From Scroll to Store: How Short-Form Video Drives Foot Traffic in Destination Retail

Short-form video platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts have become influential social commerce and interactive marketing tools, shaping consumer attitudes and behaviors beyond the digital environment. This study examines how short-form video content affects consumers’ intention to visit destination retail stores by integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) with the constructs of perceived usefulness, curiosity, and envy. Data from 423 Gen Z and Millennial consumers were collected through an online survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that perceived usefulness, curiosity, and envy significantly influence attitudes toward short-form video content, which subsequently drive intentions to visit destination retailers. Social influence also emerged as a stronger predictor of behavioral intention than practical barriers such as cost or accessibility, underscoring the importance of peer validation in motivating digital-to-physical consumer behavior. This study advances electronic commerce research by extending TPB to short-form video marketing and identifying key emotional and cognitive triggers that facilitate consumer engagement. Practically, the results highlight strategies for retailers to develop video campaigns that spark curiosity, evoke aspirational emotions, and leverage social endorsement. More broadly, the study demonstrates how short-form video platforms operate as interactive ecosystems that merge emotional engagement, social validation, and technological affordances to shape hybrid consumer journeys from digital exposure to in-store action.