The Impact on Review Credibility and Trust from Review Solicitation on E-commerce

It has widely known that Online Customer Reviews have become an integral part of customer decision-making before making online purchases. Sellers and platforms alike develop a strategy to shape reviews profitably under the pretext of increasing sales. Review Solicitation has been used to increase review volume and review valance in the online review platform. Interestingly, while much research is conducted to find the impact of review solicitation on the characteristics of reviews generated, there is not much research done on the perception of customers who have experienced the review solicitation strategy that might pose a problem for parties involved. This study aims to fill the gap of previous studies in finding the answer to what happens to the review credibility and Trust from the customer perspective after review solicitation. The research used Sequential Equation Modeling (SEM) process from 112 data obtained using Purposive sampling with online respondents around the Jabodetabek area in Indonesia in March 2022. There are five variables (Review Solicitation Awareness, Review Solicitation experience, Review Credibility, Trust, and Purchase Intention) with four hypotheses in this study. This study found that customers' Reviews Solicitation Experience significantly influences review credibility. At the same time, customers' Reviews of Solicitation Awareness significantly influence Trust. Then, Trust significantly influences Purchase Intention.