Yesterday's eMarketer Daily linked to a research article titled "Cashing In on Consumer Product Reviews" that summarized stats on the use and influence of user-generated product reviews from a few different research reports. Here are the highlights:
- Avenue A | Razorfish reports in their "Digital Consumer Behavior Study" that 55% of surveyed Internet users check other people's opinions online when researching products, topping product comparison charts (22%), expert reviews (21%), and shared shopping lists (1%). If you are currently evaluating site feature investments for 2008 and beyond, get your hands on this report and read more about why you should invest in ratings and reviews.
- Internet Retailer reports in "Web Site Design, Content and Rich Media" that consumers that read product reviews are likely to spend more online. The largest group of surveyed users, 27.1%, reported spending 5-10% more, while almost 7% reported spending 20%+ more! Need a business case for reviews? Do the back of the napkin math for your business. For a $25MM online retailer, if 7% of buyers spent 20% more, a reviews solution would pay for itself multiple times and easily fund investments in other site features.
- Deloitte & Touche USA reports on the influence of reviews on purchase decisions by category. Every listed category shows significant influence, from electronics (45% of respondents influenced) down to motor vehicles (13%, the lowest, but still significant).
[...] shopping experiences for consumers, and better results for online sellers. (Note to readers: see this post from Brant if you need convincing!) How prevalent is technology like Bazaarvoice’s on shopping sites today? [...]