Digital Marketing Strategies and Consumer Purchase Intention: Mediating Role of Trust and Moderating Effects of Unethical Practices

Abstract

In today’s world of advancements organizations influence consumer behavior by using different digital marketing strategies. Consumer purchase intention crafted by trust and build through using different tools of marketing. In this study the impact of Social Media Marketing, Influencer Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on Consumer Purchase Intention followed by the mediating effect of Consumer Trust and moderating effect of unethical practices, has been studied. Data has been collected from 385 respondents using quantitative approach with the help google forms, analysis was conducted on Smart PLS 4.0 to validate the relationships between the constructs using PLS-SEM and Bootstrapping method. Results indicates that purchase intention is significantly influenced by Consumer Trust. Furthermore, Influencer Marketing and Search Engine Optimization has a positive impact on trust. However, Social Media Marketing does not affect consumer trust. Additionally, there is no significant moderation observed of unethical practices between consumer trust and purchase intention. The importance of trust has been highlighted by this study, providing insights to design such marketing strategies which fosters consumer trust ultimately leading towards consumer purchase intention.