The impact of merchant-induced reviews on consumers’ shopping behavior from the perspective of the digital economy

This paper aims to improve the sustainability of the growth of the digital economy, promote online shopping platforms, and effectively protect the rights and interests of online consumers. Firstly, it discusses the digital economy’s growth significance and analyzes the relationship between it and business growth. Then, the influence of merchant-induced reviews on consumer shopping behavior on online consumer platforms is discussed. Agent-based computer modeling methods are added for simulation. Finally, the questionnaire survey is used to study the influence of merchant-induced reviews on consumers’ shopping behavior in four online consumption platforms. The results imply that the number of people with a significant impact of positive reviews on online consumer shopping behavior is at a maximum of around 54%; the number of people with a significant impact of bad reviews on online consumer shopping behavior is at a maximum of around 43%. Moreover, the analysis shows that the number of people significantly influenced by merchant-induced reviews on consumer shopping behavior is over 65%. The simulation results show that the impact of merchant-induced reviews on purchasing consumers is significantly greater than that of ordinary consumers and review consumers. The impact on ordinary consumers is the weakest. It can be seen that the current influence of merchant-induced reviews on online consumer shopping behavior is very significant. This paper not only provides a reference for improving the management system of online consumption platforms but also contributes to developing the digital economy.