Changing Structure of Consumer Buying Behaviour and Expectation in the Digital Era

The growing digital landscape has made a fundamental impact on consumer behaviour. The digital era has totally transformed the buyers and shifted them from the traditional approach to the digital technologies. Today’s digitally literate consumers have grown out of the TV advertisement experience to a wide range of digital marketing communications on their smartphone, tabs and laptops and on various social media. Marketers are geared up to identify, reach and engage these latest species of consumers who are agile and active in this new digital ecosystem having multiple devices and multiple channels. This new digital savvy customers give the marketers biggest challenges and rewards over their traditional counterparts. Today customers have some indispensable hopes and demands while they are shopping. The customers expect their needs of products and services should be met at their own time and at their own place, and at reasonable price. Digital era has empowered today’s customers by providing them with easy and quick access to voluminous information, compare and contrast between brands and their offerings, facility to purchase the brand offerings from diverse devices and gadgets and also giving them the opportunity to dispense their post-purchase knowledge and experiences. Customer shopping habits have evolved with technology, and companies continue to adapt to maintain relevance. This study examines the consumer behaviour during the digital era. This paper also attempts to understand consumer sentiments and new buying behaviours in this digital era.