Social Media Influence on Online Shopping of Durables: The Mediating Effect of Brand and Trust on Purchase Decision

Abstract

This paper assesses the impact that social media marketing makes on brand association, customer confidence, as well as purchase intention in the market of consumer durable goods. The aim is to grasp how marketers should design engagement strategies targeting online consumers. Purposive sampling was employed to gather information from 145 social media users who had used social media for buying consumer durables in the last one year. The study’s results suggest that marketing activities on social media greatly boosts brand association and trust which, in turn, leads to stronger purchase intentions and actual buying behavior. The study details how brand perception and credibility mediate consumers’ decisions. The strategic implication is that brands need to improve their efforts in social media marketing to build trust with engagement, hence increase conversion rates. This is a unique contribution because it fills a gap identified in the reviewed literature, specifically the association of social media brand association, trust, as well as consumptions of durable goods in the online marketplace.