Online purchasing has gone through the roof in recent years and continues to rise. With online buying comes new ways of supporting those purchase choices with the online mindset playing a big role in that too. The number of online recommendations have also rapidly increased, through social media posts about good customer service or announcements of new buys, but also via the large number of review sites that have sprung up.
Despite being relatively new, online review sites have been given incredible authority by those making purchasing choices on line. In a survey revealed in a new White Paper from 123-reg on online review sites, more than 60% of consumers said they would consult online reviews at some staged when purchasing online, with over half of those asked actively seeking out on-site reviews before deciding whether to make a purchase online.
Not just a youth thing
Think only the younger generation are using online review sites? The 123-reg survey of 1,000 respondents showed that it was those aged 45-64 who were actually highly likely to look for product reviews before making their online purchase. That means online reviews are not necessarily also just for technology products either.
Be aware of what people are saying
Reviews not only help consumers in their buying decisions but they can also give you insight into your own brand too. Your sales may be up, but a bunch of poor reviews on trusted review sites could soon counteract that and show negative sentiment about your brand. If it happens, don’t just ignore them. Pay them attention, truly research if they have a point. Once you have got to the bottom of it, then your task begins to ensure you can get some positive reviews on the same sites to push down the negative ones.
On going process
The importance of reviews will only continue to grow in importance over the next few months and years and every brand will see peaks and troughs, so build it into your marketing plan now. Being able to monitor sites about your own brand and competitors on these review sites will give you a great insight into customer opinions, trends and ideals. Finally, remember that if customer reviews online are vital to your brand are vital, so they will be to others too. So if you get good service elsewhere do the good thing and give them a positive review on one of these sites. By changing the opinion of the masses and using review sites more yourself, you can help to give your own site a positive chance.
