Featured Image Credit: SearchDecoder.com (Streets of Astoria, Queens, NY)
There’s no denying the importance of online reviews. Consumers are using them more and more before, during, and after the buying process. From vetting a company or product to rating the customer service experience, consumers are using online reviews to publicly evaluate companies and products.
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What does this mean for all of us? Simply put, we need to embrace and promote a culture that is catered to the online review world.
8 Online Reviews Statistics
Still not completely convinced? Take a look at these 8 online review statistics compiled from several studies over the last few years.
#1 79% Of Consumers Trust Online Reviews As Much As Personal Recommendations
Source: Search Engine Land
There you have it. The majority of consumers trust online reviews just as much as a recommendation from a friend or family. If that’s not a good reason to embrace and promote online reviews for your company, we don’t know what is!
#2 91% of People Have Gone into a Store Because of an Online Experience
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Source: Marketing Land
Not all businesses are fortunate enough to get walk-in traffic. Lucky for you, that’s not a necessity anymore. WOW people online and you’re likely to get them to visit your location.
#3 37% of consumers used internet to find local businesses at least one time per month
Source: Bright Local
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Think people aren’t using their phones or computers to make plans on a Friday night? Of course they are. In fact, they’re doing it at least once a month in one form or another.
#4 20-something business buyers are roughly twice as likely to seek information or advice from social media as the generation before them
Source: MediaPost
The times they are a changin’. Wouldn’t you agree? The next generations are going to be even more tech-savvy and they’ll be heading to social media and online review sites to gather information about businesses like yours.
#5 Before ever entering a store, 62% of Millennial shoppers already know what they want to buy through prior online research
Source: Bazaarvoice
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It seems people like doing their research. They’re doing lots of it before they buy anything from a store, too. This means companies need to have a good online presence and plenty of information about their products and services.
#6 Between one and three bad reviews will deter the majority (67%) of consumers from purchasing a particular product or service
Source: Econsultancy.com
Bad reviews are going to happen. It’s a fact of life. The trick is to be so awesome that they happen infrequently, and to make sure you handle the bad reviews properly when they do come up.
#7 88% of shoppers have been influenced by an online customer service review when making a buying decision
Source: Zendesk
Even if shoppers aren’t writing online reviews themselves, they’re certainly paying attention when they see them. Take note of this and get reviews that reflect your brand well.
#8 70% of US internet users sometimes compared prices or read reviews before visiting a brick-and-mortar store
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Source: Emarketer.com
There’s a lot of people using the Internet in the US. A whole lot. And as you see, most of them are comparing prices and reading reviews before they visit a business’s’ physical location. Knowing this, it makes sense to pay attention to your online reputation.
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As you can see, there’s plenty of proof that consumers are not only looking to online reviews to do homework before they make a purchase, they’re also changing their buying habits because of them. Don’t you think it’s time to embrace and promote a culture of online reviews?
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We do! And that’s why we’ve created WikiReviews to be the most powerful (and awesome) review site in the world. It will be 100% community-driven, which means no hidden algorithms that allow fake reviews or misleading content. If something doesn’t add up, our community will vote to solve the problem!
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