Digital marketing and customer satisfaction in the Garment industry during Post COVID 19 Pandemic in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Consumer purchasing in Zimbabwe has always been dominated by Bricks and Mortar shops with few online stores. When COVID 19 set in the paths of consumers in March 2019 with restrictions on movement but with needs and wants to be met, many firms were forced to re think their marketing strategies which saw a rise in digital marketing in Zimbabwe. Consumers are always seen as savvy animals with ever changing needs and wants, all to be met by the firms through the supply of goods and services. The rise in consumer needs, competition and declining income levels during and after COVID 19 made firms to blend their marketing strategies and encompass the recent digital marketing strategies. This was the optional marketing strategy firms were left to embrace as Zimbabwe has a 90% mobile phone ownership per household (Maphosa, 2021). The study was informed by Theory of planned behaviour. The target population for the study was low to medium income segment of the market mainly comprising of university students. Convenience sampling technique was used and the interviewer used respondents that were easy to reach and the planned number of interviews was 25, however 18 interviews were conducted, data saturation (Kumar, 2011) was reached and no further data was gathered. The study results showed differed perceptions from consumers based on their technological knowledge towards ICT but mainly many consumers showed willingness to embrace digital purchasing in the 21^St century although many challenges included fear of cyber crimes, poor network, cost of data, age of the consumer and social networks influence. The results from the study will help many organisations in drafting their digital marketing strategies using consumer based perceptions.