Electronic Word of Mouth (E-WOM) Influences Consumers’ Purchase Intentions for Herbal Cosmetic Products: Mediating Role of Brand Image with Special Reference to Facebook Users in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study investigates how E-WOM influences consumer purchase intention regarding herbal cosmetic products, with a mediating role of brand image. The research addresses an extremely important problem, even though the global herbal cosmetics market is growing fast, it is little known how digital interaction-specifically the E-WOM-affects consumer purchasing decisions regarding purchases made within a Sri Lankan context. The research effort places itself within the existing literature probing how dimensions of E-WOM quality, quantity, and credibility interact with brand image to shape purchase intentions. Addressing these gaps, this study contributes to a refined understanding of digital consumer behavior and hence provides actionable insights for marketers in the herbal cosmetics sector. The research design is quantitative, and the required responses were measured through a structured questionnaire among 403 Facebook users in Sri Lanka. A total number of survey participants or questionnaire responders would be comprised of convenience sampling from existing users exposed to herbal cosmetic products in general. In this conceptual model, E-WOM would then represent an independent variable, and purchase intention is the dependent variable. Therefore, the brand image represents the mediating variable. Likewise, data analysis will be executed in correspondence with IBM SPSS Statistics 25. Further analysis of descriptive statistics is necessary for correlation and regression analysis. For an adequate analytical approach, the association among all these variables has been thoroughly checked to make sure the extracted insights on consumer behavioral dynamics turn out reliable. Results validate that E-WOM will have a great influence on the purchase intention of consumers. This study found, that e-WOM Quality Increasingly accurate, reliable, and useful information increases consumers' trust and decreases uncertainty. It leads to a higher purchase intention E-WOM Quantity The greater the number of reviews and discussions, the more diversified opinions will be, which allows consumers to gain confidence in making decisions. E-WOM Credibility, Credibility, and authenticity of online reviews shape consumer attitude. In this relationship, brand image appeared as an important mediator that enhances the positive influence of E-WOM on purchase intention. When the brand image is trustful, well-known, and with positive associations, it enhances the effect of digital word-of-mouth communication. These findings also compare to the wider knowledge of E-WOM impacts from relevant past studies in other industries, hence extending the insights to the specific herbal cosmetics market. Though the study provides valuable insights, it is not without limitations. The convenience sample may affect generalizability since the sample may not be representative of the wider population. The research has only been conducted on the social media site 'Facebook', thus narrowing the scope of the studies, and maybe other platforms such as 'Instagram' or 'Twitter' may have various ways in which consumers interact. The design is cross-sectional, and it cannot allow changes in consumer behavior to be assessed over time. Such limitations may be overcome by the adoption of longitudinal designs in future studies, extending the research to multiple social media platforms. The contribution brought about by this study is both theoretical and practical. Theoretically, the research has enriched knowledge of the dimensions of E-WOM and their relationship with brand image. It proposes a framework that can be useful in other niche markets as well. It underlines the role that brand image has played to date as a mediating factor in digital interactions and consumer behavior. Results give actionable practical ways in which marketers can use the herbal cosmetics industry. Therefore, companies are encouraged to generate E-WOM content that is of high quality, credible, and engaging, while building their brand image through transparent communication, ethical sourcing, and in line with values that mean something to the consumers. These will impart further strength to E-WOM campaigns. The present study will also provide a platform for further studies in the domain by investigating other mediating variables like consumer trust or perceived effectiveness of the product and the extension of the study to cross-cultural settings.