The effect of electronic word of mouth on consumer purchase intention: The case of electronic goods sector

In today's increasingly competitive environment and rapidly developing technological world, consumers are influenced by many sources of knowledge in their purchasing decisions. One of the most important of these sources of information is the Electronic Word Of Mouth Marketing (E-WOM). eWOM, which expresses the experience and sharing of comments on the forums, social media and blogs by consumers in the virtual environment and on the internet, is increasingly affecting consumer decisions. While the positive comments on products are desired by the companies, the negative comments may have uncalled-for results on sales. In this context, businesses began to use e-WOM to reclaim their customer, who had gone through negative experiences and therefore shared their experience, and advertise their products. Businesses need to understand how the e-WOM affects their purchasing intent and decisions in order to use them more effectively. The aim of this study is to reveal the relative impact of eWOM on consumer buying intent. At the same time, it will contribute to academic studies. The questionnaire was used to collect the data needed to test the hypothesis developed. The questionnaire was applied to 400 people living in Sakarya who previously used eWOM to purchase electronic goods representing the universe. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS statistical program. By utilizing the literature, a model of factors consisting of e-WOM components that affect the purchasing intent of consumers has been formed. The resulting model contains one dependent and 4 independent variables. Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to determine the effect of independent variables on the dependent variable. According to the results of the analysis, the tendency to search for information and the attitude of sharing information affect consumer buying intent. However, it was determined that there was no effect of perceived risk and social benefit on purchase intention. In addition, the effect of e-WOM components on purchase was analyzed according to the demographic characteristics of the participants and no significant difference was found in the results of the analyses.