Online Holiday Shoppers Read Online Customer Reviews

12/18/2008

With Christmas quickly approaching, many online retailers are looking for ways to increase sales as well as the traffic to their Web sites. With the economy in a slump, most people are looking for ways to cut costs this holiday season, and one of the most effective ways of achieving this is through online shopping. It’s not simply enough to have to have a web site though; the successful online retailer must instill confidence in those who visit their site. Perhaps the best way to accomplish this is to provide online reviews that can be found on various shopping portals online; these are Web sites built for the purpose of comparison shopping.

Nielson Poll Shows Reviews Crucial To Online Buying Decisions

The results of a recent poll taken by Nielson Online show that roughly 81 percent of all online shoppers have read online reviews of products or retailers this holiday season. 71 percent claimed that reading these reviews make them more comfortable when comparison shopping online. The poll also showed that 63 percent of online shoppers prefer to read multiple reviews of each product and 14 percent preferred to read reviews from an established source. This survey was taken online from Dec. 8th to the 15th by those who either shopped online last holiday season or plan to do so this year.

Spending Online

Nearly a quarter of online shoppers have already spent $500 or more this holiday season. When asked what it was that they found most attractive about the online buying experience, those polled stated it was the convenience of 24/7 shopping. In fact, nearly 78 percent stated that this was their primary reason for shopping on the Web. Web sites that either have their own product reviews, or are linked to shopping portals have a better chance of having consumers shop at their sites. It is largely about trust since buyers cannot inspect the merchandise before buying when shopping online.

Multi-Channel Advantage

Web sites don’t just influence the decisions of online shoppers. Many of those polled stated that they first went to the web sites of brick and mortar stores before showing up to shop in person. This was largely done by consumers in order to determine what the stores had in stock and to see which stores were having sales. Those who own brick and mortar stores simply cannot overlook the importance of having a well built and updated web site.

The Importance of Web Site Traffic

Although the most common reason given for shopping at a particular online store was whether or not they have shopped there in the past, the second most common reason was because the store was found in a search engine. In order to do well this holiday season, the importance of building a long-lasting relationship with your customers cannot be overstated. Also of importance is reaching a new customer base which can only be achieved by improving your ranking on the various search engines and shopping portals.
For more insight visit Shopping Portal Marketing