Examining the relationship between appropriateness, aggregate, and disposition of consumer review towards online purchasing decisions / Nur Diyana Shaharuddin and Syed Hasif Emir Syed Ahmad Razali

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a lasting impact on consumer behaviour in Malaysia and resulted in a preference shift from purchases performed in traditional brick and mortar storefronts to e-commerce platforms. The change in consumer purchase behaviour is forcing online shopping platforms to implement new strategies, such as the implementation of feature-rich online consumer review sections of a product to capitalize on the influx of new customers. It is established that selling high-quality products and services paired with effective marketing is no longer adequate to attract customers. The advent of the Pandemic has since facilitated the increase of online consumers in Malaysia by 33%. This study aims to determine the impact of the appropriateness, aggregate and disposition of online consumer reviews on consumer purchase decisions and propose a recommendation based on the TOWS Matrix. An online questionnaire was distributed to various potential online consumers across Malaysia. The multiple regression analysis shows a positive and significant impact on the appropriateness, aggregate and disposition of online consumer reviews towards a consumer purchase decision. SWOT analysis was performed to gauge the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of online consumer reviews on an online shopping platform. Based on the results obtained and SWOT analysis, the recommendation from TOWS Matrix was proposed which is Online shopping platforms should provide incentive-based online reviews, improve customer service relations, improve review functions to incorporate customer preferences and key influence variables and regulate online reviews in order to attract consumers on a shopping platform.