INFLUENCE OF E-MARKETING ON PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTION AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF RETAIL FIRMS IN LAGOS NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the perceived influence of social media marketing on product distribution and customer satisfaction of retail firms. The study employed the descriptive survey design. Three research questions guided the study and three hypotheses were tested using the independent t- test at 0.5 level of significance. The population of the study was 480 retail firms’ customers, 10 experienced and 10 less experienced retail firms’ managers. Purposive sampling technique was used to draw10 key informants who were used as initial samples. This was used because the researcher is aware of the fact that the initial samples have adequate knowledge of the subject matter. Using the chain referral and respondent driven mechanism, the key informants or referral will recommend other respondents who by their assessment are knowledgeable of the subject matter. This referral (snowball) sampling was used to generate additional 470 respondents bringing the final sample to 480 respondent (Customers) and 20 managers. The main instrument for data collection was a four point rating scale questionnaire with 28 items. The data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and determine the homogeneity or otherwise of the respondents while the independent t-test was used to test the hypotheses. The findings revealed that social media marketing influenced retails firms’ product distribution and also their customers’ satisfaction. It was concluded that the use of social media facilities will increase retail firms’ brand awareness. Based on the findings and conclusion of the study, it was recommended among others that Retails firms should ensure they build a good customer relationship with their customers by answering questions and responding to customer concerns on their websites. They should also provide good quality products /services to satisfy their customers.  

Key words: Technology, Social media, Product distribution, Profitability, Customer satisfaction