Does sampling influence customers in online retailing of digital music?

This paper investigates the strategic decisions of online vendors for offering different mechanism, such as sampling and online reviews of information products, to increase their online sales. Focusing on measuring the effectiveness of electronic market design (offering reviews, sampling, or both), our study shows that online markets behavior as communication markets, and consumers learn product quality information both passively (reading online reviews) and actively but subjectively (listening to music sampling). Using data from Amazon, first we show that sampling along is a strong product quality signal that reduces the product uncertainty after controlling for halo effect. In general, products with sampling option enjoy a higher conversion rate (which leads to better sales) than those without sampling because sampling decreases the uncertainty of consuming experience goods. Second, the impact of online reviews on sales conversion rate is lower for experience goods with a sampling option than those without. Third, when the uncertainty of the societal reviews is higher, sampling plays a more important role because it mitigates such uncertainty introduced by online reviews.

Purpose: This study aims to explore and analyse how online product reviews influence the purchase decisions of consumers in Palayamkottai. With the rapid growth of e-commerce and digital platforms, online reviews have become crucial sources of information for potential buyers. This study aims to understand the extent to which these reviews affect consumer behavior, trust, and final buying decisions within the local context of Palayamkottai. This study examined the level of awareness and reliance on online product reviews among consumers in Palayamkottai. This study helps assess whether demographic variables such as age, gender, income, and education moderate the impact of online reviews on purchase decisions. This study provides insights for online retailers and marketers on how to leverage product reviews to improve consumer trust and increase sales in the region.Methodology: This study adopts a descriptive research design to analyse the impact of online customer reviews on purchase decisions. It is based on subjectivity rather than objectivity, process-oriented rather than results-oriented, and content-oriented rather than results-oriented. The impact of online reviews is involved, and the situation is based on experience formation. A questionnaire was created to collect the required data, which were accumulated efficiently. Both primary and secondary data were used in this study. Convenient sampling was used to collect data and examine the impact of online reviews of customers on purchase decisions. The sample size of the study was 77. A convenient sampling method was used to select a sample of 77 respondents for the study. Statistical tools used for this study are simple percentage analysis, weighted average method, Garrett’s ranking method , one sample t test, t test and ANOVAFindings: Respondents’ opinions on the level of satisfaction with online reviews are not equal to the average level. Specifically, the mean scores for helpfulness, accuracy, and reliability of online reviews were above average, whereas the mean scores for availability and overall impact of online reviews were below average. This suggests that respondents are generally satisfied with the quality of online reviews but are less satisfied with their availability and overall impact, highlighting the need for businesses to improve these aspects to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. There was no significant difference between male and female respondents regarding the factors that influence their purchase decisions using online reviews. The p-values for all statements were greater than 0.05, suggesting that the differences between male and female respondents were not statistically significant. There were no significant differences among the age groups regarding the factors that influence respondents’ purchase decisions using online reviews. The p-values for all statements were greater than 0.05, suggesting that the differences among the age groups were not statistically significant. This implies that respondents across different age groups are influenced by similar factors, such as authenticity and trust, overall rating and trends, and detailed feedback, when making purchase decisions using online reviews, highlighting the similarities in decision-making processes among age groups.Future research Direction: This study is limited to Palayamkottai in the Tirunelveli district, India, and focuses on online shoppers in this region. It explores the impact of online reviews on purchase decisions for various products, including electronics, clothing, groceries, and beauty products. This study examined online reviews from multiple sources, such as e-commerce platforms, social media, and review sites, providing a snapshot of online shoppers’ behaviour and attitudes at a particular point in time. Therefore, the findings may not be generalisable to other regions, populations, or contexts.

Purpose - The primary aim of this research is to explore the differential impact of online hotel reviews on the perceived attractiveness of hotel, with a focus on identifying any variances between genders. It seeks to contribute to the understanding of consumer behavior in the digital age, especially how men and women differently interpret and react to online reviews. Design - Employing a quantitative research design, this study systematically investigates the change in hotel attractiveness perceptions before and after the exposure to online reviews among a sample of male and female participants. The participants were first asked to rate the attractiveness of a one hotel based solely on set of six photographs. Subsequently, they were exposed to online reviews of the same hotel, after which they re-evaluated their perceptions of attractiveness. These repeated measures design allowed for the examination of within-subject changes in perceptions, as well as the interactions between gender and review exposure. Findings - The analysis revealed statistically significant changes in the perceived attractiveness of hotel after reading online reviews, with these changes being more pronounced among male participants compared to female participants. Specifically, both genders exhibited an increase in perceived attractiveness post-review exposure, but the magnitude of change was significantly higher for men. Additionally, the study identified a significant interaction effect between gender and the impact of online reviews, indicating that the influence of reviews on perceived attractiveness is moderated by gender. These findings underscore the potent role of online reviews in shaping consumer perceptions and highlight gender differences in processing this information. Originality - This research contributes to the existing body of literature by specifically addressing the gender differences in the impact of online reviews on perceived attractiveness of hotel. While previous studies have examined the influence of online reviews on consumer behaviors and decision-making, the explicit focus on gender as a moderating factor offers novel insights. This study not only adds to our understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying the processing of online reviews but also provides practical implications for marketers and hotel managers in crafting gender-sensitive strategies.

In this era of digitisation, individuals purposely engage in buying online, which is the process of procuring goods and services from merchants who sell on the web medium. Such e-commerce platforms ensure that shoppers can visit the online stores from the comfort of their homes and shop even when they are commuting. From the buyer's point of view, e-commerce aids in providing a plethora of tangible advantages. Namely, time reduction during product scanning, enhanced buyer decisions, time saved during invoicing, handling order inconsistencies and finally facilitating wider product choice. Conversely, conceptual development and empirical evidence in this field of research are still limited, which greatly deter us from understanding the impact parameters of online reviews. Online consumer reviews provide product-related information and product recommendations from the customer perspective. An important function of online reviews is also to considerably minimise the risk and uncertainty that online shoppers perceive prior to the product purchase. Word of Mouth (WOM) is the traditional mode of communication for sharing opinion and comments regarding a product or service. With the advent of web-based technology, WOM has evolved into an entirely new form of communication that exploits modern technology and impacts consumer opinion. Online consumer reviews constitute a type of electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) which consists of analysis, comment, reviews or experiences of products and/or services generated and posted online by customers. Online shoppers undertake the review of other shopper's comments and experiences before making a purchase decision. When the perceived risk though online shopping is high, the online reviews act as a substantial source of consumer confidence and aids in purchase decision. This paper aims at studying the impact of factors related to e-WOM, which act as stimuli thereby enhancing learning and formation of consumer attitude leading to online purchase decisions.

Purpose : The online shopping sector in Kenya is still not well developed and online commercial activities contribute to just over 1% of Kenya’s GDP. Kenya’s rate of online shopping is 23% and currently lags behind the global rate of online shopping which is 59%. The different level of development in online shopping between Kenya and other developed economies shows that the sector still has a long way to go in Kenya. Online shops face competition from the conventional ‘brick-and-mortar’ stores and supermarkets. In order to deal with the competition most online shops market their products using internet marketing, which is defined as advertising of a company’s products or services over the internet with the view of increasing profits or market share. Market share is the percentage of an industry acquired by a company during a certain period of time. This study aimed to establish the influence of internet marketing strategies on the market share of online shops in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were: to determine the influence of website design strategies on the market share of online shops in Nairobi County in Kenya; to establish the influence of content marketing strategies on the market share of online shops in Nairobi County in Kenya; to assess the influence of affiliate marketing strategies on the market share of online shops in Nairobi County in Kenya and to establish the influence of social media marketing strategies on the market share of online shops in Nairobi County in Kenya. Methodology: This study adopted descriptive research design. The study covered 68 respondents drawn from a population of 34 online shops operating within Nairobi County, with an average of 2 respondents selected per organization. The study relied on data collected using a questionnaire comprising of both open-ended and close-ended questions, structured to meet the objectives of the study. The data was analyzed using inferential statistics by means of Statistical Packages for Social Sciences version 20. Results: The results indicated a P-value of 0.0002, which is less than 0.05 against all the variables in the study. This indicated that website design marketing strategies, content marketing strategies, affiliate marketing strategies and social media marketing strategies had a significant influence on the market share of online shops in Nairobi County. The study revealed a positive correlation between website design and market share with a correlation coefficient of 0.015, a positive correlation between content marketing and market share with a correlation coefficient of 0.163, a positive correlation between affiliate marketing and market share with a correlation coefficient of 0.057, and a positive correlation between social media marketing and market share with a correlation coefficient of 0.923. The study concluded that social media marketing strategies contributed the most to the overall market share of online shops in Nairobi, followed by content marketing strategies, affiliate marketing strategies and finally website design marketing strategies. Unique contribution to policy and practice: The study recommended that online shops needed to come up with an internet marketing mix that incorporated all the different strategies given that the respondents gave varied views on which internet marketing strategies were more influential. The County governments were encouraged to look into ways of making internet connectivity more affordable since most online shops indicated unreliable and expensive internet as a challenge when trying to conduct internet marketing. The ‘brick-and-mortar’ shops that were not making a profit were also urged to consider the online business model. Retail customers were advised to be willing to accept change and embrace online shopping.

Online retail sector in India has witnessed a phenomenal growth in recent times. Online shopping has also become a popular trend among the younger generation in India. Increasing number of shoppers visit online retailer websites and read online reviews before making their purchase decision. The online reviews or electronic word of mouth (eWOM) becomes an important guiding tool for the online shoppers with its intrinsic product information and evaluation characteristics. The present study aims to analyze the effects of various eWOM antecedents on online sales by considering the effects of positive and mixed-neutral eWOM (MNWOM) valence (stimuli) on sales. It also explores the role of market-level eWOM factors, such as price, on online sales of security products like antivirus software. The confirmatory bias of these factors was noted, while the elaboration likelihood model (ELL) has been used to understand the relative importance of these factors in influencing customers’ purchase decision and sales. Further, a content analysis method supplemented by a multiple regression method was used to analyze 205 real-time online sales (reviews from verified purchasers) data pertaining to popular and top-selling antivirus products taken from two leading e-commerce websites. The study contributes as a pioneering effort in the domain with the use of innovative methodology of capturing real-time online data with a subsequent kappa statistics validation. The results showed a new insightful perspective of eWOM valence and price on sales, and provided further research directions.

The trend of shopping in the minds of the customer is changing frequently. At present shopping practice transformed from traditional way to online shopping , which enables the customer to buy the product as per their requirement without any constraints of time , place payment method, brand and product types. Online shopping have created an huge impact on customer buying behaviour because of this 4 factors i.e on source credibility, volume, language with comprehension and relevance. Earlier the majority of the customers were depend on word of mouth method to collect information regarding product which was influencing their buying decisions. But now because of e-commerce, online shopping majorly online customer review format, played an important role in influencing customer 's buying decisions. To fill the research gap we have collected data through questionnaire from the customers those who do online shopping. For effective research outcome both primary data and secondary data is used. Primary data collected through structured questionnaire. This research paper is based on critical examination of the study which reflected the result as per the objectives . The study was mainly focused on the impact of online reviews towards customer buying decisions. through this study it is realised that majority of the public are influenced by online reviews for all types of the products and at present online reviews are creating huge impact towards customer buying behaviour . KEY WORDS: Online shopping , Online review, Word of mouth, Customer buying decisions

Purpose: The online shopping sector in Kenya is still not well developed and online commercial activities contribute to just over 1% of Kenya’s GDP. Kenya’s rate of online shopping is 23% and currently lags behind the global rate of online shopping which is 59%. The different level of development in online shopping between Kenya and other developed economies shows that the sector still has a long way to go in Kenya. Online shops face competition from the conventional ‘brick-and-mortar’ stores and supermarkets. In order to deal with the competition most online shops market their products using internet marketing, which is defined as advertising of a company’s products or services over the internet with the view of increasing profits or market share. Market share is the percentage of an industry acquired by a company during a certain period of time. This study aimed to establish the influence of internet marketing strategies on the market share of online shops in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were: to determine the influence of website design strategies on the market share of online shops in Nairobi County in Kenya; to establish the influence of content marketing strategies on the market share of online shops in Nairobi County in Kenya; to assess the influence of affiliate marketing strategies on the market share of online shops in Nairobi County in Kenya and to establish the influence of social media marketing strategies on the market share of online shops in Nairobi County in Kenya. 
 Methodology: This study adopted descriptive research design. The study covered 68 respondents drawn from a population of 34 online shops operating within Nairobi County, with an average of 2 respondents selected per organization. The study relied on data collected using a questionnaire comprising of both open-ended and close-ended questions, structured to meet the objectives of the study. The data was analyzed using inferential statistics by means of Statistical Packages for Social Sciences version 20. 
 Results: The results indicated a P-value of 0.0002, which is less than 0.05 against all the variables in the study. This indicated that website design marketing strategies, content marketing strategies, affiliate marketing strategies and social media marketing strategies had a significant influence on the market share of online shops in Nairobi County. The study revealed a positive correlation between website design and market share with a correlation coefficient of 0.015, a positive correlation between content marketing and market share with a correlation coefficient of 0.163, a positive correlation between affiliate marketing and market share with a correlation coefficient of 0.057, and a positive correlation between social media marketing and market share with a correlation coefficient of 0.923. The study concluded that social media marketing strategies contributed the most to the overall market share of online shops in Nairobi, followed by content marketing strategies, affiliate marketing strategies and finally website design marketing strategies. 
 Unique Contribution to Theory and Practice: The study recommended that online shops needed to come up with an internet marketing mix that incorporated all the different strategies given that the respondents gave varied views on which internet marketing strategies were more influential. The County governments were encouraged to look into ways of making internet connectivity more affordable since most online shops indicated unreliable and expensive internet as a challenge when trying to conduct internet marketing. The ‘brick-and-mortar’ shops that were not making a profit were also urged to consider the online business model. Retail customers were advised to be willing to accept change and embrace online shopping.
 Keywords: Website design strategies Content marketing strategies, Affiliate marketing strategies, Social media marketing strategies and Market share.

In recent years, with the significantly increasing impact of online reviews (a form of word-of-mouth) on consumer purchase decision, clarifying how this kind of information source influences consumer behaviors(usually represented by sales) have been exposed to more attentions in business and academic research fields. Differing from most existing studies which statically analyze relations between online reviews and sales with cross-section data, this paper, based on the movie industry context, employs panel data to dynamically explore the differences of the relationship between online reviews (mainly Volume and Valence) and movie box office revenues at moviespsila different life stages. Meanwhile, this paper further comparatively analyzes the variances of impacts of three information sources (including online reviews, critic reviews and movie production budgets) on movie box offices. Results show that, in panel data environment, the impacts of Volume and Valence of online reviews on movie box office revenues are varying and even mixed for moviespsila different life stages. The effects of Volume and Valence of online reviews on box offices are both insignificant in the movie opening week, while the other two information sources critic reviews and movie production budgets show positive influences on box offices, especially critic reviews exerting stronger impact. From the second week, the positive impact of online reviews Volume becomes significant, but the power of this effect declines in the following weeks. Our results also show that online reviews Valence positively impacts box offices in the third and fourth week, furthermore, the impact power exceeds the other two information sources.

Online hotel reviews is an important source for customers to find out the products and service quality. Online hotel reviews consist of reviews and ratings. The best online reviews website in TripAdvisor. In this era, online reviews are really important and could affect customer preferences in choosing a hotel. The aim of this research is to analyze in what extent do online reviews and ratings affect customer preferences. This study use survey by distributing a total of 100 questionnaires in order to gain the data. Then, the data will be proceed through SPSS to test the validity, reliability, classical assumption, and multiple regression analysis. The results indicatedthat both of the variables (online reviews and ratings) positively impact customer preferences in choosing a hotel. However, online reviews has a bigger impact towards customer preferences rather than online ratings. It is recommended for TripAdvisor to weed out the fake reviews and guarantee the trustworthy reviews. For the hotel managers, it is recommended to response both, positive and negative reviews that made by customers in TripAdvisor, because it could change someone’s perceptions into the good feeling of the hotel.

PurposeBecause online shopping is risky, there is a strong need to develop better presentation of online reviews, which may reduce the perceived risk and create more pleasurable shopping experiences. To test the impact of online reviews’ sentiment polarity presentation, the purpose of this paper is to adopt a scenario experiment to study consumers’ decision-making process under the two scenarios of mixed presentation and classified presentation of online reviews collected from Jingdong.com in China: focusing on the comparative analysis on the differences of the consumers’ perceived risk, purchase intention and purchase delay, and further studying the interaction effect of involvement and online reviews’ sentiment polarity presentation.Design/methodology/approachThis paper employed a 2×2 factorial experiment to test the hypothesis. The experimental design is divided into four groups: 2 (online reviews’ sentiment polarity presentation: mixed presentation vs classified presentation) × 2 (involvement: low vs high), each of which contains 90 samples. Through the data analysis, the main effect, mediation effect and moderating effect were examined.FindingsThe results show that compared with mixed presentation, classified presentation can reduce purchase intention and increase purchase delay due to the existence of loss aversion and availability heuristic. Furthermore, the paper also confirms that there is a significant interaction effect between involvement and online reviews’ sentiment polarity presentation.Originality/valueThe existing research pays less attention to the impact of online reviews presentation on consumers’ decision making, especially the lack of discussion on the interaction effect between involvement and online reviews presentation. For this reason, this paper proposes a problem, which concerns whether mixed presentation and classified presentation of online reviews will affect consumers’ decision making differently.

This study investigates the impact of online reviews on brand reputation and customer purchase behavior within the digital commerce landscape. Recognizing the critical role of online customer evaluations in shaping consumer perceptions and decisions, the research synthesizes empirical findings, theoretical insights, and practical observations to explore the dynamics between online reviews, brand reputation, and purchasing actions. Utilizing a quantitative approach, the study employs surveys based on a purposive sampling strategy to collect data from 100 participants, assessing their opinions on online reviews' influence on their purchasing decisions through a Likert-scale questionnaire. Analysis of the data through frequency distribution, descriptive, and inferential statistics reveals significant insights into how online reviews affect consumer behavior and brand perception. The findings highlight a pronounced reliance on online reviews among consumers, with positive reviews significantly enhancing the likelihood of purchases. Age and gender emerge as notable demographic factors influencing the impact of reviews, with younger and female respondents showing greater receptiveness to online evaluations. Despite the study's contributions to understanding online review impacts, it acknowledges limitations such as potential response bias and suggests future research could benefit from a mixed-methods approach for deeper insights. This research enriches the discourse on digital marketing strategies by emphasizing the importance of managing online reviews to bolster brand reputation and stimulate consumer purchase behavior.

Inconsistent online reviews are the norm in online shopping. However, platform merchants often believe that inconsistent online reviews have a negative impact on sales. They delete or hide negative reviews in pursuit of consistent praise. So, do inconsistent online reviews really reduce sales? In view of this, this study explores the impact of inconsistent online reviews on the sales of platform merchants based on the stimuli-organism-response (S-O-R) theory and service remediation theory, as well as its mechanism and boundary conditions. And using 5,487 crawler data and 447 questionnaire data, employing both ordinary least squares (OLS) model for empirical analysis. Moreover, in order to verify the robustness of the empirical results comprehensively and rigorously, four methods of changing the measurement model, adjusting the sample size, changing the data source and transforming the assignment were used to carry out the robustness test. The results show that the inconsistent online reviews have a significant inverted U-shaped effect on the sales of platform merchants. Brand image plays a significant mediating role in the influence of inconsistent online reviews on consumers’ purchase intention. And peer response conflict has a significant moderating effect on the impact of online review inconsistency on consumers’ purchase intention. Therefore, platform merchants should take a rational and open attitude towards inconsistent online reviews. In addition, platform merchants can adopt intelligent management methods for online reviews, pay attention to the shaping and strengthening of brand image, and pay attention to peer effect through social marketing, so as to maximize the benefits brought by the inconsistency of online reviews and minimize the potential negative impact of the inconsistency.

Measuring the impact of online reviews on consumer purchase decisions – A scale development study

As E-Commerce becomes a trend and habit in people's lives, online reviews have become a useful marketing tool and important factor of business success. Based on recent research, this paper categorizes experience products into popular and less popular classes, and makes an empirical study on online reviews on sales for different popularity products. Through collecting data on dangdang.com, and linear regression and empirical analysis, this paper gets the conclusion that comparing to popular products, less popular products' sales were more easily affected by online reviews. The B2C companies could optimize their marketing strategy by encouraging users to remark more on less popular goods. On the other hand, this paper contributes to the online review area on the idea of categorizing products and making analysis respectively.