Social Media Marketing and Smartphone Buying Behaviour during Festive E-Commerce Sales: Evidence from College Students in Bengaluru

Festive e-commerce sales have become important occasions for smartphone discovery, comparison and purchase. Social media marketing can connect consumers with product information, influencer endorsements, reviews, discounts and time-limited offers, but these cues may not contribute equally to buying decisions. This study examines the relationships between five social-media-related promotional constructs-social media advertising, influencer promotions, reviews and recommendations, discounts and promotional benefits, and urgency cues-and impulse buying behaviour among college students in Bengaluru in the context of Amazon's Great Indian Festival and Flipkart's Big Billion Days. We analysed primary questionnaire data from 153 respondents using descriptive statistics, scale reliability, Pearson correlation, multiple regression, and a reported structural equation model. All seven measured scales showed good-to-excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .885-.933). Each promotional construct was positively correlated with impulse buying, with urgency cues showing the strongest bivariate association (r = .804), followed by influencer promotions (r = .708). The multiple regression model was statistically significant, F(5, 147) = 75.376, p < .001, and explained 71.9% of the observed variance in impulse buying. In the simultaneous model, urgency cues (β = .612, p < .001) and influencer promotions (β = .356, p < .001) were significant positive predictors. After controlling for the other predictors, social media advertising and discounts were not statistically significant, while reviews showed a negative conditional coefficient despite a positive bivariate correlation. The AMOS model's global fit was inadequate, and high latent correlations raised discriminant-validity concerns; therefore, the authors treat its findings as provisional. Because the available analyses pool respondents across the two sale events, they do not establish which platform or event is more effective. The article discusses implications for responsible festive-sale marketing, student decision-making and future platform-wise research.