The importance of social media influencers in increasing an intention to buy local sneakers in Indonesia through engagement

Abstract

The intention to purchase local Indonesian sneakers remains relatively low, indicating a gap between the growing production of local footwear and consumers’ actual willingness to buy. This study aims to analyze and empirically prove the role of social media influencers in increasing consumer purchase intention to buy local Indonesian sneakers, with engagement as a key variable that mediates the relationships. The research method used was a quantitative approach by distributing questionnaires to 360 respondents who were active users of social media and followed influencers in the field of sneakers from April to November 2024. The unit of analysis in this study consists of the social audience of local sneaker consumers in Indonesia. Using Structural Equation Modeling with a Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) approach, the results show that influencers exert a direct positive effect of 0.297 on purchase intention and 0.757 on engagement. Engagement, in turn, has a direct positive effect of 0.569 on purchase intention. These results also demonstrate an indirect positive effect of influencers on purchase intention through engagement, with a mediation effect of 0.43. Influencers have a high influence on engagement, so it is expected that local sneaker manufacturers in Indonesia must create content that not only increases purchase intention, but also has high engagement to their audience, because it can increase the intention to buy local sneakers in Indonesia.