Influencing Shopping Behaviour with Social Media

Abstract

Circular Economy has gained much attention in the recent years. Nevertheless, the implementation of the concept is still an issue partly due to lack of consumer awareness and interest. The solution would be simple, using marketing tools such as social media to spread awareness. However, resources are limited, and consumer behaviour can be influenced by various factors, which makes it hard to reach all consumers. To further understand the problem, the research focuses on identifying the social media that are mainly used by students to inform themselves about fashion, and their fashion and circular shopping behaviour. Based on these results, recommendations for circular fashion organisations can be created. The culture, which is one of the influencing factors when it comes to consumer behaviour will also be considered. By conducting a survey, the necessary data about social media usage, fashion and circular shopping behaviour and the demographics can be derived from the BIS FHNW students. The data is then analysed quantitatively to meet the research objectives. The most used social media is identified, the fashion shopping behaviour and the circular behaviour regarding clothes. The difference in culture on the responses is also derived. It was found out that the most influential tool YouTube can influence the FHNW BIS students through various means such as posting content, ads and implementing the deciding factors such as good quality clothes or easy access into the content creation. In addition, trust in the brand should be fostered by creating a transparent supply chain for instance through blockchain. In conclusion, there are various means to create awareness, share opinions and knowledge through YouTube. It is important to make the right investments and conduct further research into the consumer group to measure the influence each investment has on their behaviour.