The Impact of UGC on Consumer Decision Paths

Mengya Yue

2025

Abstract

In the digital era, user-generated content (UGC) is pivotal to consumer decisions, with over 70% of buyers referencing UGC pre-purchase. While prior research emphasizes static impacts, this study dynamically examines UGC’s role across decision stages (awareness, interest, consideration, purchase, after-sale) via literature review. Findings reveal UGC reshapes decision paths through “information-emotion-social identity” mechanisms: capturing attention via authentic visuals (awareness), fostering emotional engagement (interest), reducing risk through comparisons (consideration), leveraging social proof (purchase), and amplifying loyalty via post-purchase sharing (after-sale). Key contributions include a dynamic UGC model and critiques of fragmented cross-platform analyses, sample biases, and overlooked negative feedback. Future research should integrate cross-cultural comparisons and AI-driven sentiment analysis. Practically, brands must adopt an “incentive-audit-analysis” framework to balance authenticity and engagement, optimizing decision journeys. This study advances UGC theory with a dynamic, holistic lens, offering insights for Web3.0-era multi-scenario marketing strategies. Future research directions are proposed to guide subsequent investigations in this evolving field.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Yue M. (2025). The Impact of UGC on Consumer Decision Paths. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on E-commerce and Modern Logistics - Volume 1: ICEML; ISBN 978-989-758-775-7, SciTePress, pages 219-225. DOI: 10.5220/0013841900004719

in Bibtex Style

@conference{iceml25,
author={Mengya Yue},
title={The Impact of UGC on Consumer Decision Paths},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on E-commerce and Modern Logistics - Volume 1: ICEML},
year={2025},
pages={219-225},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013841900004719},
isbn={978-989-758-775-7},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on E-commerce and Modern Logistics - Volume 1: ICEML
TI - The Impact of UGC on Consumer Decision Paths
SN - 978-989-758-775-7
AU - Yue M.
PY - 2025
SP - 219
EP - 225
DO - 10.5220/0013841900004719
PB - SciTePress