ABSTRACT
Online shopping has increased significantly especially after the coronavirus disease pandemic and it has altered the way individuals make decisions on what to purchase. Among the evident changes is that individuals now rely heavily on online reviews and ratings as consumers before they make a buying decision. This is primarily the case since when they do online shopping, they cannot look at or touch the product, prior to making a purchase decision.
It is further influential when it comes to electronic accessories such as earphones, power banks, chargers and speakers. Many similar options exist at practically the same price and, because these products cannot be checked physically, people learn about them through reading the reviews. They depend on each other so that they make a decision on what other buyers on the same product have posted.
Due to the ever-growing online shopping, it has become significant to know how reviews and ratings impact on buying decisions of people.
This paper will discuss the effects of internet reviews and ratings on people who purchase online-based electronic accessories with references to the people of the Delhi-NCR. It examines various factors, such as how important reviews are in general, the level of stars they receive, the number of reviews, whether the reviews are positive or negative, and how credible individuals find them. It also tests whether such variables as gender, age, employment, and income vary the extent to which individuals rely on reviews.
The study is based on descriptive research design and provides an online questionnaire to 202 of its respondents who live in the Delhi-NCR. The data was analysed with the help of the open-source programme, similar to the IBM SPSS, which is called GNU PSPP. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, simple linear regression, and one-way ANOVA are used to conduct the analysis.
The study adds to the existing research on electronic word-of-mouth and online consumer behaviour, while focusing on the under-explored product category of electronic accessories. The findings also offer manyuseful insights for online sellers and e-commerce platforms.
Keywords: Online Reviews, Star Ratings, Electronic Word-of-Mouth (e-WOM),
