1.1 Introduction

The study proposes to evaluate the impact of social media marketing on millennials and generation Z purchase behaviour towards sustainable retail brands in the United Kingdom.  Past decade has witnessed a significant increase in carbon emission and ecological environment deterioration has resulted in an increase in attention from various developed and developing countries and identified effective way of reducing carbon emission (Dabija, Bejanand Dinu 2019).  The developed countries have developed plans for achieving carbon neutrality and effective ways of reducing carbon emission. The pandemic has had significant impact on the lives of the people resulting in a significant rethinking about the management strategies developed by different companies (Youn and Cho 2022).  Sustainable development, green and eco friendly consumption has become of great value to the consumers. Some of the consumers generally use product labels for judging the products eco-friendly to the current environment and it affects the purchase behaviour of the consumers (Dobre et al. 2021).  Moreover, enterprises have been significantly aware of the role of sustainable development and developing sustainable strategies to the change in needs of the consumers through adjustment of sustainable strategies (Dabija and Lung 2019).

1.2 Research Problem

The evaluation of the past studies has shown that purchase intention of the generation Z and millennials have been examined effectively (Djafarova and Foots 2022).  However, there has been a lack of research on the impact of green products in the UK retail segment on the purchase intention of the generation Z and millennials.  Green products are preferred mostly by the generation Z and millennials, and past studies have seen that Gen Z in the United Kingdom are expected to pay a premium price for any environmentally friendly products (YouGov 2020).  Moreover, it was seen that 45% of the generation Z have prioritised sustainability overing pricing (YouGov 2020).  Moreover, Instagram improves the brand perception and engagement by 42% on Instagram (YouGov 2020).  It implies that social media marketing and sustainable products are important factors in affecting the perception of the consumers in the United Kingdom.

1.3 Research Objectives

The objectives of the current research are as follows:

• To examine the impact of social media marketing on millennials and generation Z purchase behaviour towards sustainable retail brands in the United Kingdom
• To evaluate the perception of the millennials and gen Z towards sustainable retail brands
• To recommend suitable strategies for improving sustainability in business

1.4 Research Questions

1. Is there a link between the desire to make a purchase and the sharing of information on social media?
2. Do the new populations in the UK have a mediated relationship with facilitating conditions and perceived value?
3. Based on the generation Z purchase midpoint, does occupation moderate the link among both subjective norms and purchase intention in the UK retail sector?