The Impact of Personalized Recommendations on Consumer Purchase Decisions on TikTok – A Case Study of College Students

Abstract

With the rapid rise of social media and short video platforms, TikTok has become an important channel for young people, especially college students, to acquire information and entertainment. Personalized recommendation, as one of the core functions of the TikTok platform, has a significant impact on consumers’ purchasing decisions. This study investigates how TikTok’s personalized recommendation mechanism affects users’ purchasing desires and actual buying behavior by matching content filtering with user preferences, based on surveys and in-depth interviews with the college student group. The research finds that personalized recommendations play a positive role in improving purchase conversion rates but may also exacerbate users’ tendencies towards impulsive buying. The paper further analyzes key factors affecting the effectiveness of the recommendations, including the relevance of recommended content, user engagement, and trust. On this basis, suggestions for optimizing personalized recommendation strategies and balancing user experience with commercial interests are proposed. This study is of theoretical and practical significance for understanding consumer behavior in the new media environment and provides insights and strategic references for platforms like TikTok.