A study of social media’s effectiveness influencing consumer behavior in China: Generation Y’s purchasing behavior on cosmetic goods

Social media is playing important to affect consumer behavior. People can share their knowledge, opinions, and experiences with one other due to the social media provided features, and it may impact on people’s behavior in terms of communication and purchasing. Cosmetic industry has developed rapidly in China. Chinese generation Y is a special consumer group for purchasing cosmetic goods. The purpose of this research is to study how does Chinese young consumers use social media to engage in the purchasing behavior for cosmetic products. Due to the research purpose, consumers’ subjective recognition for engagement with social media is the key of this study. Therefore, the research question is that how does social media affect Generation Y’s purchasing behavior on cosmetic goods in China. " The research’s main objective aims to investigate the relationship between consumer engagement with social media and young consumers’ purchasing activities on cosmetic goods in China. In order to achieve the research objective, the researcher need to understand the phenomenon regarding Chinese young consumers’ purchasing behavior. The qualitative research method is adopted in this study, and this research uses face to face interview method to collect primary data about Chinese young consumers’ engagement with social media. Fifteen participators was recruited for the qualitative interview. These people’s responses are be treated as fact to represent Chinese generation Y’s general reaction for proving the engagement level with social media on purchasing cosmetic goods. A theoretical framework based on previous study showed there is a gap regarding social media on consumers’ online information searching and purchasing decision behavior in the study of purchasing cosmetic goods. The analysis of this research has provided the discussion of the relationship between the empirical findings and the theoretical framework to achieve the research objectives. The analysis also aims to provide clear answers for the research question. Key words: Consumer behavior, social media marketing, Chinese Generation Y, information searching, cosmetics products and brands, customer engagement with social media