Faith in online product reviews
Posted on 04.27 2010 by: Lawrence Johnson
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The “2010 Social Shopping Study”, conducted by the e-tailing group and PowerReviews, found that over half (57%) of shoppers count online product reviews by other customers to be a valuable research source. Reviews tops the website features that influence product and purchase decisions, (nearly 72% said they are the most important followed by customer service information (69%) and third-party buying category guides and expert opinions (64%). Ahead of top-rated product lists (60%), customer-supplied product photography (39%) and customer-supplied product videos (24%).
While consumers are affording online product reviews more trust and increasing their reliance on them out of sheer convenience, consumers don’t always readily trust the reviews: credibility is one of the top reasons why people prefer to research online rather than talk to a salesman or simply accept marketing