Keywords

eWOM Information Credibility, eWOM Information Quality, eWOM Attitude toward Information, eWOM Information Usefulness, Marketplace

Introduction

The increasingly sophisticated level of technology and the digital era provide a change in consumer behavior to seek the information consumer’s need which provides improvements in today's business world. This is evidenced by the continued increase in the number of internet users in Indonesia until February 2021, as many as 195.3 million people who access it via smartphones Pertiwi, 2021. Like the development of the internet in Indonesia, online business is also predicted to grow until 2035; this is driven by an increase in people's purchasing power through online sites.

Although Indonesia is one of the countries experiencing an increase in internet usage, this is not comparable to the number of online purchases where Indonesia is only able to be in second place along with Vietnam with a percentage of 46% (Facebook, 2020). During the COVID-19 pandemic, fashion products were still the best-selling choice in online purchases, not only in Indonesia but in several Asian countries taken from a survey con-ducted by Rapyd.net with a total of 3,500 online consumers. This has become a trigger for retailers to continue to improve their product marketing strategies in developing their business. Several Market Places in Indonesia continue to grow rapidly along with the growth of the digital business.

In the third quarter of 2020, several marketplaces are still the leaders of the e-commerce market, such as Shopee and Tokopedia. However, the number of visits that continued to increase from the second quarter to the third quarter did not have an impact on the income of e-commerce business players during the pandemic, this can be seen from data from the Central Statistics Agency where as many as 85.83% of business actors experienced a decrease in income while those who experienced an increase were only 4.58% and stagnant at 9.59% of the 17,063 companies in the sample Central Bureau of Statistics, 2020. Fashion is still the largest choice among other categories in shopping trends purchased through online stores for both women and men on almost all existing Market Place platforms. For several months, fashion was still the consumer's favorite choice in shopping online, which was 76% and was followed by beauty, cosmetic, and health product categories as much as 62% of the 15 best-selling product categories during the pandemic. Based on the existing phenomena, it is necessary to conduct research related to e-commerce to provide solutions to existing problems.

Communication using eWOM has a strong influence and an important role on consumer buying decisions which are determined based on where the information source is obtained. eWOM is considered as one of the marketing instruments that influence exploring the information needed and exchanging opinions and experiences from companies without restrictions (Zhang et al., 2020). In the information search process, consumers explore the results of reviews given by consumers who have made previous purchases. Online conversations in the form of information about product quality, brands, safety, prices, promotions, services which are often referred to as eWOM become a reference for potential consumers to determine the choice of products they want to buy.

Changes in life style and dependence on internet use are opportunities for marketers to introduce their products and social media is the most appropriate platform today where eWOM has power and influence in purchasing for consumers and social media. As a eWOM platform providing new experiences about products or services that are more trusted and reliable. In addition, eWOM also has an influence on the success of internet-based products, both for the consumer community virtually or in the process of influencing consumer behavior through the environment and computers as intermediaries on social media and social networking sites that affect increased sales. eWOM has the power to provide new experiences about products or services that are more trusted and reliable. When eWOM gives a positive response from consumers, it has an impact on the level of purchase. The eWOM component can be developed by improving customer experience through maximum service to create satisfaction which will have an impact on eWOM intentions which can be found through social networks as a channel for exchanging information.

This study aims to determine how the influence of eWOM information quality, eWOM information credibility, and eWOM attitude toward information on eWOM information usefulness.

Literature Review

Communication uses eWOM which is a process to share consumer views online and direct consumers to support and oppose certain products (Cheung et al., 2008). Communication will occur when consumers pro-vide suggestions or opinions and share experiences with other potential consumers about products, services, or brands. eWOM informal communication is considered more persuasive compared to the message sender assessed where the sender of the message is considered not to have any benefit related to the decision of the recipient of the message in the future. Information sent using the same channel but not simultaneously and in two directions where the source provider and the source recipient do not know each other and change attitudes and behaviors that are influenced by the organization. Temporary user-oriented product information as a recommendation for previous consumers in the form of opinions to create and promote profiles related to products and services carried out between customers through daily conversations (Erkan & Evans, 2016).

Consumers will find useful and valuable reviews and use them to reduce uncertainty in the buying process (Shen, 2015). In the information adoption model, information quality and information usefulness have a positive effect on information usefulness, which in turn affects information quality (Watts Sussman & Schneier Siegal, 2003). Consumers have a greater intention to adopt when finding useful information (Erkan & Evans, 2016). While the credibility of eWOM information is positively related to its usefulness in addition to information adoption and purchase intention and consumers will find that Information Credibility is useful if they find that the review is contributed by other credible people and the attitudes of social media users towards eWOM information can have a positive effect. On the usefulness of eWOM information and consumer purchase intentions. Based on the statement above, the hypotheses that can be concluded are:

H1: eWOM Information Credibility to eWOM Information Usefulness

Information Credibility was useful if they found that the review was contributed by others whose Credi-bility (Shen, 2015) and eWOM information credibility were positively related to its usefulness in addition to information adoption (Erkan & Evans, 2016) which is a strong predictor in influencing purchasing decisions (Gottschalk & Mafael, 2017). Information credibility has an influence on the usefulness of information and is positively related (Erkan & Evans, 2016).

H2: eWOM Information Quality to eWOM Information Usefulness

High quality and satisfaction information will be for consumers to be considered in directing consumers to products and services to be purchased based on usability information (Cheung et al., 2008), (Watts Sussman & Schneier Siegal, 2003). In the online review community, online reviews with information quality are useful for consumers because they provide complete and accurate product evaluations (Cheung et al., 2008).

H3: eWOM Attitude toward Information to eWOM Information Usefulness

The attitude towards the information obtained is one of the determinants of eWOM information that can have an influence on purchase intention (Erkan & Evans, 2016). Social media users' attitudes towards eWOM information can have a positive effect on the usefulness of eWOM information and consumers' purchase intentions (Shen, 2015), (Erkan & Evans, 2016). Consumers tend to adopt online reviews if they consider information usefulness useful. A high rate of unfavorable attitude change in response to negative online word of mouth when there is higher information consensus than non-consensus (Lee & Cranage, 2014).

Methodology

The research method used in this study is a survey research method. The type of research used in this study is a type of quantitative research. The sample in this study is respondents who represent the entire population of consumers who have bought fashion products in market places in Indonesia by using the Maximum Like hood Estimation (MLE) estimation method, the number of samples taken is 460 respondents with criteria for female respondents who have changed their buying behavior (from offline to online) during the covid-19 pandemic. Data collection in this study used a list of questionnaires with a Liker Scale of 7 categories for each variable, both dependent and independent variables. The fit test was conducted to check the level of fit between the data and the model, the validity and reliability of the measurement model, and the significance test of the coefficients of the structural model. Amos-Lisrel was used in this study to analyze the data.

Measures

The measure which has been used in the current study is described below.

eWOM Information Credibility

In the present study, eWOM Information Credibility has been measured by the six items which were adopted by the study of (Erkan & Evans, 2016), (Tien et al., 2018a) and (Cheung et al., 2009). All of items were tested before with the Cronbach alpha (0.83). The Likert seven-point scale was tested in order to span from lower disagreement to high agreement.

eWOM Information Quality

eWOM Information Quality has been measured by the eight items which were adopted by the study of (Erkan & Evans, 2016), (Sijoria et al., 2018) and (Zhao et al., 2020). All of items were tested before with the Cronbach alpha (0.83). The Likert seven-point scale was tested in order to span from very bad disagreement (1) to very good agreement.

eWOM Attitude Toward Information

eWOM Attitude Toward Information has been measured by the three items which were adopted by the study of (Erkan & Evans, 2016). All of items were tested before with the Cronbach alpha (0.83). The Likert seven-point scale was tested in order to span from very bad disagreement (1) to very good agreement (7).

eWOM Information Usefulness

eWOM Information Usefulness has been measured by the four items which were adopted by the study of (Erkan & Evans, 2016) and (Tien et al., 2018b). All of items were tested before with the Cronbach alpha (0.83). The Likert seven-point scale was tested in order to span from lower disagreement (1) to high agreement (7).

Results

This study took 460 female consumers as respondents who have had through changes in buying behavior. Changes in buying behavior occurred due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which purchases that were made offline turned into online.

Normality test of the data is done by observing the value of c.r. multivariate. If the value of c.r. multivariate is in the range of -2.58 to 2.58, then the assumption of multivariate normality has been met.

Measurement Model Fit

This research was conducted a fit test to check the level of fit between the data and the el-model, the validity and reliability of the measurement model and the significance test of the coefficients of the structural model (Table 1).

Table 1 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (Cfa)
Construct and Item	Loadings
“eWOM Information Credibility (α = 0.93, AVE = 0.998, CR = 0.968)
Credibility of brand market place which is choose	1
Credibility of price fashion product listed on market place	0.979
Credibility of product assessment listed on the market place	0.941
The credibility of the reputation owned	0.961
Promotional credibility owned	1.012
The credibility of shopping security owned	1.005
Credibility and reliability of fashion product information owned	1.007
Credibility of review information about the quality of products	1.044
Credibility of review information about product descriptions	1.052
Credibility of review information about product specifications	1.049
Credibility of review information about product images	1.048
Credibility of review information about the color of products	0.97
Credibility of review information about the quantity of products	0.895
Credibility of review information about the promotion of products listed	0.893
Credibility of review information about the delivery process of products listed	0.878
Credibility of review information about the seller's response	0.907
Credibility of review information about product ratings/product ratings	0.774
Credibility of information from online shoppers in the market place	0.846
“eWOM Information Quality (α = 0.94, AVE = 0.996, CR = 0.968)
Quality of information about product	1
Quality of perception of information about products	1.105
Stylistic quality of information about products	1.149
Quality of information about the attractiveness of products	1.116
Quality level of information about products	1.075
Quality about the clarity of product information	1.099
Quality about understanding product information	1.111
The quality of information on the appearance of images, language, and design of products	1.06
“eWOM Attitude Toward Information (α = 0.78, AVE = 0.990 CR = 0.971)
Attitude to look for fashion product information	1
Attitude in providing information about the features of products	1.098
Attitude in receiving product information	1.099
“eWOM Information Usefulness (α = 0.72, AVE = 0.994, CR = 0.978)
Use ofthe selection of products	1
Usefulness in providing overall information about products	1.032
Use of information related to product guarantees listed	1.002
Use of review information about products	0.972

Table 2 Results Of Testing Goodness Of Fit In Structural Model
Good of Fit Index	Results	Critical value	Conclusion
Ci-square/DF	3.318	2 < X 2 /df < 5	Good Fit
CFI	0.896	0.9	Marginal Fit
GFI	0.765	0.9	Bad Fit
AGFI	0.742	0.9	Bad Fit
RMSEA	0.071	0.08	Good Fit
RMR	0.341	0.05	Bad Fit
Source: Data processing, 2021

Based on Tables 3, 4, 5 and 6 above, it shows that the CR (construct reliability) value for all variables above 0.7 and the VE (variance extracted) must be above 0.5 has been fulfilled so that it can be concluded that the variable construct has a high construct reliability good and the standardized loading factor value for each indicator is greater than 0.5, so it can be said that these indicators have good validity in measuring the variables eWOM in-formation quality, eWOM information credibility, eWOM Attitude toward information and eWOM information Usefulness.

Table 3 Partial Hypothesis Test
Hypothesis	Influence			Estimate	S.E.	C.R.	P
H1	EIU	<---	EIQ	0.415	0.033	10,073	0
H2	EIU	<---	EIC	0.457	0.031	11.244	0
H3	EIU	<---	EAI	0.457	0.03	11.131	0

The Goodness of Fit Model Test

To find out whether the structural model developed has been supported by the data, the goodness of fit test is carried out. If there are two Goodness of fit criteria that meet the criteria, the model is said to be good or feasible (Table 2).

Based on the table above, the results of the fit model test see the values of Ci-square/DF, CFI, GFI, AGFI, RMSEA, and RMR this research has met the criteria because the values tested 2 out of 6 values have been good so that the model is declared feasible for further processing.

Hypothesis Testing

The effect of eWOM Information Credibility, eWOM Information Quality, eWOM Attitude toward information, and eWOM Information Usefulness are tested according to the following hypothesis: (Table 3) Source: Data Processing, 2021.

H1: There is an Influence Between eWOM Information Credibility on eWOM Information Usefulness

The CR (Critical Ratio) value is 10,073 which is above the t table value for level 0.05 which is 1.960 and the probability (p-value) of the effect of eWOM Information Quality on eWOM Information Usefulness is 0.000 less than 0.05 (α=5%) so that it can be concluded that eWOM Information Quality has a significant effect on eWOM Information Usefulness.

H2: There is an Influence Between eWOM Information Quality on eWOM Information Usefulness

The CR (Critical Ratio) value is 10.073 which is above the t table value for level 0.05 which is 1.960 and the probability (p-value) of the effect of eWOM Information Quality on eWOM Information Usefulness is 0.000 less than 0.05 (α=5 %) so that it can be concluded that eWOM Information Quality has a significant effect on eWOM Information Usefulness.

H3: There is an Influence Between eWOM Attitude toward Information on eWOM Information Usefulness.

The CR (Critical Ratio) value is 11,131 which is above the t table value for level 0.05 which is 1.960 and the probability (p-value) of the effect of eWOM Attitude toward information on eWOM Information Usefulness is 0.000 less than 0.05 (α=5 %) so that it can be concluded that eWOM Attitude to-ward information has a significant effect on eWOM Information Usefulness.

Discussion

Based on the results of the data analysis, it can be explained the results of the study of the relationship between research variables. The explanation of the results of this study is as follows:

1. eWOM Information Credibility has a Positive and Significant Effect on eWOM Information Usefulness
The results of the study indicate that the eWOM information credibility variable has a positive influ-ence on eWOM information usefulness, this is evidenced by the t-count value of 11.244. These results support research conducted by, (Erkan & Evans, 2016) that the credibility of information through market places or social media is considered as one of the factors in the consumer purchasing decision-making process and will have an impact on the adoption of information obtained.

2. eWOM Information Quality has a Positive and Significant Effect on eWOM Information Usefulness
The results of the study show that the eWOM information quality variable has a positive influence on the eWOM information usefulness, this is proved by the t-count value of 10,073. This study supports research conducted by (Erkan & Evans, 2016), (Cheung et al., 2012) (Watts Sussman & Schneier Siegal, 2003) which states that if the quality of the information provided through social media is high, it will lead to satisfaction and attract the attention of consumers to seek information more often and eWOM information quality influences consumers to make purchases.

3. eWOM Attitude toward Information has a Positive and Significant Effect on eWOM Information Usefulness
The results showed that the variable eWOM attitude toward information had a positive influence on eWOM information usefulness; this was evidenced by the t-value of 11.131. This study was adapted from the theory which consumers who have a positive attitude towards information through eWOM obtained are likely to provide benefits for them to be well adapted.

From the results of this study, it can provide suggestions for marketplaces in Indonesia that reviews from consumers related to information can positively influence consumer behavior. In this case, the usefulness of the information, credibility, quality of accurate information, and attitude in responding to information from existing reviews will be taken into consideration for potential consumers to choose products based on previous consumer reviews. Information consisting of information needs, information style, source style, the attractive-ness of information sources, clarity, information that is easy to understand, confidence, accuracy, value, brand, usefulness, informative information, availability, confidence in information sources what is given, accurate, must be fulfilled by the marketplace, but the company must ensure that consumers are satisfied enough by providing good reviews and impressions to spread positive word of mouth such as online reviews, online testimonials uploaded as social media sites.

Conclusion

The current COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact, especially in the business world. The use of technology that continues to develop rapidly and the ability of humans to adapt are an opportunity as well as a challenge for business people to improve their marketing strategies. The company's ability to display quality, credibility, and attitudes about information in the form of eWOM in detail through the marketplace with de-tails on prices, promotions, types, variants, sizes, product specifications, product descriptions, product quanti-ties, guarantees, ratings, services, delivery processes, delivery options so that consumers do not choose the wrong product they want. eWOM plays an important role in providing information online for both individual and group purchasing decisions. The credibility of information, quality of information, and attitude towards information are very important. A good elaboration of these three things will form consumer confidence in the company. Furthermore, the results showed that the three research hypotheses were supported. First, the higher the quality of eWOM information, the higher the usefulness of eWOM information. Se-cond, the higher the eWOM credibility of the information, the higher the eWOM usefulness of the information. Third, the higher the eWOM attitude towards information, the higher the eWOM usefulness of the information.

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