Online marketplace sellers’ influence on rating scores and comment orientation

Consumer-to-consumer online marketplace sellers systematically manipulate buyers’ evaluations to improve their reputation and secure more selling opportunities. However, sellers’ manipulation influences individual buyers’ feedback only after a transaction has been completed. The cumulative buyers’ evaluations then affect other buyers’ purchase decisions. Few studies have focused on the effectiveness of sellers’ manipulation and the influence of buyers’ experience on manipulated evaluations. This study used signaling theory to investigate the impact of sellers’ manipulation and buyers’ experience on buyers’ evaluation. This study examined the influence of sellers’ manipulative signals on the percentage of positive ratings and buyers’ comment orientation. This study also tested whether buyers’ online shopping experience moderates the relationship between seller manipulations and buyer evaluations. The proposed model was verified using data from Taobao.com and 1052 respondents’ web questionnaire answers based on their reading of buyers’ text comments. The results demonstrate that seller manipulation influences the percentage of positive ratings but not buyers’ comment orientation. The moderating effect of buyers’ experience affects both the percentage of positive ratings and buyers’ comment orientation. These findings can help practitioners and academics better recognize the effects of sellers’ manipulations and buyers’ experience on buyers’ behaviors and reactions.