As our review management 101 guide outlines, managing reviews is about owning the narrative. Businesses should leverage positive reviews as social proof and use negative reviews as feedback to improve.Overall, reviews are valuable for building your brand, driving revenue, and instilling consumer confidence.Here are the stats you need to know about online reviews.
#1 Do people read online reviews?
- 95% of people have used online reviews at least once, according to a PowerReviews survey. (Source)
- 97% of shoppers actively look for reviews that are longer and more detailed, according to another PowerReviews survey. (Source)
- G2 asked a simple question: Are buyers more likely to purchase a B2B product or service if they had read a trusted review about it? Around 92% of people said yes. (Source)
- 55% say they are less likely to purchase a new-to-them product if there are no written reviews and only star ratings. People want details about the product and its performance. (Source)
Source: G2
- 71% of B2B consumers read reviews in the “consideration” phase of purchasing a product. The reviews they read heavily influence their decision to click “buy” or not. (Source)
- 65.7% of shoppers read 1 to 10 reviews on a product before making a purchasing decision. (Source)
- The importance of consumer reviews isn’t limited to B2B or online services. According to a survey by YouGov, 32% of global customers read reviews before buying household products. That percentage is higher in Asian countries such as Indonesia and Singapore, at 43%. (Source)
Source: Statista
#2 Effect of the pandemic on online reviews
Source: brightlocal
- According to a study by McKinsey & Company, online rating and review volume surged during 2020. The volume of reviews rose about 87% from December 2019 to December 2020. (Source)
- 31% of people read more online reviews for local businesses before purchasing because of the pandemic, according to a 2020 brightlocal survey. (Source)
- That same survey revealed that 67% of people would not use a business if reviews mentioned a lack of Covid-19 safety guidelines. (Source)
- In addition, 22% of people specifically wrote reviews to help out local businesses that may have experienced hardship during the pandemic. (Source)
- According to Podium’s 2021 State of Reviews, 31% of customers are more likely to explore a business’s Google listing than before the pandemic. (Source)
- Review interaction went up by 50% because of the pandemic, according to PowerReviews. This increase may be because more people were staying home and shopping online. (Source)
- 2020 saw a surge in customer reviews for B2B, fashion, and gardening businesses, according to an analysis by Trustpilot. (Source)
#3 Online reviews impact on sales
Source: Spiegel Research Center
- The chance of a person purchasing a product with five or more reviews is 270% higher than the likelihood of buying a product with no reviews. Some people may view purchasing something with no reviews as a risk. (Source)
- According to the Harvard Business Review, businesses see a 5-9% increase in revenue for every one-star increase they get on Yelp. (Source)
- Businesses with a higher than average number of reviews make 54% more revenue. This increase could be caused by the company getting more traffic and consumers seeing the brand as more trustworthy. (Source)
Source: Spiegel Research Center
- Reviews increase the likelihood of purchase for more expensive goods than less expensive ones. Displaying a review for a low-priced product raised conversion rates by 190%. The conversion rate rose by 380% for more expensive products. (Source)
- 47% of consumers are more willing or somewhat more willing to pay more for a product with higher reviews. Quality over quantity does matter, after all. (Source)
- Customers who spend more money online are more likely to prefer reviews with user-generated visual content. 35% of consumers who spend over $2,000 a month always look for user-uploaded photos, and 32% regularly seek them out. (Source)
- Businesses with an average rating between 3.5 and 4.5 stars generate more revenue than businesses with a five-star rating. Companies with only five stars usually have fewer reviews, and consumers are skeptical of a perfect review score. (Source)
#4 Online review usage according to demographic
Source: PowerReviews
- The more people spend shopping online, the more they consult online reviews. 62% of people spending more than $2,000 always check reviews before buying products. (Source)
- People across gender groups read online reviews. Both 78% of men and women say they read online reviews before making a purchasing decision. (Source)
- Some buyers only consider reviews when making significant purchases, but over 30% of buyers younger than 44 do so for every purchase. 19.7% of people over 45 consult reviews for every purchase– a respectable amount. (Source)
- People with more disposable income appear to rely more on reviews. 89% of households earning $80K or higher read reviews regularly. 74% of households making less than $40K/year read reviews regularly. (Source)
- 24% of Gen Z shoppers won’t buy something if there are no product photos from other customers. 14% of Millennials feel the same way. (Source)
#5 Power of negative reviews
Source: G2
- Negative reviews are not always bad. According to G2, 72% of people say negative reviews provide insight into the product. (Source)
- 61% of customers actively seek out negative and one-star reviews when purchasing a product. (Source)
- 39.5% of people say negative reviews build credibility and authenticity. (Source)
- 42% of consumers are suspicious of a product only with 5-star ratings. That percentage is even higher for Gen Z at 48%. (Source)
- According to brightlocal, negative reviews can stop an average of 40% of buyers from wanting to buy from a business. (Source)
- Consumers look for transparency and honesty. 62% say they won't shop at a business if they suspect them of censoring negative reviews. (Source)
#6 Responding to reviews
Source: brightlocal
- Responding to reviews should be part of your business’s review management strategy. ReviewTrackers found that 53% of consumers expect a business to respond to a negative review within seven days. (Source)
- It’s important to reply to every review, not just the negative ones. 89% of consumers are more likely to shop at a business that responds to all reviews, while only 61% are more likely if a company only responds to negative reviews. (Source)
- 41% of consumers think that a business cares about their customers when they respond to reviews. (Source)
- 89% of people read business replies to reviews. (Source)
- 70% of customers said that responses to reviews changed their opinion about a business. (Source)
#7 Where do customers read reviews
Source: Intuiti
- 88% of all reviews are on four sites: Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Facebook. This is especially relevant for local brick-and-mortar businesses. (Source)
- Intuiti’s 2019 survey shows that 34% of shoppers aged 15 to 25 check reviews on e-commerce sites. (Source)
- 27% of shoppers from the same age group preferred reading reviews on Amazon, and 23% preferred Google reviews. (Source)
- 62.6% of consumers aged 18 to 29 prefer shopping on e-commerce sites with integrated reviews. (Source)
- ReviewTracker’s 2022 survey found that 63.6% of customers read Google reviews before visiting a local business. (Source)
- Niche review sites still have value for businesses. 33% of consumers look at industry-specific review sites when shopping for something specific. (Source)
- 39% of consumers over 55 say they trust online reviews more than personal recommendations. (Source)
#8 Fake reviews and their impact
Source: Statista
- Approximately 5.8% of the total posted reviews on Trustpilot were flagged as fake in 2021. That’s a whopping 2.7 million fake reviews. Trustpilot removed a similar amount of fake reviews (5.7%) in 2020. (Source)
- According to a brightlocal survey, 62% of customers think they’ve seen a fake review for a local business in the past 12 months. (Source)
Source: brightlocal
- 54% of customers say that incorrect grammar and/or spelling is a red flag that makes them question the authenticity of a review. (Source)
- 67% of people stated that the existence of fake reviews and fake reviewers makes them distrustful of online reviews in general. (Source)
- 45% of shoppers suspect a review might be fake when its praise is over-the-top and unbelievable. (Source)
- People trust that a review isn’t fake if a verified user leaves it. Reviews left by people with verified badges and other credibility indicators can increase the likelihood of a purchase by 15%. (Source)
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