The power of trust: How does consumer trust impact satisfaction and loyalty in Indonesian digital business?

Abstract

The study aims to explore how consumer satisfaction influences consumer trust and, ultimately, builds strong consumer loyalty in the dynamic world of Indonesian e-commerce. The relevance of this study is determined by how e-commerce businesses can improve customer loyalty by enhancing consumer trust and satisfaction. The study used a quantitative research design and surveyed 230 consumers from Jakarta, Indonesia. The data analysis involved utilizing validation and descriptive statistics in MS Excel and inferential statistics through SmartPLS to draw meaningful conclusions. The results showed a positive, significant, and direct relationship between consumer satisfaction and consumer loyalty. The R2 for consumer loyalty indicates that consumer satisfaction and consumer trust explain 56.6% of the variances in consumer loyalty, whereas consumer satisfaction explains 37.4% of the variances in consumer trust. Furthermore, the findings showed that this relationship is strengthened when consumer trust is included as a mediator, demonstrating a complementary partial mediation indicating that trust enhances consumer loyalty. Thus, the study concludes that consumers are more likely to feel loyal to e-commerce websites when their satisfaction is combined with trust. It provides considerable insights into the determinants of consumer loyalty and emphasizes the importance of establishing trust in e-commerce websites as a critical strategy to enhance customer loyalty. This paper also contributes to the broader literature on consumer behavior and loyalty in the context of digital business, providing new insights and perspectives that can help shape future research in this area.