The Impact of Online Customer Reviews on Purchase Intention with Special Reference to Sri Lanka Tour Packages

Abstract

Most of the businesses were used to rely heavily on word of mouth to carry out their business activities. But nowadays, online society dominated by the usage of mobile devices and search results, word of mouth has been replaced by online review sites and social media. The social proof contained within reviews and star ratings helps consumers make decisions faster with greater confidence than ever before. Companies can get the use of information provided by consumers on a variety ofwebsites ranging from blogs to rating and review site to understand customer concerns and complaints to take corrective actions. Through the findings it is examined that consumers are influenced by their own and other consumers' customer care experiences in choosing brand/ company to make purchases The population is consisted on huge number of respondents so it is hard to use an information gathering. Because of that researcher could be selected sample by applying convenience sampling techniques. The selected sample size consisted with 150 respondents who have booked Sri Lanka tour packages. A structured questionnaire developed to collect primary data .form the sample of the respondents. For the study independent variables are being tested with their impact on purchase intention. Through the study, four independent variables tested. Those are source credibility, timeliness, valance and length of reviews. All alternative hypotheses were accepted and those variables were positively impact on purchase intention. In order to test the hypotheses correlation was calculated and regression analysis has been processed to determine the impact. Online reviews can develop or destroy a business. Therefore, understanding about the impact of these reviews and social media activities are important. The improvement of this side is not only good for consumers but also good for business as well.