Exploring the influence of online reviews and motivating factors on sales: A meta-analytic study and the moderating role of product category

Online reviews, which significantly influence product sales, have been a central research topic in the field of marketing. Meanwhile, some motivating factors related to online retailers have been linked to product sales. While several articles have examined the impact between online reviews and motivating factors on product sales, many of the conclusions drawn are contradictory. From 28 studies focusing on online reviews and sales, this study performs a meta-analysis to analyze the true impacts of six review-related factors (i.e., the number of reviews, star ratings, standard deviation of ratings, helpfulness, review length and sentiment), and two motivating factors (i.e., price discounts and special shipping) on product sales. Meanwhile, this paper also studies how one product-related factor (i.e., product age) and one reviewer-related factor (i.e., reviewer's reputation) influence the relationship between online reviews and product sales. In addition, to study the moderating effect of product category, we divide the selected literature into two subgroups which are search and experience products. The results indicate that only review length and special shipping have no significant impact on product sales, while product category has a valid and specific moderating effect on the relationship between these determinants and sales. The presented conclusions will have important implications for academic research and for future industry practice.     

Delight the experts,but never dissatisfy your customers! A multi-category study on the effects of online review source on intention to buy a new product

Online reviews are a pervasive form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) that potentially accelerate—or slow down—the diffusion of recently launched services in the marketplace. While empirical research largely supports the effects of online reviews on attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, less is known about the impact the source of the review—i.e., if it comes from a peer consumer or an expert—has on the recipient. Two experiments that combine reviewer- (expert, consumer), service type- (mobile package, restaurant, car repair), consumer- (level of general innovativeness), and review-related (positive, negative) characteristics reveal a challenging interaction between the review’s source and its valence: while—compared to an established baseline—a positive expert review seems more effective in increasing the recipient's intention to purchase than a review by a peer consumer, a negative consumer review lowers the recipient's intentions to a larger extent than a negative expert review. We further find effects of the consumer's innovativeness and the service category across the experiments. Our research contributes to the topical and increasing body of empirical research on the effects of involved characteristics within online reviews across several product types.     

Why should I believe this? Deciphering the qualities of a credible online customer review

Online customer reviews have been shown to have a powerful impact on the sales of a given product or service. However, the qualities of a ‘credible’ online customer review are still subject to debate. Existing research has highlighted the potential influence of a range of factors on the credibility of an online customer review, but relies heavily on quantitative methods and a ‘top down’ approach. In turn, this can reduce our understanding of the influence of these factors into merely discerning whether one pre-determined factor is more influential than another is. This paper adopted a ‘bottom up’ thematic analysis of individual qualitative interviews with a purposeful sample of consumers who regularly utilised online customer reviews. The findings uncovered a range of factors that influenced the credibility of an online customer review that were attached to a reader’s personal experience and to the content of a specific review, and inferred the existence of a reciprocal relationship between the constructs of review helpfulness and review credibility.     

Cross-channel effects of omnichannel retail marketing strategies: A review of extant data-driven research

The authors review 50 empirical retailing research papers that have appeared over the last 20 years to take stock of what we know, need to know better, and do not know yet about within-retailer cross-channel effects of omnichannel retail marketing strategies on (a) consumer responses over their purchase journeys, i.e., online and/or offline search, purchase intention, frequency, amount, returns, loyalty, and (b) the retail firm's aggregate outcomes (e.g., sales, costs, profits, product returns) by channel and overall. Specifically, the authors focus on five strategies: (1) the addition of online channel by an offline retailer; (2) the addition (or subtraction) of offline channels by an online retailer; (3) addition of mobile shopping channel (website and/or app) by offline and/or online retailer; (4) cross-channel integration strategies; and (5) retail marketing mix strategies. The author/s integrate findings from empirical research on these strategies into a number of ‘insights’ about ‘what we know’. Prominent among these are the following: Adding a transactional online channel to an offline channel improves the retailer's overall sales even though offline channel sales can be cannibalized to some degree. Adding an offline channel by an online retailer, however, boosts online channel sales as well as overall sales of the retailer. Similarly, adding a mobile shopping channel usually increases customer purchase frequency and amount and overall sales of the retailer in the long-term. Strategies for greater cross-channel integration generally have a positive effect on a retailer's overall performance while online advertising has positive effects on offline channel consideration and sales as well as overall sales of a multichannel retailer. Other insights or findings that need further study or open questions are also identified. The paper closes with managerial implications of the derived empirical insights, and suggestions for future research.     

How online reviews and coupons affect sales and pricing: An empirical study based on e-commerce platform

With rapid economic growth largely fueled by digital technologies, online reviews are among the new wave of technologies that still make a significant contribution to this new digital economy. However, there is scarce academic research in promoting or responding online reviews using reduction coupons with threshold issued by sellers and pricing decisions. We employ a three-stage least squares (3SLS) model to estimate the effects of online reviews and coupons on online product sales and price. We also extend our research using the data of two product categories. Our results mainly include: (1) Negative impact of negative online reviews on sales is moderated by price, and consumers are more tolerant of negative reviews of high-priced products. (2) Consumers' perceived usefulness of online coupons helps promote more sales and weaken the relationship between negative reviews and sales. (3) Positive online reviews weaken the negative relationship between online negative reviews and the price of product. (4) Consumers’ increased perceived usefulness of online coupons will encourage sellers to set a higher price and weaken the negative relationship between negative reviews and the price of product. (5) Compared with the search product, sellers regard negative reviews from the product with experience attributes as less helpful and apply less effective coupon promotion to response to negative reviews. Our study clarifies the interaction between online reviews and online coupons on e-commerce platforms under the operation scenario. We also provide empirical support for accurate promotion and higher sales revenue through reasonable pricing decisions and specified reduction coupons.     

Online and offline retailing: What we know and directions for future research

The fast-paced growth of e-commerce is rapidly changing consumers’ shopping habits and shaping the future of the retail industry. While online retailing has allowed companies to overcome geographic barriers to selling and helped them achieve operational efficiencies, offline retailers have struggled to compete with online retailers, and many retailers have chosen to operate both online and offline. This paper presents a review of the literature on the interaction between e-commerce and offline retailing, highlighting empirical findings and generalizable insights, and discussing their managerial implications. Our review includes studies published in more than 50 different academic journals spanning various disciplines from the inception of the internet to present. We organize our paper around three main research questions. First, what is the relationship between online and offline retail channels including competition and complementarity between online and offline sellers as well as online and offline channels of an omnichannel retailer? Under this question we also try to understand the impact of e-commerce on market structure and what factors impact the intensity of competition /complementarity. Second, what is the impact of e-commerce on consumer behavior? We specifically investigate how e-commerce has impacted consumer search, its implications for price dispersion, and user generated content. Third, how has e-commerce impacted retailers’ key managerial decisions? The key research questions under this heading include: (i) What is the impact of big data on retailing? (ii) What is the impact of digitization on retailer outcomes? (iii) What is the impact of e-commerce on sales concentration? (iv) What is the impact of e-commerce and platforms on pricing? And (v) How should retailers manage product returns across online and offline channels? Under each section, we also develop detailed recommendations for future research which we hope will inspire continued interest in this domain.     

Born Unequal: A Study of the Helpfulness of User-Generated Product Reviews

Online user-generated product reviews have become an indispensible tool for consumers and thus for retailers who want to attract and retain consumers. Yet, relatively little is known about what causes consumers to find an online peer review helpful to their shopping tasks. Prior research examines mostly the effects of product reviews on consumer product attitude, product choice, and product sales. This paper, however, provides an analysis of the determinants of review helpfulness. In two studies, we examine the effects of review characteristics, product type, and reviewer characteristics on perceived review helpfulness. With data collected from a real online retailer, we provide empirical evidence to support our conceptual predictions. Specifically, both review valence and length have positive effects on review helpfulness, but the product type (i.e., experiential vs. utilitarian product) moderates these effects. Using content analysis of reviews, we develop a measure of expressed reviewer innovativeness (i.e., the predisposition toward new products as revealed in review content). A curvilinear relationship exists between expressed reviewer innovativeness and review helpfulness. These findings lead to pertinent managerial implications.     

The roles of perceived risk,attractiveness of the online store and familiarity with AR in the influence of AR on patronage intention

Augmented reality has raised considerable interest over the last few years. But the questions of its benefits for online retailer is still pending. Research has shown that AR has a positive influence on patronage and purchase behavior intention via hedonic and utilitarian evaluation. The goal of this research is to extend previous works by integrating the mediating roles of perceived risk of buying a product on the online store and of attractiveness of the online store. It is also to study the moderating role of familiarity with AR. Two experiments confirm the crucial role of perceived risk in the influence of AR on patronage intention. Moreover, the more people are familiar with AR, the more AR decreases perceived risk and increases patronage intention.     

Why is Price Dispersion Higher Online than Offline? The Impact of Retailer Type and Shopping Risk on Price Dispersion

When physically similar products, of similar quality, are offered by retailers both online and offline, we often observe that the dispersion in prices of these products online is greater than the price dispersion offline. This observation runs counter to early theories that suggested price dispersion online would be smaller than that offline due to the ease of search and information availability online. This paper investigates and provides an explanation for this puzzling phenomenon by examining the impact of two important drivers of price dispersion: retailer type and consumers’ shopping risk. Retailer type refers to whether a retailer is a pure offline, pure online, or dual channel retailer. Shopping risk is defined as the product of consumers’ perceived risk of shopping and the transaction uncertainty related to shopping at different types of retailers.A game-theoretic approach is adopted to model consumers’ price search and product purchase, as well as price competition within and across retailer types in online and offline markets. Equilibrium pricing strategies are derived for different retailer types competing for different consumer segments with different levels of perceived shopping risk. The impact of retailer type and shopping risk on online versus offline price dispersion are quantified, and conditions when price dispersion is greater online than offline are identified.Results indicate that price dispersion is greater online when the number of pure online retailers is sufficiently large and is increasing in the number of pure online retailers. In addition, a reduction in online shopping risk may actually increase online price dispersion. Results further suggest that even without any online sales, dual channel retailers should maintain their online presence for the purpose of information dissemination, which justifies the importance for pure offline retailer to incorporate webrooming strategies, where consumers can search for prices online but purchase offline.     

Product sales forecasting using online reviews and historical sales data: A method combining the Bass model and sentiment analysis

Online reviews provide consumers with rich information that may reduce their uncertainty regarding purchases. As such, these reviews have a significant influence on product sales. In this paper, a novel method that combines the Bass/Norton model and sentiment analysis while using historical sales data and online review data is developed for product sales forecasting. A sentiment analysis method, the Naive Bayes algorithm, is used to extract the sentiment index from the content of each online review and integrate it into the imitation coefficient of the Bass/Norton model to improve the forecasting accuracy. We collected real-world automotive industry data and related online reviews. The computational results indicate that the combination of the Bass/Norton model and sentiment analysis has higher forecasting accuracy than the standard Bass/Norton model and some other sales forecasting models.     

The impact of text valence,star rating and rated usefulness in online reviews

The influence of text valence, star rating and rated usefulness of online reviews on review readers’ impression of the review and their positive word-of-mouth intention is tested in an experimental study (n = 431). In addition, we investigate the moderating role of review readers’ product category involvement and susceptibility to interpersonal influence on the effect of the three review components. The influence of review text valence on evaluative responses is stronger for more highly involved people and for people who are more susceptible to interpersonal influence. The influence of rated review usefulness on review impression is marginally stronger for people who are more susceptible to interpersonal influence. Star ratings do not influence evaluative responses, and their effect is not moderated by either involvement or susceptibility.     

The ‘online high street’ or the high street online? The implications for the urban retail hierarchy

The U.K. has the greatest proportion of online sales in Europe. This study seeks to explore the differential effects of online retailing on the (evolving) hierarchy of shopping centres by examining current trends and underlying forces. The overall objectives of the paper are to qualify and explore the influence of online retailing in the decision-making processes of leading retailers today; and to assess how virtual influences become manifest in the tangible built environment and have impacted the retail hierarchy? It differentiates online retail trends by sector and retailer size, and examines the consequences for different types of shopping centres. The empirical research is based on the changing location of stores of a major fashion retailer and interviews with three of Britain’s leading retailers that have seen the more substantial increase in online turnover in recent years. Major retailers are found to have integrated online offerings, such as click and collect, into a ‘multi-channel’ retailing approach. Online retailing has therefore become an inherent and central element within large retailers’ business and therefore real estate strategies, with considerations such as online marketplace penetration and possible ‘cannibalisation’ coming to the fore in decision-making about store location. Online retail sales are, to a degree, drawing sales away from shopping centres but its impact on the existing shopping hierarchy is largely to reinforce established long-term trends driven by the motor age and the shift to out of town retailing. This is symbolised by the largest ‘high street’ fashion retailer now having more branches in retail parks than town centres. Out of town shopping centres for example are benefitting because of the ease of goods collection offered by these locations.     

Perceived helpfulness of eWOM: Emotions,fairness and rationality

Consumers use online reviews to help make informed purchase decisions. This paper extends existing research by examining how content of online reviews influences perceptions of helpfulness by demonstrating how different emotions can influence helpfulness of both product and service online reviews beyond a valence-based approach using cognitive appraisal theory and attribution theory. This research contributes to existing knowledge regarding the theory of information processing, attribution theory, and cognitive appraisal theory of emotions. Using findings from this study, practitioners can make review websites more user-friendly which will help readers avoid information overload and make more informed purchase decisions.     

体验型产品在线评论与消费意愿及销量的关系——以价格为调节变量

随着网络在线交易的迅猛发展,在线评论等网络口碑传播的重要性日益凸显。以体验型产品为研究对象,以信号理论和"刺激-反应"理论为指导,建立"在线评论-消费意愿-在线销量"模型分析三个要素之间的关系机理,并采用中介效应检验和调节效应检验进行验证,结果显示:在线评论作为一种信息刺激,其数量对体验型产品在线销量具有显著的正向影响,但在线评论质量效价评分对体验型产品在线销量的影响不显著,这与产品的类型有关;在线评论一是直接对在线销量产生影响,一是通过中介变量(即作为消费意愿替代变量的收藏量)传递影响,对在线销量产生作用;商品价格在在线评论和在线销量的直接和间接关系中都起到了正向调节作用,这与体验型产品交易过程中价格质量信号功能强于促销功能有关。实践中,企业可通过一些激励设计提高消费者在线评论参与度;进行更加科学化的网页设计,完善收藏功能,以方便消费者进行筛选和比较;注意防止盲目降价行为给消费者带来的负面影响,发挥好价格的信号作用。     

Mining the text of online consumer reviews to analyze brand image and brand positioning

The growth of the Internet has led to massive availability of online consumer reviews. So far, papers studying online reviews have mainly analysed how non-textual features, such as ratings and volume, influence different types of consumer behavior, such as information adoption decisions or product choices. However, little attention has been paid to examining the textual aspects of online reviews in order to study brand image and brand positioning. The text analysis of online reviews inevitably raises the concept of “text mining”; that is, the process of extracting useful and meaningful information from unstructured text. This research proposes an unified, structured and easy-to-implement procedure for the text analysis of online reviews with the ultimate goal of studying brand image and brand positioning. The text mining analysis is based on a lexicon-based approach, the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (Pennebaker et al., 2007), which provides the researcher with insights into emotional and psychological brand associations.     

The effect of exclusive distribution on the sales of ready-made meals in online retail

This study examines the impact of exclusive distribution on sales for online retailers and the moderating effects of product assortment (width and depth) and within-category competitive intensity on this relationship. This study used panel data for 3285 ready-made meal products which are newly introduced from August 2018 to August 2021 at a leading online grocery retailer in Korea. The random-effects panel regression was applied to test the proposed model. The results show that exclusive distribution increases sales, and this effect is intensified with greater product depth and greater within-category competitive intensity. These findings provide useful implications for retailers to increase their likelihood of success when adopting an exclusive distribution strategy. This study also contributes to expanding the scope of the literature on the effect of exclusive distribution on sales in the context of online retail.     

Does online observational learning matter? Empirical evidence from panel data

The information presented on a product sales page plays an important role in consumers' purchase decisions. This study examines the persuasive effect, whether a customer's choice is heavily driven by information inferred from others' behavior, and how these impacts are moderated by market age and product type. Results show that online customer choice was significantly affected by historical cumulative sales and times saved. Positive cumulative sales and shop service quality have a significant positive impact on product sales. The times saved have no direct impact on product sales. For different types of products, the times saved of experiential products has a significant impact on product sales, while the shop service quality information of search products has a greater impact on product sales. The influence of online observation learning on product sales will be significantly moderated by a combination of product type and market age. These findings not only offer important theoretical contributions to e-commerce research but also provide practical implications for online sellers and managers of social commerce platforms.     

The power of beauty? The interactive effects of awe and online reviews on purchase intentions

Prior research has established that online consumer reviews can have significant influences on the evaluations of a product or a service. In particular, studies show that negative (vs. positive) reviews lead to unfavorable evaluations because they heighten purchase risk. The present research seeks to examine a contextual cue that can alleviate this potential problem. Across three studies, this research demonstrates how the emotion of awe – elicited by a beautiful product in the advertisement – can reduce the perception of purchase risk, leading to favorable consumer evaluations of a product or service even though it has negative reviews. The implications of this research are beneficial for advertisers by highlighting the potentials of eliciting awe (e.g., by utilizing beauty) in their advertisements.     

Positive emotion bias: Role of emotional content from online customer reviews in purchase decisions

Abundant research has investigated the impact of review valence on purchase decisions, but has reported mixed findings. To reconcile these mixed findings, this study unearths the understanding of review valence from the perspective of the emotional content in online customer reviews. To explore the effect of emotional content on purchase decisions and the moderating role of emotional content on non-emotional content and purchase decisions based on a heuristic-systematic model, a laboratory experiment with 106 subjects was used to empirically test the research hypotheses. The results show that pleasant online customer reviews lead to a higher purchase likelihood compared to unpleasant ones. Perceived credibility and perceived diagnosticity have significant influence on purchase decisions, but only in the context of unpleasant online customer reviews. The findings demonstrate positive emotion bias for online customer reviews, and carry important practical implications for both sellers and customers.     

网络口碑如何促进购买意愿？——基于消费者鼓舞的被调节中介模型

网络口碑引导了消费,然而对于网络口碑影响消费者心理和行为的机制研究仍缺乏明确结论。文章以消费者鼓舞为切入点,基于SOR理论和精细处理可能性模型,构建出一个有调节的中介模型,揭示了不同口碑成分对于消费者鼓舞和购买意愿的影响作用与中介机制,以及产品类型作为边界条件形成的差异。实证检验表明,网络口碑的偏向和评分对消费者鼓舞具有正向作用,但是网络口碑数量的影响却不显著。其次,消费者鼓舞在网络口碑对消费者购买意愿的影响中起到了中介作用。同时这种中介作用受到了产品类型的调节,相对非体验性产品而言,体验性产品的网络口碑会产生更强的消费者鼓舞与购买意愿,以及更强的中介作用。最后,实验结果检验和排除了信任对于消费者鼓舞的替代性解释。文章拓展了网络口碑的研究视角,为企业有针对性地完善口碑管理提供了理论基础和实践启示。