The impact of online consumer reviews on consumer buying behaviour

In recent years, the rate of internet usage has increased along with the developments in internet technologies and mobile devices and thereby the amount of shopping, made via internet has also increased. Consumers need information about products and services for shopping, and one of the most used sources is comments of virtual consumers while accessing the information that will be needed. Thus, the main aim of the study is to determine whether consumers are influenced by consumer comments while deciding to buy. Firstly, in this study after the literature was examined, a research model was established by determining the most used factors in the studies on virtual consumers comments. In the context of the study, survey was applied to consumers who shops online. Totally, 786 survey were approved for the research. Descriptive statistical analyzes, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model were used on the obtained data. The research findings suggest that the data obtained has supported the research model which was used. According to the results of the study, it was determined that the four of the six factors that influences the buying behavior of the virtual consumer comments have a positive effect on the purchasing behavior and these factors are "reliability of interpretation, amount of interpretation, timing of interpretation and utilization of interpretation". The amount of comments and the reliability of the interpretation are the factors that have at most effect on buying behavior. The other two factors "interpretation quality and scope of comment" have no effect on the purchasing process. The survey was applied to a group, with a high education level and as a result, it was determined that most of the participants have purchased products by relying on virtual consumers comments. Keywords: User Reviews, Online Consumer Reviews, eWOM, Purchase Decision Process, E-Commerce, Product Reviews