Social Media Influencer Credibility and Consumer Loyalty: A Conceptual Framework for Online Women's Apparel Retail in Delhi NCR

Social media influencers now occupy a central position in digital fashion marketing, shaping how consumers notice, evaluate, and emotionally connect with apparel brands online. Much of the existing scholarship, however, stops at purchase intention: we know a great deal about whether a credible influencer moves a consumer to buy, and comparatively little about whether that credibility translates into anything resembling loyalty. Studies that do look further tend to lean on a single theoretical lens — typically source credibility — which leaves the emotional and behavioural steps between “trusting an influencer” and “staying loyal to a brand” largely unexplained. This paper responds to that gap by proposing an integrated conceptual model of how influencer credibility feeds into consumer loyalty through parasocial interaction and customer engagement, set within the online women’s apparel retail market of Delhi National Capital Region (NCR).

Social Media Influencers; Influencer Credibility; Customer Engagement; Consumer Loyalty

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