FACEBOOK ADVERTISING AND ONLINE PURCHASING DECISIONS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY

Abstract

Nowadays, social media has provided new opportunities for online shopping that benefit both consumers and marketers. Most of the sellers who sell products or services on their personal social media platforms are facing the issue of figuring what are the aspects that could influence consumers in their decisions to purchase products or services from the sellers, especially young adults who are active in social media platform. Interpersonal utility, information seeking, entertainment, passing time, and convenience are the five factors employed in examining the influence toward student’s purchasing decisions, in-line with the Uses and Gratifications Theory approach. The quantitative research method has been employed in this study. The data was collected from 309 undergraduates from a private university in Malaysia. The study revealed a strong positive correlation between all five independent variables and the dependent variables. The factor with the strongest correlation is convenience. This study would provide useful insights to Facebook’s personal sellers to promote their products or services in a better way to target their potential customers effectively.