Consumers tend to take additional actions after purchasing a commodity; the post-purchase activities are based on the satisfaction level of the customer (Kotler & Armstrong, 2016). The gap determines the satisfaction level of the consumers amid perceived product and consumer expectations. The consumer tends to feel more satisfied when the gap to be fulfilled minimal. Consumer satisfaction is a vital tool to establish a profitable relationship (Kotler & Armstrong, 2016). Whenever consumers are satisfied with a brand, they tend to purchase a similar brand in the future. Research indicates that satisfied customers tend to refer more consumers to buy a particular brand. Satisfied consumers tend to show less attention to the commodities offered by the competitors. Social commerce enhances consumer satisfaction, which in turn leads to the creation of brand loyalty. Moreover, satisfied consumers tend to buy other services and products provided by a similar company. Unsatisfied consumers, on the other hand, tend to exhibit negative behavior towards a particular brand, they tend to show a negative attitude towards a specific brand (Sanni et al., 2018). Dissatisfied consumers tend to leave negative reviews and comments regarding specific, products with a negative review, and comments in social commerce tend to lower the consumer purchases. Current social interactions happening in social commerce tends to have a robust impact compared to traditional interactions. Hence, social commerce acts as a medium for sharing consumer satisfaction and experience. After a buying activity, consumers tend to compare their expected experience with the consumption experience they have acquired from the brand. Subsequently, customers tend to communicate their degree of satisfaction to the other consumers through social commerce (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004). According to Yadav et al., (2013), customers can commend other customers towards purchasing a particular brand through the social commerce platform. Various past research indicates that social support leads to a positive effect on the continuance intention to make use of social commerce; better social support can facilitate consumer loyalty. Consumer motivations can involve validating certain opinions, bonding, and educating others about a particular purchase. Social interaction offered by social commerce tends to significantly influence the likelihood the post-purchase behaviors (reviews, comments, and feedback). Based on past research, social commerce tends to have a positive influence on post-purchase behaviors, thus has a significant impact on consumer purchase decision making.
Methodology
The methodology Approach
The project sought to investigate the effects of social commerce on consumer purchases. Also, the project aimed to analyze the effect of social commerce on the consumer decision-making process. According to literature information collected from various sources, there exist a positive correlation between social commerce and consumer purchases. Additionally, the results from the past studies indicated that social commerce has a significant influence on the consumer decision-making process.
The study used multiple data collection techniques to enhance the accuracy of the information attained from the various data collection tools. The multiple data collection tools used for the collection of the information included the questionnaires and interviews. The numerous constructs of the study included; social commerce, information search, need recognition, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post-purchase decision. A structured questionnaire was generated to determine the influence of social commerce on the above constructs. The study targeted a group of consumers aged between twenty years to thirty-five (20-35years); this is because youths are the most active group users of the Social commerce platforms. Hence their purchases are likely to be significantly influenced by social media platforms. The project targeted a total of five thousand participants (5000) from the total population A preliminary research was conducted in the first one month before the actual data collection activity, the main aim of the initial research was to offer an overview to ensure that the evaluation tackles all the areas of focus. The preliminary research also played a significant role in the creation of an evaluation group, selection of the institutions on which the research was to take place; it also helped in the construction of terms of reference. The research prepared a data analysis software to we used for the analysis of the results derived from the questionnaire. The data was to be analyzed using the SSP software and using the linear regression model to investigate the correlation that exists between social commerce and consumer purchases.
The project involved an analysis of both qualitative and quantitative methods and qualitative methods. The quantitative approach helps significantly in measuring, categorizing, ranking, and classifying patterns and creating generalizations. Qualitative methods, on the other hand (such as interviews), plays a significant role in describing, contextualizing, interpreting, and acquiring an in-depth perception of particular phenomena or concepts. Data collection
The responses were collected through the use of an online survey questionnaire and online interviews. Facebook was used as the main platform through which the interview was to take place. Facebook is amongst the types of social commerce that has the most significant number of followers; most of the business advertisement takes place through Facebook platforms. Hence the project opted to conduct its research through the Facebook platform since it contains the highest number of advertisements. Using Facebook as the interview and questionnaire platform could play a significant role in ensuring that the project is able to gather as much data as possible from numerous customers. The data was collected in phases to ensure that all the intended customers meant to help in the research were reached. The total sample of the population was subdivided into ten groups, each group was assigned a specific time for the interview.
Description of the Data collection methods
The project used online questionnaire to reach the target group of the consumers, and online interview to affirm the data collected from various customers. The acquired volunteers aged twenty to thirty-five years participants from the Facebook platform. They participants were pledged to join the study at their own discretion, they were to join the interview and answer questionnaire voluntarily. The participants had to be within the age limit stipulated for the study and had to be active participants of the Facebook. Also, the study required that the customers to have made at least two purchases through the Facebook. The questionnaire was developed with certain questions regarding the influence of the social commerce on their purchases. Also, the questionnaire sought to investigate whether consumers had conducted any purchase due to the influence of the advertisements made through the social commerce platforms, the online questionnaires were also meant to determine whether the reviews and comments left by previous customers had any effect towards their purchases. The online interviews on the other hand, was meant to capture the take of the customers towards the benefits of the various social commerce platforms. To determine each of the participants experience on the social commerce and determine the benefit perception held by most of the consumers towards the existence of social commerce platforms.
It took three months to gather data from the volunteered participants, a total of four thousand participants managed to give their feedback on time, however the rest participants (one thousand) did not manage to give their feedback on the questionnaires sent to them.