The use of social media in the furniture industry

Abstract

The digital world is a rapidly changing environment that is facing new dynamics, everyday. For instance, various marketing practitioners are increasingly using social media to reach wider audiences. In this light, this study made use of reliable measures from Azjen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and has adapted Johnson, Bruner and Kumar’s (2006) Website Interactivity construct to examine the consumers’ perceptions and attitudes toward the local furniture businesses’ usage of the digital media. The data was collected through a survey questionnaire which was distributed online via a popular Facebook group. It was also shared with friends and family. A total of 152 respondents have participated in this study. The findings suggest that the customers considered the social media ads from furniture companies to be valuable for them, as they turned to online forums and/or to their peers for opinions prior to making a purchase. The results revealed that the website interactivity affected their brand perception and purchase intention. Moreover, the participants indicated that they were more likely to purchase offline as they preferred to touch and feel the furniture prior to making their final decision. Furthermore, the researcher reported positive and significant relationships between the constructs of this study, including; attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, behavioural intention, website interactivity and purchase intention. In conclusion, the researcher has put forward the implications of her study to the marketing practitioners. She identified the research limitations and has presented some recommendations for future research.