An increasing number of businesses is finding out it can sway online reviews in its favor by posing as customers and positively reviewing its own products. Meanwhile, consumers are catching on to these questionable business practices and keep in mind that online reviews aren't always 100% trustworthy. Nonetheless, online customer reviews have a positive influence on buying behavior. Online clothing store Netshops and the University of Nebraska conducted a study on the effects of online customer reviews and concluded that online reviews stimulate online purchases.
For twelve months, sales figures and review scores were kept track of in order to analyze the relationship between the two. Seasonal influences and changes to websites were eliminated as potential disruptive factors. As it turned out, customer reviews proved very profitable: product reviews pushed sales resulting in a 26% turnover increase!
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