Impact of electronic word on mouth on consumer behaviour and brand image

Abstract

With the advancement of internet, the style of shopping has changed among consumers. The technological advancements like smart phone and 4G internet have opened new avenues for online shopping. The consumers are shifting their purchases from offline to online mode using Electronic commerce. Today's consumer makes an informed decision by analyzing the consumer reviews written by users of the product on forums, websites and other social media channels, popularly known as eWOM (electronic word of mouth). In previous studies, eWOM has significantly found to impact sales but no study was conducted in the field of examining the impact of ewom on young consumers for a known clothing brand. This paper addresses the gap and intent to measure the impact of electronic word of mouth on the consumers’ purchase intention towards a known clothing brand and how this intention is affected by brand image and electronic word of mouth. The data was collected from undergraduate students and was analysed using PLS-SEM. The results indicate that the electronic word of mouth significantly impacts the brand image but has less direct impact on purchase intention. Brand image was found to impact purchase intention of consumers. The results will help the marketers to understand the consumer psychology and help them in designing the methods to engage consumers leading to brand commitment.