Customer reviews, price discounts, and free shipping are powerful drivers of online purchases. Prior research demonstrates their direct effects on consumer behavior, usually with the assumption that they operate independently. By examining the interplays of online reviews and marketing promotions, this study offers a richer, more comprehensive perspective on how these drivers work together to shape consumers’ preferences and influence product sales. The authors examine these effects using both an online experiment (Study 1) and an analysis of a secondary data set (Study 2). Results demonstrate that when developing promotional schedules for e-commerce sites, managers must account for both the volume and valence of their products’ reviews; failing to address these dynamics may lead to reduced profit margins. A key insight is the limited performance of price discounts when a critical number of reviews accumulates, resulting in margin erosion without demand creation. The implications of these results are discussed.

客户评论、价格折扣和免费送货是在线购买的强大推动力。先前的研究表明它们对消费者行为的直接影响，通常假设它们独立运作。通过研究在线评论和营销促销的相互作用，本研究提供了更丰富、更全面的视角来了解这些驱动因素如何共同影响消费者的偏好和影响产品销售。作者使用在线实验（研究 1）和辅助数据集分析（研究 2）来检验这些影响。结果表明，在制定电子商务网站的促销计划时，管理者必须考虑产品评论的数量和效价；未能解决这些动态可能会导致利润率下降。一个关键的见解是，当评论数量达到临界值时，价格折扣的效果有限，从而导致利润率下降而无法创造需求。讨论了这些结果的含义。