The rise of social media influencers (SMIs) in the recent decade garnered wide interest from academicians and marketers. Academicians try to understand the effect of influencers on consumer behaviour, while marketers use influencers as part of their strategy to achieve marketing objectives. Although, plenty of practical and conceptual research is available in this area, literature reviews in the domain of SMIs and consumer engagement are scarce as it is still developing, and most of the studies have focused on these two concepts separately. In this study, the authors attempted to combine and understand how social media influencers affect consumers engagement. This systematic review of the literature offers a comprehensive view of previous research on social media influencers and consumer engagement. The study reviewed articles published in the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC), Scopus, and Web of Science indexed journals till 5 June 2021. To understand consumers' engagement with SMIs, authors identified and theorized the antecedents, decision and outcome of such engagement. It also discusses the influencer‐follower parasocial relationship on different social media platforms. The study proposes an integrated conceptual framework that can be further used to test and validate the impact of social media influencer's marketing efforts on consumer engagement. This framework also may serve as a foundation for marketers to develop effective influencer strategies for brand promotions. The review concludes the discussion by highlighting theories, methodology, and context of studies conducted by past researchers.

The online environment has long been a sensory interaction between a brand or product and its consumers through visual imagery and sonic elements. While newer technologies have developed that cater to a customer's more psychological need for haptics (touch), gestation, and olfaction, brands have not explored its true potential. Immersions and other forms of Human-Computer interaction have vastly developed and present scope for more than just a single sense for online consumers. While brands are employing these multisensory interfaces (vs. single-sensory) in certain product categories, it remains to be seen whether customers who unknowingly experience sensations online want to adapt to it. Several product categories could find multisensory elements beneficial. This study aims to delve deeper and understand the motivations of such behavior and identify the need for a customer to engage all its senses beyond the traditional visuals and sound while interacting with brands virtually for a more holistic experience. While external environmental factors such as pandemics have resulted in the inevitable loss of physical touchpoints, the aim is to determine whether sensory elements beyond images and sounds will benefit customer engagement.

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