Main Article Content
Abstract
Product reviews available on the internet act as major informants and induces consumers in making purchase decision even for offline high-value products like cars. By reviewing the previous studies there is a research gap that focuses on the effect of online reviews for offline products. The major aim of this research is to study the various role of online reviews in the purchase decision of cars. This descriptive research identifies 120 car owners as sample respondents under the convenience sampling method but 104 responses are considered valid and used for this study. Cronbach’s alpha is used to test the reliability of the data. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, mean and standard deviation, non-parametric tests such as Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis H test are used for data analysis. This study identifies three major roles of online reviews namely inducing role, informational role, and persuasive role. The major findings of the study are Informative role is the major role played by online reviews. Online reviews provide detailed information about various car models, their pros and cons and even quality of after-sales service. Online reviews also induce consumers in making purchase decision and are more persuasive than advertisements and salesmanship. Men are heavily influenced by online reviews than women. Consumers who fall in the age group of 25 to 45 years are largely influenced by online reviews. This study suggest the marketers to focus on the online brand image by monitoring online reviews regularly and act accordingly.