Recently, Internet use has accelerated due to the great popularity of the smartphone. As a result, companies have attempted to communicate with consumers through social networks and offer great bargains if a target number of followers are gathered, wh...
Recently, Internet use has accelerated due to the great popularity of the smartphone. As a result, companies have attempted to communicate with consumers through social networks and offer great bargains if a target number of followers are gathered, which in turn encourages the consumers to buy their product en mass.
This study is aimed to analyze consumers’ purchasing behavior and satisfaction with beauty social commerce and determine avenues for improvement. It is significant in that it prevents a negative view of beauty social commerce from spreading across the beauty industry and provides basic data from the perspective of marketing.
For this, a questionnaire survey was conducted with men and women from their late teens to their late 30s living in ‘Y’ City in Gyeonggi-do. A pilot test was performed with 50 adults from August 5 to 8, 2012. The main survey was performed from August 20 to September 15, 2012. Among a total of 350 questionnaires distributed, 291 copies were used for final analysis. For data analysis, SPSS v. 14.0 was used, and frequency analysis, regression analysis, factor analysis, independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA were conducted. A Scheffe’s post hoc test was also performed. The following results were obtained:
First, according to frequency analysis of research subjects’ general characteristics, women accounted for 80.1% in terms of gender. In terms of age and education, ’20-24’ and ‘college graduate’ accounted for 51.2% and 66.0%, respectively. In terms of occupation, students were the highest with 65.3%. When asked if they were aware of social commerce, 86.3% said ‘YES.’ When asked if they ever shopped through social commerce, 92.1% responded ‘YES.’ When asked how long they usually shop through their smartphone or the Internet, ‘1 hour or less’ was 41.2%.
Second, according to analysis of purchase behavior for beauty social commerce, 53.6% responded that they had visited a beauty social commerce site at least once while 46.4% said that they never used electronic commerce. In terms of gender, female was slightly higher with 58.4% (p<.001). In addition, when asked if they ever visited a beauty social commerce site, the group in which people were aware of social commerce (p<.001) was greater than the group in which people had shopped through their smartphone or PC (p<.01).
When asked if they ever bought beauty service products through social commerce, 67.9% said ‘YES.’ In fact, the figure was relatively high for the group aged 20 or older (p<.001), the group with college graduates or higher (p<.01) and the group in which people had shopped using their smartphone or PC (p<.001).
When examining what kind of beauty product was most popular, ‘cosmetology materials and tools’ were the highest with 40.5%. In terms of buying motives, 66.7% said ‘low price.’ When asked about the source of the information, 77.0% responded ‘search on the Internet.’ When asked what they considered first in selecting a store site, 41.7% said ‘discount rate.’
Third, regarding satisfaction with beauty social commerce, positive answers were relatively high in ‘convenient search and easy use,’ ‘satisfying beauty service products’ and ‘satisfied with the information provided by the beauty social commerce site’ in terms of satisfaction with the site and ‘able to get the services at low prices’ and ‘willing to recommend beauty social commerce products to others’ in terms of satisfaction with the product. On the contrary, negative responses were high in ‘willing to write a comment on the product,’ ‘lower quality service compared to the offline service’ and ‘properly compensated when dissatisfied with the service.’ In terms of gender, satisfaction was higher in female consumers (p<.05).
Fourth, regarding willingness to revisit a beauty social commerce site and intention to buy a product again, positive response was relatively high in ‘willing to repurchase beauty social commerce product’ while negative response was relatively high (12% each) in ‘willing to use the beauty social commerce product regularly’ and ‘willing to revisit the store site.’ In particular, the intention to revisit the beauty social commerce site was higher in the female group, the group with high educational background and the group with shopping experience through a smartphone or PC ((p<.05). In addition, willingness to repurchase the product was higher in the group with shopping experience through a smartphone or PC (p<.05).
Fifth, regarding an improvement plan for beauty social commerce, when asked why they do not visit a site (shop), ‘low credibility’ was the highest with 40.7%. When asked what they think should be improved for beauty social commerce gift certificates, ‘clear statements on use conditions and refund’ was the highest with 30.9%. When asked about the future of social commerce, 64.3% responded ‘it will continue developing.’ This study shows that social commerce has been established as a new shopping culture that should not be overlooked from the marketing perspective as well. To guide beauty social commerce in the right direction, therefore, it is necessary to manage systematic problems, earn customer trust and enhance quality of service.