By John I. Todor, Ph.D., author of Get with it! The Hands-on Guide to Using Web 2.0 in Your Business.
Consumer-reviews and Top Rated Products listings are hot and profitable!
Check it out:
Online shoppers who look at TripAdvisor reviews book double the number of trips that online shoppers who don't look at reviews.
Bass Pro Shops reports that products that make the "Top Rated Products" category based on consumer-reviews, convert at a 59% higher rate than the site average.
PETCO.com, like Bass Pro Shop, gets markedly higher conversion rates for "top-rated products" but also finds these buyer spend 63% per order.
Don't let the term "Top Rated Products" mislead you into believing that we can go back to our "product-centric" ways. It is still about the customer and the customer experience. In this case, the experiences of the reviewers help future customers make meaningful decisions.
Consider this:
Conversion rates are higher on products with less than perfect reviews than those without reviews at all.
90% of those surveyed say they have a better overall shopping experience when they research products online before shopping in-store.
Products with 50+ reviews have a return rate that is half of those with fewer than five reviews.
The source of my data –Bazaarvoice.com/industryStats.
Here's my take. Rating are good but the comments of customers are great. Reviews are especially meaningful if they come from someone like us. We discount the star rating when someone point out a feature or experience that we value. We make judgment calls based on the narrative.
My personal experience. I booked a 2.5 star hotel in Washington because two reviewer brought out what matters to me. Both commented that the hotel was thread-worn but clean. Both mentioned it was walking distance to the coffee houses and restaurant in the Dupont Circle area. Hooked.
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