Research On The Impact Of Online Word-of-mouth On Product Sales

With the development and popularization of the Internet,various e-commerce platforms,such as JD.com,Taobao,Tmall,MOGU Street have sprung up like mushrooms.Consumers can purchase goods online at home.Great changes have taken place.Online shopping has been highly accepted and loved by consumers because of convenience of Internet.Now consumers can browse products or services information on various social media and e-commerce platforms,and make their own remarks of products or services.Consumers can no longer access products or services information via the advertisements and publicity of the merchants only as in the past.They can also refer to these product reviews for reference to decide whether to purchase.These product reviews are spread through the Internet,forming a very influential Online Word-of-Mouth.Because of its anonymity and non-commercial purpose,Online Word-of-Mouth has become one of the most important considerations of consumers before purchasing products or services.Therefore,it is particularly important to study the impact of Online Word-of-Mouth on Product Sales.On the basis of previous researches,this article selects Volume,Customer Favorable Rate,Valence,and Picture Comment Rate as a measure of Online Wordof-Mouth to study its impact on Product Sales.Add Price as a Moderating Variable to study its moderating effect on the impact of Online Word-of-Mouth on Product Sales,and take consumers' Purchase Intention as a Mediating Variable to study whether Purchase Intention plays an intermediary effect on the influence of Online Wordof-Mouth on Product Sales.This article selects the cosmetics on MOGU Street as it's research object.Through empirical research,it is found that the Volume and Customer Favorable Rate have a significant positive impact on Product Sales.E-commerce platform merchants can increase their products awareness by appealing consumers to comments their products,and even make positive comments to increase Customer Favorable Rate,thereby increasing Sales.The relationship between Valence and Product Sales is not a simple linear relationship but an inverted U-shaped relationship.This result provides a new idea for merchants on e-commerce platforms,that is,merchants should appeal consumers to make real product reviews,and for negative reviews,it isn't necessary for the merchants to ask the consumers to modify.Because moderate Valence can promote Product Sales,however,excessive Valence hinders Product Sales.The relationship between Picture Comment Rate and Product Sales is not a simple linear relationship but a U-shaped relationship too.That means,a lower level of Picture Comment Rate suppresses Product Sales,but a higher level of Picture Comment Rate will promote Product Sales.Therefore,merchants should appeal purchased consumers to upload more clear and high-quality pictures related to the product when making remarks.Price as a quality signal of the product will enhance the impact of Volume on Product Sales.Merchants should make full use of it during online sales,prevent the negative impact of blind price reduction on consumers.Purchase Intention plays a part of intermediary role in the impact of Online Word-of-Mouth on Product Sales.Merchants should pay attention to the function of Favorites and be dedicated to converting consumers' Purchase Intention into actual purchase behaviors to increase Product Sales.