Consumer Behavior in the Era of Digital Marketing: The Mediating Role of Social Media Engagement, Consumer Trust and Purchase Intention

Abstract

Digital marketing has moved from a supplementary promotional tool to a strategic consumer-engagement infrastructure that influences how consumers search for information, evaluate brands, build trust, form purchase intentions, and ultimately make buying decisions. This study examines the influence of digital marketing activities on consumer behavior in India by testing the mediating roles of social media engagement, consumer trust, and purchase intention. A quantitative cross-sectional research design was adopted, and data were collected from 412 Indian consumers who actively use digital platforms for product information and online purchasing. The proposed model integrates the Theory of Planned Behavior, Technology Acceptance Model, Relationship Marketing Theory, and the Stimulus-Organism-Response perspective. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to validate the measurement model and test the structural relationships. The results show that digital marketing significantly enhances social media engagement and consumer trust. Social media engagement further improves trust and purchase intention, while purchase intention strongly predicts consumer behavior. The mediation analysis confirms that consumer trust and social media engagement are critical psychological mechanisms through which digital marketing is converted into purchase intention. The study contributes to digital consumer-behavior literature by positioning engagement and trust as complementary mediators in an emerging-market setting. It also provides actionable implications for marketers seeking to design credible, interactive, personalized, and conversion-oriented digital strategies in India’s fast-expanding digital economy.