The Influence of Online Word of Mouth on Product Sales in Retail E-commerce: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

The ability to exchange opinions and experiences online is known as online word of mouth (WOM) . Due to the high acceptance of consumers and their apparent rel iance on online WOM it is important for organizations to understand how it works and what kind of impact it has on product sales . Using the well established notions of volume and valence to describe online WOM, we empirically evaluate the hypothesized relations hip between online WOM in a retail e -commerce site and actual product sales . Our analysis of the data shows that there is a significant change in the number of products sold following the addition of online WOM to a retail e -commerce site’s product pages. Additionally, only the volume dimension of online WOM, measured by the number of customer review comments, is shown to have an influence on product sales .