Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the characteristics of SNS Influencer on purchase intention. Among Chinese consumers, the effect of influencer characteristics (expertise, attractiveness, and truthfulness) on purchase intention through the mediating effect of information reliability and social presence is investigated. This study aims to present the direction of marketing using the characteristics of influencer in China. Research design, data, and methodology: An online survey was conducted on consumers in China and 255 samples were collected. In order to verify the mediating effect of information reliability according to the characteristics of influencer, the significance of the mediating effect of the model 4 mediating effect was verified by the bootstrapping method using SPSS process macro. Results: The expertise, attractiveness, and truthfulness of influencer were found to have a positive effect on information reliability. Second, the higher the consumer’s reliability in the influencer, the higher the consumer’s purchase intention, but among the characteristics of influencer, expertise did not affect the consumers’ purchase intention. Third, as a result of analyzing the effect on the relationship between information reliability and consumer purchase intention, it was found that attractiveness and truthfulness had a positive effect on consumer purchase intention. Fourth, as a result of analyzing the effect of information reliability on the characteristics of influencer and consumer purchase intention, expertise, attractiveness, and truthfulness have a mediating effect on the effect on consumer purchase intention. Implications: This study expanded the previous research results as follows. influencer expertise, attractiveness, and truthfulness increase consumers' purchase intention through the parameter of information reliability and social presence. Based on the results of this study, companies should implement marketing strategies that reflect the characteristics of influencer when promoting or selling products.
Zhang et al. (2024) studied this question.