Key Opinion Leaders and Electronic Word of Mouth in Fashion Marketplace Purchasing Decisions: The Mediating Role of Customer Engagement

This study examines the associations between Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), electronic word of mouth (e-WOM), and purchasing decisions among fashion marketplace consumers, with customer engagement as a proposed mediator. A quantitative explanatory survey of 97 purposively selected consumers in South Tangerang City, Indonesia, was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The estimated paths to customer engagement were positive for KOLs (β = 0.222) and e-WOM (β = 0.702), while the coefficient from customer engagement to purchasing decisions was 0.811. The model accounted for 79.7% of the variance in customer engagement and 88.6% in purchasing decisions within the sample. The estimated indirect coefficient was 0.180 for KOLs and 0.569 for e-WOM. Although the e-WOM coefficient was numerically larger, the available results do not establish that the two indirect associations differ statistically. This comparison should therefore be interpreted descriptively, particularly because discriminant validity between customer engagement and purchasing decisions was not fully established. However, discriminant validity between customer engagement and purchasing decisions was not fully established, and the reported test statistics for the small direct coefficients require cautious interpretation. The findings identify engagement as a potentially relevant link between digital communication and fashion marketplace purchasing decisions, without establishing a causal mediation process.