Rapid digitalisation has repositioned social media from a space for interpersonal exchange into a decisive arena where commercial transactions are negotiated, product reputations are built or destroyed, and consumer judgements are formed — often within seconds of encountering curated content. This article reports findings from a questionnaire-based empirical inquiry involving two hundred participants drawn from the population of digitally active online shoppers. The study probes the mechanisms through which platform-mediated signals influencer endorsements, peer ratings, algorithmic personalisation, and authenticity guarantees — translate into perceived customer worth across four evaluative dimensions: utility, affect, social esteem, and knowledge. Quantitative findings disclose several tensions that define today's digital marketplace. Although a substantial cohort of respondents describe themselves as alert to the prevalence of counterfeit merchandise, more than half concede vulnerability to cleverly staged false promotions, exposing a critical gap between declarative awareness and actual behavioural immunity. Simultaneously, seven in ten respondents hold brands directly culpable whenever an influencer they partner with engages in deceptive conduct — a 'relational liability' that transforms individual creator misconduct into an enterprise-level reputational risk. The study concludes that genuine, long-lasting value delivery in digital retail demands far more than persuasive content; it requires an enforceable ecosystem of ethical creator standards, platform verification infrastructure, and regulatory vigilance.
S et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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