As already stated, one of the largest industries where a few major influencers have become the prime driver of sales is fashion. Fashion is a fundamental aspect of our lives because it has an economic and social importance; it is an expression of our persona and our social status. It is therefore essential to analyze the process of decision making within the fashion industry.

 

To have a better understanding of the role of influencers in the fashion field, it is important to differentiate the types of fashion influencers:

• Traditional influencers, that are mainly used by PR agencies and celebrity figures in a specific area of subject expertise.

• Emerging influencers are the digital, poster-tech bloggers that have an important leadership and authority in a specific space.

• Influencers by connection are those that take advantage of the large number of friends/ followers on social media to promote services or products.

• Influencers by topic are those individuals that represent a brand; therefore, they are opinion leaders of a certain topic (Sudha M. and Sheena K., 2017).

 

This industry offers many ways of collaboration between bloggers and brands. In this case, the influencer marketing is not limited to just blog or social media posts, but it is extended to takeovers, event hosting, product design, etc.(Sudha M. and Sheena K., 2017).

 

In order to deliver their message in this field, influencers mainly use fashion blogs, videos, and social media posts.

Fashion blogs are managed by an individual or business that few times a week shares stories, reviews outfits, and describes of events and products related to the industry.

Through YouTube videos, influencers can describe fashion products in a simple way, showing directly to the audience the products. In this way, it is also easier for the public to trust the individuals because they are able to directly see the products.

Finally, social media platforms are mainly used to promote fashion products and services, especially photo apps such as Instagram, Tumblr and Pintrest. They are quick to access and through pictures the public can form ideas according to what the influencers says about that particular product (Sudha M. and Sheena K., 2017).
 

Influencers affect the decision-making process before purchasing a product and/or service depending on personal opinion, ability and position. Being considered expert in the field, they usually create trends and lead the followers to copy their styles.

However, these are not the only factors that affect the consumer behavior. In fact, there are more rooted agents that we must consider: external and internal influencers (Figure 12) (Sudha M. and Sheena K., 2017).

 

As shown in the figure below, socio-cultural influences and psychological factors belong to the “internal influencers” category.
Family and friends can act as influencers too, and their opinion is usually even more important than influencers’. Based on their recommendations and opinions, we avoid/buy the product or/and service.

Social class and economy are other important factors that we have to consider. If an influencer promotes expensive clothes that an individual cannot afford, she/he will not be really affected by the influencers’ opinions.

Moreover, culture plays an essential role in our consumer behavior because the promoted product/service cannot go against the cultural values shared by one’s individual, otherwise the person will never relate to the influencer. Consequently, there will never be a relationship between popular figure and the individual.

Within the “internal influencer” group, there are also mentioned some psychological factors that affect our consumer behavior, such as perception, motivation, personality, attitude and emotion (Sudha M. and Sheena K., 2017).

Whereas, the blog’s marketing efforts are a fundamental element in the “external influencers” category, and this includes reviews on fashion items, direct links to web stores, discount promotion and banners. 
All these actions are related to the influencers marketing and are performed thanks to the use of social media platforms or blogs (Sudha M. and Sheena K., 2017).

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Figure 12. Factors that influence consumer behavior (Sudha M. and Sheena K., 2017).
 

Moreover, in the fashion industry: 

• 60% of consumers have been influenced by social media or blog while shopping at a store. These statistics show that consumers will preferably buy a product in-store if it is promoted by an influencer.  

• Twitter and Annalect found that 49% of people say that they rely on recommendations from influencers before making a purchase decision. 

• While shopping at a store, 60% of consumers have been influenced by a social media post or a blog review. This is according to the Collective Bias study (Arnold, 2017).

• Another similar study by PwC in 2016 revealed that 45% of respondents globally said that reading reviews, comments, and feedback from social media influencers impacts their shopping behavior (Barker, 2017).

• For example, in 2016, 80% of Nordstorm’s mobile traffic came from a single influencer.