SUMMARY
The first objective of the study was to examine students’ perception towards shopping online. Findings from the study show that at a significant level of 0.05, students’ perception towards shopping online is positive. Majority of the students agreed that online shopping is the fastest and safest means of purchasing goods and services.
Findings from the study also shows that various factors such as demographic factors and risk evasiveness of students shape the way and pattern they purchase goods and services online. Female are more prone to buying products online than men.
The third objective of the study was to examine the influence of social media on consumer buying behavior. From the study, students also asserted that social media adverts have also shaped and influenced their buying behavior. Catchy adverts on social media sites such as facebook, amazon, yotube etc has made them more confident to shop online. Seeing a product on a well trusted site tends to make more students to purchase products from ecommerce sites. At a significant level of 0.05, there is a positive relationship between social media channels and buying behavior of consumers. The results show that trust, encouraged by social media, significantly affects intention to buy. When potential consumers are encouraged to trust in vendors by their peers, and also to trust in the SNS itself, they are more likely to buy through social networking sites. This confirms the related hypothesis and answers the second question of the research. In addition, perceived usefulness is the other construct of the research that significantly affects intention to buy. When participants experience high levels of system quality or information quality, they are more likely to buy through social networking sites. Data analysis shows that perceived usefulness has more influence than trust on intention to buy through social networking sites. Hence, improving the quality of websites enhances perceived usefulness in their consumers. The other data revealed by analysis confirms that trust has a positive and significant effect on perceived usefulness. Once participants accepted trust, not only had they more intention to buy, but they also found increased perceived usefulness in the site. This highlights the mediating role of trust in social commerce adoption. Therefore, trust has a significant role in e-commerce by directly influencing intention to buy and indirectly influencing perceived usefulness.
