What influences consumers purchase decisions?

What influence us in making a purchase decision? 

Why did we purchase any specific item? Did we ask anyone, any friend or family, for help in our situation? There are number of factors which influence our purchase decision.

Before buying any item or before the need to buy any item, there are lots of factors which influence us and our decision. Below are some factors which influence and help a typical consumer make purchase decisions.

Needs / Requirements: The first factor which influences any consumer to buy any product is needs or requirement for the same. In this process the customer realizes that he/she has a need for something which the person doesn’t have. The requirement or need can be generated either by internal stimulus or external stimulus. A need can occur immediately and can be a very basic impulse that you experience, such as when we develop hunger pain. This is called an internal stimulus.

Secondly, one is affected by outside influences like if any of the friend has a new gadget or new clothes or accessories. One can live without that but desires to have it. So when your needs or requirements are influenced by other people, it is called an external stimulus.

Peer reviews matter: According to a survey 60% of online buyers said that they consult reviews prior to purchasing any electronic item. 40% of buyers claimed that they would not buy any item online without seeking reviews about the product. In this social media age there are plentyof websites from where one can gather complete information about the item and can get reviews about it from their users. So, reviews of any items also influence the purchasing decision of the consumers.

People gather information from mixed sources: Apart from online reviews on different social media, consumers also gather information about any particular product from other sources too. One on one checking out with friends and family is one such source.

According to Harris Interactive’s old study (2009), the most common methods of gathering information prior to making purchase are: Using a company website (36%) Face-to-face conversation with a salesperson or other company representative (22%) Face-to-face conversation with a person not associated with the company (21%). Another study says even 59% of people consult friends and family for purchasing decisions.

Do social media have an impact on purchasing decisions? : Social media is one of the major factors which influence the purchase decision of the consumers. According to a study by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies found that consumers are 67% more likely to buy from the brands they follow on Twitter, and 51% more likely to buy from a brand they follow on Facebook. Today almost every brand promotes their product using social media platform. They create attractive advertisement with catchy content so that they can entice the viewers to search more about it.

Purchase Decision: this is a stage when consumer actually buys the product. While purchasing any item there are two factors which influence it, purchase intention and purchase decision. The first factor is the attitude of the person and the second is unforeseen situational factors. The consumer may form a purchase intention based on factor such as usual income, usual price and usual product benefits etc. Purchase intention is followed by purchase decision.

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