KOL (Key Opinion Leader) as Consumer Trust Factor at Instagram Store

Abstract

Percieved benevolance, perceived integrity and KOL (Key Opinion Leader) by Che, Cheung & Thadani (2017) were found as consumer trust factors in instagram stores. Buying and selling was not done directly in instagram, it is necessary information about sellers and products to form consumer trust. (Lim et al., 2006). Cheung & Thadani (2017) also believes that the external environment can give influence to prospective customers of instagram store, because the prospective consumer cannot see the goods or services they want to buy, the KOL and the comments from the consumer (peer reference) become the initial reference before the transaction further. L. Casalo, C.Flavian, S.Ibanez (2017) added the importance of interaction between instagram stores and consumers significantly in the instagram application, instagram with more followers was assessed to have higher interaction rates. Egger (2016) found that the Key Opinion Leader (KOL) who has close relationships with his follower can be very useful in marketing strategies, KOL is preferred with more knowledge and experience in a field and the follower believes in the KOL recommendation. KOL instagram becomes one of the alternative jobs that provide a high enough income for someone who can be a KOL for many products. So more research needs to be done to understand how to be a KOL. This research tries to dig deeper about KOL in order to give practical and academic advice about marketing strategy using KOL (Key Opinion Leader)