Did you know that online reviews are one of the powerful ways to boost your sales? No? Then you might be missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your business.
You see, all buyers have one thing in common. They trust what other buyers say and feel about products or services they have used. If a customer likes a product, chances are that they will share their experience through an online review - either on your website, on Facebook, as a tweet, as a comment on your company’s Instagram profile, or on third-party review platforms like Yelp.
Unfortunately, some eCommerce owners still don’t leverage the power of online reviews. Are you still wondering why do online reviews matter? After all, anyone can write anything under the protection of online anonymity.
Picture this. In 2019, there were over 30 million small businesses in the United States. A good chunk of these also had an online presence. With this kind of competition, despite your stellar customer service and quality products or services, you still need an edge over your competition. That edge can be easier to get than you think. You guessed it - I’m talking about online reviews!
To put everything in perspective, we have put together a comprehensive list of online reviews statistics that will help you to understand why your competition, for instance, is spending a fortune trying to get more online reviews in Shopify.
Online Review Stats That Prove How Much Reviews Matter to Your Business
- A business can get a 5-9% increase in revenue for every one-star increase it gets on Yelp.
- Your business can get a conversion rate increase of up to 380% by just displaying reviews for higher-priced items.
Image via Spiegel
- 82% of consumers consider user-generated reviews extremely valuable.
- 70% of all consumers will look to reviews or ratings before making a purchasing decision.
- Google says that online reviews account for about 15% of the method it uses to rank local businesses. If your SEO matters to you, reviews are the fastest way to get that coveted user-generated content.
- According to TripAdvisor, hotels that responded to reviews received 12% more reviews and their ratings increased by 0.12 stars.
- 4 hours is what is generally considered by people as a reasonable response waiting period after which 30% might as well switch to a competitor.
- 92% of consumers are more likely to buy a product or service if they have been able to find a trusted review about it.
Image via Learning Hub
Don’t have the time to switch from platform to platform to manage your reviews? Wiremo makes it easy for you - answer customer reviews from a single dashboard! No more switching and wasting time checking every third-party review platform.
- 65% become more loyal to a brand after it responds while 25% are less likely to go to another platform to post and share negative comments about the brand.
- In 2019, 76% of consumers said they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends or family. In 2020, that number shot to 79%! Yes, the importance of online reviews is still growing.
- 92% of respondents in a recent survey admitted that they read at least one review before deciding what to buy.
Image via Bizrate Insights
- 56% of consumers read at least four product reviews before buying a product, while more than one-third read between one and three reviews.
- 47% of all internet users worldwide say they post reviews about a product, company, or service each month.
Image via Global Web Index
- 59% say they regularly inform friends and family of new products and services.
- 71% of consumers are more likely to make purchases based on social media referrals.
- 60% of shoppers report that they use Google to read reviews.
Image via Bizrate Insights
Did you know that with Wiremo you can easily import your reviews from Facebook or Google Business Profile?
- 53% of consumers recommend business or products in tweets while a further 48% follow through to purchase those products or services.
- 88% of customers read an online review that influenced their buying decision.
- 25% of respondents stated that when shopping online, shopper review and user-generated content was also a major consideration when picking a retailer to shop from.
Image via Statista
- 50 or more reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Your online business can generate over 6o% more revenue per site visitor when a consumer interacts with your reviews.
- 81% of travelers find online reviews important when choosing a hotel while 49% of travelers will not make a reservation for a hotel that has no reviews.
- The probability of a purchase at a retail store increases when star ratings fall between 4.2 and 4.5 out of 5.
- 94% of respondents stated that positive online reviews made them more likely to use a business while 92% admitted that negative reviews made them less likely to shop from a local business.
Image via Statista
- 78% of respondents focus on the most recent reviews by fellow travelers.
- Although residents consider multiple factors while deciding to ultimately rent at a property, online reviews account for a significant 52% of the total influence.
- 87% of people surveyed say that their intention is to share good experiences with fellow travelers whenever they write an online review.
- 30% of reviews or more can be the basis of a competitive edge in a local market.
- There are over 760 million reviews on TripAdvisor, which makes it a must-have account for travel agencies, hotels, and travelers.
- 46% check star ratings before committing to an online purchase – with almost nine in 10 consumers considering them to be critical to their decision making.
- 76% of shoppers expect online merchants to respond to reviews and one in five consumers believe a reply should come within 24 hours or less.
- 80% of shoppers used a mobile phone inside of a physical store to either look up product reviews, compare prices or find alternative store locations.
Online Reviews Statistics - Final Thoughts
Has the list of online review stats above inspired you to start paying closer attention to online reviews? I bet it has.
Don’t worry; you don’t have to figure everything out on your own. Wiremo can put review gathering and management on auto-pilot so you can sit back and relax while your business grows.
