With the innumerable choices available today for a customer in his purchase decision, the customer looks for all the information they need, when buying in any store. Shoppers are not just happy with the product details but are looking for the word that past buyers have given about the product. So, what is the power of Reviews on influencing purchase decisions?

When we talk on the strength of Reviews on influencing purchase decisions, it clearly reveals that reviews are no more an option but a customer expectation! A survey to study on the importance of online reviews, says more than 90% of the shoppers check for reviews, and, of these, almost 1-4^th of them look for reviews in every single purchase they do; Percentage of youngsters is even more than that of elders here. People start rummaging third party sources if the business provider fails to show the online customer reviews. This is the impact of online reviews now!

When a customer leaves a positive review it’s happy for a business provider but at the same time one can’t ignore the negative feedback left by the buyers. It’s more important and urgent to address the unhappy customer, provide him a quick resolution and also show this alongside his review online in the store. By this way, you not only make him happy but also win the consumer trust. Trust is the most important element to succeed in any business!

Let’s take a look at a few statistics for real time scenario understanding,

• 88% of the buyers read reviews online in 2014 and this is increased by 4% now. 72% say the consumer trust on the business is built by positive reviews.
• Ratings are even more importantly looked into.
• Close to 50% of the buyers say they are very keen on how recent is the review.
• 73% of them read reviews on a desktop, 38% do on mobile web, 29% on tablets and 24% on mobile apps. People reading reviews on smartphones are 127% more likely to make the purchase decision compared to their desktop counterparts.
• The percentage of buyers, expecting every website to be on mobiles, has increased from 25% in2013 to 33% now
• 40% of them read 1 to 3 reviews while 88% of them go up to 10 reviews! This states it’s important to show large number of reviews, ideally 8 to 10
• It may be shocking but it’s true that 95% of the buyers doubt the website if they don’t see any bad scores! 30% of them mark the site fake!
• Professionalism, expertise and reliability are the 3 most important elements of a business, in customers’ view.
• 50 or more reviews could mean a 4.6% rise in conversions
• Reviews on an average uplift the sales by 18%
• Quick resolutions make 95% of the unhappy customers come back to the store

Close to 40% of the in-store buyers said they checked online customer reviews before they came to the physical store. Reviews are read for all purchases; to quote few it’s electronics, appliances, fitness trackers, toys and games.

Earlier to 2 decades, it was the other people opinion that mattered to a shopper but today it’s the online customer reviews. Customer content online highly influences in-store shoppers and thus has a great impact on in-store revenue too.

We believe you now have a fair idea on push of Reviews on influencing purchase decisions! The online search giant google is on the customer side here; it wants to give the best possible results to searchers hence trusts the online customer reviews as much as shoppers do. It displays the top 3 most relevant results for any search; say more than 3 meet the search criteria then google makes the choice based on online reviews! Businesses with great reviews have higher search rankings too.

If you have further questions or are looking for assistance, ask us now.