Firms and Consumer Attitudes in the Digital Market: Analytical Hierarchy Process Approach

Introduction

As a result of the development of internet technologies, which is an important tool of the information age, the concept of new media has been brought to the agenda. Computer, internet and mobile technology threaten new media rooted business models and corporate strategies, which are defined as virtual media environments where users interact independently of time and space but can also offer broad opportunities to grow through new strategies (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010). Technological developments as well as all over the world also need business in Turkey has led to many changes both on behalf of consumers. It has become imperative for businesses to be on digital platforms to reach large audiences. Nowadays, competition in electronic commerce is very tough and brings with it difficulties and opportunities (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000). In this context, technological developments provide opportunities such as access to businesses, cost reduction and efficiency (Jhaveri and Nenavani, 2020), while the change in the consumer behavior can create difficulties for digital service providers. Determining the factors that positively affect digital consumer attitudes by considering the effects of technological developments is very important for businesses in the e-commerce sector to compete.

The network era, which emerged as a result of extensive technological changes in the late twentieth century, has significantly increased the spread of information, affecting consumers worldwide (Hill and Dhanda, 2014). The Global Digital 2019 report published by WeAreSocial, it is stated that active social media users are 3.48 Billion and active mobile social media users are 3.26 Billion. In Turkey, 52 million active users of social media, while 44 million active mobile social media users that are expressed (Wearesocial, 2019). Also, it is stated that approximately 4.57 billion people, covering 59% of the global population, are active internet users, while the number of active social media users has increased by more than 8% to reach 3.81 billion (Statista, 2020). The success of marketing management depends on the execution of the attitude towards the consumer and the strategic planning by the marketing philosophy. Businesses need to produce and implement strategies to meet the needs and expectations of consumers and act under consumer behavior (İslamoğlu and Altunışık, 2010). Due to technological developments, consumers can change their traditional purchasing methods (Wu et al., 2016) and meet their needs with the help of internet and digital technologies. It is stated that this situation requires the maintenance of customer relations on digital platforms. (Royle and Laing, 2014; Kumar et al., 2018). In this context, digital marketing has been defined as achieving marketing goals using digital technologies and media. For digital marketing to be successful, multi-channel marketing communications must be integrated as traditional and modern media such as search engines, social media, online advertising and television (Chaffey and Chadwick, 2016). By removing the geographical boundaries and providing opportunities to businesses and consumers worldwide, digital platforms are seen as an important tool for promoting and distributing products or services (Confos et al., 2016; Shaouf et al., 2016; Kumar et al., 2018).

As an important criterion affecting consumers' purchasing attitudes in digital platforms is the factor of trust (Jøsang et al., 2007; Singh et al., 2016) digital service providers should determine strategies to ensure or maintain consumer trust (Kumar et al., 2018). For online shopping, consumers visit relevant platforms, search for information and interact. In this process, customers are required to provide personal and payment information when they want to purchase products or services. For this reason, it is important to establish trust between the two parties in the case of purchasing products from an unknown seller because online shopping customers cannot interact directly with the sellers and cannot make face-to-face meetings (Koufaris and Hampton, 2004). Güven makes it easier for consumers to share their personal information and make purchases (Sharma and Lijuan, 2015). Taking into account the changing attitudes of digital consumers, improvements are needed to meet their expectations. Today, with the interactive and intensive use of technology, consumers' trust in e-commerce environments is said to be the driving factor of decision-making models (Wu et al., 2016). As in traditional marketing, the trust factor is an important factor that businesses should consider in digital marketing.