The Effect of Word of Mouth on Sales: Online Book Reviews
Влияние сарафанного радио на продажи: онлайн-обзоры книг
2006-07-11
SCID: 54.1/7f52kzbn
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Abstract (AI)
The authors examine the effect of consumer reviews on relative sales of books at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com . The authors find that (1) reviews are overwhelmingly positive at both sites, but there are more reviews and longer reviews at Amazon.com ; (2) an improvement in a book's reviews leads to an increase in relative sales at that site; (3) for most samples in the study, the impact of one-star reviews is greater than the impact of five-star reviews; and (4) evidence from review-length data suggests that customers read review text rather than relying only on summary statistics.
Key Findings
1
Across most samples, one-star reviews have a larger impact on sales than five-star reviews.
2
Consumer reviews are overwhelmingly positive on both Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com, with Amazon having more and longer reviews.
3
Improvements in a book's reviews lead to increases in that book's relative sales on the same site.
4
Review-length data indicate customers read review text and do not rely solely on summary statistics.
Research Object
Online consumer reviews of books on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com
Research Subject
Effect of word-of-mouth reviews (rating valence, frequency, and length) on relative book sales at those sites, including differential impacts of one-star versus five-star reviews and the role of review text
Publication Details
Publication Date
2006-07-11
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