As the world is rapidly moving into a digital era, every person in the world is opting out for a digital means for looking out for information related to any matter, be it ordering a product online or getting a review about any particular product. It has become a common practice among the people for getting point of view of different people about any particular product before actually giving it a try. Nowadays, the decision power of the consumer for purchasing a product is totally based on the reviews, comments and the recommendations that they get from different sources. One of the most important resources of getting information is through blogs and customer reviews.
In context to the given statement, the whole discussion will be based on how blogs and customer reviews are an important factor that can influence the purchasing decision of a person. How the buying behavior of a customer is affected by the review and suggestions that they get. The internet is now a prime source of customer information. People use it to get information or suggestion for any product or service before actually availing it. The information provided by online sources is changing the perception of a consumer. People are more inclined towards blog reading and reviews they get after reading that blog. As people rely on the facts that are mentioned in the blogs.
Blogging is considered as a personal online diary which helps to aware the people about the products and services. Blogger utilizes the social media platform in order to connect with the readers and the other bloggers. Blog writing is related to a content which is to be published on a blog. The customer review is the general feedback which is given by the customer after availing the services and products of the company (Cheng and Ho, 2015).
Blogging and customer review gives a major impact on the overall purchasing decision process of the customers. As it is seen that majority of people spend their time reading blogs and customers reviews. This helps in getting more information about the products and services offered in the market. Blogging and customers reviews help in increasing the confidence level of the customers towards availing the services and products (Floyd et al., 2014).
It is a common tendency of people to opt out for more reliable and effective source of getting information regarding a product. Through the online medium, they can dig in deep to find out the best information. The main motive behind reading the blogs and customer review can be classified into various categories like to seek more information about a product, customers refer to a blog. When a person wants to purchase a product they first read the blogs so that they can get some reviews and information regarding that product. If the blog is portraying a negative feedback about a particular product or service, often the customer loses its trust on the same product or service (Foxall, 2014). So, through Blogs and the customer review, it becomes easy for an individual to take correct decisions.
Reducing the risk is also one of the factors which helps to minimize the risk. After reading the reviews or the blogs the customers can easily make the decision and can evaluate the pros and cons. Before buying a branded product customers usually go for a general public review so that any risk possibility can be reduced to minimum zero (Pappas, 2016). Customers always feel that a general public review is much more reliable and trustworthy than the one who is actually marketing the product. This ensures that there are no such risks associated with buying that particular product (East et al., 2016). So, it helps to minimize the overall risk in an effective manner. At the time of purchasing the product, customers are in dilemma whether the product they are opting for, will it be good enough or not. So, blogs and customer reviews give impact on the consumers purchasing decisions. They will first read the blogs and customer review then only they will purchase the product (Karimi, Papamichail and Holland, 2015).
Blogs of some professional bloggers and customers review on various websites also gives feedback about the quality of the product. By reviewing the customer’s opinion, consumers often runs the quality check of the product by reviewing each comment posted by the customers. There are several platforms where people actually go for getting a feedback on the quality to cost ratio and analyze whether the product is worth the money printed (Kostyra et al., 2016). Referring to blogs and consumer’s review platforms, people usually feel a sense of understanding and connection with the other people. It is like a virtual community which bonds every customer who is interested in availing that product or service. This enables a feeling of social belonging among the consumers and they feel connected to other people’s review and suggestions (Solomon et al., 2014).
Bloggers usually like to share their own practical experience with the product and put it on the blog. If the product is not of top notch quality then the feedback is given accordingly and low rating means, more customers will avoid such product and if a blogger likes the product then they promote it by posting pictures and blogs on their page. So, when they post the pictures or blogs on their page then people get to know about the products available in the market. If positive feedback is given by the blogger then it can directly enhance the sales of the products. The customers will also be attracted and would try that product by seeing positive comments and suggestions for the products on the blogger’s page (van Reijmersdal et al., 2016).
For instance: When any outlet or suppose a café is opened, the food blogger usually visits and give a feedback of its services by posting on their page. The customers who are the followers of the page follows their feedback and review posted on the blogs. Indirectly, the café can increase its customer’s base if the blogger’s review is positive and also it might lose the customers if the review is negative.
Next factor is related to the social connection. Blogs and customer review helps to make proper social connections with the people. The foremost reasons a consumer clings to these sources are for getting more information regarding a product which is not available easily (Hajli, 2015). Taking a normal example, if someone wants to know what exactly is a Bitcoin. People will obviously choose a reliable source of information which is the Internet itself. People usually put in their efforts to collect information from numerous sources and integrate them to reach a common conclusion.
The reason that bloggers review is popular among the online and offline community is due to the fact that these platforms provide the blogger’s own personal purchasing experience without any kind of biases. The blogger’s usually like to try the particular product or service that they want to review about and provides the insights of that product is very detailed and authentic manner. Due to the fact that the people can feel more connected and can also exchange their own views with the blogger, this has become a favorite territory for the customers where they can land and have a perception about anything. This is how the purchasing decision is affected if a customer is using this platform for their review (Elwalda, Lü, and Ali, 2016).
Next is related with the customer’s reviews in which it is seen that there are many E-shops and the retail stores who focus on selling the goods and services but they also emphasize on offering customers to write comments or product reviews so that other customers can find it easy to take a decision of purchasing the products. Amazon.com is one of the most popular businesses that give emphasis on this practice but this approach is also taken into consideration by many online retailers (Park and Nicolau, 2015). The customer reviews the product or the service of the company by giving star ratings and also by writing comments in a format of text. The function which is taken into consideration to review a product is a scoring system which helps to give a vote to the reviews (Minnema et al., 2016).
Blogging and customer review helps the customer to purchase the right product and also to avail the services which are best in the market. Also, it is seen that at the time of buying new products or the services the customers go through the reviews given by the other customers. The customers use to take feedback from their closed ones first, like their family members, neighbors etc. and based on their review a decision is taken to go for that product. (Magno, 2017).
In this step, they might search the information on industry-specific sites or can take recommendations from their friend. In the next step, the rating is analyzed by the customers. The rating is given by the customers who actually purchased that product. If a good rating is given by majority of people then a positive perception is made up in mind for that product but if a low rating means that the product might lose its potential customers. So, this is the important part in which customer review has a great role. If the customers are giving proper review or rating for the products, the person who is going to purchase the product will change his or her mindset according to the review and rating of the existing customers (Liu and Park, 2015).
Taking an instance: Suppose if a person is purchasing a product from an e-commerce platform such as Amazon, then he or she will first review the overall ratings given by the customers on a particular product and the comments. The pros and cons of the product is the main area where the customer usually focuses and decides whether the product is worth buying.
Many times in case of blogging the bloggers post attractive images of the products and also of food so by seeing those pictures the mindset of the customer changes. For example, the food blogger post the pictures of the dishes they try at a restaurant. Then by seeing that post, the customers are attracted and visit the outlet to avail the services and products offered. There is a majority of people who actually consults the blogger’s review at the time of purchasing or availing the service.
In the present scenario, food bloggers and fashion bloggers are the one who has the most number of followers. They are invited to many outlets and cafés to give reviews to their products and services. They are served with the sample products and are asked to provide a review and also to promote their product on their page. Such personal experience helps bloggers in providing their own perspective which is one of the main reasons the customers get attracted to blogging pages. The reviews helps the customers to change the perception for a particular product. (Eryarsoy and Piramuthu, 2014).
To conclude, it is evident that more and more people are focused on reading the blogs and customer feedback so that they can avail best services and products. The feedbacks and reviews also helps in choosing the best from a range of products available. Blogger’s review and customer’s review plays a great role as they provide the proper information of the best services and products available in the market and its pros and cons. Merely by sitting at home they can have access to the reviews and ratings of the product which they want to buy and can take the purchasing decision. It is a best practice that a product with utmost quality should be given a positive and genuine feedback and a low quality product should be rated according to its standards. It will also help the customers to invest the money at the right place. Companies should focus on maintaining their rating and reviews as customer purchasing decision and perception is truly based on a products rating and reviews posted by the consumers.
References
Cheng, Y.H. and Ho, H.Y., 2015. Social influence’s impact on reader perceptions of online reviews. Journal of Business Research, 68(4), pp.883-887.
East, R., Singh, J., Wright, M. and Vanhuele, M., 2016. Consumer behaviour: Applications in marketing. Sage.
Elwalda, A., Lü, K. and Ali, M., 2016. Perceived derived attributes of online customer reviews. Computers in Human Behavior, 56, pp.306-319.
Eryarsoy, E. and Piramuthu, S., 2014. Experimental evaluation of sequential bias in online customer reviews. Information & Management, 51(8), pp.964-971.
Floyd, K., Freling, R., Alhoqail, S., Cho, H.Y. and Freling, T., 2014. How online product reviews affect retail sales: A meta-analysis. Journal of Retailing, 90(2), pp.217-232.
Foxall, G., 2014. Consumer Behaviour (RLE Consumer Behaviour): A Practical Guide. Routledge.
Hajli, N., 2015. Social commerce constructs and consumer’s intention to buy. International Journal of Information Management, 35(2), pp.183-191.
Karimi, S., Papamichail, K.N. and Holland, C.P., 2015. The effect of prior knowledge and decision-making style on the online purchase decision-making process: A typology of consumer shopping behaviour. Decision Support Systems, 77, pp.137-147.
Kostyra, D.S., Reiner, J., Natter, M. and Klapper, D., 2016. Decomposing the effects of online customer reviews on brand, price, and product attributes. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(1), pp.11-26.
Liu, Z. and Park, S., 2015. What makes a useful online review? Implication for travel product websites. Tourism Management, 47, pp.140-151.
Magno, F., 2017. The influence of cultural blogs on their readers’ cultural product choices. International Journal of Information Management, 37(3), pp.142-149.
Minnema, A., Bijmolt, T.H., Gensler, S. and Wiesel, T., 2016. To keep or not to keep: Effects of online customer reviews on product returns. Journal of retailing, 92(3), pp.253-267.
Pappas, N., 2016. Marketing strategies, perceived risks, and consumer trust in online buying behaviour. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 29, pp.92-103.
Park, S. and Nicolau, J.L., 2015. Asymmetric effects of online consumer reviews. Annals of Tourism Research, 50, pp.67-83.
Solomon, M.R., Dahl, D.W., White, K., Zaichkowsky, J.L. and Polegato, R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Pearson.
van Reijmersdal, E.A., Fransen, M.L., van Noort, G., Opree, S.J., Vandeberg, L., Reusch, S., van Lieshout, F. and Boerman, S.C., 2016. Effects of disclosing sponsored content in blogs: How the use of resistance strategies mediates effects on persuasion. American Behavioral Scientist, 60(12), pp.1458-1474
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