The Role of Social Media Influencers in China Beauty Industry: Consumers’ Perspective

This study aims to explore the role of social media influencers in China beauty industry from the perspective of consumers. Existing literature on the topic mainly focus on the role of social media influencers in promoting products or building consumers customer relationships and brand awareness. The primary platforms being studied by scholars are also some social media platforms in the Western. Therefore, this study emphasizes on the beauty industry in the context of the Chinese market, including probing the social media platforms Chinese consumers use, consumers’ psychological mechanism in using beauty products, and the role social media influencers play in consumers selecting and purchasing beauty products. The study utilises in-depth interview technique of qualitative research method to seek consumers’ perceptions about the aspects mentioned above. The findings give clear answers about the social media platforms that Chinese consumers use. It also reveals that consumers are relying on using beauty products to construct self-identification and enhance self-esteem. As indicated from the data, consumers are more goal-driven and utility-driven while following social media influencers. They perceive the type of content shared by influencers, the personality and appearance of influencers as crucial factors that influence their attention to different social media influencers. Although consumers admit the importance of social media influencers for them to gain beauty products information, to learn makeup skills and attain entertainment, consumers’ trust to influencers is declining. On the one hand, experienced users are becoming more rational and rely less on social media influencers while consuming beauty products. Therefore, they tend to search for the information while they need rather than regularly follow the updates of influencers. On the other hand, there are too many commercials in influencers’ content, and some of the influencers are perceived unprofessional while sharing products or teaching skills, which also lowered the credibility of social media influencers. The findings also reflect a trend that consumers may incline more to word-of-mouth communication and professional help from specialized medical institutions