THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CUSTOMERS’ PURCHASE DECISIONS IN SAUDI ARABIA: THE CASE OF INSTAGRAM

Abstract

The advent of social media, and specifically Instagram, has shifted marketing focus and consequently consumer behaviour. Consumers go through a long process before making any purchase decision. However, the development of social media has changed perspective of consumers purchase decision. This work was done to examine the level of influence Instagram has on consumer’s purchase decision in Saudi Arabia. This work was done based on quantitative method.  The samples of this work were 100 female students from private and public universities in Saudi Arabia.  Survey questionnaire was used for data collection. The results of this work showed that 98% of the respondents use social media, and 70% of the respondents use Instagram the most. Likewise, the result showed that respondents use social media platform due to their credibility, convenience, instant updates and variety of information. Key results showed that 60% of the respondents stated that Instagram had a positive impact on the purchasing decision. Thus, it is concluded that Instagram influences Saudi Arabia's consumer purchase decision.