IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/intfor/v38y2022i3p1005-1024.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Forecasting sales using online review and search engine data: A method based on PCA–DSFOA–BPNN

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Chuan
  • Tian, Yu-Xin
  • Fan, Zhi-Ping

Abstract

Traditional sales forecasting methods are mainly based on historical sales data, which result in a certain lag. The relationship between sales volume and its influencing factors is intricate and often non-linear. In view of this, we propose a novel product forecasting method using online reviews and search engine data. Firstly, a dictionary-based sentiment analysis method is developed to convert the textual review concerning each attribute of the product into the corresponding sentiment score. And by combining the prospect theory and relevant online review data, sentiment indices in each period are calculated. Subsequently, data of product-related Baidu search words with different lag orders are collected and screened by time difference correlation analysis. Finally, the forecast model, PCA–DSFOA–BPNN, is constructed by combining the principal component analysis (PCA), the back propagation neural network (BPNN), and the improved fruit fly optimization algorithm (DSFOA), in which sentiment indices, Baidu search data, and historical sales volume are input data. Taking the monthly sales forecast of 14 automobile models as a case study, we observe that the proposed forecast method can effectively improve the forecast accuracy with good robustness.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Chuan & Tian, Yu-Xin & Fan, Zhi-Ping, 2022. "Forecasting sales using online review and search engine data: A method based on PCA–DSFOA–BPNN," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1005-1024.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intfor:v:38:y:2022:i:3:p:1005-1024
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2021.07.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169207021001217
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijforecast.2021.07.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schneider, Matthew J. & Gupta, Sachin, 2016. "Forecasting sales of new and existing products using consumer reviews: A random projections approach," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 243-256.
    2. Bangwayo-Skeete, Prosper F. & Skeete, Ryan W., 2015. "Can Google data improve the forecasting performance of tourist arrivals? Mixed-data sampling approach," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 454-464.
    3. D’Amuri, Francesco & Marcucci, Juri, 2017. "The predictive power of Google searches in forecasting US unemployment," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 801-816.
    4. Simeon Vosen & Torsten Schmidt, 2011. "Forecasting private consumption: survey‐based indicators vs. Google trends," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 565-578, September.
    5. Hyunyoung Choi & Hal Varian, 2012. "Predicting the Present with Google Trends," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(s1), pages 2-9, June.
    6. Liwen Vaughan & Yue Chen, 2015. "Data mining from web search queries: A comparison of google trends and baidu index," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 66(1), pages 13-22, January.
    7. Nikolay Archak & Anindya Ghose & Panagiotis G. Ipeirotis, 2011. "Deriving the Pricing Power of Product Features by Mining Consumer Reviews," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(8), pages 1485-1509, August.
    8. Yu, Lean & Zhao, Yaqing & Tang, Ling & Yang, Zebin, 2019. "Online big data-driven oil consumption forecasting with Google trends," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 213-223.
    9. Fan, Zhi-Ping & Che, Yu-Jie & Chen, Zhen-Yu, 2017. "Product sales forecasting using online reviews and historical sales data: A method combining the Bass model and sentiment analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 90-100.
    10. Zhihao Li & Tao Liu & Guanghu Zhu & Hualiang Lin & Yonghui Zhang & Jianfeng He & Aiping Deng & Zhiqiang Peng & Jianpeng Xiao & Shannon Rutherford & Runsheng Xie & Weilin Zeng & Xing Li & Wenjun Ma, 2017. "Dengue Baidu Search Index data can improve the prediction of local dengue epidemic: A case study in Guangzhou, China," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-13, March.
    11. Li, Xin & Pan, Bing & Law, Rob & Huang, Xiankai, 2017. "Forecasting tourism demand with composite search index," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 57-66.
    12. Jeremy Ginsberg & Matthew H. Mohebbi & Rajan S. Patel & Lynnette Brammer & Mark S. Smolinski & Larry Brilliant, 2009. "Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query data," Nature, Nature, vol. 457(7232), pages 1012-1014, February.
    13. Zeng, Yu-Rong & Zeng, Yi & Choi, Beomjin & Wang, Lin, 2017. "Multifactor-influenced energy consumption forecasting using enhanced back-propagation neural network," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 381-396.
    14. Raymond Yiu Keung Lau & Wenping Zhang & Wei Xu, 2018. "Parallel Aspect‐Oriented Sentiment Analysis for Sales Forecasting with Big Data," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 27(10), pages 1775-1794, October.
    15. Yang, Xin & Pan, Bing & Evans, James A. & Lv, Benfu, 2015. "Forecasting Chinese tourist volume with search engine data," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 386-397.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mingyang Zhang & Heyan Xu & Ning Ma & Xinglin Pan, 2022. "Intelligent Vehicle Sales Prediction Based on Online Public Opinion and Online Search Index," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Jin Shao & Lean Yu & Jingke Hong & Xianzhu Wang, 2025. "Forecasting house price index with social media sentiment: A decomposition–ensemble approach," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 216-241, January.
    3. Liu, Longlong & Zhou, Suyu & Jie, Qian & Du, Pei & Xu, Yan & Wang, Jianzhou, 2024. "A robust time-varying weight combined model for crude oil price forecasting," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    4. Wanhai You & Yuming Huang & Chien‐Chiang Lee, 2024. "Forecasting tourist flows in the COVID‐19 era using nonparametric mixed‐frequency VARs," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(2), pages 473-489, March.
    5. Tian, Yu-Xin & Zhang, Chuan, 2023. "An end-to-end deep learning model for solving data-driven newsvendor problem with accessibility to textual review data," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    6. Hou, Guolian & Wang, Junjie & Fan, Yuzhen, 2024. "Multistep short-term wind power forecasting model based on secondary decomposition, the kernel principal component analysis, an enhanced arithmetic optimization algorithm, and error correction," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    7. Xiwen Cui & Xinyu Guan & Dongyu Wang & Dongxiao Niu & Xiaomin Xu, 2022. "Can China Meet Its 2030 Total Energy Consumption Target? Based on an RF-SSA-SVR-KDE Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-13, August.
    8. Chuan Zhang & Ao‐Yun Hu & Yu‐Xin Tian, 2023. "Daily tourism forecasting through a novel method based on principal component analysis, grey wolf optimizer, and extreme learning machine," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(8), pages 2121-2138, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chuan Zhang & Yu-Xin Tian & Ling-Wei Fan, 2020. "Improving the Bass model’s predictive power through online reviews, search traffic and macroeconomic data," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 295(2), pages 881-922, December.
    2. Schaer, Oliver & Kourentzes, Nikolaos & Fildes, Robert, 2019. "Demand forecasting with user-generated online information," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 197-212.
    3. Zhongchen Song & Tom Coupé, 2023. "Predicting Chinese consumption series with Baidu," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 429-463, July.
    4. Monge, Manuel & Claudio-Quiroga, Gloria & Poza, Carlos, 2024. "Chinese economic behavior in times of covid-19. A new leading economic indicator based on Google trends," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    5. Doris Chenguang Wu & Shiteng Zhong & Richard T R Qiu & Ji Wu, 2022. "Are customer reviews just reviews? Hotel forecasting using sentiment analysis," Tourism Economics, , vol. 28(3), pages 795-816, May.
    6. Long Wen & Chang Liu & Haiyan Song, 2019. "Forecasting tourism demand using search query data: A hybrid modelling approach," Tourism Economics, , vol. 25(3), pages 309-329, May.
    7. Li, Hengyun & Hu, Mingming & Li, Gang, 2020. "Forecasting tourism demand with multisource big data," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    8. Hulya Bakirtas & Vildan Gulpinar Demirci, 2022. "Can Google Trends data provide information on consumer’s perception regarding hotel brands?," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 57-83, March.
    9. Javier Sebastian, 2016. "Blockchain in financial services: Regulatory landscape and future challenges," Working Papers 16/21, BBVA Bank, Economic Research Department.
    10. Gang Xie & Xin Li & Yatong Qian & Shouyang Wang, 2021. "Forecasting tourism demand with KPCA-based web search indexes," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(4), pages 721-743, June.
    11. Benedikt Maas, 2020. "Short‐term forecasting of the US unemployment rate," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 394-411, April.
    12. Andreea Avramescu & Arkadiusz Wiśniowski, 2021. "Now-casting Romanian migration into the United Kingdom by using Google Search engine data," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(40), pages 1219-1254.
    13. Chumnumpan, Pattarin & Shi, Xiaohui, 2019. "Understanding new products’ market performance using Google Trends," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 91-103.
    14. Tian, Yu-Xin & Zhang, Chuan, 2023. "An end-to-end deep learning model for solving data-driven newsvendor problem with accessibility to textual review data," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    15. Yang, Yang & Fan, Yawen & Jiang, Lan & Liu, Xiaohui, 2022. "Search query and tourism forecasting during the pandemic: When and where can digital footprints be helpful as predictors?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    16. France, Stephen L. & Shi, Yuying & Kazandjian, Brett, 2021. "Web Trends: A valuable tool for business research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 666-679.
    17. van der Wielen, Wouter & Barrios, Salvador, 2021. "Economic sentiment during the COVID pandemic: Evidence from search behaviour in the EU," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    18. Rodrigo Mulero & Alfredo García-Hiernaux, 2021. "Forecasting Spanish unemployment with Google Trends and dimension reduction techniques," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 329-349, September.
    19. Götz, Thomas B. & Knetsch, Thomas A., 2019. "Google data in bridge equation models for German GDP," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 45-66.
    20. Jianchun Fang & Wanshan Wu & Zhou Lu & Eunho Cho, 2019. "Using Baidu Index To Nowcast Mobile Phone Sales In China," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(01), pages 83-96, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:intfor:v:38:y:2022:i:3:p:1005-1024. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijforecast .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.