DIGITAL MARKETING PRACTICES AND ONLINE SHOPPING BEHAVIOUR AMONG STUDENTS OF FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, AKURE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper examines how online marketing affects the online purchasing habits of students in the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), in Nigeria. The study will investigate how valuebased loyalty programmes, personalised marketing, and security issues influence the decisionmaking process of the student when purchasing products. A stratified random sampling method was utilised to sample 378 students and their data were analysed in terms of descriptive as well as inferential statistics including multiple regression. The results showed that value-based and loyalty programmes with personalization and constant involvement had a strong impact on repeat purchases. Discounts, temporary promotion and incentive schemes (i.e. cashback or points) encouraged 88 out of 100 students to repurchase again (RII = 0.864). This loyalty was also achieved through personalization (product recommendation) techniques and personalised emails (RII = 0.857). Security issues, mostly in respect to legitimacy of e-commerce sites, were cited as a blocker to first-time users, but an encouragement to repeat users. Interestingly, 84 percent of the students did not want to visit insecure sites (SI = 0.871), risk-conscious students had a greater tendency to visit sites with strong trust cues (0.373, p < 0.001). This dual aspect of risk which vetoes loyalty and catalyzes it, means that e-commerce sites should leverage security capabilities as a competitive advantage. This research gives a recommendation that e-commerce online platforms serving university students should improve their customer experiences by providing clear refund policies, high security, tailor-made promotions, and personalised rewards systems to attract long-term loyalty and interest of technology-hyped students.