Business Research Methodology Effect of online reviews on consumer purchase behavior.

1. Effect of Online Reviews on
Consumer Purchase Behaviour
Sadiah, Sidra Khan
School of Management and Business Studies, Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi, India.
Email: ​sadiah.ahmd@gmail.com
1.ABSTRACT
In order to understand the effect of online reviews on consumer purchase
behavior,online survey has been done. Based on S-O-R model
(Stimulus-Organism-Response Model), this paper studies the influence on
consumer purchase behavior according to online reviews of experience
goods from a new perspective of consumer learning. The statistical results
show that the positive reviews, describing rating, picture reviews, appended
reviews and cumulative reviews have an effect on consumer purchase
behavior. The moderate reviews, negative reviews, logistics rating and
service rating are not significant in the results. Finally, this paper puts
forward suggestions and summary.
2. INTRODUCTION
Customers are accustomed to use online reviews in-formation as a basis to
judge whether they want to purchase a product or not before making a
purchase from an e-commerce website. After consumers buy it, they will
post their own comments of the commodity in the e-commerce sites. In
recent years, the study of online reviews discuss usefulness and credibility
mainly.There are several definitions of online reviews varying from scholar
to scholar. Positive and negative reviews of the products that have been
sold on the online shopping mall are the online reviews believes Park and
Lee​.
Online reviews are evaluation information of products and service pasted
on third-party sites and retailers, created by the consumers explains
Mudambi and Schuff . This paper believes that online reviews are
evaluation information about the different aspects of consumer products.

2. Consumers can infer the quality of goods according to the reviews and
experience, to reduce personal time and the risk of purchase.
(​Mo, Z. et al,2015)
A new generation of online tools, applications and approaches,such as
blogs, social networking sites,online communities and customer review
sites, commonly referred to as Web 2.0​(Constantinides & Fountain,
2008) have transformed the internet from a “broadcasting” medium to an
interactive” one allowing the wide technology-mediated social participation
(Chua & Banerjee, 2015)​. Facilitation of the “social” customer electronic
word of mouth (eWOM) , customer information and empowerment are the
main functions of the internet. ​(Constantinides & Fountain, 2008)​. ​A
fundamental element of the social eWOM is the Customer Generated
Content or CGC ​(Huang & Benyoucef, 2012)​. Through CGC individuals
share opinions and experiences on companies, brands, products or services
and create large-scale word of mouth networks. This way consumers can
make their personal opinions easily accessible to global communities or
individual peers who use the information as an extra factor supporting their
purchasing decisions ​(Dellarocas, 2003)​. Free and easy access to such
information has weakened the power of marketing communication;
Information provided by companies matters less than that of online peers .
(Constantinides & Fountain, 2008).
Understanding how people make online purchasing decisions is of growing
importance. With an increase of 19.9% in 2016 and a forecasted growth of
17.5% for 2017, global business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce is now
accounting for 8.7% of retail sales worldwide. Overall, e-commerce is still
dominated by younger and middle-aged consumers, but older consumers
(55-year-old and older) are increasingly buying goods or services online . So
far most research has focused on younger adults, leaving it unclear how
older adults deal with the challenges involved in online consumer decisions
(Bettina Von Helversen et al,2018)

3. 3. Literature Review
Former research has empirically validated the impact of eWOM on
consumer purchasing decisions. More specifically, online consumer reviews
on products or services significantly influence consumers’ attitude or
behavior toward a purchasing decision business sales and profitability . The
reputation of a product, brand or company which can be seen as a summary
of companies past customer experiences, customer perceptions and
business actions, is reflected on or shaped by reviews and forms usually a
strong basis for purchasing decisions.​(Nina Isabel Holleschovsky et al
(2016),
Smita Dayal (2016), suggests that, firms apply social media in the areas of
social marketing, social customer relationship management and new
business models. Social media is a fundamental change in how the way
firms operate and interact with prospects, customers, employees and othe​r
stakeholders. Consumer purchase behaviour can be influenced by online
reviews, where various factors like positive reviews, description rating,
picture reviews, additional reviews and cumulative reviews have more and
positive impact on consumer behaviour ​(C.Surendhranatha Reddy et
al,2017)
Consumer decision making to purchase products based on online reviews
will be influenced by online product reviews and online product ratings as
they both differ in concept (Georg Lackermair et.al. 2013). Vimaladevi and
Dhanabhakaym (2012) examined that there were significant effects of
online reviews on buyers’ purchase frequency and buyers’ purchase
decision.
Consumers depend, to some extent, on social networks as they can interact
with other consumers and retailers. Consumers also involved in online
word of mouth communications to help other consumers (Ayda Darban and
Wei Li 2012). Online product reviews and ratings are having influence on
consumer purchase decision as they form the basis for influencing
psychological and social characteristics of consumers. Consistency of
website reviews, characteristics of reviews, usefulness of reviews and
reliability of site have positive influence on consumer purchase decision as
found in the study made by Ali and Murat (2011).

4. A literature review that centered on user and expert reviews across three
product categories: sellers, products, and experiential products was
conducted. The research was found in economic journals, marketing texts,
and human computer interaction studies. The majority of the research cited
has attempted to draw conclusions on the effects of expert or user reviews
on a product’s price and probability of a sale.
4. METHODOLOGY
The empirical data necessary for the study was collected by means of an online survey.
The structure was based on five point Likert scale type questions, on frequency and
closed questions including polar questions as well multiple response questions; the
answers of the questionnaire were anonymous. The survey population was 100
respondents, with 85% of fully filled-in lists so the effective sample size was 85
responses. Convenience sampling was applied the survey was administered through
email and online.
4.1 OBJECTIVE
● To assess the ​impact of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), the
online​ consumer ​review, on purchasing ​decision of people..
● To study the impact of average consumer ratings and single
emotional reviews.
● To study the Influence of consumer reviews on online purchasing
decisions in older people

5. 5. SURVEY ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Chapter - 1
Age group of the respondents
S.No. Age Percentage
1 Less than 18 32.3
2 19-25 1.8
3 26-40 3.3
4 41 and above 62.6
Interpretation
● The above pie chart shows the number of respondents with respect to
their ages. The highest number of respondents fall in the category of
61 and above while the lowest in 26-40 years of age.

6. Chapter-2
Occupation of the respondents
S.No. Particulars
No. Of
Respondents
Percentage
1 Students 49 50
2 Self Employed 7 7.1
3 Employed 30 29.6
4 Unemployed 12 12.2
5 Others 1 1.1
Interpretation

7. ● The above pie chart shows the number of respondents as per the
occupation. The Questionnaire filled by the students is 50% (highest)
while that filled by others is 1.1% (least).
Chapter -3
S.no
Particulars %ge
1
Extremely helpful 40.8
2
Somewhat helpful
52
3 Less helpful 3
4 Not at all helpful 7
Interpretation

8. ● The above pie chart shows how helpful customer reviews have been to
the respondents until now. 52% says it has been extremely helpful
while only 3% says it is Less helpful.
S.no Platforms %ge
1 Retailing Websites 71.1
2 Independent platforms 33
3 Video Platforms 43.3
4 Personal 18.6
5 Others 11.3

9. Interpretation
The above graph gives us the information about which platform do the
respondents often use to get the reviews. As high as 72% people voted for
Retailing websites like Amazon, while only 12% chose others.
6.CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The study confirms that reviews are highly popular among consumers
considering a purchase: 98 % of the sample population check reviews and
60% do this often or quite often. However, online reviews influence
consumer purchasing decisions only when consumers’ reliance on online
reviews is sufficiently high when they make purchase decisions. Consumers’
reliance on reviews is dependent on and influenced by the format
characteristics of the review and the online review system design (Zhu &
Zhang, 2010)
The conclusion of this paper can help consumers make decisions quickly
based on online reviews in a short time. It can also help sellers to grab the
importance of online reviews, correct deficiencies timely and provide a
reference for the adjustment of marketing strategy.

10. 7.REFERENCES
1. Mo, Z., Li, Y.-F. and Fan, P. (2015) “Effect of Online Reviews on Consumer
Purchase Behavior”,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281336246_Effect_of_Online_Revie
ws_on_Consumer_Purchase_Behavior
2. Nina Isabel Holleschovsky, Efthymios Constantinides, (2016), “​Impact of Online
Product Reviews on Purchasing Decisions”
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/302973824_Impact_of_Online_Produc
t_Reviews_on_Purchasing_Decisions​ ,2-3
3. C.Surendhranatha Reddy And Dr.Guru Basava Aradhya(2017) “Impact of Online
Consumer Reviews on Consumer Purchase Decision in Bangalore”,
http://www.ijaprr.com/download/issue/Volume_IV/Issue_III/143_Volume_IV_Iss
ue_III_01-07_C_Surendhranatha.pdf​, 2
4. Bettina Von Helversen,Katarzyna Abramczuck, Wiesław Kopeć,Radoslaw Nielek
(2018) “​Influence of consumer reviews on online purchasing decisions in older
and younger adults”,
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167923618300861​, 1-2.
5. Lisa Hankin, (2018) “The Effects of User Reviews on Online Purchasing Behavior
across Multiple Product Categories”
https://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/lhankin_report.pdf​,7

11. 8.APPENDIX
8.1 ​Link of the survey
8.2 QUESTIONNAIRE
Thesis 2019
The two of us are currently writing our thesis and need your help! It would be amazing if
you could fill in our questionnaire and thereby become a part of our research.Every
single response makes a big difference for us. We would be so greatful. All responses are
handled anonymously and confidentially.
Sadiah & Sidra
Q.1 Age.
● Less than 18
● 19-25
● 26-40
● 41 years and above
Q.2 Gender.
● Male
● Female
● Others
Q.3 Education
● Less than a high school diploma
● High school degree or equivalent
● Bachelor’s degree
● Master’s degree
● Professional degree
Q.4 Occupation
● Student
● Self-employed
● Employed
● Unemployed
● Others
Q.5 Income (monthly)
● Less than 5000

12. ● Between 5000 to 10000
● 10000 above
Q.6 Which social media platform do you use?(Multiple options are possible)
● Facebook
● Instagram
● Twitter
● Linkedin
● Youtube
● Pinterest
● Blogs
● Others
Q.7 Have you ever checked online customer reviews/opinion before purchasing a
product?
● Yes
● No
Q.8 How often are you checking online customer reviews before purchasing a product?
● Never
● Rarely
● Sometimes
● Quite often
● Very often
Q.9 How helpful customer reviews have been to you uptill now?
● Extremely helpful
● Somewhat helpful
● Less helpful
● Not helpful at all
Q.10 When looking for product reviews which platforms do you mostly choose? Multiple
answers are possible.
● Retailing websites (e.g. Amazon)
● Independent reviewing platforms (e.g. Tripadvisor.com)
● Video platforms (eg. YouTube)
● Personal (reviewing) (e.g. blogs)
● Others
Q.11 Please choose the website below which you would check for reviews as a basis of
your product buying decision. (Example purchase: Iphone)
● Amazon
● YouTube
● Blog

13. Q.12 What kind of online reviews do you use a basis of your buying decision?
● Qualitative (written description or video)
● Quantitative ( a scale/ star rating)
Q.13 What kind of review do you consider as more credible?
● Qualitative
● Quantitative
Q.14 Media support (photo/video) make a review more..? (Multiple answers possible)
● Credible
● User-friendly
● None of the above
Q.15 Does a review appear more credible to you when the when a detailed profile/
identity of the user who has created the review is visible to you?
● Yes
● No