The Effect of Word of Mouth on Sales: Online Book Reviews

Chevalier, Judith A.; Mayzlin, Dina

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The Effect of Word of Mouth on Sales: Online Book Reviews

NBER Working Paper No. w10148

40 Pages Posted: 11 Dec 2003 Last revised: 25 Sep 2022

See all articles by Judith A. Chevalier

Judith A. Chevalier

Yale School of Management; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Dina Mayzlin

University of Southern California - Marshall School of Business

There are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: December 2003

Abstract

We examine the effect of consumer reviews on relative sales of books on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. We find that 1) reviews are overwhelmingly positive at both sites, but there are more reviews and longer reviews at Amazon.com, 2) an improvement in a book's reviews leads to an increase in relative sales at that site, and 3) the impact of 1-star reviews is greater than the impact of 5-star reviews. The results suggest that new forms of customer communication on the Internet have an important impact on customer behavior.

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Chevalier, Judith A. and Mayzlin, Dina, The Effect of Word of Mouth on Sales: Online Book Reviews (December 2003). NBER Working Paper No. w10148, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=476105