Electronic Word-of-mouth Marketing in E-commerce based on Online Product Reviews

In E-commerce, purchase decisions of consumers are often strongly influenced by people who consumers know and trust, and word-of-mouth (WOM) is the most important factor when consumers are making a purchase decision. Many online consumers tend to wait for the opinions of early consumers before making a purchase decision to reduce the risk of buying products. So numerous E-commerce websites provide product reviews function for consumers to publicize their personal reviews of purchased products and thus facilitate word-of-mouth communication among consumers. This paper describes wordof-mouth, as a potentially cost-effective means for marketing, especially influence of opinion leaders in electronic word-of-mouth marketing.