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What the Industry is Saying

The power of customer feedback and reviews

What the industry is saying about consumer reviews and ratings...

• 71% of online shoppers read reviews, making it the most widely read consumer-generated content. (Forrester)
  
  
• 77% of online shoppers use reviews and ratings when purchasing (Jupiter Research, August 2006)
  
  
• A recent survey uncovered these critical statistics:
  • - Companies lose 10 customers for every one that complains
  • - 13% of people will tell more than 20 people about their bad experience
  • - 90% of unhappy clients will not do business with the same company again
  
  

However, 95% of unhappy customers will return if an issue is resolved quickly and efficiently (National Association of Retail Marketing Services)

• Reviews drive 21% higher purchase satisfaction and 18% higher loyalty (Foresee Results Study, January 2007)
  
  
• In a study of 2,000 shoppers - 92% deemed customer reviews as "extremely" or "very" helpful. (eTailing Group)
  
  
• 63% of consumers indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has product ratings and reviews. (CompUSA & iPerceptions study)
  
  
• Among first-time buyers on review-equipped sites, 42% said they were the primary factor. (Foresee Results Study, 2006)
  
  
• 86.9% of respondents said they would trust a friend's recommendation over a review by a critic, while 83.8% said they would trust user reviews over a critic. (MarketingSherpa)
  
  
• When asked to note their most trusted information source, 60% of Canadian online buyers said consumer reviews compared to 31 per cent who said newspapers or magazines.(J.C. Williams Group for Visa and Yahoo Canada)
  
  
• The Shop.org State of Retailing Online study, conducted by Forrester Research, found only 26% of the 137 top retailers surveyed offered customer ratings and reviews, but 96% of them ranked customer ratings and reviews as an effective or very effective tactic at driving conversion. (Forrester)
  
  
• 43% of retailers have reviews - double in one year (Marketing Sherpa, February 2007)
  
  
• Ratings and Reviews is the second most important site feature behind search and online buyers who site ratings and reviews most useful site feature has more than doubled from '05 to '06. The report, entitled Retail Marketing: Driving Sales Through Consumer-Created Content, cites user-generated ratings and reviews as the second most important site feature behind search, and says that retailers who adopt ratings and reviews as a differentiator and retention strategy will gain market share. (Jupiter)
  
  
• 68% of consumers trust "people like me" first for product advice. (Edelman Trust Barometer)
  
  
• According to the survey, 92.5% of adults said they regularly or occasionally research products online before buying them in a store. (BIGresearch)
  
  
• Trust in "a person like me" increased from 20% to 68% from 2003 to 2006. (Edelman)
  
  
• A recent consumer survey by the JC Williams Group, ranked consumer content as the #1 aid to a buying decision, cited by 91% of respondents (JC Williams Group, 2006)
  
  
• 86.9% of respondents said they would trust a friend's recommendation over a review by a critic, while 83.8% said they would trust user reviews over a critic. (Marketing Sherpa, July 03, 2007)
  
  
• When asked what sources of information they are "very likely" to consult before making a decision about their entertainment options, 62% named Web sites with user reviews as their top choice, even beating out a knowledgeable friend (59%). (Marketing Sherpa, July 03, 2007)
  
  
• 26% of Search Results Link to Consumer Generated Content (Nielsen BuzzMetrics)

Industry Articles

Recent articles about the power of the Internet and online ratings and reviews...

• Dealing With the Damage From Online Critics As the power of the Internet grows, business small and large find themselves the confounded by disenchanted employees, suppliers and competitors who seek fertile ground to air grievances online. What's a business to do? (New York Times, October 4, 2007)
  
  
• Constructive Criticism The Internet is changing the way consumers complain about companies, products, and services. Instead of grumbling to a neighbor or filing a complaint with the company, a regulator, or the Better Business Bureau, more and more consumers are taking their beefs online, either contributing to gripe sites or setting up their own. (Boston Globe, September 9, 2007)
  
  
• Getting a Handle on Customer Reviews These days, what the customer thinks is hardly a secret. Consumer reviews and ratings are popping up on a growing number of Web sites, sites on which users treat brands like contestants on American Idol. (Brandweek, July 5, 2007)
  
  
• Amateur reviews changing approach of small businesses Online ratings: It started with restaurants, and now all manner of enterprises find themselves subject to customer opinions(San Francisco Chronicle, September 3, 2006)