64% Of Consumers Trust Review Websites In 2020

In a recent study by Feefo, it was found that 64% of consumers not only use review websites to help inform their purchase decisions, but they trust those reviews too. The importance of this cannot be underplayed, as it provides businesses with a big opportunity to improve their profits - if they succeed in obtaining positive reviews published with regards to their products, services or customer experience.

The findings, therefore, point to the fact that businesses have the capacity to do better and increase their conversion rates. It appears, from the data, that reviews are one of the ways in which they can do so. More particularly, companies should be targeting closed review websites to help popularise their products or services. 49% of consumers are more likely to trust a closed review platform over an open one - presumably due to the latter's propensity to being abused, and the reliability of real customer feedback from closed platforms.

Again, the idea of being able to trust a review and, therefore, a brand, is underlined by other data in the Feefo survey. 28% of respondents claimed that the quality of the product they are choosing helps inform their final purchase decision, and for first-time buyers, customer reviews are a good indicator of this.

Product quality is, as a result, an area that businesses can mark themselves apart from competitors, but the survey does point to other factors too. A company, according to the Feefo study, can help strengthen its brand by having helpful staff and excellent values. 26% of respondents claimed that helpfulness of staff is important to their shopping experience, with a massive 55% saying they are influenced by a company's brand values when buying. These are another two aspects that can be better understood from a brand’s reviews, and will be uncovered in the research stage of the purchasing process when customers are browsing.

In improving in these areas, a company improves its chances of scoring those crucial 5-star reviews too. The importance of those reviews cannot be underplayed, as trusted reviews are a free form of advertising for a company. And, it appears customers after willing to leave reviews for products or services they have purchased. Feefo's survey found that 72% of online shoppers did so on something that they bought in the last 12 months - begging the question, can businesses afford not to gain customer reviews and feedback?

The infographic below illustrates the full results from the survey: