That Smiling Face Might Jeopardize Your Sales: The Effect of Smiles on Consumer Perceptions and Actions

Smiles are positive affective displays that convey friendliness and produce desirable impressions, which in turn are positively associated with consumer actions. Our research suggests smiling faces sometimes bring forth undesirable perceptions and consequences. An online experiment provides initial evidence that smiling faces lead to greater perceptions of sociability but less expertise. Using a large dataset from 5miles, we further find that smiling sellers sell significantly more than those with neutral faces for appearance-relevant products. Whereas smiling faces jeopardize the sales for expertise-relevant products. These findings highlight influence of facial expressions in online platforms and have significant implications for e-marketing strategies.