Do user reviews affect conversions?

You either love or hate reviews, because you understand the impact it has on your online presence.

User reviews are extremely influential when it comes to persuading people to buy or convert.

A study from Search Engine Land revealed that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, as well as 72% of consumers seeing positive reviews make them trust businesses more. Millennials, specifically, trust user-generated content 50% more than any other media.

Whats concerning is that customers are more likely to share bad experiences than good ones. Business owners are well acquainted with the “vocal minority,” whom are quick to leave a bad review for inconveniences, but almost never leave a good review.

It’s important to get the right kind of reviews and to understand how they can affect your conversions and online reputation.

How do people use product reviews?

Reviews are a form of social proof.

Both quantity and quality matter. When you’re looking at buying a product on an ecommerce website, you want to know how many people bought that product and also how many thought it was good (as well as the reason people rated it poorly).

Reviews, as a Harvard Business School study put it, “fill in the gaps by providing a tremendous amount of information on which to base decisions.”

There are two ways that customer reviews are attributed online:

1. Internal word-of-mouth (WOM): Reviews located on the retailer’s website.
2. External WOM: Reviews located on third-party sites (e.g. Google My Business, Facebook, etc).

Both types of user reviews are important. While on-page reviews don’t require a click to another tab to purchase, one study from Nielsen found that 82% of Yelp users visit the site when preparing to spend money on a product or service.

The quality matters too. Each added rating star on a Yelp review (for restaurants) translates to anywhere from a 5% to 9% effect on revenues.

What makes a good user review?

A good review solidifies your offer, brings authenticity to your brand, and increases trust in your product. Thats exactly what a business needs to increase conversions and trust in branding.

Here’s what a good review profile usually looks like:

• A balance of positive and negative comments;
• Descriptions of product usage and satisfaction;
• Comparisons of a product to competing brands.

Also, Don’t expect users to put too much effort to uncover the truth in the conflicting reviews. Most users will look to the good and bad extremes and make a decision based off the handful of reviews they’ve decided to read. Thats why it’s important to display you’re overall rating, as well as the best reviews you have.

How to display reviews?

Kausec offers an easy to use script that can be placed on your website. We also have WordPress and Shopify plugins for seemless integration, no coding knowledge required!

Check out our review plans and start building a better online reputation!