CONSUMER OF THE DIGITAL AGE

Digital presence has penetrated all aspects of social and business life of both companies and consumers, and has contributed to the change in patterns of behaviour of contemporary consumers. Furthermore, social networking has completely changed the ways in which we communicate and make connections in the modern society. Consequently, the digital era consumers have become more active, more demanding and informed about the products they buy, they have become networked in a world where information about a product is rapidly disseminated, but they have also become socially inactive. Linking and creating social connections with consumers is an important factor in the process of developing online marketing and customer relationships because it enables customization and personalization of relationships. Social media have begun to shape consumers' attitudes and behaviours and have outgrown their basic role of transferring and forwarding information. Thus, social media are shaping a conceptual model of consumer behaviour in the digital era, in order to describe and analyze the different steps that consumers go through when deciding on the product selection. The product selection model in the digital world begins long before the actual purchase and continues after the purchase. The research presented in this paper aims to identify the influence of social media on the decision-making process during the product selection.