Online Review Influence on the Retail Industry

Studies on online reviews and ratings of physicians by patients have so far been conducted only in the context of developed countries. Therefore, this study aims to identify popular Physicians Rating Websites (PRWs), study their characteristics and report prevalence, nature and distribution of online ratings and reviews in the context of a developing country (Pakistan). Most popular PRWs were identified and ratings and reviews were scraped using Link Klipper extension and Octoparse software. Scrapped data were then analyzed. Websites and their apps were explored and also a psychologist having profiles, ratings and reviews on chosen websites was also interviewed. Two PRWs (marham.pk and oladoc.com) are popular in Pakistan with an Alexa rank of less than 1000 in Pakistan at the time of the study, indicating high popularity. Oladoc has more profiles (15,069) as compared to Marham. However, it has less number of profiles with quantitative and narrative reviews, 23% and 11% as compared to 45% and 30.6% of Marham. Average ratings per rated doctor and average number of reviews per doctor are also greater on oladoc as compared to marham (66.32 and 22.93 as compared to 31.72 and 15.77), respectively. By removing profiles rated on both sites, there are 6,446 unique profiles on both sites which have received at least one rating which has been estimated to be about 3% of the doctors serving the country. It is concluded that online reviews and ratings of physicians is a new but increasing phenomenon. Many of the trends are issues in online ratings and reviews are same as those in the developed countries. As online reviews and ratings increase, the need to ensure objectivity and accuracy as well as user education will also increase, for which government bodies, professional associations of doctors and owners of PRWs will need to collaborate.

Do Online Reviews Affect Product Sales? The Role of Reviewer Characteristics and Temporal Effects

Online product reviews provided by consumers who previously purchased products have become a major information source for consumers and marketers regarding product quality. This study extends previous research by conducting a more compelling test of the effect of online reviews on sales. In particular, we consider both quantitative and qualitative aspects of online reviews, such as reviewer quality, reviewer exposure, product coverage, and temporal effects. Using transaction cost economics and uncertainty reduction theories, this study adopts a portfolio approach to assess the effectiveness of the online review market. We show that consumers understand the value difference between favorable news and unfavorable news and respond accordingly. Furthermore, when consumers read online reviews, they pay attention not only to review scores but to other contextual information such as a reviewer’s reputation and reviewer exposure. The market responds more favorably to reviews written by reviewers with better reputation and higher exposure. Finally, we demonstrate that the impact of online reviews on sales diminishes over time. This suggests that firms need not provide incentives for customers to write reviews beyond a certain time period after products have been released.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between five characteristics of social shoppers’ online reviews (the number of all reviews made by a reviewer, the number of friends of a reviewer, the review score, the number of review words, and images/photos) and the usefulness, funniness, and coolness to viewers for the restaurant businesses and the health and wellness businesses.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 1,114 online reviews of social shoppers was collected from Yelp.com. A zero-inflated Poisson regression was used due to a high number of zero votes in the dependent variables for usefulness, funniness, and coolness. The regression identified the review characteristics that are strongly associated with the number of usefulness, funniness, and coolness votes made by viewers.FindingsThe analysis shows that for the health and wellness businesses, all three dependent variables (usefulness, funniness, and coolness) have the number of reviews, the number of friends, and the number of words as significant independent variables. The results indicate that a reviewer who has more friends and is more experienced in giving reviews is likely to be more influential in generating a perceived value of the online review. The analysis also shows that all three dependent variables of the restaurant businesses have the number of words as a significant independent variable. It is found that there is a negative relationship between the review score and the usefulness votes for both restaurant businesses and health and wellness businesses. The effect of the review score on the coolness votes was not consistent.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is the first research attempt in understanding social shoppers’ online reviews and their usefulness, funniness, and coolness to viewers, and therefore makes significant contributions to research and practice. The comparison was made between restaurant businesses and health and wellness businesses. The result indicates that for the health and wellness businesses, managers need to pay attention to social shoppers with a high number of friends and high number of words in a review. It is also noted that it is necessary to analyze review characteristics separately for each business type. However, as is typical in many empirical studies, this study is not without limitations. While the author limited the analysis of social shoppers’ online reviews to the five characteristics, additional variables may influence the number of votes, too. This study is limited to social shoppers’ reviews and the findings may not be generalized to regular customers’ online reviews. Future research should also examine whether similar results can be obtained at other review sites such as TripAdvisor and Zagat.Originality/valueDespite the potential significance of social shoppers’ online reviews, the critical mass of empirical studies still lacks in this area. For a more comprehensive interpretation of review characteristics, this study develops hypotheses based on the literature review on electronic word of mouth and source credibility models and investigates the effect of the five review characteristics on the viewers’ perceived usefulness, funniness, and coolness. Unlike previous studies focused on a single business type, this study compares the results obtained for restaurant businesses and health and wellness businesses and demonstrates that viewers in each business type respond differently to social shoppers’ online reviews.

PurposeBuilding on a small body of work, the authors' study aims to investigate some important antecedents of online review characteristics in the Chinese restaurant industry.Design/methodology/approachUsing a data set of restaurant reviews collected from a most popular review platform in China, the authors conduct a series of analyses to examine the influence of travel experience and travel distance on travelers' review characteristics in terms of review rating and media richness. The moderating effect of restaurant price on the influence is also investigated.FindingsTravelers with a longer travel distance and more travel experience tend to provide higher and lower online ratings, respectively, which can be explained by the construal level theory (CLT) and the expectation-confirmation theory (ECT), respectively. Furthermore, these strong feelings can then induce travelers to post enriched reviews with more pictures, more words and more affective words to release consumption tension. Besides, restaurant price can moderate these relationships.Originality/valueDistinguished from most studies which mainly focus on the consequences of online review characteristics or antecedents of review helpfulness, the authors pay attention to the effects of travelers' individual differences in terms of travel distance and travel experience on travelers' online reviewing behavior. In addition to review rating, the authors also focus on media richness in terms of visual and textual information. The authors' research findings can benefit restaurant consumers and managers for their online word-of-mouth utilization and management.

Decision science researchers have studied the influence of information overload extensively. Current electronic word of mouth (eWOM) research suggests that too much or too little information in a review can lead to decreased trust and purchase intent. This study adds to that paradigm by exploring the effects of images on uncertainty reduction in eWOM. More specifically, this study analyzes how images may influence trust and purchase intent based on an online review when there is too little or too much textual information. Findings indicate that when there is too little textual information, adding images increases trust and purchase intention, as information load increases. Likewise, when there is too much textual information, research suggests that consumers tend to skip over parts of the text. As such, images are still valuable, as they offer information that might have been missed in the text. These results suggest that when an improper amount of text is provided in a review, images may moderate the potential negative effects of that text length on trust and purchase intent.

This research reported in this paper extends the literature on the helpfulness of online reviews. Previous research has assessed online reviews using standard unidimensional readability algorithms. This research extends previous work by investigating a multidimensional framework, and associated measures, of text complexity and its impact on the helpfulness of online reviews. Results show that as the amount of passive voice and negation in online reviews increase, the helpfulness of said review decreases. Other significant predictors of review helpfulness include word meaningfulness, lexical diversity, and the number of modifiers per noun phrase. Keywords: online reviews, computational linguistics, Coh-Metrix INTRODUCTION Advancements in internet-based technologies have resulted in reduced barriers to entry for user created content. Anyone with an internet connection can easily create content through websites, message boards, online forums, blogs and a variety of different social media outlets. One area where user generated content has garnered much interest is in online product reviews. Increasingly consumers are relying on peer based product reviews to inform their purchasing decisions. A recent article in Harvard Business Reviews states that 30% of US consumers go to Amazon to access their rich repository of product information and associated reviews to start their purchasing process (Simonson & Rosen, 2014). In addition, studies commissioned by Google have reported that consumers consult an average of 10 information sources before making a final purchase decision (Simonson & Rosen, 2014). These statistics are further supported by research that has found that customer reviews can positively impact customer sales (Clemons, Gao, & Hitt, 2006). The aforementioned results along with the fact that peer-based product reviews may have more credibility than seller based information (Bickart & Schindler, 2001) has established the importance of user generated content in the form of online product reviews in a consumer's purchasing intention. A central theme in previous online review research is the determination of what impacts the usefulness or helpfulness of a review. Research has explored impacts and relationships between many components of online review helpfulness including characteristics of the reviewers, different product types, attributes of the review, and the content of the review itself. The focus of this study is on the characteristics of the online review text that may affect its comprehension, and thus helpfulness, by potential consumers. While some work in this area has been completed, the research is limited by the simplicity of the constructs used to assess text difficulty. This exploratory research moves the online review literature forward by incorporating advancements in computational linguistics to explore how text coherence, structural complexity, and word complexity affect the helpfulness of online reviews. It takes a multidimensional approach to text difficulty through the use of a comprehensive suite of tools and indices called Coh-Metrix (McNamara, Graesser, McCarthy & Cai, 2014). This research is based on the premise that an online review that is more coherent, structurally simple, and uses less complex words that have fewer meanings will be more helpful to consumers. This paper is organized as follows. First, a brief review on online review helpfulness is presented. Next, computational linguistics and coherence is introduced which forms the basis of the research model to be explored. Hypothesized relationships between the model constructs are presented followed by a methodology section and results. Concluding remarks and areas for future exploration are also included. BACKGROUND Online Reviews Research on online reviews is quite varied and comprehensive. The focus of this paper research was to explore the helpfulness or usefulness of online product reviews. …

Using signaling theory, this study unpacked the mechanisms through which online review information quality and reviewer information credibility influence online review helpfulness, in e-commerce context. Conducting a survey with users in Danang having read online reviews on Shopee.vn, 244 valid responses were used to evaluate the research model via PLS-SEM software. The study found that the information quality of online reviews strongly influences the helpfulness of online reviews compared to the information credibility of previous reviewers. Additionally, priced goods have a moderating effect on the relationship between online information credibility and online reviews helpfulness; and that relationship will be significant in high-priced products. This study makes a theoretical contribution to online reviews by elucidating the mechanisms of impact of review/reviewer information on reviews helpfulness and the moderating effect of product prices.

Although there have been unprecedented advances in technology worldwide, it is challenging for businesses and marketers to develop novel strategies of attracting consumers because the latter’s online shopping intentions have not changed according to the technological advances. Given these considerations, the present paper investigated how online shopping intention was influenced by website design and online reviews, how the relationship between website design and online shopping intention was moderated by online reviews, and how the relationship between online reviews and online shopping intention was moderated by digital coupon sales promotion. To that end, the paper drew on the theoretical framework of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. A sample of consumers from Jordan was used for data collection, with Smart Partial Least Squares being employed for the analysis of the 225 responses received. Based on the findings, online shopping intention was favorably influenced by website design and by online reviews, while the relationship between website design and online shopping intention was moderated by online reviews. Likewise, the relationship between online reviews and online shopping intention was moderated by digital coupon sales promotion. Digital marketing agencies can use such findings to develop a marketing strategy targeting young adult consumers in Jordan.

Online reviews have become the essence of information for consumers while making a purchase decision in online environments, though it is still critical to ascertain the quantum of influence it drives in making the purchase decision. Although the importance of online reviews has been examined, there are research gaps in studies on how to make online reviews helpful in a blink from the purchase intention point of view. This paper explored the aspects that influenced the formation of the title of online reviews. The study proposed a conceptual framework for the title of online reviews by adopting elements such as reviewers' identity, online recommendation, online review syndrome, age in online reviews, and law of closure and halo-effect that make each review helpful. The effect of the conceptual model could help enhance the formation of opinion of the consumers in a blink. The study integrated online review literature and presented a model of helpfulness for online reviews in a blink. Online companies should focus upon upgrading the online review system and enrich customer experience to maintain a positive relationship with their users.

研究目的关于餐厅的文本信息, 如在线评论和食品分类, 对于消费者的购买决策产生至关重要。然而, 先前的餐厅推荐研究未能有效利这些文本信息去预测消费者喜好。本研究提出了一种新颖的餐厅推荐模型, 以有效估计消费者对多个餐厅属性的评估行为。研究方法我们从 Yelp.com 收集了来自25,369名消费者对 46,613 家餐厅的 1,206,587 条评论。利用这些数据, 我们通过结合消费者身份和在线消费者评论生成了消费者偏好向量。然后, 我们结合了餐厅身份和食品分类来生成餐厅信息向量。最后, 考虑到餐厅属性向量, 本研究调查了消费者偏好和餐厅信息向量之间的非线性交互关系。研究发现我们发现, 所提出的推荐模型相比于之前最先进的模型表现出更优秀的性能, 这表明结合消费者和餐厅的各种文本信息是预测消费者喜好的基本因素。研究创新/价值据我们所知, 这是第一项利用来自真实在线餐厅平台的文本信息开发个性化餐厅推荐模型的研究。本研究还提出了胜过最先进模型的深度学习机制。本研究的结果可以降低探索消费者行为的成本并支持有效的购买决策。

The development of digital technology has changed consumer behavior patterns, including the process of making online purchasing decisions. One factor influencing these decisions is online reviews on e-commerce platforms. Shopee, as one of the largest e-commerce platforms in Indonesia, provides reviews containing information about product quality and previous consumer experiences, which can help potential buyers in considering their choices. This study aims to analyze the influence of online reviews on purchasing decisions for fashion products on Shopee. The research method used a quantitative approach with a survey of 100 respondents, namely Shopee users who had made purchases and read online reviews before making transactions. Data were collected through an online questionnaire using Google Forms, then processed using SPSS version 25. Data analysis included validity tests, reliability tests, descriptive statistics, and simple linear regression. The results showed that online reviews had a positive and significant effect on purchasing decisions. The R-squared value of 0.745 indicates that 74.5% of the variation in consumer purchasing decisions can be explained by online reviews, while the remainder is influenced by other factors. These findings confirm that online consumer reviews play a significant role in increasing trust and encouraging product purchases. Therefore, sellers on Shopee are advised to maintain product quality, provide accurate information, and encourage positive consumer reviews. This strategy can help improve store image, build consumer trust, and strengthen product competitiveness in the increasingly competitive e-commerce market.

Online retailers have taken recourse to many smart marketing strategies to sell digital music. This paper investigates the strategic decisions of online vendors for offering different mechanisms such as sampling and online reviews of digital music to increase their online sales. In this research we seek answers to the following research questions (1) should online retailers offer sampling for experience goods such as music CDs; (2) under what circumstances is offering sampling more important than offering reviews. Our empirical study shows that online markets behave as communication markets, and consumers learn about product quality information both passively (by reading online reviews) and actively but subjectively (by listening to music sampling). Using data from Amazon.com , we empirically show that sampling is a strong product quality signal that reduces product uncertainty and attracts interested shoppers. Products with the sampling option enjoy a higher conversion rate (which leads to better sales) than those without it. Second, the impact of online reviews on conversion rate is lower for experience goods with a sampling option than those without. Third, when the uncertainty of the online reviews is higher, sampling plays a more important role because it mitigates the uncertainty introduced by online reviews. We believe this paper makes an important contribution by comparing and studying the interactions between two commonly adopted online marketing strategies (i.e., sampling versus online reviews) and provides important insights on which strategy is beneficial for vendors in the context of online selling of digital music.

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.

Online reviews have become an important information source which are helping consumers to decide which products to buy and also sellers to understand the buying behavior of consumers. Besides, mining online reviews can help manufacturers proactively review customers’ opinions and unlock insights about the new functionality and features that the market expects. However, the large number of reviews poses a considerable challenge in the process of useful information extraction and knowledge discovery. Moreover, various forms of online reviews including numeric ratings, textual comments, pictures, and videos make it difficult for consumers to summarize all the heterogeneous information for reference. This chapter will focus on three mainstream research methods of online reviews information mining: information extraction, sentiment analysis, and text categorization. It will also introduce some advanced technologies to deal with commercial issues, such as the impact of reviews on sales or product ranking, the usefulness of reviews, etc. It finally points out the expected future of techniques and commercial applications.