Be my friend! Understanding how virtual influencers affect consumers' planned and unplanned purchases

Purpose The emergence of virtual influencers has reshaped the digital marketing landscape, offering a new medium of engaging with consumers. Drawing on the parasocial theory, this research examines the factors influencing virtual influencers' attributes and content characteristics on parasocial relationships. Furthermore, the moderating role of human likeness was introduced to test the relationship between virtual influencers’ attributes and parasocial relationships. Additionally, this study investigates the influence of parasocial relationships on purchase intention and online impulse buying. Design/methodology/approach A survey gathered data from followers of virtual influencers. In total, 409 responses were collected in China and were analysed using PLS-SEM. Findings The findings reveal that among the various attributes of virtual influencers, competence, empathy, credibility, interactivity and uniqueness exert a significant positive influence on the development of parasocial relationships. In content characteristics, only design quality and perceived originality significantly impact parasocial relationships, which in turn affect purchase intention and online impulse buying. Moreover, findings show that human likeness moderates the effects of empathy and credibility on parasocial relationships. Originality/value This research is among the few that elucidate how the effect of virtual influencers' attributes and content characteristics jointly shape consumer–influencer relationships in driving purchase intention and online impulse buying.