People Rely Less on Consumer Reviews for Experiential than Material Purchases

Abstract

Do shoppers rely on consumer reviews differently when making experiential purchases (events to live through) than when making material purchases (objects to keep)? An analysis of more than 6 million reviews on Amazon.com and seven laboratory experiments reveal that shoppers perceive consumer reviews to be less useful and are less likely to seek consumer reviews for experiential purchases than for material purchases. Importantly, it is not that all information is discounted more for experiential purchases; rather, the effect is specific to consumer reviews. The reason shoppers rely less on consumer reviews for experiential purchases is that shoppers believe others’ evaluations will be less similar to their own evaluations for experiential purchases than for material purchases. As one of the first investigations into the decision processes preceding experiential and material purchases, these findings suggest that while shoppers may be open to being told what to have, they do not want to be told what to do.