Social Shopping: The Use of Online Social Networks to Support Shopping-oriented Decision Making

Abstract

Decision making (DM) is something that we all do in our daily lives. Regardless of whether the decision is big or small, the decision made will have an impact on our lives. Many of us have encountered struggles when making shopping decisions (cosmetics, cars, cameras, and laptop purchases), having many questions in mind and often seeking answers via various channels. The increased usage of technology today can lead us to using the internet and the World Wide Web for information, opinions, and the viewing of discussions to make shopping decisions easier. How shopping DM is conducted with the support of online social networks (OSN) has not been explored in research. Although the usage of OSN is growing rapidly, there is a poor understanding of how OSN can provide support to shopping decision makers; this research is aimed at understanding how shopping DM is conducted with the support of OSN. The relationship between OSN and consumer shopping-oriented DM will be explored. Part of the exploration includes trying to understand consumer perspective, by understanding how consumers use OSN to support their shopping decisions. In addition, from a business point of view, the findings from this research will assist organisations in understanding consumer DM with regard to shopping. The study involves a multi methodological approach consisting of a netnography study and an online survey. Certain methodologies do not support the study of social networks and netnography study is here appropriate to understanding trends within the OSN by conducting an explorative/immersive approach. A survey is then conducted to validate the netnography findings. Findings revealed that shopping-oriented OSN provided strong support for the intelligence phase. As seen through the quantitative analysis, the rational DM phases had a weak but still relevant support. Two new findings were also discovered, namely Guidance and Vent, which support the shopping-oriented DM in an online domain. Support was seen within DM phases; however, these phases appear in an inconsistent manner and follow the anarchical DM model. Given the research findings, a framework has been proposed to reflect on the findings, as well as to assist in future research.