Online Review Statistics you need to know for 2024

gominga has compiled the latest and most interesting online review statistics and trends to help companies get an overview of the current and ongoing relevance of reviews. It also outlines the impact of online reviews on customer experience, customer service and market research.

Abstract: Some of the most interesting online review statistics

The rating economy works! 51% of customers feel that they get more value for money thanks to ratings.
76% of surveyed consumers have already placed a rating at least once.
If a product receives five reviews, the likelihood of purchase increases by 270%.
89% of consumers read responses to reviews.
94% of consumers expect a brand to answer their questions and respond to their negative posts. (Territory Influence / Bertelsmann, 2020)
65% of U.S. consumers surveyed, find that a positive customer experience with a brand is more influential than good advertising.

Need Help With Review Management?

Why customer opinions are crucial to product development

User-generated content, such as reviews, contains valuable customer information. That’s why we want to share this interesting study of KelloggInsight:

Consumer products and needs rarely stay the same. They continually evolve based on customer needs. Companies have relied on extensive market research to evaluate how customers feel about their products and how they can do better. Now, with the insane amount of marketplaces and web shops on the internet, new chances arise. These chances are customer feedback like reviews, ratings and other forms of user generated content.

Interesting: 97% of the customer needs captured in traditional market research interviews were also present in Amazon reviews. So the quality of online reviews can rival expensive market research.

Also exciting: Unlike traditional market research, Amazon reviews included eight additional customer needs (nearly 10 percent of the total) that were not mentioned in traditional focus group interviews.

COVID-19 has made digital commerce more competitive than ever. But using customer reviews as a digital touchpoint and analytics tool can give businesses the edge they need over the competition. In e-commerce, businesses must prioritize online reviews highly or risk falling behind the competition.

More customers are seeing the added value in digital commerce through online reviews.

“No one will trade a more time-consuming, less transparent in-store experience for a less time-consuming, more transparent online experience.” – Dave Fedewa interviewed by McKinsey

Consumers, as well as companies, can benefit greatly from the use of online reviews. For potential buyers, these customer opinions are a great help in making a purchase decision. Buyers can substantiate their positive or negative expectations of the product based on previous experience. For companies, in turn, customer reviews are valuable and detailed insights into customer satisfaction and customer experience of certain products and services. Often, this information is very valuable for companies’ support, research and development.

Online review statistics you need to know in 2024

Not convinced by online ratings or review management? Customers read reviews! 93% of customers read reviews of local businesses to determine their quality (Brightlocal).

Learn what online reviews can do to interact with your customers, improve your customer experience and image, and drive positive purchase decisions.

The impact of online reviews

Often overlooked is the fact that online reviews also have a big impact on offline purchases in a traditional retail store. Although it is difficult to measure, the brick-and-mortar store also benefits from online reviews. Especially for large purchases, the buying process begins online – for research purposes – and often ends in the “brick and mortar” store with a physical purchase.

The rating economy works! 51% of customers feel that they get more value for money thanks to ratings.
76% of surveyed consumers have already placed a rating at least once.
71% of surveyed companies say that ratings are important or very important.
Higher ratings equal higher sales. Small changes in star ratings can drive explosive sales growth for products – anywhere from 30% to 200% depending on the category.
A company’s revenue increases by 5-9% for every star its rating on Yelp increases.
When a product receives five reviews, the likelihood of purchase increases by 270%.
Conversion rates increase by 380% when reviews are displayed for higher priced products.
Online reviews contribute to about 17% of search engine rankings for local businesses.
It costs companies 6-7 times more to acquire new customers than to retain an existing customer through good customer experience.
U.S. consumers say they are willing to pay 17% more money if a company provides excellent service.
Ratings are the 3^rd most important factor when making buying decisions.
Around 76% of people frequently read online reviews when searching for local businesses.
78% of people tend to read reviews when products become more expensive.
27% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as professional reviews.

Customers start to place ratings above brand and marketing messages

33% have switched brands due to consumer ratings – Simon-Kucher

Star ratings were for yesterday; text analysis is the future!

Marc Rottmann

Senior Project Leader Market Research - Kärcher

The power of negative reviews

32% of all consumers surveyed would stop buying from a brand after a bad experience. Even if they were a fan of that brand.
64% of U.S. consumers and 59% of all consumers believe companies have lost touch with the human element of the customer experience.
80% of consumers surveyed say they no longer purchase products or services from that company because of a bad experience.
Negative reviews keep an average of 40% of shoppers from buying from a company.
72% of B2B buyers agree that negative reviews provide deeper insight into a product or service.
54% of shoppers avoid businesses with an online rating of less than four stars.
53% of consumers want a response to a negative review within a week of it being posted.
Negative reviews can be costly, as a business can lose up to 30 customers due to a single bad review.

Why interaction with online reviews is important

94% of consumers expect a brand to answer their questions and respond to their negative posts. (Territory Influence / Bertelsmann, 2020)
53% of customers expect a company to respond to their online reviews within seven days.
41% of respondents say they feel noticed by companies that respond to their online reviews. This gives customers the feeling that the company actually cares about its customers.
89% of consumers read responses to reviews.
Customer churn rates can increase by 15% if businesses don’t respond to customer reviews.
Almost half of consumers are more likely to visit businesses that respond to negative reviews.
3% of customers say reviews need to be relevant and up-to-date to be trusted.

High-quality, positive reviews from your customers can improve your company’s visibility. Respond to reviews that users leave about your business. When you respond to reviews, you show that you value your customers and their feedback. – Google

Adding value through great customer service

97% of customers are more likely to spread their positive opinion if they received value during a service interaction.
65% of U.S. consumers surveyed find that a positive customer experience with a brand is more influential than good advertising.
79% of consumers say customer service is very important when deciding where to shop.
Companies that react to at least 25% of their valuations generate 35% more profit than companies that do not react.

Customer expectations must be met better.

60% of all consumers surveyed say the past few years have raised the bar for customer service. But 54% still feel they are treated as appendages by companies. – zendesk

31% of corporate teams surveyed believe that customer service is just a cost factor. Customer service is not seen as a growth opportunity.
Tickets are resolved three times faster when companies offer omnichannel support. Customers also spend 75% less time waiting for employees to respond.
Customer service is the most important driver of customer experience quality in most markets.
85% of all consumers surveyed consider reviews older than three months irrelevant.
Across all categories evaluated, 95 percent of units sold had 3.5 or more stars. Sales of items with three or four stars were three times those of items with one star.

The impact of excellent customer experience

Customers tend to be more willing to try additional services or products if the brand offers an excellent customer experience.
94% of customers who rate a company’s customer experience as “very good” are likely to buy additional products or services from that company.
Customer Experience is responsible for more than two-thirds of customer loyalty, surpassing the relevance of brand and price.
58% of consumers would be willing to pay more or travel further to visit businesses with good reviews.
93% of customers would be likely to shop with a brand again after a positive customer service experience.

The changing role of service teams

Support teams play a supporting role in driving revenue say 71% of all executives surveyed. In the future, customer service managers’ focus must go beyond solving problems to actively transforming the business by facilitating growth.” – zendesk

How and where to get online reviews – user generated content

88% of all business reviews come from just 5 different review sources. These sources are Googe, Trustpilot, Yelp, Facebook and ResellerRatings.

Google is still the website of choice for business reviews.

Statistics on online reviews state that 63.6% of consumers read Google reviews (Google Maps and Google Search) before going to a business. That’s far more than any other site for business reviews.

68% of all consumers provide a review for a local business after being asked to do so.
Up to 80% of all reviews come from follow-up emails urging shoppers to rate their purchase.
66% of buyers use sources other than vendor materials during the research phase.
82% of customers research products online before buying in-store.
The most common way to ask for reviews is via email. Email was the most common method for any business to request a review, followed by requests on receipts, in-person requests and text messages. Some businesses also ask for reviews via social media

Why do people rate at all?

Consumers mostly rate when they had a very positive or negative experience. Call it an extreme experience. They also rate when they expect the rating process to be very convenient or quick. This means brands can increase their number of ratings by making the process of submitting online reviews as easy as possible.

Reputation Management

74% of customers trust a company more because of its positive reviews.
82% of people specifically look for bad reviews so they can get a better idea of what to expect from the product or service.
97% of people who read reviews will also read your responses to reviews.
Customers are 21% more likely to leave a review after a negative experience than after a positive experience.
96% of dissatisfied customers won’t bother to leave a bad review.
63% of people say a company has never responded to their review.

Market research through review management and online review statistics

Market research 2.0: Quantitative and qualitative (sentiment analysis) analyses enable immediate and constant feedback on products and services. Evaluation analysis is faster, more detailed and significantly cheaper than traditional market research (interviews, panels, etc.) The displayed online review statistics show this, too.

Companies cannot control online ratings. But they can evaluate and analyze them. This can provide insights that make it possible to develop better offers, increase willingness to pay, or even open up new product categories. Best Case Scenario: Improved products help companies outpace their competition, generating significantly more organic growth.

Expert opinions on market research with online assessments

At this point, I don’t understand at all why review data is not used much better. In my opinion, it’s much more qualitative and much better than traditional market research data. – Manuel Siskowski, CEO Wiesemann 1893

At least for some categories, we can completely avoid conducting interviews and focus groups. And that’s the most time-consuming part of market research for customer needs. – Artem Timoshenko, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Kellogg School of Management

Our sources for this article:

Brightlocal, Simon-Kucher, McKinsey, Harvard Business Review, Northwestern University (Chicago), Hubspot, AMEX, Power Reviews, Exploding Topics, G2 and Heinz Marketing, ReviewTrackers, Bazaarvoice, Chatmeter, Podium, Gartner, Kustomer, Forrester, Qualtrics, findstack, CMI and SmartBrief, Spiegel, Getvoip, LocaliQ, ReputationX

Important Online Review Statistics to Know for 2024