Reviews · Randomized controlled field experiment
How Do Likes Influence Revenue? A Randomized Controlled Field Experiment
Journal of Business Research · 2023
Summary
Likes increased revenue mainly during non-work hours, when they raised likelihood of buying; the effect was strongest for already popular products.
For your marketing
Possible founder application
Treat visible popularity as context-dependent social proof. Test its impact on trial starts or qualified conversions by visit timing and product interest rather than assuming likes universally build trust.
Reported result
What the study found
Likes increased revenue mainly during non-work hours, when they raised purchase propensity; the effect was strongest for already popular products. The study found no significant increase in spending conditional on a purchase.
Research question
What the authors investigated
Does displaying product likes affect purchases and revenue, and does shopping time moderate the effect?
Design
Three-week randomized field experiment displaying or withholding product like counts in an online shop.
Sample and setting
112,087 product-detail-page views across 9,559 hedonic products in an online store.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
One online shop and hedonic goods over a short experiment. Likes may work differently for considered software purchases, and the abstract does not state long-term effects.
Research sources
ScienceDirect publisher abstract retrieved with Firecrawl; experimental duration, viewed pages and reported results were checked.