21 Statistics About Product Reviews & Why Your Store Needs Them

If you’re selling online, asking customers to leave reviews about the products they’ve purchased or have sent back is no longer a choice: it’s mandatory for all serious online retailers.

Recent reports have found that a whopping 92% of prospective shoppers take the time to read a product review before making a buying decision, representing a critical junction between either getting a new sale or having the shopper abandon the shopping cart or bounce away from the site before even adding a product.

Why are product reviews an integral part of the equation for an online retailer? Just look at these recent statistics. Then learn 4 things you didn’t know about product reviews, so you can add this sales-boosting feature to your online store.

2018 Online Product Review Statistics

Before we dive into all the reasons why your online store should welcome customer reviews with open arms, let’s first underscore the importance and effect they have with these 2018 online product review statistics that you need to know.

• 37% of shoppers rely on reviews from review sites to make a purchasing decision.
• 63% of consumers find product reviews from a search engine query.
• 54% of the time, consumers will click over to an online store from a positive review.
• 87% of consumers place as much trust in a product review as they would word-to-mouth.
• 87% of consumers agree that they won’t do business with an entity that has an unfavorable rating.
• 90% of consumers want to read between 5-10 product reviews before gaining trust about a brand.
• 68% of consumers will decide whether to use a product or service after reading 1-6 reviews.
• 59% of consumers scout reviews from 2-3 different review sites before buying.
• 73% of consumers consider aged reviews (90 days or older) to be irrelevant.
• 68% of consumers want to see mixed negative and positive reviews to believe they are real.
• 70% of consumers will place a review if they are asked to.
• 50% of consumers that were asked to leave a review about a product or service have.
• 78% of consumers who bought after reading a review report being satisfied.
• 31% of consumers increase spending when an online business has positive reviews.
• 43% of consumers search for reviews of a business once per month.
• 50% of shoppers age 18-34 trust online reviews more than word-of-mouth.
• Consumers are 124% likelier to buy a product from a smartphone after reading a positive review.
• 50 or more reviews on a product can lead to an average increase of 4.6% in revenue.
• 63% of customers are likelier to buy from an online store that features user reviews.
• Customers are 110% likelier to buy from an online store that features reviews and Q&A.
• Online product reviews yield and average sales uplift of 18%.

4 Reasons Why Your Store Needs Reviews

Now that we’ve inundated you with the most recent statistics about online product reviews, what other compelling reasons are there to add them to your online store as soon as possible? Here are four powerful reasons why:

1. Influence Purchasing Decisions

It’s true, online product reviews are proven profit increasers, and for many reasons. If someone were to tell you that by making one simple change you could improve conversions by as much as 58%, your first reaction would most likely be: How much is this going to cost me?

The great news here is that if you’re using one of the many robust shopping cart solutions, such as 3dcart, BigCommerce, Shopify, WooCommerce and others, adding these online product reviews to your store is as easy as selecting one from the App Store (or from available WordPress plugins for WooCommerce users). Most plugins are free or come with a very low monthly or set annual price, and won’t pinch your wallet in the least bit.

But where’s the proof in concept? (You might be wondering.)

A study that was coordinated by Bizaarvoice delivers all the proof we need: product reviews can get you nearly 60% more in conversions.

And this wasn’t a small study, folks. It covered over 55 million reviews that were posted by real consumers on more than 30 billion products.

Here’s how it broke down the impact of reviews and conversions:

• One review can improve conversion rates by 10% or more.
• 30 reviews can improve conversions by 25% or more.
• 100 reviews can improve conversions by 37% or more.
• Product reviews overall increase total conversions by 3% or more.

Interestingly enough, most people, around 60%, take the time to read product reviews before they make a buying decision. And, contrary to popular belief that negative product reviews hurt your sales cycle, such couldn’t be further from the truth: 68% of consumers won’t believe your reviews are legit if there are not any negative reviews mixed in with positive ones.

Furthermore, negative reviews represent an opportunity to engage directly with a customer, gain actionable feedback and secure their long-term loyalty by making things right (which often results in the customer updating their negative review to a positive one).

2. They Add SEO Value

SEO is a refined art. It involves hundreds of different in-motion concepts and marketing methods that are coupled with what you do on your website. Namely, though, the most important part of SEO for an online store (and any site for that matter) is: Content.

Not just any content will do, though.

Google wants to see content that speaks from an authority voice and improves the user experience at your online store or website. That’s why stores with more authority content consistently outrank those without it (hint-hint: It’s one of the 9 reasons why Amazon is still outselling your online store).

So, here’s the scoop on this SEO Thing.

You need content, tons of it, and you need it to speak from authority voice while improving the user experience. Sounds baffling, right?

Well, adding reviews is one of the easiest ways to accomplish this. That’s because reviews give you a steady stream of new content that Google indexes, while feeding social shares, back links and new traffic to your store at the same time, which also helps you rank higher for search terms.

The same Bizaarvoice study we referenced above also found that online stores with product reviews saw as much as a 25% increase in organic search engine traffic, with the average review adding as much as 250 words of content.

As the chart above reflects, SEO also accounts for something called “Review Signals.” These are part of an algorithm that Google uses to determine the popularity and relevance of a site to end users. They are generally considered to be more important than social signals.

In an SEO world, the more content you have, all the better. When you have a way to add authority content over and over again to the pages of your store on a daily basis, the SEO value is immediate, ongoing and costs you nothing. Zero. Nada. Zilch. How’s that for smarter marketing and being superman with your SEO?

3. Social Media Impact

Of course, social media has changed the online retailing game. One of the biggest influences that social media has had on our society is creating an open forum for discussing, sharing and creating new ideas. As it relates to ecommerce, social shoppers are more scrupulous than ever before, and over 157 online shoppers were referred to an online store via social media last year alone.

Even more interesting is that 74% of consumers use social networks to research products and find reviews before they commit to making a purchase. This is just scratching the surface on the power of social media review helping drive new customers and conversions.

What you probably were unaware of is that online product reviews left on social media also increase the time that referred visitors spend on your website. As the chart below demonstrates, reviews coming from Facebook give you 212-233 more seconds per visitor, while reviews coming in from Twitter add as much as 166-255 seconds of time on site.

Selling online in today’s ecommerce world means that you are also using social media as conversion inlet. Overlooking the powerful social platforms of today means that you are turning down easy sales. With social ad revenue in the billions, ensuring that you capitalize on reviews that can emanate from these popular platforms is key.

4. Improves the Shopping Experience

Online shoppers are picky (because they can be). The next store is just a click away, and Amazon is always eager to earn their business with sweet deals, free shipping and hassle-free returns. No wonder it’s becoming harder to attract the business of new customers. So, along the way, make sure that you’re offering an amazing shopping experience.

This is where the power of online product reviews can help you earmark new sales while generating new traffic sources, more referrals and a healthier conversion value.

But just how important are product reviews to the online shopping experience?

“Brands can significantly improve the customer experience by [showcasing] product reviews not only on their site but also on their mobile apps and in-store displays,” says Theresa O’Neil, senior vice president of Marketing at PowerReviews, in an interview with CIO.

“In a PowerReviews study conducted in late 2014, we found that more than 86 percent of consumers see reviews as an essential resource when making purchase decisions, and 56 percent of shoppers specifically seek out websites with reviews,” O’Neil says. “By making ratings and reviews easily accessible across every touchpoint, brands can ensure a positive customer experience.”

A quick glance at the chart we’ve added above is telling. Reviews are proven to be powerful traffic generators, conversion rate increasers and move the sales dial to turbo mode. Considering how inexpensive the addition of online product reviews to any ecommerce store is, it’s a no-brainer!

Infographic: 2018 Product Review Statistics?

Need even more facts about online product reviews? We’ve got you covered in this detailed infographic.