The influence of recommendations and product features on purchase decisions

Purchasing decisions are becoming increasingly complex. Not only has the variety of products increased, but information about product features and recommendations from expert sources, Internet communities or even from acquaintances with and without expertise have become readily available through the Internet. The extent of the influence of product characteristics in relation to recommendations on purchase decisions has not yet been investigated experimentally and is the subject of this study. 163 brain-healthy subjects (78 male, mean age M=26.22, SD = 9.03) each chose between three products in 20 choice tasks (each for two product categories; cell phones or hotels). For each product, ratings from four information sources (trade magazine, Internet community, close expert, and lay friend) and four product attributes were presented. The utility of the information sources and product attributes differed significantly (F(14, 2268)=115.15, p< .001), with the recommendation of the personal expert being the most significant.

The results suggest that the recommendations of personally known persons to whom expertise is attributed are more important for the purchase decision than media-mediated recommendations and more important than individual product features.