The importance of factors that influence on consumer purchasing decisions of food products.

There are many factors that have influence on consumer behavior. Those factors are basically divided into external and internal factors. The main objective of this study was to determine which factors have greater impact on consumers when it comes to their purchasing decisions. The survey was conducted in 2013, using a sample of 215 respondents (75 male and 140 female), students of Faculty of biotechnical sciences in Bitola, Republic of Macedonia on age from 19 to 22 years. The sample of variables includes 10 questions (statements) of which the first five include external factors that have influence on the purchase of the consumers, while the other five are internal factors. This research employs questionnaire which involves Likert scale. The participants were offered statements numbered consecutively from 1 to 10, according to the questionnaire, and answers were provided on Likert scale. Descriptive measures of the questionnaire results show the average value of the response of the participants, the way most of the participants responded, the deviation and differences in the responses. The assumption that the empirical schedule has qualities of a normal schedule is confirmed on the basis of descriptive measures, which can be determined by comparison of the mean values of responses to individual questions as well as the results of the survey as a whole (the value of the mean, mode and median were without significant differences). It can be concluded that these parameters indicate that when purchasing consumers are mostly guided by psychological factors and slightly less by external factors, i.e. opinions of family, friends, financial torque, etc., and that their personal image, their mood, etc. are more important for them. The importance of financial, economic factor is particularly noted, because it was the strongest in the framework of external factors and, of course, it has the biggest impact on consumers. It is important to shed light on consumer behavior and on structure of different aspects of the internal and external factors that have impact on buying decisions for food products.