A Study on the Influence of Internet and Social Media on Female Consumer Buying Patterns in Jharkhand

The spread of internet access and social media has reshaped consumer behavior worldwide. In India, rising smartphone penetration and platform-specific social commerce have created new pathways for product discovery, peer recommendation, and purchase. This paper proposes and frames an empirical study examining how the internet and social media influence female consumer buying patterns in Jharkhand, a state characterized by urban–rural heterogeneity and sizeable tribal populations. Building on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and literature on social commerce, the study employs a mixed-methods design: a stratified quantitative survey of 600 women (urban, semiurban, rural/tribal) and 30 in-depth qualitative interviews with female consumers and local sellers. Primary outcomes include platform-specific influence (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube), product-category differences, the mediating role of trust and digital literacy, and moderating effects of age, education, income, and urbanicity. The paper lays out hypotheses, instruments, and an analysis plan including logistic regression, mediation/moderation analysis, and thematic qualitative synthesis. Expected findings (theoretical) indicate WhatsApp’s outsized role for FMCG/local purchases, Instagram/YouTube’s role for aspirational/fashion purchases, and strong moderation by education and decision autonomy. Thus, the impact of the Internet as a socialization agent has been less examined in academic literature. Apart from this there are a number of works that are done on children socialization but few works have been done on Jharkhand’s Female Customer, studies are still lacking multidimensional factors effecting socialization of children. The study contributes context-specific evidence to social-commerce literature and informs policymakers and marketers aiming to empower female consumers in Jharkhand.