Abstract:
The rapid growth of social media has fundamentally transformed consumer behaviour, making User-Generated Content (UGC) a critical influence on purchasing decisions in digital marketplaces. This shift is especially pronounced in the fashion clothing sector, where consumers increasingly rely on peer-created posts, reviews, and styling content before making purchase decisions. Despite the growing significance of UGC in social commerce, limited research has examined how different gratification dimensions of UGC influence purchase intention within Sri Lanka's rapidly expanding online clothing market. Drawing on the Uses and Gratifications Theory, this study investigates the impact of three UGC gratification dimensions, content gratification, social relation gratification, and self-presentation gratification, on consumers' purchase intention, while examining the mediating role of brand trust and the moderating role of social media involve1ment. A quantitative research approach was adopted, with primary data collected from 386 Sri Lankan social media users through a structured online questionnaire. Data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that self-presentation gratification is the strongest predictor of both purchase intention and brand trust, followed by social relation gratification, while content gratification did not yield significant effects on either outcome. Brand trust was found to partially mediate the relationship between UGC gratification dimensions and purchase intention, and social media involvement significantly moderated the relationship between brand trust and purchase intention, amplifying the trust-to-purchase effect among highly engaged consumers. The model demonstrated strong explanatory power, accounting for 68.4% of the variance in purchase intention and 64.7% in brand trust. These findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of UGC-driven consumer behaviour in emerging digital markets and offer practical insights for clothing brands seeking to leverage social media engagement strategies.
