The Influence of Affiliate Marketing Content on Online Purchase Decisions via Consumer Attitudes: Empirical Evidence from Shopee and Lazada Platforms

This research studies how Thai consumers react to affiliate marketing content related to their online shopping on Shopee and Lazada and how their reactions influence their decisions to purchase online. The sample identified was 18–54-year-old individuals who had encountered affiliate content and made purchases through affiliate links between 2023 and 2024. We collected data using an online questionnaire, yielding 400 responses and after filtering for outliers, 245 cases were retained in their entirety for analysis. A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach was then used to analyze the relationships between affiliate content formats, consumer attitudes, and purchase decisions. These results show that both product review articles and tutorial or how-to articles make a significant impact on consumer attitudes toward products (standardized coefficients of 0.141 and 0.274, respectively). In addition, the direct effect on purchase decisions based on consumer attitudes was also significant for Shopee and Lazada (coefficient = 0.323). In addition, both article formats showed significant indirect effects on purchase decisions through consumer attitudes (coefficients = 0.046 and 0.089, p < 0.05). Overall, these results highlight the importance of informative, experience-based affiliate content and provide practical direction for marketers and affiliates seeking to improve content effectiveness across e-commerce platforms.