When Images Drive Decisions: Impact of Digital Visual Content on Purchase Intention and Online Shopping Addiction

Abstract

Background: The rapid expansion of e-commerce has intensified the role of digital visual content in shaping consumer behavior, particularly in environments that rely on image and video-based platforms for their content delivery.Objective: This study investigates how digital visual stimuli affect purchase intention and online shopping addiction while testing whether purchase intention mediates this relationship.Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional design was implemented through research with 404 undergraduate students as participants. The researchers used a structured questionnaire to gather data which they analyzed through descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis and one-way ANOVA and structural equation modeling (SEM). Results: The research showed that digital visual stimuli produced a major effect which boosted purchase intention by 0.722 and produced a p value below 0.001. that people who wanted to buy products online became more addicted to online shopping with a β value of 0.762 and p value of less than 0.001, Online shopping addiction did not show any direct connection to digital visual stimuli because the statistical analysis revealed no significant results which showed a β value of 0.210 and p value of 0.058, The SEM model showed excellent model fit because CFI reached 0.95 and TLI reached 0.93 and RMSEA reached 0.05, that shopping behavior showed major differences between social media platforms which showed TikTok as the platform with the greatest visual impact. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that digital visual content establishes a fundamental connection between consumer purchase intention and subsequent online shopping addiction. The findings demonstrate how visual-driven platforms create a psychological impact in contemporary e-commerce environments.