PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

Persuasive communication is one of the important aspects of online content. It plays a vital role in online website users' behaviour, decision-making, and engagement. With the rapid growth of digital media, marketers, designers, and content creators understand how persuasive tactics are employed. This tactic is vital because it is employed across all the websites. This study explores how persuasive communication in online shopping strategies influences users on online shopping websites. The researcher used the qualitative content analysis method to identify persuasion techniques. Drawing on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and Cialdini’s principles of persuasion as analytical lenses, the study systematically analyses persuasive strategies, such as scarcity, urgency, social proof, and personalisation, on user behaviour impacts, and ethical considerations on online shopping websites. Employing qualitative content analysis and NVivo-based clustering techniques, the research identifies recurring patterns and evaluates their ethical implications. Rather than measuring actual consumer behaviour, this study focuses on how persuasive strategies are designed and communicated within e-commerce interfaces. In the digital era, persuasive communication is more significantly utilised. In this era, digital media dominates all information consumption, and social interaction employs persuasive tactics. This study will enhance the literature on online persuasion by offering a structured qualitative understanding of persuasive communication practises in the online shopping context and providing insights into strategies used for their effectiveness and ethical concerns in digital media platforms.