IMPACT OF ONLINE REVIEWS ON CONSUMER BUYING DECISIONS

Abstract

The aim of this research is to prove that consumer’s buying decision is affected by online reviews in either way. positive or negative, depending on the content of the review i.e. if reviews are negative the affect would be negative on consumer’s buying decision and vice versa. As we all know that it is the era of THE INTERNET which has enables the customers to access to the information with ease, or in other words the information is just a click away. The exploratory type of research is selected, as this study will reveal the effects of positive/negative reviews on consumers buying decision and deductive approach is used as the hypothesis is developed on the base of existing literature and the hypothesis will be proved right or wrong in contrast with existing literature. During this research it was found that online reviews can play an important for an organizations product, as findings of this research show that consumer’s purchase decision is affected by positive or negative online reviews and most preferred source of online review is “user reviews”. There are certain limitations to research, as this research was targeted towards the population of Karachi only and towards people who are internet savvy. Moreover this research gives answers to a general question that whether the purchase decisions are affected by online reviews or not. It does not look into the reasons behind the affects of online reviews.