Essay Sample on Factors That Affect Consumer Purchasing Behaviour in the UK Retail Industry

The study aimed to assess the factors that affect consumer purchasing behavior in the UK retail industry, taking into consideration the case of Etsy Company. The study's objectives are to assess the influence of social factors on buying behavior, economic factors on buying behavior, and market factors on buying behavior.

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Definition of Consumer BehaviourConsumer Behaviour is the assessment of psychological, social, and physical actions in which persons buy, use, and dispose of products and services. The norm of the consumer is the process that involves physical activity and makes decisions in obtaining, evaluating, and disposing of goods and services.

Cultural Factors

Culture is significant to grasp the needs and norms of a person. It is recognized as forming part of each society, and it is the most vital cause of an individual's wants and needs. The influence of culture on purchasing Behaviour differs from one nation to the other. Marketers require being cautious in assessing the culture of distinct groups, nations, or areas. Throughout his existence, a person will be impacted by his friends, family, and cultural settings that will teach him values, Behaviour, and preferences of their culture (Ramya & Ali 2016). For Etsy brands, it is vital to grasp and consider the cultural factors intrinsic to every market or circumstance to adapt its goods and marketing strategy. These elements will be instrumental in the Behaviour, perception, or anticipations of clients.

Subculture

Every culture constitutes distinct subcultures, including nationalities, religions, geographical regions, and racial groups. Marketers can utilize these groups by segmenting the market into many options. For instance, marketers can design goods based on the needs of a certain geographic group.

Social Class

Each society is characterized by a certain form of social class, which is significant to marketers as the purchasing Behaviour of persons in a specified social class is equivalent. In this manner, marketing activities could be customized based on distinct social classes. Notably, social class is determined by income, education, wealth, and occupation (Furaiji et al. 2012).

Social Factors

Reference Groups

Reference groups can nurture the Behaviour or attitude of an individual. The contribution of the reference groups differs across goods. As the Etsy products, including antiques, are visible, the impact of reference groups will be high. Reference groups entail the opinion leader who impacts others due to his special knowledge or skill (Al-Azzam 2014).

Family

The family member impacts the behavior of the purchaser. Thus, marketers are attempting to discover the roles and impact of the wife, children, and husband. When purchasing decisions of Etsy products is influenced by the children, and then the marketers will attempt to target the children in their adverts. It is vital to denote that the purchasing roles change as a result of the change in the lifestyles of the consumer (Saha et al. 2010).

Roles and Status

Every individual possesses distinct roles and status in society, relying on the clubs, family, groups, and companies it belongs (Pantano 2011). For instance, let us consider a scenario when a man is working in Etsy Company as a personnel manager. Currently, she is playing the role of personnel manager and father. Hence, his purchasing decisions will be impacted by her role and status.

Personal Factors

Age

Age has a significant impact on the purchasing behavior of the consumer. Consumers change their buying of products and services over time. The lifecycle of the family constitutes distinct phases such as married couples, unmarried, and singles who assist the marketers in developing suitable products for every stage.

Occupation

The occupation of an individual determines his purchasing behavior. For instance, a marketing manager of Etsy will attempt to buy business suits, whereas administrative staff will purchase rugged work attires.

Economic Situation

The economic situation of the consumer influences the purchasing behavior of the latter. When the savings and income of a client are low, the consumer will buy less expensive goods. On the contrary, an individual earning high income and savings less will buy costly products.

Lifestyle

The lifestyle of clients is another significant factor impacting consumer purchasing behavior. The lifestyle is how an individual lives in a society and is expressed by the thing in the nearby surroundings. It is evaluated by the opinions, and interests of the client, and shapes the entire pattern of acting and relating with the world (Park & Kim 2003).

Personality

Personality differs from one individual to individual, venue to venue, and time to time. Hence, it can be greatly impacted by the purchasing behavior of clients. Personality is the totality of the norm of an individual in distinct situations and has distinct features, including aggressiveness dominance, and self-confidence which can be crucial in determining the behavior of the consumer for a certain product (Joshi & Rahman 2015).

Psychological Factors

Motivation

The motivational level impacts the purchasing behavior of consumers. Motivation is regarded as the driver of behavior (Ahmed et al. 2015). It is articulated that it has three characteristics, including effort, direction, and persistence. Direction defines what a person is striving to attain. An effort is the quantity of energy that a person enforces into a job to attain their goal. Persistence is the duration of time that they are dearing to sacrifice to achieve their goal. These characteristics suggest that everything starts with an underlying need, activated when there is a discrepancy between the desired state and the real state. Each individual has distinct needs that entail biological needs, physiological needs, and social needs. The state of needs that some of them are pressing whereas others are least pressing. Thus, a necessity becomes a motive when it is more pressing to direct the individual to pursue satisfaction.

Perception

Perception involves choosing, organizing, and interpreting details in a manner to generate a meaningful experience of the world—selective distortion, selective attention, and selective retention highlight the distinct perceptual processes. In the scenario of selective attention, the marketers attempt to elicit the attention of the client. In the event of selective distortion, the customers attempt to interpret the details to support what the client already believes (Solomon et al. 2010). Equivalently, in the scenario of selective retention, marketers attempt to retain details that back up their beliefs.

Beliefs and Attitudes

The client has a specific belief and attitude towards many products. As such, attitudes and beliefs formulate the image of a brand and impact consumer purchasing behavior; thus, marketers are fascinated by them. Marketers can alter the beliefs and attitudes of clients by establishing special campaigns in their pretext.

Methodology

Type of Investigation The focus of the study is to grasp the aspects impacting the buying norm of consumers, whereas shopping for items in the organized online shop in the United Kingdom. Thus, the explorative design was selected to befit the pattern of investigation.

Sampling DesignSampling frame

The sampling frame is the listing of the elements in which the sample is drawn. The sample is a sub-branch of the population. The sampling frame is the marketing professionals at Etsy Company.

Sampling technique

The sampling technique is typically a technique to get the sample. The stratified random sampling was selected as the most appropriate sampling technique for the study. The potential of this sampling technique is that it offers a chance of being chosen to guarantee the representation of the population in the sample.

Sample size

The sample size of the study consisted of 100 respondents. There were 60 males and 40 males engaged in the study of the factors that affect the consumer behavior of Etsy products.

Case Study

Etsy is globally acclaimed as one of the most established e-commerce stores on handmade or vintage items and supplies. However, the organization has fallen short of restraints that have pulled down its set milestones. Etsy has been faced with the problem of determining the factors that determine the purchasing behavior of their consumers. Hence, it is essential to conduct the research which examines the factors that affect consumer buying behavior to improve the growth of Etsy Corporation. Many arguments have been placed forward to illuminate the significance of exploring this topic. Less or more research has been performed on the factors that affect consumer purchasing behavior in the UK retail industry. Consumer Behaviour is based on the concept of consumer purchasing norm in the drift of the consumer, presuming the role of the user, payer, and buyer. The investigation revealed that the norm of the client is complicated to forecast, still for skilled persons in the required field. The elements that influence consumers can be grouped into internal and external influences. The majority of the scholars have focused on the consumer behavior of the other industries apart from the retail industry. Hence, it is vital to conduct the study whereby the data would be collected according to the factors that affect Etsy consumers' purchasing behaviors.

Data Collection

The primary data from the questionnaire and secondary data from online databases, including Euromonitor, and will be used to analyze the factors that are affecting the buying behavior of consumers.

Intended Study Contribution

This research contributes to the body of knowledge on the consumer’s purchase decision of Etsy products. The literature review established that the retail consumers' purchase buyers differ across national contexts and backgrounds on their culture. There is a fewer number of studies that discuss the aspects that determine the consumers of Etsy products in the United Kingdom retail industry. This gap in the knowledge of Etsy products buyers' purchase decisions is substantial, taking into the growing importance of the UK's retail industry and the large investment in this industry. This research is the only acknowledged empirical attempt to assess the direct associations between retail products and services and purchase decision-making and post-purchase satisfaction in the United Kingdom in recent years. Hence, this study offers contributions to our understanding of the consumer decision-making processes for the retail market in the UK.

Understanding consumers and what impacts their behavior is vital for marketers. Successful marketing of consumer products requires an in-depth understanding of consumers and the distinctions between the segments of consumers. This understanding is essential to analyze and profile segments, select target markets, and create marketing strategies that will best align with that of the target markets (Walker & Mullins, 2014). However, the consumers differ what they know versus what they perceive that they know. The thing that the consumers know is significant at each stage of the buying decision making processes from the moment that the individual acknowledges the need, through to describing the issue, looking for information, evaluating alternatives, buying a good, and consuming it and penetrating the post-purchase phase.