Exploring the effect of fashion leaders on followers' purchasing behavior : insights from keserwan

Abstract

Purpose – This research aims to explore the impact of fashion leaders on followers’ shopping frequency in Keserwan, Lebanon. This thesis will study the relationship between celebrity influencers, fashion influencers, in-store fashion employees, demographics and followers’ shopping frequency. The purpose is to have those findings become helpful for Lebanese fashion retailers within knowing how to be able to know what items will sell more than others and how to manage inventory as well as reduce loss of profit. Design/methodology/approach – Employing a deductive approach, this study presents one main research question and quantitatively tests 4 hypotheses using a sample of 320 Lebanese citizens residing in the Keserwan region. Findings – The findings show that consumers shopping behavior varies according to two demographic factors, income and age. As for the independent variables, celebrity influencers have been found to have the highest causal weight on consumer’s shopping behavior, fashion influencers have also been found to be positively correlated with consumer’s shopping frequency while as in-store fashion employees have not been found to be correlated with shopping frequency. Practical implications – The findings provide Lebanese fashion retailers with empirical proof that celebrity influencers, fashion influencers, age and income positively affect consumers’ shopping frequency causing them to buy more. This can help Lebanese fashion retailers with trend prediction, by knowing how to follow an efficient marketing strategy with the help of influencers and knowing how to target their audience’s age as well as income levels according to their age. This marketing strategy will help increase the number of sold items of marketed goods allowing retailers to know in advance how many items to purchase of those products. Theoretical implications – This study acts as predecessor to consumer behavior within the Lebanese market in the fashion design industry, a field that is poorly studied and researched academically. Therefore this study acts as a path to a new research topic where other researchers can deeply assess other factors within the Lebanese fashion market.