IMPACT OF DIGITAL MARKETING ON CONSUMER PURCHASE BEHAVIOR IN PAKISTAN'S RETAIL SECTOR

Abstract

This research explores the impact of digital marketing communication on the consumer behavior with reference to Pakistan’s current context in the retail industry. In the study, we assiduously collected data from 347 respondents in key urban areas to determine the correlation between proper digital marketing platforms and consumers’ purchase decision. Research disproves the hypothesis that there is no convincing evidence of social media marketing influencing the buying process; on the contrary, social media, influencer collaborations, and personalized emails do play a role in influencing the customers’decision-making process, and the findings differ from segment to segment based ontheircharacteristics. The survey highlighted that the mobile marketing seems to be more effective in influencing those who are below 34 years, while the concerns with website quality along with the search engine optimization erupted high positive correlation in all ages. The research shows a great migration of the consumer touchpoint from offline to online, as only 32%of the respondents get influenced by the offline advertising. Some of the implications of this study for the retail businesses as follows: Specific channel marketing and digital integration strategies for the successful marketing of products to increase the conversion rates in the context of Pakistan’s digitalization of retail stores.

Keywords:Digital marketing, consumer behavior, retail sector, Pakistan, purchase decisions, social mediamarketing, e-commerce, quantitative analysis