A necessary component of conducting business online is online reviews. Here are 18 figures that demonstrate the relevance of internet reviews in the modern world.
In today’s digital world, online reviews are an inevitable component of conducting business.
Every marketer worth their salt is aware of how crucial internet reputation is.
Your consumers are likely to look for you online whether you run a small mom-and-pop eatery, a computer software business, or a network of coffee shops.
That implies that one of their initial actions will be to search for internet reviews of your company.
Positive feedback undoubtedly contributes to building a reputable brand that customers are more inclined to use. However, how you respond to unfavorable evaluations reveals a lot about your company.
Why Online Reviews Are So Powerful
Yelp, Google Business Profile, TripAdvisor, and similar sites give customers a platform to research businesses before doing business with them.
For entrepreneurs? Not really.
No matter how hard you work, it seems like you’re always going to get that one negative review that might potentially overshadow all of your positive ones.
Online reviews, however, are an unavoidable part of doing business online.
For millennials, reviews are empowering, helping them make an informed and thought-out purchase decision (useful when deciding if a restaurant’s $15 avocado toast is worth it).
If you still aren’t completely on board, here are online review statistics that may change your mind.
1. Positive & Negative Reviews Influence Consumers
Over 99.9% of buyers read customer reviews before making an online purchase, according to a PowerReviews analysis from 2021.
Additionally, 96% of consumers specifically search for unfavorable reviews. 85% of this number applied in 2018.
People who search for negative evaluations are curious to learn about the company’s flaws. What areas need improvement? The researcher feels confident if the drawbacks are modest.
If evaluations are overly enthusiastic, a near-perfect rating is frequently seen as less genuine and breeds suspicion among customers.
2. Consumers Trust Reviews Like Recommendations From Loved Ones
BrightLocal’s local consumer survey shows that 49% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family members.
It’s enticing to believe that every two people trust internet reviews as much when you consider how much we trust the people we love.
However, the study demonstrates that there are several circumstances that lead customers to doubt the veracity of a review. You must therefore be aware of this.
The following circumstances can lead one to believe that a review is not genuine:
The review is overly laudatory (45%)
The review is just one of many with comparable content (40%).
The reviewer is anonymous or employs a well-known pseudonym (38%)
The review is overly critical (36%).
There are many unfavorable reviews, and this is one of the few positive ones (32%)
There is very little language in the review, and it only has a star rating (31%).
3. The More Reviews, The Better Reputation
According to BrightLocal’s research, 60% of customers believe that a company’s review count is important when evaluating and choosing whether to employ its services.
Despite the fact that it has decreased since 2020, this is still a large number, particularly when compared to 2019, 2018, and 2017.
4. Most Consumers Don’t Trust Advertising
While online reviews are seeing a rise in consumer trust, the same can’t be said for traditional advertising.
According to Performance Marketing World, 84% of millennials don’t trust conventional advertising.
If anything, this finding is a sign of the times. People are tired of ads being pushed on their faces, especially ads that belie the truth of the quality of the products and services they get from brands.
5. Shoppers Research Product Reviews On Their Phones – Outside Of Your Store
According to a recent OuterBox study, 8 out of 10 customers search for product reviews on their cellphones while they are in a store.
Shoppers will immediately perform a search to check what other people have said about the product in question before making a purchase.
Some people will compare pricing to see if they can get the product elsewhere for a lower price.
This statistic demonstrates the growing interconnectedness of the offline and online worlds. The amount of sales you generate in-store may suffer if you don’t have a strong internet reputation.
6. Reviews Shared On Twitter Increase Social Commerce
Yotpo has revealed that reviews on social media platforms increase social commerce, especially on Twitter. You can see this displayed in the chart below:
Social media is often associated with increasing brand recognition. But it also works well for boosting sales.
The average conversion rate for the social networking websites shown in the graph above was recently disclosed via a survey by Shopify:
LinkedIn’s conversion rate is 0.47% on average.
Twitter has a conversion rate of 0.77% on average.
Facebook’s typical conversion rate is 1.85%.
Yotpo Data discovered that the conversion rate is 5.3 times higher for LinkedIn, 8.4 times higher for Twitter, and 40 times higher for Facebook when evaluations are shared on social media.
All these statistics show us that reviews are an incredibly powerful form of social proof that results in higher conversion levels across LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
Furthermore, a lot of the eCommerce world is underestimating Twitter’s force.
7. Reviews Are Just As Important Among Jobseekers
Think again if you believed that only customers were interested in reviews.
According to statistics from Glassdoor, 86% of workers and job seekers look up ratings and reviews of a company before deciding whether or not to apply for a position.
As competition for talent in certain industries gets tougher, companies will have no choice but to be more conscious about their employer brand if they wish to attract top talent.
8. 3.3 Stars Is The Minimum Rating Customers Accept
The lowest rating that clients are likely to take into account when selecting whether or not to engage with a company is 3.3 stars out of 5.
If your company has a lower rating than this, it may go unnoticed and lose important customers to the competitors.
Finding out that only 13% of customers will think about doing business with a company that has a rating of 2 stars or less is probably not shocking.
9. Sustainability Is A Recurring Theme In Travel Reviews
According to the Expedia.com Travel Recovery Trend Report, two major themes in online guest reviews are the environment and sustainability.
The following are some of the phrases that can be most frequently found in reviews:
LED lights made using renewable energy
charging an electric vehicle
disposable plastics
Recycling
According to Expedia, travelers in the millennial and Gen-Z generations are more likely to seek eco-friendly travel alternatives.
10. 18 – 34 Year Olds Trust Online Reviews as Much as Personal Recommendations
91% of people between the ages of 18 and 34, according to research, trust online evaluations equally as much as personal recommendations.
Consider for a moment that we now place the same level of trust in online comments as we do in the opinions of those we know and love.
This demonstrates the tremendous regard Gen Z and millennials accord online reviews.
11. Tiny Subject Line Changes Can Get More Reviews
The majority of firms send post-purchase emails to customers asking for evaluations.
Yotpo looked at the subject lines of 3.5 million of these emails asking for post-purchase feedback to see what works and what doesn’t.
Although there are many more statistics in this, here is a summary of the best subject line changes to make to earn more reviews:
The review response rates are not significantly impacted by an emotional appeal.
To increase reviews, mention your store’s name.
In every industry, incentives encourage more reviews.
Submit a query as the subject line.
Reviews for food and cigarette companies are improved by exclamation marks!
A term in your topic line should not be all caps.
12. Reputation Management Software Pays For Itself
According to a very interesting analysis on online reviews published by Podium, 94% of local businesses who use reputation management tools recover their costs through increased revenue.
What shows up in terms of your bottom line is heavily influenced by how your organization appears online.
As a result, businesses are making record-high investments in their reputations.
They achieve this, among other things, by purchasing reputation management software. This enables them to understand how internet reviews of their company are made.
13. Customers Believe A Product Should Have 100+ Reviews
Recent data from Power Reviews on the quantity of reviews consumers seek is noteworthy.
43% of shoppers say they would prefer to read more than 100 reviews for a product in an ideal world.
View the following table to discover what consumers anticipate in terms of review volume:
Customers claim that a noticeably large number of reviews can significantly increase their chance to make a purchase.
64% of those polled said they would be more likely to buy a product if it had over 1,000 reviews than if it had only 100.
Furthermore, if an item gets 10,000+ ratings as opposed to 1,000 reviews, 54% are more inclined to buy it. Therefore, when it comes to quantity, more is always better.
14. Few Travelers Post Unsolicited Online Hotel Reviews‘
Additionally, 78% of visitors to websites never provide unsolicited hotel reviews, according to research by BrightLocal. You cannot, then, merely rely on clients to publish hotel evaluations of their own volition. It is necessary to motivate them to accomplish this.
Customers claim that the following are the main methods used to request reviews:
through email (41%)
In-person/during the sale (35%)
Whenever a bill or receipt is received (35%).
SMS texting (27%).
When you contact clients and urge them to post a review, you need to be careful. You definitely don’t want to come off as aggressive. At the same time, you want to encourage visitors to leave a comment.
15. Consumers Are Becoming Increasingly Suspicious Of Facebook Reviews
As you can see from the table, only 7% of users don’t feel at all suspicious about Facebook reviews.
16. Most Consumers Use Rating Filters
Did you know that 7 in 10 consumers utilize rating filters when looking for companies?
Out of all the different rating options, the most popular is to narrow down a search based on the rating it is, for example, to only show hotels with ratings of four stars or above.
This helps customers only view products, locations, and services that fall within their standards. No one wants to waste their time on things that don’t fit!
17. Customers Expect You To Respond To Negative Reviews Within 7 Days
When customers post negative reviews about a business, they expect a response. Not only this, but they don’t want to wait around for it.
Review Trackers have stated that 53% of customers expect companies to respond to negative feedback within one week.
One in three consumers has a shorter timeframe than this; three days or less.
Therefore, you really need to ensure you’re keeping up with the reviews you receive and responding appropriately.
18. Your Response To A Review Can Change How Customers View Your Business
According to Podium’s 2021 State of Reviews report, 56% of customers have altered their opinions about a company as a result of a review.
We are aware that receiving a negative review from a consumer might make you feel ill to your stomach. However, this figure demonstrates that there is a chance to make a difference.
Customers will feel that you genuinely care about them and the quality of the service they receive if you reply empathically and make an effort to understand them. You can convert a dissatisfied client into a devoted one.
And, even if the consumer who has complained does not reply, the fact you’ve tried to rectify their grievance will show your business in a positive light when others read the review.
The Bottom Line On The Impact of Online Reviews
Online reviews are significant and will continue to be so, according to these facts.
Simply said, customer trust and the development of social proof are directly correlated with online reviews.
You ought to view them as a way to connect directly with your customers rather than as something to be feared.
If you haven’t started yet, this is as good a moment as any to start managing your internet reputation by carrying out the following actions:
Teach your clients the value of providing reviews, but also make sure they understand that doing so will help you grow your company, which is only good for them.
Control your brand across all review sites. Respond to criticism and guarantee that grievances are handled in a timely and professional manner.
To guarantee that all information about your company on Google is current and accurate, claim your Google Business Profile.
Request reviews from your consumers and encourage them to do so.
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