Virtual World, Fear of Missing Out and Its Impact on Impulsive Buying

Many brands have employed virtual advertising strategies as their main technique of advertising. In the recent years, many brands used Social Media Influencers (SMIs) to help them to change the customer attitudes. SMIs aimed to convey authenticity and belonging feelings to their followers; however, the fear of missing out (FOMO) has been seen more within the followers and the impact of it on impulsive buying. The trust of SMIs’ followers has a considerable role in the increase of Urge-to-Buy (UTB). Dinh and Lee (2021) argued that influencer imitation has a significant impact on social comparison, captured in the fear of missing out (FOMO) effect, which affects the purchase intention of the endorsed product. Furthermore, followers of SMIs have shown impulsive purchases of fashion and cosmetic products (Prihana Gunawan & Permadi Iskandar, 2020). The trust gained by SMIs has a significant role in enhancing the urge-to-buy (UTB) impulsively on social networking sites (Shamim & Islam, 2022). On the other hand, SMIs are considered role models with a high impact on their follower’s behaviour, and they are also responsible for any ethical and unethical behaviour they exhibit on their platform. For instance, some SMIs end up using fake authenticity campaigns or unsustainable consumption which leads to fast fashion and impulsive purchases. This chapter will focus on exploring the impact of the virtual world on UTB and impulsive behaviour because of FOMO.