Building Customer Trust and Experience through Marketing Factors: Evidence from International Personal Shopper Services in Batam

Abstract

Background: Technological advancements and digitalization have sparked new shopping trends, such as international personal shopper services. Batam is a city with significant potential for these services. However, building customer trust is a major challenge, as most transactions are conducted online, which can impact customer experience.Purpose: This study aims to analyze the influence of electronic word of mouth (EWOM), social media marketing, service quality, and brand image on customer trust and their impact on customer experience among users of international personal shopper services in Batam.Design/Methodology/Approach: This study employs an explanatory quantitative research method with a purposive sampling approach. A total of 361 responses were collected; of these, 339 were deemed valid, having met the established criteria, and subsequently analyzed. Data were gathered via an online questionnaire distributed through social media, using a five-point Likert scale. IBM SPSS Statistics 27 was used for descriptive analysis, while SmartPLS-SEM 4.0 was used to evaluate the measurement and structural models.Finding/Result: The results show that social media marketing (t=3.256), service quality (t=3.769), and brand image (t=4.049) were found to be significant positive influences on customer trust. In contrast, EWOM was found to have a positive but insignificant relationship with customer trust (t=1.706). However, customer trust was found to have a positive and significant influence on customer experience, with the strongest path coefficient among the relationships examined (t = 14.050).Conclusion: The research findings indicate that social media marketing, service quality, and brand image are significantly and positively associated with customer trust, whereas eWOM does not show a significant relationship within the context and model of this study. Customer trust also exhibits a positive and significant relationship with customer experience.Originality/value (State of the art): This study extends previous research by integrating marketing factors and conducting a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between customer trust and customer experience within a single research model, while also examining the context of international personal shopper services in Batam City, which has not been previously investigated. Keywords: EWOM, customer experience, international personal shopper service, social media marketing, customer trust