THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN THE SRI LANKAN CLOTHING INDUSTRY

Abstract

Social media plays a crucial role in shaping consumer behaviour in the market. This research intends to examine how social media marketing affects clothing related consumer behaviour in Sri Lanka. By focusing on the question as to how social media marketing affects consumers' decision-making process generally in relation to clothing companies, the study examines the historical development of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, assess the influence of social media on customer behaviour, and provide guidance to clothing firms on enhancing their social media marketing tactics. The study specifically targeted active social media users in Sri Lanka, with a focus on 100 consumers as samples from the clothing industry who utilize social media. The data collected underwent reliability analysis to assess its dependability, while additional statistical techniques such as Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression, simple linear regression, and descriptive statistics were employed to examine the proposed hypotheses. The results of this study showed that customer purchasing behaviour towards the clothing industry is positively impacted by social media marketing. The empirical evidence gathered from this study unequivocally supports the notion that social media marketing plays a significant role in shaping consumer behaviours. It is worth noting that the impact of social media marketing varies from country to country. In Bangladesh, it has a direct impact on consumption habits. Purchase intentions also serve as an effective tool to acquire new customers in India. Furthermore, in Sri Lanka, social media marketing has a positive potential to increase purchase intentions. Sri Lanka's cultural landscape provides a unique context for the study of consumer behaviour, which can be very different from other parts of the world.