Online Consumerism as a Huge Part of Social Media

Social media has become a platform which has enabled the flow of information to users with little interaction. An example of this can be seen through large online media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube, encouraging users to create content, share opinions, and communicate information. Hence, many companies today utilise social media as a tool to promote their business. Research has shown that through this innovative marketing approach, organizations can identify the potential target market and customers’ needs to build customer appreciation (Sema, 2013). Based on this process of consumer engagement, organizations can benefit from increased sales and enhance consumer dedication as their consumers are contented with the emotional connection. User-generated content allows consumers to evaluate products through reviews from friends, celebrities and many other sources. There are psychosocial factors, for examples the brand’s presence on the online media platforms, purchase motivation, perception and attitude that influence consumers’ buying decision (Ioanas and Stoica, 2014).

Social web is the best conversion of sales funnel as it covers in all stages by bringing traffic to website, awareness of brand and created customers. According to Stelzner (2016), 89% of all marketers strongly agree that the usage of technology helps to create exposure for their business, and with positive results of 75% indicated it benefits their business significantly by increasing traffic. In other words, technology has capabilities to make profit for a company. In this contemporary society, social media existence is no longer just a choice as it has developed into an essential element of marketing in modern business and organisations. The utilization of visually enticing content is one of the top marketing trends in an increasingly cluttered world. Humans are visually-oriented and able to interpret visual information relatively faster than reading a simple block of lines. Visual contents can come in different kind of forms, for examples infographics, videos and screenshots which each of it serves a specific message and objectives to viewers.

A powerful medium of more than just stunning graphics which enabled to connect creatively and communicate information with the targeted audience. Online marketers have long focused on attracting the right kind of audience with appealing page view, visual elements in order to boost sales. The content has a persuasive power on consumerism due to credible marketing claims so it can convince consumers while their deciding buying process. Digital media encourage customer engagement at the processing stages of the buying cycle, persuade them to upsell or cross-sell and establish a relationship when converting a prospect to a customer (Lieb, 2012). In social networking sites, high-definition of visual contents able to generate the most interactions of ‘likes’, ‘shares’ and ‘comments’ compared to simple text. As a result, it can help in the better appreciation of the message that is delivered and achieving the goal of customer retention.

Studies have found that the process of consumers’ interaction with brands through online networks drive loyalty and endorsement (Nadeem, 2012). At the same time, it helps to facilitate increased revenue, push conversion rates and explores other benefits of personalisation relationships. A robust digital presence is critically important for a global market sustainable success. A reliable web presence can generate potential return-on-investment as it drives tremendous business growth and attracts prospective customers. An established online identity can affect a company reputation as it represents their business and helps in sales productivity. Therefore, it might plunge into unknown if a company or brand lack of an online presence and a poor quality designed web reflects negatively on viewers and decreases their trusts on shopping decisions (Kalia, Kaur and Singh, 2014). For computer-savvy users, Internet comes to their minds to turn for information. Major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo is the medium for choice of search and are constantly use by internet-users. A webpage presence has to be found easily because people rely on the information on online websites whether is it related to compare offerings, reviews or company background. Learning from this, organizations have realized that the importance of having a website for their business and building a credibility corporate website can capture market successfully with consistency of proven sales strategy.

Today, technology has created an E-Commerce business for diversified customers to buy online selling of products anywhere and at any location. A shopping site with good layouts, updated information and multimedia contents can contribute to consumers’ motivation (Akhlaq and Ahmed, 2014). Online consumerism has increasingly become popular in the global market due to the ease of convenience for not buying physically, more values and options. Most business of enterprises have benefited with the help of social shopping to increase their profits, maximum sales conversion and gain a big value of customers.