How much do customer reviews affect business performance? Online review statistics show that 93% of potential customers read reviews before making a purchase decision, and 94% will avoid the company if it has poor ratings. Furthermore, 58% of people will pay extra or drive further to select products with a higher average star rating than the competition.
The bottom line is this: Consumers choose brands and products backed by consumer trust. Understanding what this means for your business and what you can do about it can feel overwhelming without fully understanding the data. Below, we cover 60+ online review statistics to help you formulate your next business decisions for generating positive online reviews that influence buyer purchases.
Percentage of Online Buyers Who Leave Reviews
Approximately 72% of customers write reviews when prompted to do so. Shoppers typically feel most inclined to write reviews when they’re very satisfied with the product or have a negative experience, which is why five and one-star reviews are most common.
- Unhappy customers typically tell about nine to 15 others about their experience.
- Just under 50% of internet users leave reviews at least once a month.
- Yelp receives approximately 26,830 reviews per minute.
Excellent and not-so-excellent experiences shape brand opinions and convince customers to leave reviews. You can use many tactics to ask your customers for reviews, like offering discounts, sending email reminders, and more. Gathering more reviews can improve your brand’s overall authenticity and trustworthiness.
Sources: Trustmary, GWI, Invesp, Rating Widget, Inc
How Many People Rely on Online Reviews?
93% of people rely on online reviews to make buying decisions, and only 2% of all online shoppers have never read a review.
- Google is the top platform for reading reviews, with 81% of users relying on its system.
- 53% of internet shoppers use Yelp to read reviews, with the platform receiving approximately 26,830 reviews every minute.
- 89% of shoppers use reviews as an integral step in their buying journey.
- 49% of users consider an online customer review as valuable as a personal recommendation.
- Beyond shopping decisions, 98% of people read reviews on occasion to learn more about local businesses.
- 40% of people believe online reviews increase a brand’s credibility.
- 72% of shoppers enjoy reading negative reviews to better understand how the product may work. Negative reviews can also display brand authenticity and trust, though only to a certain extent, as positive reviews can boost spending rates by 31%.
- 58% of people will pay more for products with excellent reviews.
Online reviews are integral aspects of your company’s success. The majority of buyers rely on reviews to make their purchase decisions. Authentic, positive reviews set your company apart from the competition and help you rank well in search engine algorithms.
Sources: Podium, BrightLocal, GWI, Invesp, Podium [2], Trustpilot, G2, Testimonial Engine
What Percentage of Online Reviews Are Fake?
Approximately 61% of all electronic reviews are deemed fake. In just March 2019, Amazon had over 2 million unverified reviews.
- 99.6% of fake reviews on Amazon were five-star.
- Of 58 million reviews, ReviewMeta detected that 5.3 million (or 9.1%) were not genuine.
- Approximately 63% of beauty product reviews, 59% of sneakers reviews, and 64% of supplement reviews are fake or untrustworthy.
- 67% of shoppers do not trust products with fake reviews, and unfortunately, most people cannot detect them.
- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had over 700 accounts of deceptive business endorsements in 2021.
- Google had to remove over 55 million reviews in 2020 due to inauthenticity, fake profiles, and other policy violations.
- At least 82% of people have read one fake review in the last 12 months.
Businesses develop fake reviews to cheat the system and improve buyer impressions without actually generating real reviews, which can be a long and challenging process. Often, spotting fake reviews can feel impossible because the most advanced organizations use modern AI technology that mimics human language and includes description variations to make reviews appear authentic.
When viewing online review statistics, Amazon may seem like one of the biggest culprits for fake reviews, but they can also exist on many other platforms. Amazon only has high fake review figures because of the huge sale and seller distribution figures. As one of the largest online marketplaces in the world, many companies take advantage of Amazon’s review system to skew customer opinions.
Average Number of Online Reviews a Consumer Reads
Average consumers read 10 online reviews before buying a product and trusting a brand. The average number of reviews can depend on age, with younger groups typically reading more. 31% of shoppers go beyond 10 reviews, and some read as many as 55 or more.
- Approximately 33% of online shoppers read a minimum of 4 reviews before purchasing.
- Only about 8% of people read zero reviews before purchasing a product.
- 15% of people read more than 10 reviews before making their purchase.
Sources: Statista, Bizrate Insights
Proof That a Customer Reads Online Reviews
More than nine in every ten online shoppers read reviews before making a purchase. 95% of all consumers consider customer reviews before deciding whether or not they’ll buy a product. Of this group, 58% will pay extra for a product with more authentic and positive online ratings than the competition.
Customers don’t just consider the average rating when reading reviews. 67% of consumers only trust high ratings when accompanied by many agreeing reviews. For example, 100 four-star reviews may do more for your brand than one five-star review.
While generating many reviews can improve customer opinions, even landing just a single review can boost sales. The first review on a product page can increase conversion rates by as much as 354%. Even if they don’t convert, 48% of customers visit a company’s website after reading a review, which can boost traffic, improve SEO tactics, and more.
Sources: Global Newswire, Podium, BazaarVoice, Vendasta,
Top Reasons Online Customers Leave Reviews
The primary reasons customers leave reviews are to help other buyers make informed decisions (38%), share negative experiences (41%), and reward companies for their excellent services or products (56%). According to online review statistics, 67% of American customers simply want to share their experience, whether positive or negative.
For example, if the product is excellent, consumers might share it with as many people as possible. Conversely, if the product is unsatisfactory or the product arrives broken, customers might want to prevent others from purchasing.
- 56% of people leave reviews because the product was excellent.
- 41% of customers leave reviews after an unsatisfactory purchase.
- 38% write feedback to help others make informed decisions.
- 29% of customers write reviews if the product arrives broken.
- 29% leave reviews if the company offers an incentive.
- 22% write reviews if they feel the product wasn’t worth the cost.
- 20% of customers write feedback on product improvement ideas.
Sources: Jungle Scout, Trustpilot
How Many Reviews Should a Business Have?
The average customer reads 10 reviews before making their purchase decision, so businesses should aim to have a minimum of 10 reviews across the top platforms for each product. Customers also care about review age, with 83% preferring new reviews reflecting current product results. If you generated hundreds of reviews in the past, you must continue gathering more to keep your information up-to-date for new shoppers.
- Successful Google Ads campaigns require 150 unique customer reviews averaging 3.5 stars.
- 27% of people believe that a business needs between 11 and 50 reviews to appear trustworthy.
- Receiving over 100 reviews can increase conversion rates by 37%.
- Receiving 200 reviews can increase purchase rates by 44%.
- Only 5% of customers view products with 500 to 1,000 reviews as more trustworthy than those with a few hundred reviews, meaning the conversion rate increases may level out once you reach a certain threshold.
Sources: BrightLocal, Instapage, Bizrate Insights, Podium, BazaarVoice
How Do Negative Reviews Affect Your Business?
86% of online shoppers hesitate to purchase products with poor reviews. Every negative review your brand receives can impact your business by reducing sales and conversions, decreasing SERP visibility, and reducing website traffic to your online store.
While you want to keep your average rating between 3.5 to five stars, having a few negative reviews can be good in certain scenarios. Negative reviews, especially those your company responds to and resolves, show potential customers that your company isn’t hiding information or using fake feedback.
Nearly three-quarters of consumers prefer reading negative reviews to discover more product information. Displaying (rather than hiding) negative reviews can prove brand authenticity and trust.
Sources: Invesp, Testimonial Engine
Why Do You Need To Manage Your Negative Reviews?
Online review management allows you to:
- Increase search visibility and SEO success
- Generate customer trust and loyalty
- Understand key improvement insights based on valuable feedback
You can manage negative reviews by responding to customers, providing support, and resolving their issues. This public response shows potential buyers that your brand values every customer, even those that write negative reviews. Avoid copying and pasting a single response to each review; create personalized responses addressing each user’s issue.
The following online review statistics display how critical negative review management is:
- One negative review can deter 22% of customers.
- It takes 40 positive reviews to negate one negative.
- Three negative review articles can increase churn by 59.2%.
However, 68% of shoppers do not trust perfect five-star reviews.
Top Online Review Platforms
The top online review platforms are Google, Yelp, Facebook, and Tripadvisor, collectively accounting for 88% of all online reviews.
- Google: 73%
- Yelp: 6%
- Facebook: 3%
- Tripadvisor: 3%
The remaining review platforms include Apple Maps, Bing Maps, and various retail sites. 81% of shoppers prefer to use Google for reviews. Despite Yelp having fewer reviews than Google, 53% of consumers in 2021 still reported using Yelp to make their purchase decisions.
Sources: ReviewTrackers, BrightLocal
How Do Online Reviews Affect Your Business’s SEO?
Your business’s review count and score on Google are confirmed ranking factors, accounting for 9.8% of visibility in local search engine rankings. Google and other engines consider reviews when measuring website authenticity. Consistent new reviews can act as new content, helping your website surface near the top of results.
Generating more positive and authentic reviews can improve your SEO rankings, ultimately bringing more traffic to your website that increases conversions and review rates. Positive reviews can also aid in your target audience’s shopping process by helping them make purchase decisions influenced by real buyers.
Source: Search Engine Watch
Conclusion
Collecting positive reviews can transform your business’s performance rates, given that 93% of people read reviews before purchasing a product. According to online review statistics, properly handling negative reviews may be more important than creating positive ones, considering that 68% of shoppers don’t trust a perfect five-star review. Finding the perfect balance in your product ratings can boost conversion rates while helping your SEO strategy excel.
