Social media influencers and website design leading to e-commerce conversion for Common Room PH in the new normal

• Main Authors: Biscocho, Hans Gabriel L., Magno, Charles Patrick M., Santiago, Gavin Marcus B., Yu, Kaitlyn Angeli M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Electronic commerce—Philippines; Internet marketing—Philippines; Web sites—Philippines—Design; Internet personalities—Philippines; E-Commerce
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_dsi/72; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdb_dsi/article/1073/viewcontent/Social_Media_Influencers_and_Website_Design_Leading_to_E_Commerce2_Redacted.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

At the height of the pandemic, physical retail stores, especially non-essential goods, were forced to close. Non-essential businesses in the pandemic, such as Common Room PH, turned to e-commerce to continue selling their products despite the community quarantine restrictions. As the whole world delves into a new normal after the COVID-19 pandemic, physical retail stores are starting to open and operate again. This study aims to determine how to retain or increase the likelihood of customers purchasing from the online store of Common Room PH, even with their brick-and-mortar stores already fully operating. The researchers used the quota sampling method to select 150 participants for the study who were shoppers of Common Room PH’s online store that reside in Metro Manila and the Greater Manila Area, wherein they were asked to answer an online survey questionnaire covering the independent variables of the study, Social Media Influencers and Website Design, and the dependent variable of the study, E-Commerce Conversion. Pearson’s Correlation was used to determine whether the independent variables had a relationship with the dependent variable while single and multiple linear regression models were used to determine whether the independent variables had an effect to the dependent variable. The findings reveal that although both the independent variables have significant positive relationships and an effect to the dependent variable, Website Design was found to have a high degree positive relationship and effect with E-Commerce Conversion. One of the researchers’ recommendations is that Common Room PH should consider hiring Social Media Influencers that are known for their informative and entertaining values and should also be focused on arts and crafts, as this is the store's main specialty of products. The researchers also recommend that Common Room PH should enhance their website usability and system quality through improving their online customer support and website response time.