From Likes to Purchases: Social Media Fashion Influencers and Consumer Decision-Making

Abstract

Customers collect information largely from social media platform, on the basis of this information they take their decisions. A lot of number of influencers has emerged and they prove to be a source of advice for the consumers. Social media is one of the top most application used by these influencers in the fashion industry and this is going to be the same trend in near future. Moreover these influencers affect the behavioral intentions of consumers towards fashion advice they post. This work aims to investigate customer attitudes about Social media fashion influencers. Companies must comprehend how consumers feel about Instagram fashion influencers in order to establish effective digital strategies. They must therefore determine the extent of consumer trust in influencers as well as the effects of that trust on consumer purchase intent. This study's research goals are to (1) create a framework of the relationship between consumer behavior and factors including trust, influencer trust, and purchase intention, and (2) test and validate that framework using a sample of real customers. An online survey was carried out (n=23) among those who follow fashion influencers on Instagram to fulfil the goal of this study. We study how social media and particularly Social media helps in the promotion of different brands. We choose fashion industry for this article because, this industry occupy a significant part of the worldwide economy and is therefore regarded as one of the important industry. Our work has two different angles. One angle is that of academia in which we extend the study done by different researchers regarding the consumer’s behavior towards Instagram fashion influencers. The second angle of our work is the business angle. In this article we investigate the drastic growth use of Instagram and its importance to promote the industry. Our work also emphasized that in order to build a strong and consistent relationship among consumers and fashion professional the Instagram fashion influencers can play a vital role. The main objective or our work is to analyze the point of view of consumers towards Instagram fashion influencers and narrate how this perception affect the intent of

purchasing. We answered the research question raised in this paper successfully. A detailed framework about the behavior of consumers toward Instagram fashion influencers is presented, tested, and validated through a questionnaire from consumers. Keeping in mind the research problem which states to explore the behavior of consumers towards Instagram fashion influencers and its consequences on the potential purchasing