FACTORS AFFECTING USERS’ PURCHASE INTENTION FROM EWOM REVIEWS IN VIRTUAL COMMUNITY : FEMALEDAILY.COM USING INFORMATION ACCEPTANCE MODEL (IACM)

• Main Author: Vania Santosa, Florentina
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/64680
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The beauty industry is growing rapidly in recent years. In Indonesia, the growth is reaching double digits (20%) based on Kemeperin in 2018. Along with the growth of the beauty industry, so does the digital era. Indonesia’s internet population expected to increase up to 50 million users at the end of 2020. This means more people are sharing and gathering information online. Overload information we received made us not accepting all the information perfectly. More than 26% of marketers spend their money on wrong channels, supported with the data that the highest source of information about beauty products came from online reviews, Femaledaily who provides more than 300.000 online reviews inside the platform, they have not examined factors that influence its users’ acceptance toward their websites. The bounce rate of more than 50% on Femaledaily.com indicates that visitors do not spend much time on the website. Therefore, it is essential to know what factors affecting users’ acceptance on the platform for both Femaledaily and the marketer as the foundation to maximize eWOM as the tool to increase the company’s profit. This research is using Information Acceptance Model (IACM) to examine the factors affecting information acceptance from eWOM in Femaledaily.com toward its users' purchase intention. Researcher added a new independent variable (social capital) and the result revealed that eWOM is not only affected by the characteristic of eWOM quality and users attitude toward information but also from the social capital on the community. The result derived from 474 respondents, confirms that 3 most significant factors to influence users’ purchase intention from eWOM came from information quality, attitude toward information and social capital. A practical recommendation was made for Femaledaily.com and marketers in the beauty industry based on those most significant factors. For Femaledaily.com, to maintain the qualities in the platform are remain high, they should add review features, such as products’ texture, scents, packaging and result in the review section to ensure the completeness of information on the platform. They should add real-time chat between member and collaborate with beauty brands to make Femaledaily.com connected with their sites. While for a marketer, researcher recommends encouraging user-generated content by offering a gift, discount, or voucher whenever customers posted reviews on their social media. Marketer should collaborate with a virtual community like Femaledaily to create sponsored post or videos. Create a brand community and providing users’ profile inside the community also suggested since this study revealed that people will adopt the information from the people who they shared similarities with. By maximizing the eWOM acceptance, Femaledaily could increase the effectiveness of users’ acceptance and might lead to an increase in members inside the community and lead to increase the company’s profit, so does the marketers. They could maximize the eWOM of the brand that will impact on customers' purchase intention so they do not need to spend more money on the wrong channel in the future.