Forrester Research Debunks Theories on Customer Reviews

02/16/2009

It has been widely believed that a few bad online shopping reviews can ruin a product’s chance of sales. Another widely held belief states that consumers only listen to the reviews of their peers when it comes to product categories such as electronics and home appliances. This is possibly due to the fact that these products have tangible features and functions which can be difficult to evaluate. Analysts Sucharita Mulpuru and Peter Hult of Forrester Research have conducted a recent report which aims to debunk this idea titled Myths and Truths About Online Customer Reviews.

The report states that about half of those surveyed claimed to have purchased a product despite the fact that it had received a negative review. Other questions led to the conclusions that 37 percent claimed to turn to professionally written reviews after reading a negative consumer review, 26 percent continued to shop for the product, and 18 percent looked for a vendor which offered a money back guarantee. This Forrester survey was taken from 2,890 people who engaged in online shopping. Of these only 14 percent said they never would purchase a product that had a negative review.

Just as Forrester has shown that a negative review can’t ruin all chances of the product being purchased, a positive review doesn’t ensure that the product will be purchased. The report shows that nearly two-thirds of those who shop online claim that reading a positive review can help to influence their decision to purchase the product. The other 35 percent said when polled that they were totally indifferent to positive reviews and would purchase the product they were interested in regardless.

Another important part of this report has to do with evaluating the claim that it was mostly electronics and appliances where online reviews had influence. This poll found that a wide selection of product categories is influenced by online shopping reviews. Consumer electronics customers however are the largest group that is influenced by these reviews as 76 percent of those polled claim to find reviews valuable. Other data discovered that 56 percent of shoppers who read toy reviews found them helpful, 53 percent when it comes to sporting goods, apparel and footwear 47 percent, and jewelry 40 percent.

Another interesting fact is that many online consumers enjoy both reading and writing these online shopping reviews. Of those polled, 81 percent claim to read reviews and 35 percent say they also write them. Two out of every 5 persons polled said they preferred making their purchases on sites which offered these reviews.

One last piece of data concerns the amount of trust people had for these reviews according to how long they have shopped online. About 53 percent of those polled who have been shopping online for at least 4 years trust customer reviews while only 44 percent of those shopping for 1 to 3 years find them helpful. Younger consumers put the most trust in customer reviews as 60 percent of those aged 18-28 found them helpful.

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