Examining the impact of online customer review attributes on purchase intention: an integrated EFA and PLS-SEM analysis

Purpose The research aims to explore the key elements of online customer reviews (OCRs) that influence consumer decision-making. The research also investigates the impact of these review-related factors on the purchase intentions of customers in online transactions. Design/methodology/approach Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify factors influencing consumer buying decisions based on online reviews. Once the factors were idetified, confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the proposed model. The analysis was carried out using SPSS and SmartPLS software. Findings The outcomes uncover that the five important factors that influence the customer purchase intention are trust, reliability, positive reviews, reputation and engagement. The findings confirm that both information-based factors (reliability) and brand-based factors (trust, reputation and engagement) together influence the customers’ purchase intentions, and the roles of reliability and reputation are relatively more important in influencing the purchase behaviour Research limitations/implications The study has provided theoretical and practical implications, which contribute to the current literature. It also determines important variables of OCRs, which have an influence on purchase intention in e-commerce. Companies should also recognise the great influence of OCRs as it affects the purchasing process. Originality/value In particular, the five factors of trust, reliability, positive reviews, brand reputation and brand engagement are identified to have a significant influence on consumers’ purchasing decisions via online reviews. This study provides a clear vision of customer satisfaction and the essential elements of OCR usefulness.