Start Date

11-12-2016 12:00 AM

Description

With online search tools and users’ Internet experiences, online consumers are shown to rely on Word-of-Mouth (WOM) information hosted by both retail and third-party websites. Nevertheless, will online consumers conduct the same comprehensive level of WOM search, if the distribution of WOM across websites differs? This study is intrigued by this question to propose that the distribution of WOM across websites affects the search cost of WOM information during consumers’ decision making, and thus influences online retail sales. By using sales and WOM data of software programs from Amazon and a third-party website download.com, we find negative sales impacts of WOM volume dispersion and valence variation. Our results show that less dispersed WOM leads to more sales. And it is even more beneficial for a product’s sales if having this less dispersed WOM distribution skewed towards retail websites. In addition, more consistent consumer evaluations across websites encourage online purchase decisions.

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Dec 11th, 12:00 AM

The Sales Impact of Word-of-Mouth Distribution across Retail and Third-Party Websites

With online search tools and users’ Internet experiences, online consumers are shown to rely on Word-of-Mouth (WOM) information hosted by both retail and third-party websites. Nevertheless, will online consumers conduct the same comprehensive level of WOM search, if the distribution of WOM across websites differs? This study is intrigued by this question to propose that the distribution of WOM across websites affects the search cost of WOM information during consumers’ decision making, and thus influences online retail sales. By using sales and WOM data of software programs from Amazon and a third-party website download.com, we find negative sales impacts of WOM volume dispersion and valence variation. Our results show that less dispersed WOM leads to more sales. And it is even more beneficial for a product’s sales if having this less dispersed WOM distribution skewed towards retail websites. In addition, more consistent consumer evaluations across websites encourage online purchase decisions.