The Potential of Influencers on Social Media in the Fashion Industry

Abstract

The fashion industry has been shaken up for several years by the rise of social networks. A new profession has been created, the world of influencers. Numerous studies have been conducted on this subject while little has been studied about social media fashion influencers’ credibility on consumers’ purchasing intention and behaviour. An online survey questionnaire was answered by 100 participants. The results show that only the attractiveness and prestigiousness factors of an influencer had an impact on consumers’ purchasing in- tention and behaviour. On average 50% of women aged 9-25 had already bought a product recommended by fashion influencers. Moreover, the attractiveness of influencers affects purchase intention of her/his fol- lowers. The more attractive the fashion influencer is, the more he makes her/his followers want to buy. Nev- ertheless, concerning the purchase behaviour, the impact of influencers is weaker, however, still positive. It appears that the more attractive and prestigious the influencer is, the more consumers would buy the rec- ommended products. Furthermore, influencers have a greater impact on a person's intention to buy a prod- uct rather than on their actual buying behaviour. Finally, fashion influencers have an impact on consumers and also the fashion industry, resulting in significant changes in market forces. Future studies could encom- pass a larger and more significant sample and focus on other age groups.