Impact of Social Media in Coffee Retail Business

Abstract

Retail coffee business has been growing fast in the Middle East countries particularly during the last decade. High penetration rates of mobile communication devices such as smart phones and high usage of Social Media make the coffee retails in the region with Fee WIFI access, very attractive off-line and on-line social venues. The growth of internet in Arab countries is continuous and offers many e-commerce opportunities for retail businesses to penetrate, grow and achieve loyalty. This article aims to test how coffee retail businesses can optimize social media usage in order to increase their customer base, reach higher level of customer satisfaction and hence increase rate of customer loyalty in the long run. The literature review focuses on social media engagement and use of businesses, small businesses and retailers in the world and in the middle-east, coffee shop industry and coffee shop service expectations of customers. The primary data collection is targeted to test the constructs identified in the secondary data for coffee retail business as well as social media engagement of subjects who frequent coffee shops. Proposed conceptual model suggests that social media engagement of coffee shops customers through retailers’ social media and internet presence will lead to higher satisfaction about the shop and consequently transform them into loyal customers. Therefore, finally the model suggests that coffee shops should continuously seek to optimize their social media enabled marketing activities in order to achieve their business objectives. Keywords: