Direct Vs. Indirect Channels: Evaluating the Relative Influence of Digital Marketing Dimensions on Consumer Buying Behavior in Kathmandu Valley

This study examines the relative impact of five core digital marketing dimensions—Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Content Marketing (CM), Social Media Marketing (SMM), Affiliate Marketing (AM), and Email Marketing (EM)—on consumer buying behavior within the urban ecosystem of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Utilizing a descriptive and causal-comparative research design, primary data were gathered from N = 384digitally active respondents through structured 5-point Likert scale questionnaires. Reliability analysis confirmed scale internal consistency across all constructs (α= .766 - .806). While bivariate Pearson correlation analysis indicated that all five digital channels positively and significantly correlated with consumer purchasing behavior (p < .01), multiple linear regression analysis (R2 = .594, F(5, 378) = 110.404, p < .001 revealed significant variation in individual predictive power. Specifically, Email Marketing (β = .453, p < .001) and Social Media Marketing (β = .375, p < .001) emerged as significant positive determinants of purchasing decisions. Conversely, SEM, CM, and AM exhibited statistically insignificant direct effects in the structural model. These findings highlight the strategic primacy of direct, hyper-personalized, and highly interactive promotional strategies over passive digital advertising channels in emerging South Asian markets.

Digital marketing, Consumer buying behavior, Email marketing, Social media marketing, Emerging markets, Kathmandu Valley.

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