17 November 2005

Book reviews posted on online retail websites have proven to be very influential in determining the success of new releases, suggests a new report.

Professors from the Yale School of Management carried out research into potential effect of reviews on customers and concluded that reviews did have a direct influence on the decisions made by customers.

It was found that a negative review had more influence in decreasing book sales than the power of a positive review to boost sales.

Reviews that seemed overly positive were deemed not as reliable and possibly the work of PR companies.

However, the report concluded that for some of the leading online book retailers, customer reviews were having an overall positive effect on sales.

"Our results show that customers behave as if the fit between customer and book is improved by using reviews to screen purchases," said professor Dina Mayzlin.

The research was conducted by professor Mayzlin and professor Judith Chevalier form the Yale Centre for Customer Insights.

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