Impact of Social Media Characteristics on Consumer Buying Decision Process in Western Province, Sri Lanka.

Abstract

The study intends to investigate how social media characteristics impact on each stage of the consumer buying decision process in Sri Lankan context. For the study, quantitative research method was used and a sample of 147 respondents was selected by snowball sampling method. Primary data was used for achieving research objectives and self-administered, structured questionnaires were used for the data collection. The research reveals that all the stages are influenced by social media characteristics but the strongest impacts are on post- purchase stage, information stage and evaluation stage respectively. The research has found the current situation for social media in Sri Lanka, the most influential stage in the consumer buying decision process, the recommendations for marketers in their decision making process and implementing particular strategies while highlighting the seriousness of concerning social media effectively.