essential
4. Data anonymity and data transparency is needed to be maintained.  

The researcher abided by the above ethical consideration for analysing the impact of social media on buying behaviour of consumers.  

Findings and Discussion

This chapter aims in analysis of the available data that are collected by interviewing two managers of Tesco. The identity of the managers is kept confidential and the transparency of the data is maintained. The findings and the discussion chapter will help in finding answers to the research questions. The objective of the research study is to find the link between the social media and its impact on buying behaviour of the customer. Social media provide a number of opportunities to the consumers in offering opportunities in adaptation of different business strategies.  In order to analyse the impact of social media on consumer’s buying behavior, two managers at Tesco is interviewed. Based on their response and their view point regarding the use and impact of social media social media on consumer buying behaviour is evaluated. It has been observed that the social media usages  has a large impact on the customer’s buying decision. .

As discussed in the research methodology chapter, two managers of Tesco are interviewed in order to understand the impact of social media on buying behaviour of consumer in Tesco. It has been observed that the buying behaviour of the consumer at Tesco is largely dependent of their social media marketing. Social media act as a powerful tool for influencing the buying behaviour of the customers. In order to understand the use of social media in Tesco, two operational managers of Tesco are interviewed in order to understand the process by which the social media is utilized by the managers of Tesco as a marketing tool and fro improving the customers’ experience in the large supermarket. The two managers were asked about the use of social media in Tesco and the factors that affect the purchasing decisions of the customers.  The impact of the social media on buying behaviours of the customers is quite significant to consider in case of Tesco or other similar retail supermarkets. The first manager said that there are a number of factors or reasons that affect the buying behavior or the purchasing decision of a customer.  The product’s quality is one of the major factors that affect the buying behavior. In Tesco, we aim in providing best services to the customers. Tesco thrives to provide good quality product to its customers. As per the comment of the first manager, a customer’s trust can be gained only by offering products of high quality. According to the second manager of Tesco who was interviewed for the process, the factors that affect the purchasing decision of the consumers at Tesco include marketing campaigns, economic conditions, personal preferences, group influence, and purchasing power. The manager commented that various marketing campaigns are done in order to promote the products and the offers at the Tesco. Thus, it is clear that the buying behavior of the customer largely depends on the quality of the product of an organization.  However, it is observed that the consumer behavior of a company is largely dependent on the personal choices and the personal choices are largely influenced by the reviews in social media.

In order to get an idea of the impact of social media on buying behavior of the customer of large supermarkets like Tesco, the two managers of Tesco are interviewed about the same.  According to the first manager of Tesco, social media has a large impact on the buying behavior of a customer.  According to the manager of Tesco, social media has a large impact on the buying behavior as a good online presence helps in improving the brand awareness. The manager said that “Nowadays, before purchasing a product or choosing a brand, the consumers check the online reviews prior to buying. Furthermore, social media proves to be a great platform for directly communication with a brand or an organization. With this direct interaction, it is possible to gain a good idea of the product. Consecutively, any issues with a product can be easily unveiled with the help of social media. Thus, social media has a large role to play in customer’s buying decision”. Tesco maintain a good online presence in social media in order to resolve their customer’s queries and issues in a significant manner. The second manager said that “. Social media plays a very important role for enhancing the buying behavior of the customer.” The social media is considered by Tesco as the voice of the company and it maintains good social media pages such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  The customers of Tesco offers reviews of a particular product and therefore, Tesco advertise their products on the social media pages.  Thus, social media has a large impact of the buying behaviors of the customers and Tesco intelligently make use of the social media to provide effective services to the customers including a 24*7 customer support.

While collection of the data about the social media’s impact on the consumers’ buying decision, the two managers of Tesco are asked about their views regarding the use of social media promotions in increasing the performance and profitability of Tesco. According to the first manager, “The performance and profitability of Tesco is largely dependent in its social media presence. Tesco make use of Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to engage with the customers. Tesco although tend to post only one update each day, it encourages the conversation with the customers that increases customer’s satisfaction”. The manager further commented that appropriate social media promotions helps the customers to get an idea of the different promotional offers and the launch of the new products. With the help of social media, it is possible for Tesco to increase the customer’s reach. The manager commented that the social media promotions and different marketing campaigns have helped the company to grow.  The second manager who was interviewed for the data collection process had similar views regarding the impact of social media on the profitability of Tesco. The manager commented that the social media pages of Tesco offers various promotional offers to the customers that influences the customers in making a purchase from Tesco.  Furthermore, with the help of online reviews, that are publicly available, the customer gain an idea of the quality of the products of the customers that influences the customer’s buying decision and the profitability of the organization. The manager in the interview process commented about the presence of all the necessary details about their product in Tesco’s social media pages have considerably helped in increasing the profit margin of the organization and thus contributed to the increase in profitability of the organization as well. Thus, it is observed that positive social media presence and positive reviews that are posted in the social media pages have worked for improving the profitability of Tesco.

In order to understand the social media’s impact on the buying behavior of the customers, the managers of Tesco are interviewed about designing of the business strategies of Tesco, both the manager have provided a similar response. The first manager who was interviewed commented that “The business strategies of Tesco are largely dependent on the response of the customers in social media.  The views of the existing customers are taken into consideration for designing the business strategies. If a product or a service gets a negative feedback from the customers, the existing strategies of Tesco are redesigned”. The customer’s satisfaction is considered to be the greatest priority for Tesco and therefore, the business strategies are designed keeping in mind the customer’s satisfaction and their need. The second manager of Tesco provided a similar response. According to the second manager of Tesco who was interviewed in this process, Business strategies can be designed by implementing the concept of social media in an organization. From the information collected by interviews, it is observed that social media presence of Tesco have worked positively for designing the business strategies of the organization. The business strategies at Tesco aims in providing high sales quality and improved brand awareness for creation of a good customer base.  From the responses of the managers, it has been observed that the business management team of Tesco designs their business strategies keeping in mind the responses of the customers in social media. And for that, the supermarket maintains a good online presence.

While interviewing the managers of Tesco, the managers were asked about the effect or the impact of the negative responses on social media on the business of the organization. The first managers commented that negative responses of the customers forms the base of the redesigning the business strategies. It has been observed Tesco works for improving the customers’ satisfaction. The negative comments on the social media help Tesco in improving their business processes. The second managers of Tesco provided a similar view on the question. Tesco handles the negative comments in a professional manner. The negative comments indicates that the business strategies of the company are needed to be redesigned and for that, few negative comments are essential. In Tesco, the negative feedbacks are handled in a more significant manner. Thus, the business of Tesco are not much affected by the negative feedback as the organization works for further improvement of their business strategies based on the negative feedbacks that are received.

For analyzing the impact of social media on the purchasing decision of the customer, it was essential to evaluate the marketing strategies of the company. Therefore, the managers of Tesco were interviewed about the effect of social media and social media presence on the marketing strategies of the organization.  The first manager commented that “I think that the social media presence of Tesco has a large effect on its marketing strategies. This is because social media provides a huge customer reach and thus targeted marketing strategies are designed to address the new as well as the existing customers”.  The response proves that Tesco intelligently designs their marketing strategies in such a way that it reaches a large customer base.  The second manager who was interviewed about the same however, did not provide much details about their marketing strategies as those are confidential.  The manager commented that the “Tesco improved the sales percentage and promoted their products online. In Tesco, social media provides SMART goals that help to increase the sales of the company”. Thus, it is observed that the social media presence of Tesco has a large role to play in designing the business strategies of the organization.  Tesco has been successful in providing world class services to its customers’ over the years. It has been possible mainly because the company has always worked for gaining the customer’s trust and in increasing the customer’s satisfaction over the years.  Thus, the research study indicates that social media if intelligently used can help in improving the customer’s satisfaction.

In order to conclude the research project and to get answers to the identified research questions, the two managers at Tesco are asked to comment about the role and impact of social media presences in increase of the customer’s reach in case of Tesco.    The first manager commented that in this information age, the social media presence is mandatory for management of the business growth of Tesco. Tesco has made a fundamental use of their social media channels in order to expand and increase their customer’s reach. The social media presence has mostly impacted Tesco in a positive manner.  When the second manager was interviewed about the use of social media presence in Tesco, the manager commented that “social media Tesco has increased its productivity and sales from before. Social media has established a relationship between the company and the customer. With social media, business in Tesco has become very much cost effective and with increasing technology, Tesco became successful in reaching to all people of all age group.”  The manager said that social media has successfully established a two way communication channel between the customers and the company. This significantly helps in improving the customer’s reach, customer’s satisfaction, which in turn increases the profit margin of the company. .

The two managers of Tesco were interviewed in order to understand the impact of social media on the buying behavior of the consumer in a large supermarket (Tesco).  The responses from the interview prove that the managers of Tesco prove that the organization has made use of social media in a positive manner to increase the customers’ reach and customers’ satisfaction which in turn increases the profitability of the organization. The literature review section of the research paper indicates that social media usage has both positive and negative impact on an organization and largely impact the buying decision of the organization as well. The research has focused on a particular organization Tesco in order to understand the marketing strategies and social media presence. The responses from the interviews of two managers of Tesco prove that Tesco has utilized social media as a powerful tool for advertising their business and for improving the customer’s satisfaction as well.  For Tesco, it has been observed that their amazing social media presence positively impacts the purchasing decision of the customers of Tesco. It may not be applicable for other organizations. However, the case of Tesco proves that social media presence need to be correctly supervised and the negative feedbacks received from the customer should be addressed promptly. This infuses a trust in the customer towards the brand or the organization. Tesco has been working on increasing the customer’s satisfaction by providing a good online support to the customers. Tesco has global reach and social media channels have considerably helped the organization in offering global reach to the customer. Thus, in context of Tesco’s profitability and customer’s reach, H₁ is proved to be true. It is proved that social media significantly influences the buying behavior of the customer’s of Tesco. The influence is although positive in case of Tesco; it may not be the case for all organizations.

Conclusion

The aim of this final chapter of the research is to analyse the findings of the research paper and to provide a brief summary of same. The impact of social media on consumer’s buying decision help is needed to be evaluated so as to understand the effect of the same on the profitability of the company. With successful application of innovative ideas and proper marketing strategies, different organization irrespective of its size, make usage of social media in order to increase their business profit. However, extreme negative feedbacks from the customers often contribute negatively towards the success and growth of the organization. Thus, intelligent use of social media is necessary in order to use it as a tool for improvement of company.

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the impact of social media on consumer buying behaviour. The case of Tesco is analysed in this context for understanding the business needs of the organization.

The first objective of the research study was to identify the social media’s impact on buying behavior of the consumer. In order to understand the impact of the social media on consumer buying behavior, an extensive literature review has been undertaken. The data from the literature review prove that social media has both positive and negative impact on the buying behavior of the customer. It has been observed that positive comments and feedback can help in increasing the customer reach. However, the negative feedback of the customer can largely affect the customer’s reach of the organization. Thus, the impact of social media on customer’s buying behavior is largely dependent on the intelligent use of social media as a proper and effective marketing tool.  In this context, the example of Tesco can be cited that maintains a good online presence to prove effective customer support online. This helps the organization in gaining positive feedback on social media, which in turn helps in increasing the customer’s reach.

The next objective of the research project is to understand different aspects of customer buying behaviours on making a purchase on Tesco. In order to find answers to the research objective, the two managers of Tesco are interviewed. The managers of Tesco have provided necessary details about the use of social media in their business and marketing strategies. The managers of Tesco commented that Tesco make use of social media as a powerful tool in managing the business needs of the organization. Tesco is known to provide a good online support to the customers that increase the customer’s trust on the brand.

The next research objective was to identify the influence of social media on the marketing strategies of Tesco. The two managers of Tesco are interviewed about the same.  The comments of the two managers of Tesco prove that the company is largely influenced by their social media presence and the activities in social, media while designing the marketing strategies of the organization. It has been observed that the responses of the customers of Tesco have a large impact on the marketing strategies of Tesco.  The customer’s satisfaction is considered to be one of the significant needs for the success of the business at Tesco.  The buying behaviours of the customer at Tesco are largely dependent offers and the quality of the product.

On basic of the collected data and analysis of the same, certain recommendations can be made in order to improve the customer’s buying decision and the effective use of social media in improving the customer’s satisfaction in the market. It is essential to identify the process by which the social media marketing strategies can be designed in order to increase the business profit and profitability of the company.

Thus, it is observed that the research study has been successful in fulfilling the objectives of the research. Both the primary and the secondary data sources are found to be legitimate. It has been observed that social media play an key role in affecting the customer’s buying behaviour. The positive and the negative feedback of the consumer largely affect the buying decisions of the consumers. However, since the research has made use of qualitative data analysis, there are certain research limitations in this research, which are evakluated in the following section.

The researcher has followed a planned approach in understanding the impact of social media in customer’s buying decision. The limitations associated with this research project are as follows-

1. One of the major limitations associated with the project is that, only interview is taken a primary data source. With online surveys, it would have been possible to collect more data about the research topic. However, interviewing the two managers of Tesco provided enough data to carry on with the research project.

2 Another major limitation associated with the project is that the research study has been undertaken in a constricted timeframe. It has been observed that the research could have been implemented in a more systematic manner if more time was available for the research.

1. The sample size chosen for the research is considerably low. Only two managers of Tesco were interviewed. Although the data that was provided was enough for the research, interviewing more managers of Tesco would have helped in better analysis of the research problem.
2. The research lacks quantitative data analysis which is another limitation associated with the research project.

Recommendations associated with the impact of social media on purchasing decision of the customer are as follows-

Effective social media use: Since the negative comments and feedback of social media considerably affects the profitability of the organization, effective use of social media is needed to be analysed. Similar to Tesco, the social media can be used a s a powerful tool in management of the customer’s needs and in increasing the customer’s satisfaction.

Social Media as a Marketing tool: Since the social media platform has a global reach, it is recommended for an organization to understand the value of social media as a marketing tool and designing the marketing strategies according to the needs of the customers.

Social Media in Customer Support: The research study proves that an effective management of the customer’s queries help in increasing the customer’s satisfaction. It has been observed in case of Tesco as well. The social media can help in resolving the customer’s queries in real time, thereby increasing the customer’s satisfaction.

Social Media in increasing the customer’s reach: It has been observed that the usage of social media can help in improving the customer’s reach. It found out that social media help in increasing the customer’s reach in a similar manner like word of mouth.  Thus the use of social media can considerably help in increasing the customer’s base of an organization.

The research study evaluates the buying behaviours of the consumers on basis of a large supermarket Tesco. It is found out that social media has a large impact on consumer’s buying decision. Certain recommendations are made in this context in order to make effective use of social media in increasing the customer’s reach and profitability of the organization.

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