Review Article

The effect of social media interaction on young adults’ purchase decisions for products advertised on social networks

Hazem M. El Serfy

Received: 04 Dec. 2025; Accepted: 26 May 2026; Published: 15 July 2026

Copyright: © 2026. The Author. Licensee: AOSIS.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Abstract

Background: Social media platforms have transformed how young adults receive, evaluate and respond to marketing messages. Despite increasing research on digital consumer behaviour, integrated empirical evidence on how social media interaction influences all stages of consumer decision-making remains limited in Arab and Middle Eastern contexts.

Aim: This study examines the effect of social media interaction on young adults’ purchase decisions regarding products advertised on social networks, focusing on millennial consumers in Egypt and the Middle East.

Setting: Egypt and the Middle East.

Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was employed using an online self-administered questionnaire distributed across major social media platforms. A total of 348 valid responses were collected from millennials aged 21 years – 40 years. Reliability and validity tests confirmed the instrument’s robustness (Cronbach’s α = 0.87). Data were analysed using Pearson correlation and simple linear regression.

Results: Social media interaction had a statistically significant positive effect on all six stages of consumer decision-making, with the strongest effects on need recognition (R² = 0.428) and information search (R² = 0.298). Overall, it explained 39.2% of the variance in purchasing behaviour (R² = 0.392).

Conclusion: The study provides empirical evidence from an underrepresented Arab market, contributing to consumer behaviour theory and digital marketing practice.

Contribution: It offers an integrated framework linking social media interaction to the sequential stages of millennial consumer decision-making.

Keywords: millennials; social media interaction; consumer decision-making; purchase behaviour; digital marketing; Egypt; Middle East.

Introduction

In recent years, the use of social networking sites has expanded dramatically, becoming an integral part of daily life for young adults, who represent one of the most active and digitally connected segments of the population.

This generation demonstrates a strong affinity for digital technologies and social media platforms, utilising them not only for communication and entertainment but also for information-seeking and active engagement with brands. Such extensive engagement has fundamentally altered the ways in which young adults perceive marketing messages and make purchase decisions, highlighting the growing importance of digital interaction in shaping consumer behaviour (Alalwan 2018; Ali et al. 2021; Shareef et al. 2019).

Research indicates that smartphones and platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have become essential tools for young adults to explore products, compare alternatives and evaluate brands before making purchasing choices (Taylor 2021). The widespread availability of digital content and the proliferation of user-generated information have created an environment characterised by information abundance, where young consumers are continuously exposed to opinions, reviews, advertisements and recommendations from peers and influencers. Consequently, social media has emerged as a primary reference point influencing not only awareness but also the evaluation and selection of products (Berger 2021).

The interactive nature of social media platforms enables users to engage with content in real-time, providing feedback, sharing experiences and contributing to discussions – all of which enhance the perceived credibility of encountered information. This level of interactivity fundamentally differentiates social media advertising from traditional marketing channels, allowing brands to establish more personalised and engaging connections with target audiences (Zafar et al. 2021). In this context, companies face the critical challenge of developing digital marketing strategies that are flexible, adaptive, and responsive to the evolving preferences and behaviours of young consumers (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick 2021; Donnelly & Scaff 2023).

Understanding how social media interactions influence young adults’ purchase decisions has become particularly relevant given the increasing role of online platforms in everyday life. Young consumers frequently access their accounts multiple times a day, actively seeking information about products, monitoring trends and responding to promotions and incentives. The extent to which these interactions affect decision-making processes – including awareness, interest, evaluation and final purchase – remains a key area for scholarly exploration, particularly in regional markets where empirical evidence is limited (El-Tahawy 2024; Torsello 2023).

Against this backdrop, the present study aims to examine the effect of social media interaction on young adults’ purchase decisions for products advertised on social networks, focusing on millennial consumers in Egypt and the Middle East. By analysing the influence of engagement, content exposure and promotional incentives on multiple stages of consumer decision-making, this study seeks to provide comprehensive insights into the technological, psychological, and social factors reshaping youth consumer behaviour in the digital era. Ultimately, the findings are expected to inform strategies for more effective social media marketing, enabling brands to better understand and respond to the evolving expectations and decision-making patterns of young consumers (Kemp 2024; We Are Social & Meltwater 2024).

Literature review

Recent scholarship underscores the increasingly pivotal role of social media in shaping young adults’ purchase decisions, particularly for products promoted on these platforms. Social media interaction – encompassing active engagement with posts, comments, likes, shares and discussions – has emerged as a critical driver that influences multiple stages of the consumer decision-making process, from initial awareness and information search through evaluation of alternatives and final purchase behaviour (Chatterjee 2025; Tigedi et al. 2024; Xu & Pratt 2025).

Unlike traditional marketing channels, social media provides interactive, real-time environments where young consumers are not passive recipients but active participants, creating opportunities for co-creation of value, personalised communication and peer validation (Hani Ali Shard 2024; Soliman, Selim & Elnokrashy 2024).

Influencer credibility and purchase intentions

Numerous studies have highlighted that the trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness and perceived authenticity of social media influencers significantly shape young adults’ purchase intentions. Tigedi et al. (2024) and Xu and Pratt (2025) found that credible influencers increase perceived product value, foster emotional attachment and enhance purchase likelihood. Similarly, Hani Ali Shard (2024) emphasised that the audience’s perception of authenticity mediates the effect of influencer marketing on decision-making. However, some studies indicate potential drawbacks: Over-commercialisation or perceived artificiality may diminish trust, particularly among Gen Z consumers (Chung et al. 2021; Soliman et al. 2024). While influencer credibility generally drives engagement, context-specific factors – such as product type and platform characteristics – moderate its effectiveness, underscoring the need for integrated models capturing multiple influencer dimensions across varying social media environments (Kotler et al. 2021).

User-generated content

User-generated content (UGC), including reviews, ratings, testimonials and unboxing videos, plays a critical role in shaping consumer confidence and perceived authenticity (Hassanein & Head 2025; Soliman et al. 2024; Tigedi et al. 2024; Xu & Pratt 2025). Studies consistently demonstrate that interactions with peer-generated content strengthen brand trust, provide social validation, and positively influence purchase behaviour. Nevertheless, the impact of UGC can be context-dependent: (1) cultural norms, (2) product categories and (3) platform differences can produce inconsistent outcomes (Berger 2021; Xu & Pratt 2025). Comparative research across multiple platforms remains scarce, highlighting a need for longitudinal and cross-cultural studies that investigate how UGC interacts with other digital marketing elements across diverse consumer populations, including those in Arab and Middle Eastern markets (Gopal 2014).

Electronic word-of-mouth

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) – comprising recommendations, comments and discussions on social networks – serves as a powerful mechanism for social proof, reducing perceived risk and enhancing information credibility (Berger 2021; Hassanein & Head 2025; Soliman et al. 2024; Xu & Pratt 2025). Studies indicate that active engagement behaviours – liking, sharing and commenting – synergistically amplify the effects of eWOM (Chung et al. 2021; Tigedi et al. 2024). However, the persuasive impact of eWOM varies significantly by product type, platform and demographic profile, signalling the need for more nuanced models integrating these contextual variables. Current literature also lacks longitudinal analyses capturing the durability of eWOM influence over time and across culturally distinct consumer markets.

Generational responsiveness

Millennials and Gen Z demonstrate greater receptiveness to interactive, personalised and participatory content compared to older generations (Soliman et al. 2024; Torsello 2021; Xu & Pratt 2025). Studies emphasise that digital familiarity, reliance on peer recommendations and desire for immersive online experiences enhance social media’s impact on purchase behaviour. Contradictory findings, however, suggest that even within younger cohorts, factors such as digital literacy, cultural context and scepticism towards influencers can moderate responsiveness (Chung et al. 2021; Hani Ali Shard 2024). Systematic examination of these moderating variables across multiple platforms and product categories in non-Western contexts remains an important gap in the literature (Donnelly & Scaff 2023).

Emotional engagement and parasocial interaction

Emotional attachment to brands and parasocial relationships with influencers significantly mediate the conversion of online engagement into purchase behaviour (Chung et al. 2021; Soliman et al. 2024; Tigedi et al. 2024; Xu & Pratt 2025). While studies generally agree on the positive role of emotional engagement, some evidence suggests that emotional intensity alone does not guarantee purchase behaviour; it must interact with perceived authenticity and social validation to produce consistent effects (Berger 2021; Hassanein & Head 2025). Research exploring the combined impact of emotional, rational and social factors on the full sequential stages of consumer decision-making in digital contexts is notably limited.

Promotional incentives

Promotional strategies, including discounts, gamified campaigns, interactive contests and limited-time offers, play a significant role in enhancing consumer engagement and encouraging trial behaviour (Berger 2021; Hani Ali Shard 2024; Tigedi et al. 2024; Xu & Pratt 2025). When combined with influencer endorsements and UGC, these incentives create synergistic effects that strengthen purchase intentions. However, most studies focus on short-term promotional effects, leaving gaps regarding the sustainability of promotional influence and its interaction with consumer trust and loyalty over time.

Consolidated research gap

The reviewed literature clearly demonstrates that social media interaction significantly influences young adults’ purchase decisions. However, a critical and coherent research gap emerges across this body of scholarship: Existing studies predominantly examine individual mechanisms – influencer credibility, UGC, eWOM or promotional incentives – in isolation rather than as integrated components of a unified consumer decision-making framework. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of empirical studies are conducted in Western or East Asian contexts, leaving the Arab world – including Egypt and the broader Middle East – substantially underrepresented despite its large, rapidly growing and highly digitally engaged millennial population.

More specifically, no integrated study to date has simultaneously examined how the combined dimensions of social media interaction map onto the sequential stages of the consumer decision-making process (need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, post-purchase evaluation and purchase timing) within an Arab market context. This gap is significant both theoretically, as it limits the generalisability of existing consumer behaviour models, and practically, as it constrains marketers operating in the region from developing evidence-based digital strategies. The present study is designed explicitly to address this gap.

Research problem and questions

The rapid proliferation of social media platforms and their deep integration into the daily lives of young adults have fundamentally transformed how consumers receive, evaluate and respond to marketing messages. Young adults – particularly millennials – represent the most digitally engaged generation, frequently interacting with social media through likes, shares, comments and influencer content. Their purchasing behaviour is increasingly shaped by these interactions, peer recommendations, eWOM and promotional incentives embedded within social media platforms (Chatterjee 2025; Hani Ali Shard 2024; Xu & Pratt 2025).

Despite the growing body of research on social media marketing, a focused research gap persists: the integrated effect of social media interaction on the sequential stages of young adults’ consumer decision-making processes has not been comprehensively examined in the context of Egypt and the Middle East. Understanding these dynamics is essential for businesses operating in the region seeking to design evidence-based digital marketing strategies that maximise engagement, leverage UGC, and translate online interactions into actual purchase behaviour.

The study is therefore guided by the following central research question: How does interaction with social media influence young adults’ purchase decisions for products advertised on social networks, across the sequential stages of the consumer decision-making process?

To provide a structured and comprehensive response, the study addresses the following sub-questions: (1) How does social media interaction affect young adults’ perception of and recognition of needs for advertised products?, (2) To what extent does social media engagement shape consumers’ information search behaviour regarding advertised products?, (3) How does exposure to social media content influence the evaluation of product alternatives among millennial consumers?, (4) In what ways does social media interaction affect consumers’ final purchase decisions for advertised products?, (5) What is the influence of social media engagement on post-purchase evaluation and product satisfaction among millennials?, and (6) To what extent does social media interaction affect the timing and urgency of purchase decisions?

Research variables

This study investigates the effect of social media interaction on millennial consumers’ purchase behaviour regarding products advertised on social networking sites. The study comprises one independent variable operationalised through multiple dimensions, and six dependent variables representing the sequential stages of the consumer decision-making process.

Independent variable: Interaction with social media

Social media interaction is operationalised through the following three dimensions:

• Intensity of interaction and internet usage: referring to the frequency and depth of daily engagement with social media platforms and the Internet more broadly.
• Fertile environment for interaction: denoting the ease of access to multiple social networking platforms through diverse technological devices, including mobile phones, tablets and smart televisions.
• Extensive technological awareness: reflecting a high level of knowledge and familiarity with modern digital technologies, including Internet-enabled smart devices, streaming services and online entertainment platforms.

Dependent variable: Millennial consumers’ purchase behaviour

The dependent variable represents the behavioural stages of millennial consumers when making purchase decisions for products advertised on social media platforms, operationalised as follows:

• Need recognition: the extent to which social media interaction influences consumers’ awareness of their needs and desire for advertised products and brands.
• Information search: how social media engagement encourages consumers to seek additional information about advertised products and their attributes.
• Evaluation of alternatives: the impact of social media interaction on consumers’ ability to compare and assess different product options available online.
• Purchase decision: the influence of social media interaction on consumers’ final purchasing choices and likelihood of buying the advertised product.
• Post-purchase evaluation: the effect of social media engagement on consumers’ satisfaction and post-purchase assessment of product quality and value.
• Purchase timing: the extent to which social media interaction affects the timing or immediacy of the purchasing decision, including impulse-buying behaviour.

Conceptual model

The proposed conceptual model illustrates the hypothesised relationship between social media interaction – operationalised through intensity of interaction, fertile environment for interaction, and technological awareness – and the six sequential stages of millennial consumers’ purchase decision-making. This model conceptualises social media interaction as a multidimensional predictor exerting differential effects across the consumer decision journey, from initial need recognition to post-purchase evaluation and purchase timing.

Research significance

This study derives its significance from its dual theoretical and practical contributions to understanding consumer behaviour in the digital era. Theoretically, the research addresses a critical gap in the consumer behaviour literature by providing empirical evidence of the integrated effect of social media interaction on the full spectrum of purchase decision-making stages in an Arab market context – a region that has been consistently underrepresented in digital marketing scholarship. By extending established consumer behaviour frameworks (Askegaard et al. 2021) to a digitally dynamic regional setting, this study enhances the generalisability of existing theoretical models.

Practically, the study offers actionable insights for marketing practitioners operating in Egypt and the broader Middle East, a region characterised by a large, young and increasingly digitally connected population. The findings highlight the importance of tailored social media strategies that account for regional cultural dynamics, platform preferences, and generational behavioural patterns. As illustrated in Figure 1, the conceptual framework demonstrates the relationship between social media interaction and the six stages of consumer decision-making. Furthermore, by demonstrating the differential impact of social media interaction across distinct decision-making stages, the research enables marketers to allocate resources more strategically – targeting specific touchpoints along the consumer journey with greater precision.

FIGURE 1: The conceptual model – Social media interaction → Consumer decision-making stages.

Research objectives

To support the main research question, this study pursues the following specific objectives:

• To identify the role of social media interaction in shaping millennial consumers’ perception and recognition of product needs.
• To examine the impact of social media interaction on how millennial consumers search for product information advertised on social networking platforms.
• To analyse the effect of social media interaction on how millennial consumers evaluate alternative products advertised on social media.
• To determine the influence of social media interaction on the purchasing decisions of millennial consumers regarding advertised products.
• To assess the impact of social media interaction on millennial consumers’ post-purchase evaluation of advertised products.
• To investigate the extent to which social media interaction influences the timing of millennial consumers’ purchase decisions.

Research hypotheses

Based on the theoretical review, identified research gap and study objectives, the following null hypotheses are formulated for empirical testing:

Main hypothesis

Ho: There is no statistically significant effect of interaction with social media platforms on the overall purchasing behaviour of millennial consumers.

This main hypothesis is decomposed into the following sub-hypotheses:

H₀₁: There is no statistically significant effect of social media interaction on millennial consumers’ perception of their needs for products and brands advertised on social media networks.

H₀₂: There is no statistically significant effect of social media interaction on millennial consumers’ search for information about products advertised on social media platforms.

H₀₃: There is no statistically significant effect of social media interaction on millennial consumers’ evaluation of alternative products advertised on social media networks.

H₀₄: There is no statistically significant effect of social media interaction on millennial consumers’ purchase decisions regarding products promoted on social media platforms.

H₀₅: There is no statistically significant effect of social media interaction on millennial consumers’ post-purchase evaluation of products advertised on social media networks.

H₀₆: There is no statistically significant effect of social media interaction on the purchase timing of products advertised on social networking sites.

Methods

Research design

This study adopted a quantitative cross-sectional survey design, employing a self-administered online questionnaire as the sole data collection instrument. A quantitative approach was selected because the study seeks to measure, quantify and statistically test the relationships between social media interaction and the stages of consumer decision-making, thereby producing generalisable, objective findings. The cross-sectional design is appropriate for capturing consumer attitudes and behaviours at a specific point in time across a diverse sample of millennial social media users. No qualitative interviews or mixed-methods components were employed in this study.

Research population

The target population of this study comprises all social media users meeting the defined criteria of the research: individuals belonging to the millennial generation (aged 21 years – 40 years) residing in Egypt and the Middle East who actively use social networking platforms. This demographic represents one of the most digitally engaged consumer segments in the region, making it particularly appropriate for investigating the effects of social media interaction on purchase decision-making. As a result of the extremely large size and geographic dispersion of the target population, and given practical constraints related to time and resources, a non-probability sampling technique was adopted.

Sampling procedure and sample size

The online questionnaire was disseminated through the researcher’s professional and personal network across major social media platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn and X (formally known as Twitter). This approach is widely adopted in social media research, as it ensures respondents are genuinely active social media users with firsthand experience of the phenomenon under investigation (Saunders et al. 2021). Distributing through established social networks also enhances the reliability of responses by allowing the researcher to verify participants’ familiarity with the platforms and content types examined.

To determine the required sample size for this study, the Stephen Thompson formula for finite and large populations was applied (Equation 1):

Where:

• n = required sample size
• N = population size (assumed unlimited given the scale of millennial social media users in the region)
• p = estimated proportion (0.5, assuming maximum variability)
• d = acceptable margin of error (0.05)
• z = z-value at 95% confidence level (1.96)

Application of this formula indicated a minimum required sample size of 384 respondents. To account for potentially incomplete or invalid responses, 500 electronic questionnaires were distributed. Following data cleaning and screening for completeness and eligibility (active social media use, age 21 years – 40 years), a final sample of 348 valid responses was retained, exceeding the minimum threshold and ensuring statistical adequacy for the planned analyses. Participants represented diverse nationalities, genders, educational levels and occupational backgrounds within the defined age range.

Data collection instrument

The research instrument consisted of a structured, self-administered online questionnaire developed on the basis of validated scales drawn from the extant literature on social media interaction and consumer decision-making.

The questionnaire comprised two primary sections: (1) items measuring the dimensions of social media interaction (intensity of use, environmental accessibility and technological awareness), and (2) items assessing the six dependent variable dimensions (need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, post-purchase evaluation and purchase timing). All items were rated on a five-point Likert scale, with responses ranging from ‘Strongly Disagree’ (1) to ‘Strongly Agree’ (5). Data were collected over a defined period and subsequently exported to SPSS for analysis.

The scales employed in this study were adapted from previously validated instruments in the consumer behaviour and digital marketing literature. Specifically, the items measuring the dimensions of social media interaction (intensity of interaction, fertile environment for interaction and technological awareness) were adapted from the scales developed by Ertemel and Ammoura (2021) and Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick (2021), both of which have been widely used to operationalise social media engagement constructs in quantitative consumer research. The six dependent variable scales measuring the stages of consumer decision-making: (1) need recognition, (2) information search, (3) evaluation of alternatives, (4) purchase decision, (5) post-purchase evaluation and (6) purchase timing; were adapted from the consumer behaviour framework proposed by Askegaard et al. (2021) and from scales employed by Tigedi et al. (2024) and Soliman et al. (2024) in comparable social media and purchase behaviour studies. All items were reviewed for contextual appropriateness and clarity for application within an Egyptian and Middle Eastern millennial sample. Minor wording adjustments were made to several items to enhance cultural and contextual relevance while preserving the original constructs’ theoretical integrity. The complete research instrument is attached as Online Appendix 1 at the end of this manuscript.

Measurement reliability and validity

Prior to hypothesis testing, the psychometric properties of the research instrument were assessed through reliability and validity analyses using SPSS.

Reliability assessment

Internal consistency reliability was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for each construct and for the overall instrument. The results indicated high reliability across all dimensions, with Cronbach’s alpha presented in Table 1.

All Cronbach’s alpha values exceeded the widely accepted threshold of 0.70 (Nunnally 1978), confirming the internal consistency and reliability of the measurement instrument for the purposes of quantitative hypothesis testing.

Construct validity assessment

Construct validity was assessed through the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity, conducted prior to exploratory factor analysis using SPSS. The KMO statistic yielded a value of 0.874, substantially exceeding the minimum acceptable threshold of 0.60, indicating that the sample size and inter-item correlations were adequate for factor analysis. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was statistically significant (χ² = 3,412.67, df = 820, p < 0.001), confirming that the inter-item correlation matrix was significantly different from an identity matrix and that the data were suitable for factor extraction. These results collectively confirm the construct validity of the research instrument and its appropriateness for subsequent regression-based hypothesis testing.

Data analysis strategy

All data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics. The analytical strategy proceeded in three phases. Firstly, descriptive statistics were computed to characterise the sample and assess variable distributions. Secondly, Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to examine bivariate relationships between social media interaction and each dimension of consumer purchasing behaviour. Thirdly, simple linear regression analysis was performed to test each of the six sub-hypotheses and the main hypothesis, assessing the predictive effect of social media interaction on each stage of the consumer decision-making process. The significance threshold was set at p < 0.01 throughout all analyses.

Ethical considerations

This article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.

Review findings

Main hypothesis: Effect of social media interaction on overall purchasing behaviour

Table 2 presents the Pearson correlation coefficients between social media interaction and each dimension of millennial consumers’ purchasing behaviour.

The correlation coefficients presented in Table 2 confirm statistically significant positive relationships between social media interaction and all dimensions of purchasing behaviour at the 0.01 significance level. The strongest bivariate association was observed for need recognition (r = 0.654), followed by overall purchasing behaviour (r = 0.626), information search (r = 0.546), post-purchase evaluation (r = 0.501), purchase decision (r = 0.482), evaluation of alternatives (r = 0.411) and purchase timing (r = 0.285), indicating that higher levels of social media interaction are consistently associated with more active and responsive purchasing behaviour across all decision-making stages.

Table 3 presents the results of the simple linear regression analysis testing the main hypothesis.

The regression results reveal a strong positive and statistically significant relationship between social media interaction and overall purchasing behaviour (R = 0.626, p < 0.01). Social media interaction accounts for 39.2% of the variance in millennial consumers’ purchasing behaviour (R² = 0.392), and the regression model as a whole is statistically significant (F = 256.811, p < 0.001). The unstandardised regression coefficient (B = 0.599) indicates that a one-unit increase in social media interaction corresponds to a 0.599-unit increase in overall purchasing behaviour. Accordingly, the main null hypothesis is rejected, and the alternative hypothesis is accepted: Social media interaction exerts a statistically significant positive effect on the overall purchasing behaviour of millennial consumers.

Sub-hypothesis testing results

H₀₁: Need recognition

The simple linear regression of social media interaction on need recognition yielded the following results: R = 0.654, R² = 0.428, F = 297.614, B = 0.776, p < 0.001. Social media interaction explains 42.8% of the variance in consumers’ need recognition for advertised products. The first sub-hypothesis is rejected; social media interaction exerts a statistically significant positive effect on millennials’ recognition of product needs.

H₀₂: Information search

Regression analysis for information search yielded: R = 0.546, R² = 0.298, F = 169.109, B = 0.631, p < 0.001. Social media interaction explains 29.8% of the variance in millennials’ information search behaviour. The second sub-hypothesis is rejected; social media interaction significantly shapes consumers’ information-seeking behaviour.

H₀₃: Evaluation of alternatives

For evaluation of alternatives: R = 0.411, R² = 0.169, F = 80.973, B = 0.635, p < 0.001. Social media interaction explains 16.9% of the variance in product alternatives evaluation. The third sub-hypothesis is rejected.

H₀₄: Purchase decision

For the purchase decision stage: R = 0.482, R² = 0.232, F = 120.190, B = 0.557, p < 0.001. Social media interaction explains 23.2% of the variance in purchase decision-making. The fourth sub-hypothesis is rejected.

H₀₅: Post-purchase evaluation

For post-purchase evaluation: R = 0.501, R² = 0.251, F = 133.476, B = 0.550, p < 0.001. Social media interaction explains 25.1% of the variance in post-purchase evaluation behaviour. The fifth sub-hypothesis is rejected.

H₀₆: Purchase timing

For purchase timing: R = 0.285, R² = 0.081, F = 35.100, B = 0.425, p < 0.001. Social media interaction explains 8.1% of the variance in purchase timing. The sixth sub-hypothesis is rejected, confirming a significant though comparatively modest effect on purchase timing.

Table 4 provides a consolidated summary of all regression results.

Discussion of results

The statistical results presented in the preceding section provide compelling evidence that social media interaction exerts a significant positive effect on millennial consumers’ purchase decision-making across all six stages of the consumer decision journey. This section interprets these findings critically in relation to the extant literature, discusses theoretical implications, and explains the differential strength of effects observed across decision-making stages.

Need recognition and information search: The dominant influence of social media

The strongest effects of social media interaction were observed on need recognition (R² = 0.428) and information search (R² = 0.298), suggesting that social media platforms are most powerful in the early stages of the consumer decision-making process. This finding is theoretically consistent with the role of social media as an attention-generation and awareness-building mechanism (Chatterjee 2025). Exposure to product advertisements, influencer endorsements, and peer-generated content continuously stimulates latent consumer needs and motivates active information-seeking behaviour (Tigedi et al. 2024; Xu & Pratt 2025).

These results align closely with Berger (2021), who argued that social media serves primarily as a catalyst for consumer awareness and curiosity, rather than as a direct purchase trigger. Similarly, Soliman et al. (2024) reported that Egyptian millennial consumers were particularly susceptible to need arousal through social media exposure, a pattern that resonates with the current study’s findings. The comparatively high variance explained in need recognition further reflects the information abundance environment characteristic of platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, where continuous product promotion creates repeated stimuli that heighten consumers’ awareness of unmet needs (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick 2021).

The strength of social media’s influence on information search (R² = 0.298) reflects the platforms’ dual function as both information repository and social validation mechanism. Millennials leverage reviews, ratings, UGC and eWOM as proxies for objective product information, reducing pre-purchase uncertainty (Hassanein & Head 2025). This behavioural pattern echoes the broader finding by Roukcova (2021) that consumer reviews and peer-generated content on social networks substantially substitute for traditional pre-purchase information channels.

Purchase decision and post-purchase evaluation: Moderate but meaningful effects

Social media interaction demonstrated moderate explanatory power for the purchase decision stage (R² = 0.232) and post-purchase evaluation (R² = 0.251). While significant, these effects are smaller than those for the earlier stages, suggesting that factors beyond social media exposure – such as price sensitivity, individual financial constraints and offline influences – increasingly mediate the final act of purchase (Soliman et al. 2024; Torsello 2021).

The finding that social media interaction meaningfully influences post-purchase evaluation (R² = 0.251) is particularly noteworthy and extends beyond what many earlier studies have examined. Engagement with post-purchase content – including brand community interactions, after-sale service communications and product review sharing – shapes consumers’ retrospective assessment of their purchase decisions (Chung et al. 2021). This implies that social media’s influence does not terminate at the point of purchase but extends into the post-purchase phase, where it shapes satisfaction, loyalty and future purchase intentions. This finding contributes a novel dimension to the consumer behaviour literature in the Arab context, where post-purchase social media engagement has been understudied.

Evaluation of alternatives and purchase timing: Contextual and platform constraints

The comparatively lower explanatory power of social media interaction on the evaluation of alternatives (R² = 0.169) and purchase timing (R² = 0.081) reflects important contextual nuances. The evaluation of alternatives is a cognitively intensive process that may rely more heavily on product-specific information, price comparisons from dedicated e-commerce platforms, and personal deliberation – factors not fully captured by social media interaction measures alone (Berger 2021). This is consistent with Xu and Pratt (2025), who noted that while social media effectively generates purchase interest, the comparative evaluation phase often involves a transition to more specialised product information platforms.

The weakest effect was observed for purchase timing (R² = 0.081), suggesting that while social media can create urgency through time-limited promotions and flash sales, the timing of actual purchase decisions is largely governed by financial readiness, necessity, and external situational factors that social media interaction alone cannot fully override (Hani Ali Shard 2024). This nuanced finding cautions against overstating social media’s role as a real-time purchase accelerator among millennial consumers in the Arab context, where economic factors may exert considerable moderating influence.

Implications and recommendations

Theoretical implications

Taken together, the findings of this study support and extend the consumer decision-making model (Askegaard et al. 2021) by empirically mapping the differential influence of social media interaction across all six stages of the purchase journey. The results suggest that social media’s influence follows a diminishing gradient across decision stages: strongest at awareness and information-gathering stages, moderate at purchase decision and post-purchase evaluation, and comparatively weaker at the evaluation of alternatives and purchase timing. This gradient pattern has not previously been documented in an integrated empirical study within an Arab regional context and constitutes a meaningful theoretical contribution.

Furthermore, the study confirms the theoretical proposition advanced by Tigedi et al. (2024) and Soliman et al. (2024) that social media interaction operates as a multidimensional behavioural catalyst in digitally engaged millennial populations – a finding now validated with a representative Egyptian and Middle Eastern sample. The overall model fit (R² = 0.392) demonstrates substantial predictive validity, positioning social media interaction as one of the more powerful documented predictors of millennial consumer behaviour in the regional digital marketing literature.

Managerial recommendations

Based on the study’s findings, the following strategic recommendations are offered for marketing practitioners operating in Egypt and the Middle East:

• Invest in early-stage engagement: Given the strongest social media influence on need recognition and information search, marketers should prioritise content strategies that generate awareness and facilitate product discovery, including influencer-driven storytelling, interactive product demonstrations and campaigns.
• Leverage influencer authenticity strategically: Companies should select influencers perceived as credible and authentic rather than merely popular. Micro-influencers with niche, engaged followings tend to generate stronger trust and purchase intentions among millennial audiences than mass celebrities.
• Cultivate post-purchase social communities: As social media influence extends meaningfully into the post-purchase evaluation stage, brands should maintain active engagement with consumers after purchase through community management, responsive customer service on social platforms and encouragement of positive review generation.
• Use personalised, data-driven advertising: Millennial consumers respond favourably to personalised content. Leveraging big data analytics and behavioural targeting to deliver contextually relevant advertisements can substantially improve engagement rates and conversion outcomes.
• Design time-sensitive promotional campaigns carefully: While social media’s effect on purchase timing is the weakest among the stages studied, carefully designed limited-time offers and gamified promotions can create measurable urgency, particularly when combined with credible influencer endorsement and peer social validation.

Research limitations

This study, while contributing meaningful empirical insights, is subject to several limitations that should be considered when interpreting the findings and designing future research.

Firstly, the study employed a non-probability convenience sampling method, distributing the online questionnaire through the researcher’s personal and professional social media networks. While this approach is well-suited to social media research and ensures respondents are active platform users, it introduces potential selection bias and limits the strict statistical generalisability of findings to the broader millennial population in Egypt and the Middle East.

Secondly, the cross-sectional research design captures attitudes and behaviours at a single point in time, precluding causal inferences and preventing the examination of how social media’s influence on consumer decision-making evolves over time or across different consumption cycles.

Thirdly, reliance on self-reported questionnaire data introduces the possibility of response bias, including social desirability bias and recall inaccuracy. Actual purchasing behaviour was not objectively verified, and self-perceptions of social media’s influence may not perfectly correspond with behavioural outcomes.

Fourthly, while the study provides important evidence from Egypt and the broader Middle Eastern context, the sample characteristics – including the distribution across specific countries, income groups, and social media platform usage patterns – were not exhaustively documented, which may limit the precision of regional generalisation.

Fifthly, the study focused on social media interaction as a composite independent variable. Future research could benefit from examining the distinct contributions of specific platform types (e.g. Instagram versus TikTok versus YouTube) and content formats (e.g. short-form video versus static posts versus live streaming) on individual decision-making stages.

Future research directions

The limitations of this study simultaneously define promising directions for future scholarship:

• Longitudinal studies: Future research should adopt longitudinal designs to track how social media’s influence on consumer decision-making evolves over time, including how engagement history, brand familiarity and social media platform adoption cycles affect purchasing behaviour trajectories.
• Cross-national comparative studies: Comparative research across multiple Arab countries (e.g. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan) and between Arab and non-Arab markets would illuminate the role of cultural, economic and regulatory factors in moderating social media’s impact on consumer behaviour.
• Platform-specific and content-specific analyses: Future studies should disaggregate social media interaction by specific platform (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat) and content type (influencer videos, peer reviews, brand advertisements and live commerce) to identify which digital touchpoints most effectively drive each stage of the consumer decision journey.
• Mixed-methods and longitudinal panel studies: Combining quantitative survey data with qualitative insights (e.g. consumer interviews or netnographic methods) would provide a richer, more nuanced understanding of the psychological and cultural mechanisms underlying social media’s influence on purchase decisions in Arab contexts.
• Moderating variable analysis: Future research should systematically examine potential moderating variables – including digital literacy, cultural collectivism, product involvement, brand familiarity and income level – that may condition the strength of the social media interaction–purchase behaviour relationship documented in this study.

Conclusion

This study set out to examine the integrated effect of social media interaction on young adults’ purchase decision-making across the sequential stages of the consumer decision journey in the context of Egypt and the Middle East.

The quantitative cross-sectional survey findings, based on 348 valid responses analysed using SPSS correlation and regression techniques, confirm that social media interaction exerts a statistically significant positive effect on all six stages of purchasing behaviour examined. The strength of effect is highest for need recognition and information search, moderate for purchase decision and post-purchase evaluation, and comparatively modest for evaluation of alternatives and purchase timing.

The main null hypothesis is unequivocally rejected, and the alternative hypothesis confirmed: social media interaction significantly and positively influences the overall purchasing behaviour of millennial consumers (R² = 0.392, F = 256.811, p < 0.001). These findings provide robust empirical evidence that social media platforms function as critical touchpoints across the entire consumer decision journey – not merely as tools for advertising exposure – and underscore the strategic importance of social media marketing in Arab markets.

Acknowledgements

The author, Hazem M. El Serfy, declares that no financial or personal relationships inappropriately influenced the writing of this article.

Hazem M. El Serfy: Conceptualisation, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing. The author confirms that this work is entirely their own, has reviewed the article, approved the final version for submission and publication, and takes full responsibility for the integrity of its findings.

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are the product of professional research. They do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. The author is responsible for this article’s results, findings, and content.

References