What is the Impact of Online Consumer Reviews on Your Business?

We worked closely with a company who advised businesses selling products via Amazon. By working on both optimizing a product page and incorporating strategies to collect reviews from customers, they’re able to increase the visibility of your products in internal product searches… ultimately increasing sales exponentially. It’s difficult work, but they’ve got the process down pat and continued to repeat it for more and more clients.

Their service spells out the impact of consumer reviews on Amazon’s internal search algorithms. And since consumers who view user-generated content show a 133% higher conversion rate, those algorithms aren’t going to change anytime soon. In fact, consumer reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales

Online reviews help us decide where/what to eat, to watch, to buy, to sell. They became an integral part of who we are as a consumer and a business owner. This infographic shows how consumers read and use online review sites in numbers. Why Online Reviews Can Either Make Or Break Your Business!

Consumer Review Statistics

• Consumer reviews are trusted nearly 12 times more than manufacturer descriptions
• Negative reviews can still increase ecommerce sales through product awareness
• Reviews contribute to 10% of the Google SERP ranking
• Review rich snippets can increase click-through rates 10 to 20%
• 50 or more reviews per product can increase conversion rates by 4.6%
• 90% of consumers read less than 10 reviews before forming an opinion about a business
• Mobile consumers reading reviews are 127% more likely to by than desktop users
• A 1-point increase in hotel reputation may result in an 11.2% room rate hike
• For every star a business gets, there will be a 5-9% increase in business revenue
• Consumers are likely to spend 31% more on a business with excellent reviews
• 72% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more
• Business listings that had at least 3+ star reviews took 41 of 47 clicks
• Guests are 3.9 times more likely to choose hotels with higher ratings
• 22% of consumers will not buy after reading a single negative review
• After three negative reviews 59% of consumers will not buy the product
• 4+ negative reviews about your company or product may result in 70% less sales
• 86% of people hesitate to purchase from a business that has negative reviews
• A single negative review will cost you 30 customers on average
• Negative reviews in Google search results can lose 70% of potential customers
• 27% of people will trust reviews if they believe they’re authentic
• Up to 30% of online reviews may be fake, 20% of Yelp are fake

Travel Consumer Review Statistics

Hotel and Motel consumer review sites include TripAdvisor, Booking.com, TripExpert, Expedia, and Travelocity.

• 59% of consumers say that review sites influenced their travel booking
• 16% of travelers shared their holiday experiences online
• 42% of travelers use review sites while planning their holiday
• Leisure travelers spend ~30 minutes reading reviews before booking

Healthcare Consumer Review Statistics

Healthcare review sites include Zocdoc, RateMDs, Healthgrades, Practo, and Healthcare Reviews.

• 77% of patients use online reviews as their first step in finding a doctor
• 84% of patients use online reviews to evaluate physicians
• 35% of patients choose a doctor because of a good rating
• 37% of patients did not choose a doctor because of a bad rating
• 84% of consumers trust health reviews as much as personal recommendations

Restaurant Consumer Review Statistics

Restaurant and dining consumer review sites include Yelp, Zomato, Dine.TO, Foursquare, and OpenTable.

• A restaurant with a half-star improvement is much more likely to be full at peak dining times
• 61% of consumers have read online reviews about restaurants
• 34% of diners choose a restaurant based on info on a peer review site
• 53% of 18-34 year olds report online reviews are a factor in dining decisions
• 81% of females would not visit a restaurant with reported cleanliness issues

Employment Consumer Review Statistics

Employment review sites include Glassdoor, Indeed, Vault, Monster, and LinkUp.

• 76% of professionals research a company online before considering a job there
• 60% of job seekers would not apply to a company with a 1-star rating (out of 5)
• 83% of job seekers are likely to base their application decision on a company review
• 33% of job seekers would not apply to a company with less than a 3-star rating
• In online job reviews, 5 positive reviews makes up for 1 negative review

Social Media and Consumer Review Statistics

• 57.1% of consumers using social media in-store are reading online reviews
• 55% of consumers use Facebook as a place to learn about brands
• Businesses that maintain active Twitter and Facebook pages are more likely to have positive reviews
• When retailers responded on social media, a third of customers deleted their negative review
• When retailers responded on social media, a fifth of customers became loyal customers
• Facebook users reported that reviews are more reliable than posts or comments

Check out the amazing infographic from Website Builder!