Online product reviews are gaining the trust of consumers, but there is still a good chunk who have reservations about how reliable they are, according to a study from PowerReviews.
The “2010 Social Shopping Study” dug into the realm of online product research and customer reviews. The last study was conducted in 2007, when it was revealed that 81 percent of consumers used customer reviews to decide between two or three products, or to confirm that their final selection was the right one. Also, 40 percent of consumers said they started their shopping process using reviews.
In the most recent iteration of the study, PowerReviews finds that 57 percent of shoppers trust customer reviews as a research tool, along with corroborating information. However, 35 percent question whether the reviews are biased.
Among the causes of eroded trust in reviews are:
- not enough reviews to make an educated guess (50 percent)
- doubt that reviews are written by real customers (39 percent)
- lack of negative reviews or limited information (38 percent)
Despite the doubts, shoppers in 2010 trust customer reviews more than they did in 2007.
About 41 percent of respondents said they read between four to seven reviews before feeling comfortable enough to go through with a purchase, which is down from 46 percent in 2007. Meanwhile, 17 percent read between two to three reviews, down from 28 percent in 2007; 27 percent read between eight and 15, up from 17 percent in 2007; and 7 percent read between 16 and 25 reviews, up from 3 percent.
Half of the respondents to the study said they conduct research online for at least half of their purchases, down from 54 percent in 2007.
Also, going along with the overall trend of humans preferring contact via a device, consumers expressed a preference for doing research online, eschewing contact with a sales associate in a store. This is because of the time savings, stronger confidence and credibility of information.
Customer reviews have long been an ambivalent companion for shoppers who are conducting research online. Most recently, Yelp was forced to cave to cries of foul regarding their opaque reviews system, which was accused of removing negative reviews and pushing positive reviews to the top of business listings for businesses that bought Yelp advertising.
Even YouTube decided to shed its star-rating system and go for a stripped down (and potentially more accurate) thumbs-up, thumbs-down ratings system.
Online reviews certainly offer some helpful insights into many product and service purchase decisions, but reading the comments behind the stars on sites like Amazon is probably the better way to go.
Sources:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=126772
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071112005772&newsLang=en
http://www.seotops.com/online-product-reviews-may-have-gained-some-credibility_1306/
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/yelp-makes-changes-to-appease-small-business-owners/?src=mv
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20001503-248.html
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