author(s)
J Bharanitharan, J Lakshminarayanan and RK Pratyangira

abstract
The ascent of social media has significantly altered customer behaviour, mainly in the online retail business where it has shaped brand recognition and perceptions. In this regard, social media, as studied with the help of the Elaboration Likelihood Model, helps in clarifying how social media platforms affect brand awareness among consumers in the retail sector. An online questionnaire through Google Forms was used in the present study to gather data related to demographic data, brand perception, and trends of social media usage. The findings suggest that social media usage indeed has a high influence on brand awareness as well as perception. More aware of brands and giving more positive brand evaluations were heavy social media users compared with less frequent users. These results show that social media is a potential powerful tool for consumer interaction and brand perception reinforcement in the online retail industry. The findings add to literature in that actual data of consumer behavior and involvement with social media can be brought forward to substantiate the applicability of the ELM framework. All this knowledge obtained enables marketers and brand managers to obtain advice on how to assess the success of their social media while catching chances to build nearer relations with the target market. The end Conclusion the use of social media impacts perceptual consumer attitudes and brand awareness within the online retail industry, with this study confirming the conclusion and providing practical advice for companies looking to improve their reputation and visibility through social media strategy.