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

We recently met with a fantastic company, Viral Launch, who work with 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 Tweet This!, those algorithms aren’t going to change anytime soon. In fact, consumer reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales Tweet This!

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

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 Tweet This!
16% of travelers shared their holiday experiences online Tweet This!
42% of travelers use review sites while planning their holiday Tweet This!
Leisure travelers spend ~30 minutes reading reviews before booking Tweet This!

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 Tweet This!
84% of patients use online reviews to evaluate physicians Tweet This!
35% of patients choose a doctor because of a good rating Tweet This!
37% of patients did not choose a doctor because of a bad rating Tweet This!
84% of consumers trust health reviews as much as personal recommendations Tweet This!

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 Tweet This!
61% of consumers have read online reviews about restaurants Tweet This!
34% of diners choose a restaurant based on info on a peer review site Tweet This!
53% of 18-34 year olds report online reviews are a factor in dining decisions Tweet This!
81% of females would not visit a restaurant with reported cleanliness issues Tweet This!

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

Social Media and Consumer Review Statistics

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