Consumers are increasingly trusting online reviews, even more so than personal recommendations. This is because reviews on the web carry the same amount of credibility as personal recommendations and, therefore, consumers will trust them if they are of high quality and authentic. Unfortunately, if a review looks spammy or not genuine, consumers are likely to think the opposite and not buy from that company. But as the numbers show, studies have a tangible impact on buying habits.
Positive Reviews
Consumers now assess the quality of a product based on its appearance, performance, and customer reviews, which are often positive or negative. While the product’s appearance and performance influence the first stage of the buying cycle, the second phase is shaped by post-purchase behavior. As a result, positive online reviews have become one of the most powerful marketing assets. Recent research has shown that 68% of Americans will buy a product or service based on a positive review.
A study by Revoo’s stats lab revealed that consumers believe a four or 4.5-star rating more than a five-star one. But many consumers are skeptical of a perfect five-star review. In a study by the company’s stats lab, consumers who read a negative review tended to spend more time on a website before making a purchase. The study also found that businesses that respond to negative reviews have an 85% higher conversion rate.
Strike a Balance
Despite the popularity of positive online reviews, you should balance them with negative thoughts. A study has shown that positive reviews influence younger adults more than negative ones, while negative reviews impact older adults less. Positive reviews are also more persuasive than negative ones if accompanied by positive feedback. This is especially true if they come from satisfied customers. This trend is expected to continue for some time. There are other reasons why online reviews are so powerful, and one of them is that consumers are willing to trust them more than personal recommendations.
Although consumers are more likely to trust a positive review than a negative one, negative ones have an even more substantial influence. Despite the power of positive reviews, a negative one might have an even more significant impact on younger consumers. The research concludes that negative reviews influence older adults differently than positive ones. So the effect of positive reviews is not limited to the youth market. And the study is ongoing.
You Need to Respond to Negative Online Reviews.
According to a BrightLocal study, 89% of consumers will read a response from a business after reading a negative one. However, some companies may feel that positive reviews do not affect their business. But a recent study shows that even negative thoughts are just as influential in sales as a five-star rating. Therefore, a company with no negative reviews may be fake or untrustworthy.
Consumers trust reviews based on the opinions of other consumers. For example, studies show that consumers trust consumer reviews over manufacturer reviews, even though only 5% to 10% of them write these reviews. Furthermore, consumers are likely to trust considerations over personal recommendations, and 90% of consumers will reject a business after reading a negative review. However, this trust is only a partial response to the power of online reviews.
Review Recency
Recent research suggests that consumers place greater importance on review recency than ever before. More than eight out of ten consumers (aged 18 to 74) find review recency more important than price or quality. This is because reviews provide shoppers with an authentic reassurance of quality. In a recent survey, PowerReviews surveyed 9K online shoppers. The research examined shopping activity on 1.5 million product pages from over one thousand brands and retailers.
Increasing review volume has influenced purchasing behavior, but not all product reviews are equally helpful. Consumers who read more than one review are more likely to buy the product. A recent study found that nearly 40 percent of consumers will not accept a product if it has an older review. This finding contradicts popular beliefs that more senior reviews are more important to increasing sales. Despite this finding, it’s clear that review volume does matter, as it is essential for making a buying decision. This is true whether the reviews are about the services of a branding agency or a 3-star restaurant.
Recency Equals Volume When it Comes to Online Reviews.
Review recency is equally essential for consumers and businesses alike. 54% of millennials and 73% of Gen Z buyers said that review volume is just as significant as review recency. A company should collect reviews and share them with consumers before launching new distribution channels. The most effective pre-launch campaign includes distributing sample products to consumers before the product launch and soliciting their reviews.
Reviews provide a snapshot of the customer experience. They describe one interaction with a product, but they can also change rapidly. In this case, a product’s most recent review better represents the current experience. More than half of consumers said only recent reviews impacted their decisions in 2020 and 22% in 2021. Consumers tend to consider reviews from the past three to a year.
Businesses often ask consumers to provide an email address, receipt, or invoice when requesting reviews. They may also contact consumers via SMS, but you should only do this with consent from the consumer. Ultimately, consumers want to know if a company is genuine and honest. It also makes it easy for customers to leave positive feedback. However, the best way to get the reviews you need is to be creative.
Influence Of Online Reviews on Purchase Intention
There is evidence that online reviews help influence a customer’s purchase intention. Online reviews contain honest customer opinions, although deceptive comments are increasingly common. In addition, e-commerce sites are notorious for spam, which includes false features and is difficult to detect. This study investigates the impact of fake reviews on purchase intention. It also explores the role of other factors such as the type of product and how these might influence purchase intention.
We found that positive reviews were significantly related to purchase intention, while negative reviews did not. Furthermore, reviews’ amount of time and valence were significant predictors of Internet skills and reviewer characteristics. However, this effect is not consistent across product categories, and a person’s Internet skill level may have been an essential factor in determining the quality of the online reviews. We should therefore continue to investigate this topic further in future research.
This study provides a framework for measuring consumer purchase intention using online review browsing data. This framework allows companies to integrate data on purchase intent with information on consumer shopping behavior and online review browsing behaviors to design timely marketing activities. Our model also identifies the factors influencing purchase intention and offers recommendations for improvement. For example, we can use customer images and ratings to understand better what motivates consumers to make a purchase decision.
Figurative Descriptions Boost sales
The influence of online reviews on purchase intention is most substantial in experience-oriented product buyers. We found that studies that include a figurative description of the product are associated with a higher purchase intention for these consumers. Our results also suggest that social presence and experience product purchasing are related but not the same. Thus, we must identify the influence of online reviews to influence purchase decisions in the real world.
Participants were presented with a pair of household products in the study and asked to indicate which one was preferred. Next, the effects were offered on cards, accompanied by four relevant attributes. The participants were then presented with the average consumer rating for each product. While most participants selected the higher-rated product, the lower-rated one was preferred by a small minority.
The authors note that the effectiveness of online reviews depends on the content of each study and the contextual cues surrounding it. Valuable reviews are generally more effective than negative reviews, and a single positive review was no more influential than one negative review. While the influence of negative thoughts is mainly subjective, there are also many studies on the effect of online reviews on purchase intention. For example, one study found that reviews from a single consumer were significantly more persuasive than single negative reviews.
