An unexpected journey: The influence of social media on consumer decision-making

This chapter presents a contemporary view on consumer journeys in a social media world. It discusses the traditional funnel approach to purchasing, a contemporary approach for classifying the pre- and post-purchase decision stages of digitalized, engaged consumers, and the factors that steer consumer active and passive engagement towards marketer-generated (MGC) and user-generated (UGC) social media communication during decision-making. Purchase decisions are considered to result from a multi-stage decision process. The chapter adopts the widely acknowledged stages of awareness, information search, evaluation, purchase decision and post-purchase experience. It underlines and exemplifies the significant influence of social media on all stages of the consumer decision-making process. The chapter concludes that, given the increasing engagement of consumers and their desire to communicate with others about the brand, UGC has a dominant role during the whole process. This applies in particular during the post-purchase stage when consumers passively engage in UGC by reading others' comments for making consumption comparisons.