“The influence of online reviews and feedback on customers’ usage and order intention: A study on online Food Delivery Service Apps in Dhaka.”

Abstract

In today’s world with the rise of technology and e-commerce business and increasing popularity of social media platforms we can observe that reviews are getting so much reliable that around 90% people read online reviews before making any decision of using any app or service. Online reviews are more than information now; it is becoming one of the customer engagement or influencing tool. And reviews for food delivery apps are playing important role as many apps have been developed now as food delivery service, and people consider reviews before using or trying new app or service. The main objective of this study was to identify the factors and types of reviews that influence usage decision of these food delivery apps and as we now most of these apps operates only in Dhaka, the study conducted in Dhaka. This quantitative research with non-probability sampling and judgemental technique has been used to conduct this study. Primary data has been collected through structured questionnaire and conducting descriptive statistics with the help of Microsoft excel data has been analysed. The study found that, there are many factors of online reviews such as review informativeness, review quality, source credibility and trustworthiness that influence usage intention for different food delivery apps. Review pattern such as qualitative and quantitative review and types of review such as positive or negative review have impact on consumer’s decision. But past experience also matters along with review. That’s why some food delivery apps are still preferable and Facebook has been considered as most popular platform for the reviews of these delivery apps. But most of the users and readers of reviews are young generation. And reviews influence their choice and perception very much. The result was found from the survey done on Dhaka city. But more factors need to find out with large number of samples to understand how factors of online reviews influence consumers’ usage intentions. Keywords: online reviews; social media platforms; consumer usage intention; food delivery apps; review quality.