How Social Media Influences Online Shopping

How Social Media Influences Online Shopping
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How Social Media Influences Online Shopping
The increasing adoption of social media has presented new opportunities for communication and commerce between sellers and buyers. Notably, advertisers follow their target audiences and take advantage of new features offered by new marketing platforms such as social media. Ansari et al. (2019) report that organizations require an entrepreneurial spirit to gain a competitive advantage in the market, with online marketing focusing on social media presenting one of the ways through which organizations can use to outperform competitors. Sharma et al. (2022) attribute the importance of social media to an organization to social media’s ability to shape values that are pursued in society. 
Several studies have been conducted to explore the influence of social media on customers’ purchasing decisions. Akar and Nasir (2015) conducted a review whose findings reported that content credibility and reviews in social media were the two main ways through which social media influences purchasing decisions. In the same vein, Poturak and Softic (2019) conducted a study to explore the role of social media content in influencing purchasing intentions in customers. The findings from their study indicated that social media communication generated by the company and other social media users had a significant influence on the extent to which social media influenced purchasing intentions in customers. Mason, Narcum, and Mason (2021) reported that the importance of social media in influencing purchasing decisions increased in importance following the onset of COVID-19. 
The following project adds to the existing literature on the importance of social media in influencing purchasing decisions. More information on how social media influences purchasing intentions can help organizations make informed marketing decisions. The three hypotheses that will be investigated in the current project are:
H1: Educational attainment has a relationship with the social media purchasing behaviors of a customer
H2: The frequency of social media use influences online purchasing behaviors
H3: Positive attitude toward social media influencers has a positive influence on online purchasing behaviors
Method
In the current study, 694 participants were required to fill out a survey exploring their demographics and social media use. The participants in the study were recruited through convenience sampling in the sense that the majority of the participants were referred by their friends to take part in the present study.
Descriptive Statistics
582 out of the 694 participants in the study provided their ages. The mean age of the participants was 35.45 years, with a standard deviation of 16.114. There were 107 males in the sample, which represented 15.7 percent. Females participants in the study were 475, representing 68.4 percent of the study participants. 2 participants identified as non-binary, which is 0.3 percent of the total participants. 3 participants offered different identities.
In terms of race, 21.2 percent of the participants indicates that they were of Hispanic origin, 1...