FACTORS AFFECTING

CONSUMER BUYING
BEHAVIOUR
Research Skills for Business, Section F, Dr.Abdul
Waheed
 Factors Affecting Consumer Buying
Behaviour
Ramail Amjad, Talha Bin Aziz, Rodain Jamil, Asghar Ali, Zainab Aftab -
University of Central Punjab (Business school), 2018

Introduction
Consumer behavior has been defined as the “acquisition, consumption and
disposition of products, services, time and ideas by decision making units” (Jacoby
1975, 1976).
The following report sheds light upon the various factors that directly or
indirectly affect the behavior of consumers, especially in terms of buying products
and availing services. The focus of this report is on three basic endeavors:-
 Consumer research and analysis as carried out by MNCs
 Culture and social norms that govern consumer behavior
 Pinpointing the consumer purchase decision
The article will also be shedding light upon the paradigm that has evolved
consumerism over the years, with the invention of credit cards, phone services and
above all, the internet. “The technology for online survey research is young and
evolving. Until recently, creating and conducting an online survey was a time-
consuming task requiring familiarity with web authoring programs, HTML code,
and scripting programs.” (Wright, 2017)
Before we discuss what factors affect consumer behavior, we will first
understand what consumer behavior itself is. According N. Ramaya and Dr. S. A.
Muhammad Ali in “Factors Affecting Consumer Buying Behaviour”, consumer
buying behavior refers to the selection, purchase and consumption of goods and
services for the satisfaction of their wants. There are different processes involved
in the consumer behavior.
This report will also narrow down the vast majority of the possibilities that exist
within the field of consumer behavior analysis, and explain them with brief and
simple facts. “Consumer behavior is a widely studied field. Understanding it
completely is impossible, because it is related so closely to human mind.”
(Lautiainen, 2015).
 Broad Problem Area
The problem area which our research discusses: what are the factors that affect an
individual’s buying behavior. This research will follow three main arguments, i.e.
1. How consumer research and analysis can help companies to change the behavior
of their customers, 2. How social and cultural aspects of a region can drive the
perception of the general public, towards buying, or not buying a certain product,
and 3. How online transactions and the internet has diversified/altered the average
humans buying behavior.

Literature Review
According to N.Ramaya in Factors affecting consumer buying behavior, The
consumer behaviour or buyer behaviour is influenced by several factors or forces.
They are:-
1. Internal or Psychological factors
2. Social factors
3. Cultural factors
4. Economic factors
5. Personal factors.
Along with the above mentioned factors, many studies have looked into the
online shopping service attributes (Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1997). These studies
have classified the attributes of online stores into four categories: merchandise,
customer service and promotions, navigation and convenience, and security.

However, many online stores are still not available in Pakistan, mainly due to
unawareness. But one begins to wonder, what causes this unawareness within
our society? In the already mentioned article at the start of this heading,
N.Ramaya discusses that adaptiveness to technology depends a lot on the
culture, and hence, this directly affects how the growth of online stores is
shunned in some regions. According to N.Ramaya, “Culture is the most
fundamental determinant of a person’s want and behaviour. The growing child
acquires a set of values, perception preferences and behaviours through his or
her family and other key institutions. Culture influences considerably the
pattern of consumption and the pattern of decision-making. Marketers have to
explore the cultural forces and have to frame marketing strategies for each
category of culture separately to push up the sales of their products or services.
But culture is not permanent and changes gradually and such changes are
progressively assimilated within society”. (The Factors Affecting Consumer
Buying Behaviour)

Merchandising includes product ‐related characteristics such as assortment,

variety, and product information (Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1997). Rich product
assortment can increase the probability that consumer ‐needs will be met and
satisfied. But not all products available in the merchant’s catalog or real store
are available online (Szymanski and Hise, 2000). According to Lohse and
Spiller’s study (1998), big online stores are less effective than small stores at
converting site traffic into sales because consumers have difficulty in finding
the products they seek.

Theoretical framework
Our entire discussion is based upon five key relations. These relations will govern
out hypotheses and give us a clear path towards the construction of a proper
questionnaire.
The first key relation, is the Nature of the product, which naturally is the
independent variable, and this will lead us to know what materials will be used in
the making of this product, how often will it be used, and what will be its
durability. For Example, water bottles are disposable, common and cheap, and are
hence made of cheap material like plastic. But when it comes to high grade,
frequently used but indispensable items like hammers and other construction tools,
these tools are made of materials that have high tensile strength. Hence, the first
relation, i.e. nature of the product, is a subjective one, and can be explained in the
following way:-

Material used
Nature of the
Product Frequency of Use
(Independent)
Durability
The second relation of our discussion is the salary of the individuals, the salary,
whether high or low, will determine how individuals buy products, and what
products they give priority to.

Salary High or Low

Probability
(Independent) (dependent)

The third relation within our theoretical framework is whether or not the internet is
available in the regions where the individuals operate or not. Like we previously
discussed in the literature review of this article, the internet, due to modernization
and technological influence has altered consumer buying behavior and hence now,
become a key player in governing how individuals purchase products. The
availability of the internet is independent.

Availability of Purchase decisions

the internet of online products
(Independent) (variable)
The fourth relationship is whether or not the consumer or individual is even aware
of the product. Many times, the consumer has the capability of buying the product
and is hence known as a “potential buyer”, yet, he/she is unaware of the products
existence and/or does not require the adequate knowledge about it. This variable is
independent and governs whether or not the individual will either ignore its
existence, or buy the product and/or invest knowledge into it. This variable is
objective.

Awareness of Ignore its existence

the product
(Independent) Invest into further
details
The last variable within our theoretical framework is the Ease of Access, which is
again an objective measurement, and governs to what extent a consumer will go to
purchase a product.

Purchase of
Ease of
Product easily
Access
(Independent) Purchase of
Product difficult

Hypotheses
The following assignment discusses the various constructs and dimensions, along
with the elements within those dimensions, on the topic of “Factors affecting
consumer buying behavior”.
Nature of the Product
The first construct which was discussed, is the Nature of the Product. Was it of
good quality? How often was it used? Whether or not it has long lasting durability
and such.
Salary
The salary of the mass population affects greatly how people purchase items,
ranging from basic, household and common living items, to luxury items as well.
How much an individual earns is directly recorded for this measurement.

Availability of the Internet

Since our report also discussed the effects of the internet on buying behavior, the
availability of the internet is also a variable in our discussion. This is also an
objective variable, and can easily be measured by either a survey, or by using
broad band communication services data.
Awareness
If a person doesn’t know about the product, they will never even think of buying it.
General awareness is important because people only buy items of which they have
a certain amount of knowledge. To measure what extent people know about the
product, general surveys, television viewership, and internet surveys can be used.

Ease of Access
Irrespective of how good a product is, if it is not available to the people, it will not
be bought. This is yet again, another objective variable, and can be measured by
questioning retail stores of the availability, and also surveying government data.

Methodology
The following segment of our research aims to adequately collect the required data.
“A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of
data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with
economy in procedure” (Bonds-Raacke and Raacke, 2012) .
The following questionnaire (provided on the next page) will provide constructive
feedback along with calculable data to us, about the various hypotheses covered in
the previous heading. The questionnaire shall be distributed across various marked
regions of the city of Lahore, varying in both economic and socio-cultural patterns,
a sample of 100 individuals shall be selected per region, and answers shall be
averaged out from them.
 Questionnaire
Name: ------------------------ Gender: ---------------------------

Mark according to your choice. Try not to be neutral.

Variables Can't say Strongly Disagree Agree Strongly
disagree agree
I. Does the nature of
the product determine
its importance?

II. Does the material

matter more than the
function of the
product?

III. Would you buy the

same products if your
salary doubled?

IV. Do people with

outcome based pay
consume less
products?

V. Is the internet
available in your area
(disagree/agee)
 VI. Do you ever try
products you do not
have any knowledge
of?

VII. Do you ever inquire

detailed information
about the products
you buy?

VIII. Are items available

within your region?

IX. Would you go out of

your comfort zone to
get a product which
is rarely available?

References
Kevin B. Wright, Researching Internet-Based Populations: Advantages and
Disadvantages of Online Survey Research, Online Questionnaire Authoring
Software Packages, and Web Survey Services, 17 July, 2017.
N Ramaya and Dr. SA Mohamed Ali, Factors Affecting Consumer Buying
Behaviour, 76 – 80.
Tanja Lautiainen, Factors affecting consumers’ buying decision in the selection
of a coffee brand, 2015.
Asst Prof. Dr. Yakup Durmaz and Busra Nur Durmaz, The Impact Of Social
Factors On Consumer Behaviour And Empirical Application In Turkey, February
14, 2014.
Jarvenpaa, S.L. and Todd, P.A. (1997), Consumer reactions to electronic
shopping on the World Wide Web, International Journal of Electronic Commerce,
Vol. 1.