How online reviewers and actual customers evaluate their shopping experiences : evidence from an international retail chain

Online reviews represent an important source of information for consumers and, on the other hand, an important contribution for corporate management. Consumers increasingly rely on other consumers' reviews to make purchase decisions both offline and online. From a corporate perspective, reviews can be used to modify and adapt offerings, services, and to improve communication effectiveness. In this paper we are going to analyze online consumer reviews related to stores from an international retailer. Employing a qualitative and quantitative analysis, we have analyzed 80.910 online store reviews in Italy from April 1st, 2016 to March 31st, 2017. Then, in order to validate online reviews data, we conducted around 800 interviews with consumers at the shops and an online survey on 700 consumers: we want to measure the percentage of online reviewers on total customers and the differences between evaluations from reviewers and non-reviewers.

We believe that this validation is necessary for accurate interpretation and further employment of online review data. [Publishers' text].