The Impact of Social Media Marketing on Impulse Buying

摘要

Research on the use of social media has shown that it tends to influence if not alter human perceptions while purchasing and added frequently targeted marketing on these platforms has also impacted on consumer buying behavior. This paper, through a rigorous systematic literature review, evaluated the topic of Social Media Marketing and critically examines the effect it has on consumer behavior, and particularly impulse buying. The search strategy used to conduct the literature review was primarily targeted towards discovering academic publications via accepted databases and literature search engines. The basis for published literature reviewed was taken from a basket of top Information Systems journals. Several themes were found to influence impulsive purchases as driven by social media marketing. These included purchasing behaviors, social media influencers, and brand loyalty where it was found that companies often exploit the vulnerabilities of the consumer psyche to maximize successful online impulse sales using social media marketing as stimulant. Both social and eCommerce technology proved to be major contributors to this phenomenon to the extent that available research considers them to be independent impulsive purchase stimuli in their own standing.