Study finds top reviews, not average ratings, sway consumer decision-
making
The research debunks a widely held notion that serious online consumers
buy products with a higher rating

Date:
April 12, 2022
Source:
University of South Florida (USF Innovation)
Summary:
Collective wisdom dictates that online shoppers gravitate toward
the highest-rated products. But new research debunks this and
shows top reviews carry more sway in a customer's final buying
decisions when they are comparing products.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
When it comes to online shopping habits, the collective wisdom dictates
that consumers gravitate toward the highest-rated products. The difference between a 4-star average rating and a 4.5-star average rating could play
a huge role when buyers are deciding to hit the "Add to Cart" button.


==========================================================================
But new research shows that the half-star chasm may not be all that
important.

It turns out top reviews carry more sway in a customer's final buying
decisions when they are comparing products. The research debunks a
widely held notion that serious online consumers buy products with a
higher rating.

"It's surprising because as a researcher, a business, or a consumer, we typically believe that when we go to Amazon, the most important piece
of information is the average rating," said researcher Dezhi (Denny)
Yin, who co- authored the study.

Yin said since the starred average rating is an aggregate of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of online reviews, it is the most comprehensive
window into a product's quality.

"And what we found was that when they read some reviews, just a few
reviews can overturn the impact of average ratings," said Yin, an
associate professor in the School of Information Systems and Management
in the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida.



========================================================================== Using a clever "trade-off" design, the research team conducted three
studies to disentangle the effects of online ratings and top reviews on consumer decision- making.

The first study was based on real-world daily data of 538 apps ranked
in the top 100 from Apple's App Store for two months. The apps covered
21 categories, such as games, business, finance, and news.

In the two other experiments, undergraduate students were asked to make
a purchase decision between two digital camera options whose "stars"
from average ratings and top reviews did not align with each other. The
studies not only provided converging evidence for the swaying effect of
top reviews but also pointed to a possible source of this effect.

Review details matter "It's the text of the top reviews that made
a difference," Yin said. "This swaying effect only happened for the
text reviews. Without text, people are not swayed. It's the concrete
details that are driving this impact." Yin explained that the research
is not saying that average ratings don't matter. If a product has a low
average rating, consumers will not consider the product, much less read
the product reviews.



==========================================================================
But in the cases where buyers are comparing different products and
reading their reviews, a few top reviews can easily sway their purchase decisions, he said, adding that the study findings are not limited to
app or product reviews.

The ratings game What are the takeaways for online retailers? Yin
recommends retailers spend less effort on writing or soliciting fake
reviews to try to bump up their average star rating.

"Businesses should not spend a lot of time gaming the rating
system. That effort is actually not very meaningful or effective,
based on our findings," Yin said. "Our findings suggest that as long
as your average ratings were fine, what matters is the top reviews."
In addition, retailers would be smart to respond to any negative top
reviews, because those are the reviews that most consumers are likely
to read. Retailers might counter the swaying effects of such reviews by,
for example, explaining that the criticism was an isolated case or that
the concern has been resolved, he said.

Also, researchers also recommend online review platforms, such as Yelp
and Amazon, could benefit consumers by designing a layout that spotlights individual reviews with less emphasis on average ratings.

Aside from Yin, the article's co-authors include Zhanfei Lei, University
of Massachusetts Amherst; Saby Mitra, University of Florida; and Han
Zhang, Georgia Institute of Technology.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_South_Florida_(USF_Innovation). Original written by
Elizabeth L. Brown. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Zhanfei Lei, Dezhi Yin, Sabyasachi Mitra, Han Zhang. Swayed by the
reviews: Disentangling the effects of average ratings and individual
reviews in online word‐of‐mouth. Production and
Operations Management, 2022; DOI: 10.1111/poms.13695 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220412140937.htm

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