By- Anushka ObroiFoundation business management

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Influence of Social Media on Online Shoppers

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTI would like to thank to Mrs. Vasundra Gupta (faculty of Pearl Academy of Fashion.

I would also like to thank Mrs. Usha Gupta (faculty of Pearl Academy of Fashion) for kind support and guidance offered by them, which enabled us to successfully complete this project on Influence of Social Media online Shoppers.

I would also like to thank Mr. Imran Ahmed Khan for his advice and guidance for the project.

TABLE OF CONTENT

S.No. TOPIC1. Acknowledgement2. Executive summary3. Chapter 1-Literature Review

1.Social media2.Social media tools and platforms3.Statistics facts

4.number of users on popular social networking sites

5.what is social media marketing

6.indian online industry

7. key players in the market

8. important factors

9.relationship between social media and marketing

10.statistics on online shoppers

4. Chapter 2-Research Methodology

1.Research questions

2.Research problems

3.Research objective

4.Research sub-objective

5.Data collection method

6.Research design

5. Chapter 3-Data analysis and findings

6. Chapter 4- Conclusion

7. Chapter 5-Refferencing

8. AnnexureQuestionnaire

LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Influence of social media on online shoppers.1.1 SOCIAL MEDIASocial media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Social media has revolutionized many industries and its greatest impact has perhaps been on the world of online commerce. The office of digital communications manages the main Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, YouTube and Vimeo accounts.

1.2 Popular Social Media Tools and Platforms:-

Facebook- Facebook has been a primary platform for brands in the promotion of products. One of the reasons is that Facebook allows consumers to share and talk about the products and services they like, which influences the purchasing decision of their virtual friends. According to report from sociable labs, 62% of online shoppers have read product related comments from their Facebook friends, 75% of them have click on the product link to visit the retailer’s site, and 53% of those who clicked go even further and buy the product.

Twitter- twitter is another social media tool in which brands are using to engage customers and encourage purchases, and it’s evident from the numbers that twitter users don’t mind being pursued by brands. According to study by social media quick starter, 64% of twitter users surveyed claimed to follow brands in order to receive exclusive product promotions and discounts.

Instagram-Instagram is becoming most popular social platform. Recently a study published by L2 Think Tank found that instagram gives brands 25% more engagement than any other social platform like Facebook, twitter etc. It generates better customer reaction.

YouTube-YouTube is the most influential in terms of advertising and selling of products. Before the starting of every video there are various advertisements which influence people in many ways like buying that product.

1.3 Current Statistics Facts 3 out of four people use social networks daily. Social media has overtaken email as the #1 activity on web. There are over 200 million blogs 900,000 blog post everyday 34% post opinions about company brands and products 93% of social media users companies should have presence in social media.

1.4 Number of users on popular social networking sitesFacebook 901Twitter 170Instagram 555YouTube 457

1.5What is social media marketing?Social media marketing is a new trend and rapidly growing way in which businesses are reaching out to targeted customers easily. Social media marketing can be simply defined as the use of social media channels to promote a company and its products. By this new approach of outreach and marketing, new tools are being developed and increased in turn for businesses. Social media marketers are now going better and more effective insight through the introduction of analytic applications by official social network site platforms.

1.5.1 Advantages

1. COSTThe main advantage of social media marketing is cost-related. The financial barriers to social media marketing are quite low compared to others. The majority of social media sites are free to access, create profile and post information. Whereas traditional marketing campaigns require lot of money, many social media tools are free even for business use.

2. SOCIAL INTERACTIONOne of the most notable phenomena of new media is how it has increased and created new forms of social interaction. People spend more than a quarter of their time online involved in communication activities (e.g., emails, IM chat, and social networks), which is equivalent to the total time spent online for general leisure and entertainment.  Not only has new media demonstrably altered how often people communicate online, but it has also enlarged the pool of individuals they communicate with, and led to new ways for behaviours to be influenced. Consumer behavior studies reveal that individuals give greater consideration to advice and information shared online, spending more time with websites that provide third-party evaluations (Huang et al. 2009), and other studies

indicate such information can directly influence buying decisions, even if received from purely „virtual‟ sources (Award et al. 2006; Weiss et al. 2008) cited by (Hafele, 2011).

3. TARGETED CUSTOMERSSocial media provide marketers with the ability to target audiences and consumers based on site users' personal interests and what their friends like. For example, list country music as one of your interests on a social networking site; you will most likely be seeing ads about country music concerts and artists. Some sites' advertising will also highlight which country artists your friends like to provide a personal connection. With such "smart" marketing, and advertising, marketers effectively reach the people who are most interested in what they have to offer. Furthermore, social networking enables word of mouth to promote products beyond what advertising alone does alone

4. CUSTOMER SERVICECustomer service is another crucial area for social media marketing. A marketer should not just offer online assistance. In many cases, it is more convenient for customers to call a company. Order fulfilment and rapid delivery systems are as critical to e-loyalty development as the other factors. A thoughtful logistics system that guarantees a fast delivery after the checkout process contributes to customer satisfaction, which in turn contributes to loyal behaviour. In addition to the speed of delivery, the logistics system should allow different ways of delivering products. Internet customers cannot touch, smell, or experience the good before they buy it. This makes a shopper insecure about buying a product. In order to minimize this insecurity, a social media marketers should offer brands that are well-known, good product quality, and, of course, guarantees.

1.5.2 DISADVANTAGES

1. TIME INTENSIVEThe first preliminary consideration and probably the most important one is that social media marketing requires a significant time investment. As a general rule, simply dabbling in a few social media resources and hoping to realize enormous returns is fanciful. A company must realize the necessary time commitment and either accept or reject that commitment as plausible for its operation. 

2. TRADEMARK AND COPYRIGHT ISSUES It is of the utmost importance for companies to protect their own trademarks and copyrights when using social media to promote their brands and products. A company’s brands and other intellectual property are often nearly as valuable as the products or services that they offer. When using social media, whether via a third-party outlet or a company’s own social media platforms, marketers should regularly monitor the use of their trademarks and copyrights. Companies should monitor their own social media outlets as well as third-party social media platforms to ensure that those providing content through the media outlets are not misusing their intellectual property. Internet tracking and screening services are available to monitor the use of your business’s marks and copyrights on third-party sites, including checking social media sites for

profile or user names that are identical or substantially similar to your company’s name or brands 

3. NEGATIVE FEEDBACKSocial media, in a way, converts consumers into marketers and advertisers, and consumers can create positive or negative pressure for the company, its products, and its services, depending both on how the company is presented online and on the quality of products and services presented to the customer. Consumer-generated product reviews, images, and tags, which serve as a valuable source of information for customers making product choices online, have increased rapidly on the Internet and have had a great impact on electronic commerce. One aspect of social networking that is especially damaging to marketing campaigns is negative post responses. Unhappy customers or industry competitors are able to post disparaging or offensive pictures, posts or videos and there is not much a marketer can do to prevent these occurrences. Still, negative or other non-constructive feedback cannot be ignored. Social networks must be managed efficiently enough to immediately respond and neutralize harmful posts, which takes more time.

1.6 Indian Online Industry India has an internet user base of about 250.2 million as of June 2014.The penetration of e-commerce is low compared to markets like the United States and the united kingdom but is growing at a much faster rate with a large number of new entrants. The industry consensus is that growth is at an infection point . Unique to India ( and potentially to other developing countries) , cash on delivery is a preferred payment method . India

has a vibrant cash economy as a result of which of 80% of India e-commerce tends to b cash on delivery. However, COD may harm e-commerce business in india in the long run and there is a need to make a shift towards online payment mechanisms.

1.6.1 Market SizeIndia’s e-commerce market was worth about 2.5 billion in 2009, it went up to 6.3 billion in 2011 and 14 billion in 2012. About 75% of this is travel related ( airline tickets, railway tickets, hotel bookings, online mobile recharge etc ) . Online retailing comprises about 12.5 %(300 million as of 2009) . India has close to 10 million online shoppers and is growing at an estimated 30%. Electronics and Apparel are the biggest categories in terms of sales.

India’s retail market is estimated at 470 billion in 2011 and is expected to grow 675 Bn by 2016 and 850 Bn by 2020 – estimated CAGR is of 7% . According to foresters+, the e-commerce market in india is set to grow the fastest within the Asia-Pacific region at a CAGR of over 57% between 2012-16.

As per “India goes digital” a report by Avendus Capital , a leading Indian investment bank specializing in digital media and technology sector , the Indian e-commerce market is estimated as Rs 28,500 crore (6.3 billion) for the year 2011 . Online travel constitutes a sizable portion 87% of this market today . online travel market in india is expected to grow at a rate of 22% over the next 4 years and reach Rs 54,800 crore (12.2 billion) in size by 2015 . India e-tailing industry is estimated at Rs 3600 crore in 2011 and estimated to grow to Rs 53,000 crore in 2015 .

Overall e-commerce market is expected to reach Rs 1,07,800 crores by the year 2015 with both online travel and e-tailing contributing equality . Another big segment in e-commerce is mobile / DTH recharge with nearly 1 million transactions daily by operator websites .

1.6.2 ONLINE SHOPPERS

63% Of Male and 37% Female age group (18 to 50) with 71% respondents in the age group of (18 to 35) . 89% users were heavy users of the internet whereas 67% users having access to their own money And 33% access to someone else money .

1.6.3 RESULTS

Online shopping in India , saw 128% growth in the interest from the cosumers in the year 2011 to 2012

In comparison to only 40% growth in 2010 to 2011 , making 2012 the tipping point for online shopping in india.

In term of product categories, consumer interest on google search for

apparels & accessories (30%) Emerged as the second biggest product category after consumer electronics

(34%)

1.7 Key players in the market :

1. Flipkart```

Website: (www.flipkart.com)

Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007. In its initial years, Flipkart concentrated on online sales of books, but it later on expanded to electronic goods and a diversity of other products. Flipkart offers multiple payment methods like credit card, debit card, net banking, e-gift voucher, and the major of all Cash on Delivery. The cash-on-delivery model adopted by Flipkart has proven to be of great significance

2. Snapdeal

Website: (www.snapdeal.com)

Snapdeal is a leading online marketplace, headquartered in New Delhi, India. Snapdeal features products across categories like mobiles, electronics, fashion accessories, apparel, footwear, kids, home and kitchen, sports, books; and services like restaurants, spas & entertainment amongst others. The company was started by Kunal Bahl, a Wharton graduate and Rohit Bansal, alumnus of IIT Delhi, in February 2010. Snapdeal also provides discounted deals connecting with local merchants .Since credit card and net banking penetration is very low in India.

3. Fashion and you

Website: (www.fashionandyou.com)

Fashion and You is a private invitation only shopping club, based in Gurgaon, India. It was founded by Harish Bahl in November, 2009. The fashion site features collections by top designers for men, women and children for up to 80% off retail prices. Fashion and

You obtain authentic designer merchandise straight from the brand and provides it exclusively to its members through limited-time events.

4. Myntra

Website: (www.myntra.com)

Myntra was established by MukeshBansal, AshutoshLawania, and VineetSaxena in February 2007. All three are IIT graduates, and have worked for several start-ups. Myntra is headquartered in Bangalore and has been funded by Venture Capital funds like IndoUS, IDG &Accel Partners. Myntra.com works as an online shopping retailer of fashion and casual lifestyle products. The company started off in the business of personalization of products, and soon expanded to set up regional offices in New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

5. Inkfruit

Website: (www.inkfruit.com)

Inkfruit is an online t-shirt store, where t-shirt designs are submitted and voted for by a group of people. It was initiated in December 2007 (then called Gnome) by Fingerprints Fashion Inc., based in Mumbai, India. KashyapDalal, an undergraduate of IIT Bombay, and graduated from IIM Lucknow is the CEO of Inkfruit. This concept is taken from Threadless to India by Inkfruit. The community of Inkfruit submits t-shirt designs. These designs are put to vote on a scale of 1 to 5. The design that receives most votes ‘wins’, gets printed and is put for sale. The member whose design is selected gets paid a winning amount.

1.8 Important Factors :1.8.1 Great user experienceCustomers associate well-designed websites with quality and reputation. According to the Effective Measure Report of December 2013, 22% of online shoppers revealed that a good site design will see them spending more money on a website. Apart from an attractive site, every website should have a logical flow so that customers always know what to do next and how to get back to where they were. Ensure your products are easy to find, easy to buy, and that your website entices your visitors into not leaving without giving you some way of getting in contact with them once they have left. Enticement items can be used for remarketing, to build your database or to mine abandoned baskets, so don’t neglect this aspect.

1.8.2. Competitive prices and a large range of quality productsAs in retail, if you come to an online shop and most products show ‘out of stock’ or you have a very limited range of products, it will almost always be a negative online shopping experience. The Effective Measure Report measured that 47.5% of online shoppers would increase their spend on a website if they have more quality products to offer, and 60.5% of the shoppers are very price sensitive, so if you stock great products at competitive prices you will dramatically increase your chances of taking a bigger chunk of the market. Lastly, ensure you have great product descriptions and quality

product images, as these are two factors that increase the perception of quality when it comes to online shopping.

1.8.3. Frequent marketing campaignsWhether it’s ignorance or stubbornness, many businesses are unwilling to spend money on marketing and advertising, but you cannot build a shop and magically expect people to find your store and start buying your products. You need to have a great marketing strategy that covers both on site campaigns as well as external drives to pull people to your site. The Effective Measures Report measured that 16.3% of online shoppers buy online at least once a month, and 17.5% at least once every 3 months. This shows that you should have promotions and campaigns at least once a month, and at the very least once a quarter.

1.8.4. Quick delivery and professional packagingTwo elements we’ve noticed time and time again is that quicker delivery times and seamless returns has a massive impact on online shop sales. Amazon.com is a trend setter in delivery and logistics as they are always looking at ways to improve their turnaround times. They have set up warehouses across the globe and are even starting to predict your buying behaviour based on browsing, and then loading your “predictive parcel” in a locker ready for shipping once you hit the ‘Buy Now buttons.They do all this because they understand the importance of quicker delivery times for their customers .Furthermore it needs to be as easy to return a product as it is to buy it. Being able to return products easily is essential when incorrect items are delivered or if the item is broken and so on, it also gives consumers the confidence to buy items such as clothing and shoes without having to try them on first. Lastly, the Effective Measure Report noticed that 13.21% of online shoppers will increase their spend with you if you have quality packaging for your products. Quality packaging improves the experience of online shopping for the consumer as it is the only point of physical interaction with the brand. Yuppie chef understands this principle and their packaging has a personal touch with each delivery getting its own handwritten note.

1.8.5. More payment options and securityIt is quite obvious but worth mentioning anyway – if you have various methods for clients to pay, your sales will increase. This is a trend that follows traditional retail where you can buy cash, swipe your card, make an EFT or get it on credit through a personal loan. Online shopping has had limited options in the past when it comes to payment, but voucher shopping and prepaid cards have become increasingly popular. Merchants like PayPal offer safe ways to buy while protecting your credit card details.

A creative new player is Creditcart.co.za, a division of popular personal loans company Direct Axis. It has been integrating with numerous online shops to offer credit for online purchases. Lastly, ensure that you display prominent messaging around the safety of buying on your site, as well as protecting the customer’s privacy. This is not only for the

benefit of the customer, it’s also beneficial from a legal perspective to protect your own business.If you have these five elements you should be in a good position to increase your sales in an increasingly competitive market but also a growing market. You don’t always have to be the best at everything you do, but you always need to know what the best are doing so you can devise your counter strategies. Good luck and happy selling! Ecommerce Players like , Flipkart , which as per i know has their own servers , and they are hosting in India , Snap Deal is not hosting in India they are at present operating from Singapore servers , may be Planet or some other data centers, Jabong is Operating its server in India.

1.9 Relationship between Social Media and Online Shopping Trusted Recommendations Increase Traffic Brand Awareness

1 Trusted Recommendations

Social media share buttons allow online shoppers to easily share products and e-commerce sites with their family and friends. When followers see a friend or loved one endorsing a product, they trust that recommendation. The social shoppers sharing your products are essentially promoting your online store and providing an added sense of credibility by sharing “hey, I shop there!” – Consumers often look their family or friends for product recommendations, so make recommending and sharing your products as easy as possible.

2 Increase Traffic

Once Shoppers use social media share buttons to share your products with their followers, those friends and family can easily visit you site. People will want to know where their friend saw or brought that cool new product and learn more about your online shop. Modern consumers always want to be among the first to know about something new or exciting. Encourage your customers to share your products on social media, and you can look forward to visits from their followers as well.

3 Brand Awareness

Social Media share buttons will also give you the invaluable benefit of increased brand awareness.Getting your brand in front of more people will do wonders for its recognition. The key here is that many people have followers with similar shopping interests which means that already have an incentive in learning about your brand

1.10 Statistics on online shoppers

1. 67% of online shoppers in India refer to social media before buying online.

Smartphone and feature phones are helping India’s youth get online more than ever before. They’re using the mobile web for fun, social media and shopping. This is reflected in how tech and web based businesses and startups are flourishing in the country. E-commerce startups such as flipcart, snap deal, GupChup and others have grown in revenues as well as user number; they are among the pick of global and local investors this year. According to a study, over 60% of internet users in urban India spend more than 4 hours per day and surf the internet. More than 130 million people in

the country are linked to the internet through fixed and mobile broadband, while over 80 millions are on facebook

2. Over 2 hours per day on social media.The study also reveals that close to 50% of young web users in India spend over 2 hours on social media portals daily. Over 30% of users agreed that friends or peers impact their online shopping, and 17% say they’re influenced by things like online ads, reviews and information gleaned from the web. Interestingly, the report finds that buyers are referring much more too social media before shopping so as to make informed decisions. More than 67% of Indian web users from urban areas are highly influenced by social media while buying items online.

Research Methodology

Research QuestionsAs per literature review, our research questions are

Q 1 What are the tools which help in social media marketing?

Q 2 What are the factors affecting social media marketing?

Q 3 Working of Indian online industry?

Q 4 What are the promotional tools used by different key players of the market?

RESEARCH PROBLEMSAs per analysis, there were many problems faced by us.

The main problem was people were not so friendly as they directly refuse to answer the questions.

Another problem was proper information was not available as there were fake statistics.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVETo find out the influence of social media on online shoppers in Delhi.

RESEARCH SUB-OBJECTIVESTo study,

· Platforms of social media

· Advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing

· Indian online industry

· Key players in market

· Important factors

· Relationship between social media and online shoppers

· Statistics on online shoppers

DATA COLLECTION METHODSecondary sources of data is collected through internet and primary sources of data is collected through questionnaire .For questionnaire see Ann.

RESEARCH DESIGNLiterature review was conducted through secondary sources i.e. internet followed by primary study through questionnaire on target market.

DATA ANALYSIS and FINDINGS

1 AGE:

Majority of the people were within the age of 15- 20 (52%) which means most of them were students and therefore for now focus will be on the consumers who are students right now. From the other findings it shows that 26% of the people are within the age of 20 – 25 and 6% are within the age of 25-30 and 16% are within the age of 30-35.

2 : MARITAL STATUS :

As majority of the respondents are students so the majority is of single people 76%, 2% are separated and 22% are separated and 0% of them are divorced. This statistics help us to analyses that for whom the customers will be buying the products for.

3 : WORKING OR NOT

With help of this statistics we get to know that 69% respondents are not working and 31% of are working . This shows us that as the majority respondents are not working they will have limited amount which they get to spend and only 31% respondents are working who will spend accordingly.

4 EDUCATION LEVEL :

This question help us to analyse the education of the respondents with these statistics we can juge what kind of products will consumer buy and what kind of products are the consumers interested in . With this we get to know that majority of the respondents are high school students ( 38%) , 32% are bachelors ,24% are post graduation students and (6%) belong to M phil/ phd .

5 : PERSONAL MONTHLY INCOME :

With these statistics we get to know that majority of respondents 40% belong to 30000 0r below income level group , 24% belong to 50000-75000 income level group , 22% belong to 30000-50000 income level group ,10% belong to 750000-100000 income level group and 4% belong to 100000 or above . With this analysis we get to know if the consumers will be able to afford the luxury products or not and it helps us to decide the products and the target market to which we should sell to.

CONCLUSIONSR1 What are the tools which help in social media marketing?

Facebook- Facebook has been a primary platform for brands in the promotion of products .

Twitter- twitter is another social media tool in which brands are using to engage customers and encourage purchases, and it’s evident from the numbers that twitter users don’t mind being pursued by brands.

Instagram-Instagram is becoming most popular social platform. Recently a study published by L2 Think Tank found that Instagram gives brands 25% more engagement than any other social platform like Facebook, twitter etc.

YouTube-YouTube is the most influential in terms of advertising and selling of products. Before the starting of every video there are various advertisements which influence people in many ways like buying that product.

R2 What are the factors affecting social media marketing?

1. TIME INTENSIVE

The first preliminary consideration and probably the most important one is that social media marketing requires a significant time investment.

2. TRADEMARK AND COPYRIGHT ISSUES

 It is of the utmost importance for companies to protect their own trademarks and copyrights when using social media to promote their brands and products.

3. NEGATIVE FEEDBACK

Social media, in a way, converts consumers into marketers and advertisers, and consumers can create positive or negative pressure for the company, its products, and its services, depending both on how the company is presented online and on the quality of products and services presented to the customer

R3 What are the major key players of the market?

1. Flipkart

Website: (www.flipkart.com)

Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007.

2. SnapdealWebsite: (www.snapdeal.com)

Snapdeal is a leading online marketplace, headquartered in New Delhi, India. Snapdeal features products across categories like mobiles, electronics, fashion accessories, apparel, footwear, kids, home and kitchen, sports, books; and services like restaurants, spas & entertainment amongst others

REFERENCINGhttp://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/indian-online-shopping-industry-to-touch-45-bn-by-2020-vs-4-bn-in-2013-report-114110501052_1.html

http://mashable.com/category/social-media-marketing/

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport2013.pdf

https://www.spredfast.com/social-media-marketing

http://webcomm.tufts.edu/social-media-overview13/

ANNEXURE

QUESSTIONNAIREQ1 How old are you?

15-20 20-25 25-30 30-35 35+

Q2 What is your marital status?

Married Single Separated Divorced

Q3 What is your education level?

A) High School B) Bachelors C) Post Graduate D) M Phil / PhD

Q4) Are you working?

A) Yes B) No

Q5) what is your personal monthly income

A) Rs 30000 or below B) Rs 30000 – Rs 50000 C) Rs 50000 – Rs 75000 D) Rs 75000 – Rs 100000 E) Rs 1 Lakh and above

Q6) Family Type

A) Nuclear Family B) Joint Family

Q7) How do you mostly spend your time?a) Shoppingb) Reading books

c) Going out with friendsd) Surfing nete) At home

Q8) When looking to buy products , what is your preferred method of purchase?

a) street shoppingb) tele shoppingc) online shoppingd) malls and retail outlet

O9) How often do you shop online?

a) Once in a weekb) Once in a monthc) Six monthsd) Yes

Q10) Social media which you prefer the most ?a) Flipkartb) fashion and youc) jabongd) myntrae) other

Q11) How much do you spend on online shopping?

a) 500-999b) 1000-1500c) 1500-2500d) 2500-4000

Q12) which payment option you prefer the most ? a)COD b) bank deposit c) Debit/Credit d)Other

Q13) While doing online shopping how do you rate

the following?

Excellent Very Good

Good Average

Poor

PriceAfter sale serviceQualityComfortSafeRange

Q14) Do you ever get influenced by the social media marketing advertisement policy?a) Yesb) Alwaysc) Sometimesd) Never