Peran Mediasi Kepercayaan dalam Pengaruh Promosi Gratis Ongkir dan Electronic Word of Mouth terhadap Keputusan Pembelian Daring Generasi

Indra Permadi, Riki Riswandi2, Angga Pramasdita — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

E-commerce platforms and online sellers allocate promotional budgets to two seemingly equivalent instruments: shipping subsidies and consumer review management. This study examines whether both instruments operate through the same psychological pathways. By integrating the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework and signaling theory, this research positions free shipping promotions as seller-controlled signals and electronic word of mouth as third-party signals, then tests trust as a mediating mechanism. Data were collected from 384 Generation Z consumers who use Shopee through a five-point Likert scale questionnaire, and analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling via a two-step procedure. The measurement model showed a good fit with all construct reliabilities above 0.88 and average variance extracted above 0.57. Model comparison rejected the full mediation model and supported the partial mediation model. The results reveal a strict separation of mechanisms. Electronic word of mouth has a strong effect on trust with no direct effect on purchasing decisions, with 77.4 percent of its total effect channeled through trust. Conversely, free shipping promotions have no effect on trust but have a direct effect on purchasing decisions. These findings indicate that the credibility of the signal source determines its pathway of influence: signals that can be imitated by any seller act as transactional incentives, whereas signals originating from other consumers act as trust builders. The implication is that shipping subsidy budgets and review management budgets are not interchangeable and need to be evaluated using different indicators.

Jurnal Ekonomak

Peran Mediasi Kepercayaan dalam Pengaruh Promosi Gratis Ongkir dan Electronic Word of Mouth terhadap Keputusan Pembelian Daring Generasi