scholarly journals Electronic word-of-mouth marketing on Amazon: Exploring how and to what extent Amazon reviews affect sales

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine D'Arbelles ◽  
Pauline Berry ◽  
Ashika Theyyil

Consumers today base many of their decisions on peer referrals and online reviews. With the omnipresence of social media and online reviews, electronic word-of-mouth marketing (eWOM) has become a priority for many companies for both business growth and reputational management. The objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness of eWOM and its impact on sales. This study also seeks to help organizational leaders understand the significance of eWOM and its role in effective consumer and stakeholder relations, and in overall brand management. The researchers of this project explored eWOM by examining Amazon reviews from two different Kickstarter companies to determine which elements of online reviews impact product sales. By overlaying Amazon review data and sales figures from each Kickstarter company, researchers were able to determine the review factors that companies should focus on to increase their sales and grow their brands. The results of this study show that products with a high volume of positive reviews made by verified purchasers positively correlate to product sales.   Keywords: electronic word-of-mouth marketing, Amazon, online reviews, Kickstarter, sales, reputational management, brand reputation, online reputation management

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsin-Chen Lin ◽  
Manohar U. Kalwani

Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is an important source of influence on consumer decision making, yet little is known about cross-cultural differences in both the occurrence of eWOM and the relationship between eWOM and sales. The authors draw on signaling theory to develop a conceptual model and assess the relationships between country and the occurrence of eWOM, as well as between online ratings and relative product sales according to country. Online reviews and sales rank data for books, CDs, and DVDs were collected from Amazon U.S. and Amazon Japan in 2009 and 2017. Results suggest cross-national differences in both the occurrence of eWOM (eWOM signaling) and the relationship between eWOM and relative product sales (eWOM screening). These national differences appear to change over time: some remain stable, some disappear, and others emerge. The proposed culturally contingent signaling and screening model may be adopted as a framework for future research on cross-cultural eWOM. The results also inform the literature on cultural change by suggesting that cultural differences in eWOM change in nuanced patterns over time.


Prologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Julian Andrew ◽  
Rezi Erdiansyah

As the people's shopping habits via online starts to emerge, the e-commerce industry in Indonesia has also developed. In 2018, it was noted that 11.9% of Indonesian people were shopping online. However, in the midst of the vastness of online platforms with millions of items found in online storefronts, consumers need more information as their reference to arousing buying interest. As one of the biggest e-commerce players in Indonesia, Tokopedia provides features that enable sellers and consumers to exchange information regarding the items. In Tokopedia, prospective buyers can see electronic word of mouth messages, online reviews, and other additional information about the items that are known to be very influential in generating buying interest. This study uses a quantitative approach with an explanatory type in which the research seeks to find the effect of electronic word of mouth, online review, and the quality of information on buying interest of Jakarta students in Tokopedia e-commerce. The data collection technique used was purposive sampling by distributing questionnaires to 100 samples via online. Based on this research’s results, it was found that electronic word of mouth, online review, and information quality affect buying interest of students in Jakarta by 46% while the other 54% were influenced by other factors not examined in this study.Seiring dengan munculnya kebiasaan berbelanja masyarakat melalui online, industri e-commerce di Indonesia pun turut berkembang. Pada tahun 2018, tercatat bahwa sebanyak 11,9% orang di Indonesia melakukan kegiatan belanja secara online. Namun, di tengah luasnya platform online dengan jutaan barang yang terdapat di etalase online membuat konsumen membutuhkan informasi yang lebih sebagai bahan referensi dalam menimbulkan minat beli. Tokopedia merupakan pelaku e-commerce terbesar di Indonesia menyediakan fitur-fitur yang memungkinkan penjual dan konsumen untuk menulis dan bertukar informasi seputar barang tersebut. Di dalam Tokopedia, para calon pembeli dapat melihat pesan electronic word of mouth, online review, dan informasi-informasi tambahan lainnya seputar barang-barang yang dijual yang diketahui sangat berpengaruh dalam memunculkan minat beli. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif dengan jenis eksplanatif dimana penelitian berusaha menemukan pengaruh e-WOM, kualitas informasi, dan online review terhadap minat beli mahasiswa Jakarta pada e-commerce Tokopedia. Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan adalah purposive sampling dengan menyebarkan kuesioner kepada 100 sampel secara online. Penelitian menemukan bahwa electronic word of mouth, online review, dan kualitas informasi berpengaruh terhadap minat beli pada mahasiswa di Jakarta sebanyak 46%, sedangkan 54% dipengaruhi oleh faktor-faktor lain yang tidak diteliti pada penelitian ini.


Author(s):  
Linda Gabbianelli ◽  
Tonino Pencarelli

In the digital age, electronic word-of-mouth plays a role extremely important for the hospitality industry. Due to the intangibility of the tourism product, travelers need to seek information in order to reduce the perceived risk. They usually compare different options and search for accurate and reliable information to make choices, such as user-generated contents. Moreover, tourists pay much more attention to digital platforms that foster interaction and information exchange between users. This study aims to investigate, through an online questionnaire, the managerial behavior of 103 hotels of the province of Rimini towards the electronic word-of-mouth phenomenon. The findings highlight the proactive attitude of hotels towards the phenomenon, to increase the booking and to improve the service quality. The study conducted provides hints of originality because it filled some gaps emerging in the literature regarding the dealing with responses, the stimulation of generating comments, and the impact of online reviews on hotel performance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaid Alrawadieh ◽  
Mithat Zeki Dincer

PurposeDrawing on a sample of 520 negative reviews posted on TripAdvisor against all five-star hotels operating in Petra, Jordan, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the response of luxury hotels to negative online reviews by considering the Response Rate (RR), the Response Time (RT) and the Response Content (RC).Design/methodology/approachA deductive content analysis was used on hotels’ managerial responses. Based on the literature review, a four-construct scheme was identified to guide the analysis including Appreciation; Apology; Explanation; and Incentive. The managerial responses were carefully read and manually coded based on the four-construct scheme. The time between the review posting date and the date of the managerial response was also recorded. Luxury hotel managers were also surveyed to obtain insights into their perceptions and practices with respect to online reputation management.FindingsThe findings call into question luxury hotels’ awareness of the harmful impact of negative online reviews. Specifically, the findings suggest that less than half of the negative reviews received a managerial response, and that more than half of these were standardized and did not refer to the issues raised in the reviews. The low response rate coupled with the hotel managers’ consensus on the importance of answering all online reviews indicates inconsistency between hotel managers’ perceptions and practices with regard to online reputation management.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the ongoing debate on reputation management in the hospitality industry by considering the managerial response to negative online reviews. The paper discusses several managerial implications for hotel managers as well as avenues for future research.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Magno ◽  
Fabio Cassia ◽  
Attilio Bruni

With the aim of enhancing their online reputation, several hospitality businesses have started soliciting their guests to write online reviews. Available studies have not yet evaluated the effects of this strategy. To fill this knowledge gap, this study draws on the theory of psychological reactance and investigates guests’ attitudinal and behavioral reactions to received solicitations. Evidence collected from a sample of Italian travelers indicates that soliciting reviews has both benefits and drawbacks: It increases the number of reviews for the business, but it also irritates a significant share of guests. Particularly high levels of irritation arise when a business explicitly asks its guests to write positive reviews. The implications of these findings for the reputation management strategy of hospitality businesses are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (5) ◽  
pp. 636-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Hollenbeck

This article investigates the value of business format franchising and how it is changing in response to a large increase in consumer information provided by online reputation mechanisms. Theory has suggested that much of the value of chain affiliation to firms comes from the ability of chain partners to use the same name, imagery, logo, and marketing to create a common brand reputation and signal specific qualities in settings with asymmetric information between buyers and sellers. As more information becomes available, consumers should rely less on branding for quality signals, and firms’ ability to extend reputations across heterogeneous outlets should decrease. To examine this empirically, the author combines a large panel of hotel revenues with millions of online reviews from multiple platforms. Chain-affiliated hotels earn substantially higher revenues than equivalent independent hotels, but this premium has declined by over 50% from 2000 to 2015. This can be largely attributed to an increase in online reputation mechanisms, and this effect is largest for low-quality and small-market firms. Measures of the information content of online reviews show that as information has increased, independent hotel revenue has grown substantially more than chain hotel revenue. This result should be viewed as descriptive, with attempts to come to near causality including the use of machine learning to derive latent dimensions of firm quality from the text of online reviews. Finally, the correlation between firm revenue and chain-wide reputation is decreasing, whereas the correlation with individual hotel reputation is increasing.


2020 ◽  
pp. 097215092097634
Author(s):  
Md. Shahed Mahmud ◽  
Md. Nazmul Islam ◽  
Md. Rostam Ali ◽  
Nadia Mehjabin

For customers’ purchasing decisions, word of mouth (WOM) has been considered as one of the major influential factors. With the rise of Internet-based technology and usage of online-based devices, customers are now considering online reviews and other users’ e-opinions as one of the significant sources of information gathering for taking final purchasing decisions. Organizations also emphasize electronic word of mouth (eWOM) as a major promotional tool for their business. This study aims to examine the impact of eWOM on customers’ buying intention and tries to determine the mediating relationship of trust between eWOM and customers’ buying intention. For this, an exploratory study has been designed using the purposive and convenience sampling technique. With the assistance of a self-administrated structured questionnaire, a total of 218 respondents’ data were finally selected for the structural equation model (SEM) analysis. The result of the study reveals that eWOM has a direct influence on customers’ intention to buy without the presence of the mediator trust. Nevertheless, with the presence of trust as a mediator, the direct relationship gets weakened, resulting in full mediation. The study results can contribute both theoretically and practically in many ways.


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