The Role of Brand Image in Mediating the Effect of Electronic Word of Mouth on Brand Attitude of Shopee Fashion E-Commerce in Denpasar

The aim of this study was to explain how electronic word of mouth affect brand attitude through mediating role of brand image on Shopee fashion e-commerce in Denpasar. A survey-based questionnaire was conducted with 100 respondents using purposive sampling method. Path analysis and Sobel test was applied to analyzed the data collected. The result established that electronic word of mouth influence brand image positive and significantly, each electronic word of mouth and brand image have positive and significant effect on brand attitude and there significant role of brand image in strengthen the influence of electronic word of mouth on brand attitude. It is importance for e-commerce to provide electronic word of mouth section in their website and encourage consumer to give their reviews in order to enhance consumer trust in online shopping so it will affect brand image and consumer attitude toward Shopee.


Introduction
In a last two decades internet has pioneered marketing communication revolution; offer the possibility to bigger interaction between consumer and the brand (Stojanovic et al., 2017). Based on survey conducted by Asosiasi Penyelenggara Jasa Internet Indonesia (APJII), internet user in Indonesia in 2017 increased from the previous year to 143 million users out of 262 million population or around 54.68 percent.
Interaction with brands on the internet is inevitable, such as following brands social media account, making online purchases, and providing reviews on the brand's website (Diansyah and Nurmalasari, 2017). Giving comments or reviews is a form of electronic word of mouth (eWOM). eWOM is considered to be an influential factor in attitude. Attitude is formed by the brand exposure as result of various marketing stimuli or experience (Agusto and Torres, 2018). A positive attitude tends to lead a purchases intention (Jung and Seock, 2016).
The growth of internet also impact on the emergence of start-up business including Shopee. Shopee is an online based marketplace that provides a variety of products including fashion, devices, makeup, daily necessities, home supplies, and shopping vouchers. Table 1 show that Shopee is on the third position not able to get the 'Top' rating in fashion e-commerce category because of its indeks less than 15 percent.  -5 Tokopedia.com 0,9 -Study on the influence of eWOM toward brand attitude was explored by Kudeshia dan Kumar (2017) who found that positive eWOM on Facebook had a significantly positive effect on smartphone consumer attitude in Egypt. Lee and Youn (2015) examined the effect of eWOM platform that did not significantly influence consumer attitudes of the Maple Grove Towers Apartment. The dynamic pattern of consumer purchasing behavior makes consumer attitudes not only affected by eWOM. More specific research on the mediating variable of the influence of eWOM on brand attitudes needs to be done. Elseidi and El-Baz (2016) states that brand image is influenced by eWOM especially those who come from trusted sources and also positively influences their brand attitude. Suyoga and Santika (2018) stated that online review is one of the simplest media to obtain information and also the easiest method for businesses to build their brand image.

Research Method
This study was taken place in Denpasar; an urban area where most of internet users are lived compared to other area in Bali. The subject of this study is Shopee consumer and the object is their attitude towards Shopee. The population involved all consumer of Shopee in Denpasar. Sample was determined by using a non-probability  Vol.11, No.18, 2019 sampling method, namely purposive sampling as they are at least 17 years old, have shopped online at Shopee fashion e-commerce and had read at least 2 consumer reviews on Shopee in the last three months. Sekaran and Bougie (2016:264) state that the sample is better taken 5-10 times larger than the number of indicators. As this study has 10 indicators so the sample amounted to 100 respondents. Data was conducted through questionnaire with 5 points-Likert scale and analyzed with Path Analysis and Sobel-test. Table 2 show the summary of variable and indicators used.

Result and Data Analysis
The distribution of respondents presented in Table 3 show the characteristics of respondents viewed by age, gender and occupation category. Majority of respondents were female consumers with a percentage of 87 percent, around 74 percent most of the respondents are at age 17-24 years and most respondents working as private employees at a percentage of 44 percent.  Table 4 shows that the whole instrument has correlation coefficient > 0.30. This means that all instruments item are valid. Reliability tests are done to measure the consistency of the questionnaire as a measuring instrument. In Table 4, the cronbach's alpha value of all instruments > 0.60 which means each instrument on this study are reliable.  0,842 Valid Respondents responses were analyzed descriptively by grouping the average of respondents' answers in the interval scale as follow: 1.00-1.79 (very bad); 1.80-2.59 (bad); 2.60-3.39 (enough); 3,40-4,19 (good); 4.20-5.00 (very good). Table 5 shows respondent's answer for the eWOM, brand image and brand attitude divided into 5 categories from 'Strongly Disagree' (SD) to 'Strongly Agree' (SA). The total average answer of respectively variables are 4.10, 4.13, and 3.95 which means the respondents have good perception on the indicator used in this study.  7 show that the value of Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) is 0.058 and 0.091 more than 0.05 so the regression equations 1 and 2 were considered as normal distribution.  Tables 8 and 9 show eWOM significance, brand image and brand attitude are 0.152, 0.838 and 0.668 greater than 0.05, so the regression equations 1 and 2 are free from heterocedasticity.   Table 11 the structural equations are as follows: Y = 2 X + 3 M + e2 = 0,338 X + 0,471 M + e2 The influence between variables is interpreted based on Sig. t value. If it less than equal to 0.05 then H1 is supported and if it more than 0.05 then H0 is supported. Validation of the final path diagram illustrates the beta coefficient value of the each variables influence.  Vol.11, No.18, 2019 Table 12 presented that a total effect of eWOM to brand attitude by mediation of brand image is 0,693 more than when it on its direct effect which is only 0,341. Table 13 show that Z value is more than 1.96 and the significance value is less 0.05. Brand image is able to mediate the influence of eWOM on brand attitude.

The influence of eWOM on brand attitude of Shopee fashion e-commerce
The results show that the beta coefficient value is 0.338 with a significance level of 0.001 < 0.05, then H1 is accepted. It is mean that eWOM has a positive and significant effect on Shopee brand attitude. The better eWOM the better the consumer attitude towards Shopee will be. This is in accordance with the studies of Elseidi and El-Baz (2016), Lin and Xu (2017) and Kudeshia and Kumar (2017) who stated that eWOM had a positive and significant effect on the brand attitude. eWOM consists of four indicators, namely relevance, quality description, service reliability and trustworthiness. 'Relevance' is considered as the most important indicator in determining their attitude towards Shopee. When eWOM is capable of providing information that is in accordance with consumer needs, the consumer attitude towards Shopee is also getting better which is indicated by a positive impression to the brand.

The influence of eWOM on brand image of Shopee fashion e-commerce
The test results show that the beta coefficient value is 0.753 with a significance level of 0.000 < 0.05, which means that H2 is accepted. It indicates that eWOM has a positive and significant effect on the brand image of Shopee fashion e-commerce. Thus, the better eWOM, the better brand image of Shopee in consumer mind will be. The results of this study support the findings of Severi et al. (2014), Abubakar et al. (2016), and Chakraborty and Bhat (2018) which state that eWOM has a positive and significant effect on the brand image.
The 'relevance' indicator is also an important factor in determining Shopee's brand image. When eWOM is considered capable of providing information that is in line with consumer expectations, the existence of the e-WOM feature will be valued by consumers. Ardana and Rastini (2018) state that as the eWOM meet consumer expectation, it will in line with business brand image.

The influence of brand image on brand attitude of Shopee fashion e-commerce
The test results show that the beta coefficient value is 0.471 with a significance level of 0.000 < 0.05, which means that H3 is accepted. This shows that brand image has a positive and significant effect on brand attitude. Thus, the better brand image, the better consumer attitude towards Shopee will be. The results of this study are in accordance with the results of research by Shin et al. (2014), Wu and Wang (2014) and Yu, et al. (2017) which states brand image has a positive and significant influence on the brand attitude.
Brand image consists of three indicators, namely product attributes, consumer benefits and favorability. Product attribute indicators are the most important factors in determining Shopee's brand attitude. When the eWOM feature which is one of the product attributes of Shopee is considered have a good performance by consumers, the consumer attitude towards the Shopee will also getting better

The role of brand image in mediating the influence of eWOM on brand attitude of Shopee fashion e-commerce
The test results show that the Z coefficient value is 4.30 with a significance level of 0.000 < 0.05, which means that H4 is accepted. These results indicate that the brand image is able to mediate eWOM on brand attitude significantly. This means that the better eWOM, the better the Shopee brand image in the consumers mind will be and it will affect their attitude towards the brand. The results of this study are in line with Iswara and Jatra (2017), Tariq et al. (2017) and Farzin and Fattahi (2017) stating that brand image is able to mediate eWOM influence on brand attitude.
There are some practical implications of this research as follows; first, it is important for e-commerce to providing eWOM through the 'consumer review' feature. Consumer needs for two-way information are accommodated by Shopee through available review categories such as reviews of product originality, product quality, shipping speed and seller response. Adding other categories to be reviewed such as packaging neatness and post-purchase service would add more complete information for the next user. Second, consumer review features are able to meet consumer expectations regarding good product reviews criteria. Companies should be able to encourage consumers to provide reviews through the provision of point rewards. Finally, the points of statement about brand attitudes with the highest value which shows the good impression of consumers who have been formed and need to be increased in order to encourage their purchase intentions.

Conclusions
The study concludes that eWOM influence brand image positive and significantly, eWOM and brand image has a significant positive effect on brand attitude and brand image also plays a significant role as a partial mediator of eWOM influence on brand attitude of Shopee fashion e-commerce in Denpasar

Suggestions
Shopee should add more information in order to increase consumer awareness about the authenticity of consumer review since there are some consumer who still doubt it seen from the lowest value in the respondents' answer distribution. Actually, consumer reviews can only be filled by consumers who already bought and confirmed that the product is accepted, so the possibility of making fake reviews tends to decrease, but this has not been realized by all consumers, so that information is needed.
Furthermore, the categorization of trusted sellers or Shopee called 'star sellers' also needs to be continually improved regarding the statement about the lowest value brand image to increase security in shopping process. In addition, Shopee has also made efforts to secure transactions such as the existence of a third party bank account to maintain the funds before product are received by consumer and a two-factor authentication system that connects them to the expedition service information system to facilitate tracking of orders.