Predicting online product sales via online reviews, sentiments, and promotion strategies
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate if online reviews (e.g. valence and volume), online promotional strategies (e.g. free delivery and discounts) and sentiments from user reviews can help predict product sales. Design/methodology/approach – The authors designed a big data arch...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48857/ |
| _version_ | 1848797864240611328 |
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| author | Chong, Alain Yee Loong Li, Boying Ngai, Eric W.T. Ch'ng, Eugene Lee, Filbert |
| author_facet | Chong, Alain Yee Loong Li, Boying Ngai, Eric W.T. Ch'ng, Eugene Lee, Filbert |
| author_sort | Chong, Alain Yee Loong |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate if online reviews (e.g. valence and volume), online promotional strategies (e.g. free delivery and discounts) and sentiments from user reviews can help predict product sales.
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors designed a big data architecture and deployed Node.js agents for scraping the Amazon.com pages using asynchronous input/output calls. The completed web crawling and scraping data sets were then preprocessed for sentimental and neural network analysis. The neural network was employed to examine which variables in the study are important predictors of product sales.
Findings
– This study found that although online reviews, online promotional strategies and online sentiments can all predict product sales, some variables are more important predictors than others. The authors found that the interplay effects of these variables become more important variables than the individual variables themselves. For example, online volume interactions with sentiments and discounts are more important than the individual predictors of discounts, sentiments or online volume.
Originality/value
– This study designed big data architecture, in combination with sentimental and neural network analysis that can facilitate future business research for predicting product sales in an online environment. This study also employed a predictive analytic approach (e.g. neural network) to examine the variables, and this approach is useful for future data analysis in a big data environment where prediction can have more practical implications than significance testing. This study also examined the interplay between online reviews, sentiments and promotional strategies, which up to now have mostly been examined individually in previous studies. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:10:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-48857 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:10:39Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Emerald Group Publishing Limited |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-488572020-05-04T17:24:33Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48857/ Predicting online product sales via online reviews, sentiments, and promotion strategies Chong, Alain Yee Loong Li, Boying Ngai, Eric W.T. Ch'ng, Eugene Lee, Filbert Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate if online reviews (e.g. valence and volume), online promotional strategies (e.g. free delivery and discounts) and sentiments from user reviews can help predict product sales. Design/methodology/approach – The authors designed a big data architecture and deployed Node.js agents for scraping the Amazon.com pages using asynchronous input/output calls. The completed web crawling and scraping data sets were then preprocessed for sentimental and neural network analysis. The neural network was employed to examine which variables in the study are important predictors of product sales. Findings – This study found that although online reviews, online promotional strategies and online sentiments can all predict product sales, some variables are more important predictors than others. The authors found that the interplay effects of these variables become more important variables than the individual variables themselves. For example, online volume interactions with sentiments and discounts are more important than the individual predictors of discounts, sentiments or online volume. Originality/value – This study designed big data architecture, in combination with sentimental and neural network analysis that can facilitate future business research for predicting product sales in an online environment. This study also employed a predictive analytic approach (e.g. neural network) to examine the variables, and this approach is useful for future data analysis in a big data environment where prediction can have more practical implications than significance testing. This study also examined the interplay between online reviews, sentiments and promotional strategies, which up to now have mostly been examined individually in previous studies. Emerald Group Publishing Limited 2016-01-01 Article PeerReviewed Chong, Alain Yee Loong, Li, Boying, Ngai, Eric W.T., Ch'ng, Eugene and Lee, Filbert (2016) Predicting online product sales via online reviews, sentiments, and promotion strategies. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 36 (4). pp. 358-383. ISSN 0144-3577 Product demands; online reviews; valence; promotional marketing; online marketplace; big data; neural network http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/IJOPM-03-2015-0151 doi:10.1108/IJOPM-03-2015-0151 doi:10.1108/IJOPM-03-2015-0151 |
| spellingShingle | Product demands; online reviews; valence; promotional marketing; online marketplace; big data; neural network Chong, Alain Yee Loong Li, Boying Ngai, Eric W.T. Ch'ng, Eugene Lee, Filbert Predicting online product sales via online reviews, sentiments, and promotion strategies |
| title | Predicting online product sales via online reviews, sentiments, and promotion strategies |
| title_full | Predicting online product sales via online reviews, sentiments, and promotion strategies |
| title_fullStr | Predicting online product sales via online reviews, sentiments, and promotion strategies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Predicting online product sales via online reviews, sentiments, and promotion strategies |
| title_short | Predicting online product sales via online reviews, sentiments, and promotion strategies |
| title_sort | predicting online product sales via online reviews, sentiments, and promotion strategies |
| topic | Product demands; online reviews; valence; promotional marketing; online marketplace; big data; neural network |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48857/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48857/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48857/ |