Fake reviews are now proliferating as their importance in boosting sales is getting recognised. However, more fake reviews can actually hurt purchase intention for utilitarian products while increasing it for hedonic products. Similarly, more fake reviews reduce purchase intention for products with low brand awareness, although they don’t affect products with high brand awareness. Buyers can check the language, content and publication frequency to identify false reviews. Marketers can choose more reasonable ways to promote their products and also monitor online review mechanisms.
“Don’t believe everything you read online!” is an adage especially significant for online
shopping. Online buyers often use reviews to make purchase decisions since they cannot physically interact with the product they are purchasing. Unfortunately, the number of fake reviews is growing rapidly, with their numbers ranging from anywhere between 16% and 33.3% of all reviews. They might promote a particular product or defame a competitor’s product to influence buyers’ choices. In the face of an overwhelming rise in fake online reviews, a set of three studies investigates the question: How do fake reviews affect buyers’ purchase intention?
The study found that the impact of fake reviews depends on two factors, the first of which is
the nature of the product. For utilitarian products (functional products like soaps, detergents or batteries), a low level of fake reviews (fewer fake reviews as well as a low degree of fakeness in the reviews) can improve purchase intention. Since utilitarian products are functional, buyers spend less cognitive effort on processing the information. They view more false information as a sign of poor product quality. They decide that a high level of fake reviews (a large number of fake reviews as well as a high degree of fakeness in the reviews) are a marketing ploy to deceive them into buying the product as a utilitarian product would not need too many supporting reviews. Therefore, they avoid buying the product.
However, for hedonic products (indulgences like chocolates, fashion and jewellery), the
reverse is true as a high level of fake reviews increases online purchase intention. As hedonic products appeal to emotions, potential buyers spend more cognitive effort to analyse reviews. Even if they encounter false reviews, they argue that despite the exaggerations, there is some truth to the information about the hedonic properties of the product. Therefore, the more positive fake reviews they encounter, the higher is their perceived hedonic value of the product and the higher their intention to purchase it.
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The other factor that impacts the influence of fake reviews on purchase intention is brand
awareness. When products have high brand awareness, buyers are not swayed by fake reviews. They are confident about the quality of the product, and they trust the brand, hence they want to purchase the product regardless of the level of fake reviews. But for products with low brand awareness, the higher the level of fake reviews, the lower purchase intention goes. As potential buyers look for online reviews to get information about the brand in such cases, encountering more false information will convince them of the poor quality of the product.
This set of studies has significant implications for consumers as it awakens them to the
importance of making more rational decisions regarding purchases in the face of the proliferation of fake information. Fake reviews are incomplete, irrelevant, unrelated, or false as they are not based on actual experience of the product. They also tend to be repetitive and generic and are released within a short time span. Prospective buyers can look for these characteristics of reviews, especially reviews without supporting images or videos, to determine if the review might be fake.
Fake reviews abound in the e-commerce marketplace, and there is no doubt that
encouraging fake reviews is unethical. While we await government regulations on countering fake reviews, the studies inform marketers about the consequences of fake reviews. Businesses should be aware that more positive (but fake) reviews aren’t always helpful. For utilitarian products, they should actively discourage fake reviews. For hedonic products, they can use product images alongside positive reviews to encourage purchase intention. They can also modify their promotional and marketing strategies to enhance products’ perceived value. Finally, brands with low awareness can work on improving brand awareness through advertising and improved product quality instead of relying on fake positive reviews.
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