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70+ Essential Online Review Statistics That Will Help You Improve Your Business in 2023 

 

 

 

 

Have you ever hesitated about a purchase?

All kinds of questions can pass through your mind:

– Would the item arrive as displayed, at the time you agreed on?

– Is it right for me?

– Can I trust this vendor?

… the list goes on and on.

And online reviews can answer nearly all of them.

Companies spend billions on marketing and advertising every year. But, at the end of the day, the opinion of other customers is worth more.

These online reviews statistics shed light on how deep this actually goes.

Online reviews can help you form your decision. No matter if you are looking for the best coffee-maker or the best web hosting provider.

Here’s a glimpse of why online reviews are important.

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The Most Crucial Online Review Statistics 

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• 72% of customers won’t take action until they read reviews.

• 15% of users don’t trust businesses without reviews.

• Only 6% of consumers don’t trust customer reviews at all.

• Google accounts for 57.5% of all reviews worldwide.

• Best-selling products’ have a 4.2-4.7 rating.

• Local businesses have an average of 39 Google reviews.

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Online reviews play a significant role in the online world. They impact our purchase decisions and the places we visit.

Let’s dive right into the ocean of numbers.

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Stunning Online Review Statistics

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“If people like you they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they will do business with you.” – Zig Ziglar

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1. 91% of millennials trust online reviews as much as friends and family.

(Source: Brightlocal)

Online review stats place customers’ reviews as the most trustworthy source of recommendations – carrying the same weight as advice from friends and family.

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2. More than half of consumers won’t use a business if it has less than a 4* rating.

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(Source: Brightlocal)

This stat is one of many that illustrate the importance of online ratings. Now that news of customer satisfaction travels this fast – keeping your customers happy is more important than ever.

57% of consumers have searched for companies with more than four stars in 2018, which is up from 48% in 2017.

Moreover, 11% looked only for businesses with a perfect five-star rating.

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3. 83% of customers don’t trust advertising.

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(Source: Statuslabs)

The king is dead! Long live the king!

The traditional channels to reach customers aren’t as influential as they used to be. Most users who no longer trust advertisements choose to pay attention to customers’ recommendations online.

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4. A single business review can lift its conversions by 10%.

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(Source: RevLocal)

Online review stats show user-generated content can do miracles in terms of conversions.

You see how much of an impact a single review can have on your business.

How about 100? 200?

Turns out a hundred reviews can raise your conversion rates by as much as 37%. Two hundred can provide a mind-blowing 44% boost.

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5. 90% of users need less than 10 reviews to form an opinion about a business.

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(Source: Martech Zone)

You know what people say about first impressions, right?

Well, users get their first impression of your businesses through reviews. Usually through less than 10 of them.

If you don’t have reviews on your website, consider asking your visitors to write one.

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6. 86% of consumers would consider writing a review for a business.

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(Source: Brightlocal)

Your customers are a valuable resource, and it’s not only because of the money they spend on your business.

If you give them a good experience, they will be willing to share it.

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7. Users reading reviews on a mobile device are 127% more likely to make a purchase than desktop users.

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(Source: Martech Zone)

Not surprisingly, mobile users prefer to get things done faster.

Therefore decisions are made quickly. The same goes for the actual purchases.

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The Power of Customer Reviews in 2023

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Online reviews are obviously persuasive – yet marketers haven’t necessarily come to appreciate that. With the increase use of mobile devices in 2020, the power of local search will continue to grow and so will the impact of user reviews.

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8. 72% of customers won’t take action before they read some reviews.

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(Source: My Testimonial Engine)

Turns out, as attractive as your marketing is – you need customer reviews. Big time. There’s no way around it.

Customers are still willing to hear you out, but they trust other people more.

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9. 70% of consumers need to read at least four reviews before they can trust a business.

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(Source: Brightlocal)

Isn’t four reviews too few? For most people it seems enough. After all, they do have other things to do than read reviews.

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10. Only 6% of consumers don’t trust customer reviews at all.

(Source: Statista)

In contrast, according to customer review statistics, a whopping 19% of consumers always trust online reviews.

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11. 15% of users don’t trust businesses without reviews.

(Source: Statuslabs)

Now, how about that?

No trust means no interactions.

15% of potential customers won’t even consider doing business with a company they can’t find opinions about.

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12. Online product reviews about a product can increase its conversion rate by more than 270%.

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(Source: Spiegel Research Center)

We already know that your business as a whole could benefit from online reviews. But how does that relate to every single product you have to offer?

User review stats show the purchase probability for a product with five reviews is 270% higher than the same product without reviews.

Crazy, right?

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13. Customers could spend 31% more on a business with great reviews.

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(Source: Martech Zone)

Let’s be blunt about this one.

The better other users describe your product/service, the more money you can charge.

And consumer review stats show us exactly how much more.

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14. 82% of consumers visit review sites because they want to purchase a service or a product.

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(Source: RevLocal)

Review sites, in general, aren’t the type people visit to pass the time. We have Facebook and Youtube for that.

Users come here because they have already formed a purchase decision.

The majority (89%) of them purchase within a week of their visit. And 29% do so in 24 hours.

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15. Software reviews influence 98% of buyers.

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(Source: Capterra)

18% of them consider reviews to be an essential factor in the purchase process. Software reviews have no impact whatsoever on only 2% of consumers.

Two-thirds of them read more than six reviews to make up their mind. And 14% of them read more than 20 reviews.

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16. 53% of Americans consider product reviews and ratings as the most crucial attribute of the online shopping experience in 2018.

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(Source: Statista)

That one was kind of expected at this point, wasn’t it?

Still, if reviews are that important, where can we find them?

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The Most Popular Sources for User Reviews and Ratings

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The Web is full of reviews – be it on ecommerce sites, niche sites, social media, and so on. Still, we all have sources we prefer for reading reviews.

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17. 71% of millennials search consumer reviews of professional services.

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(Source: Thomson Reuters)

Word-of-mouth still helps, but when it comes to professional services – most people search for reviews.

More than half of all people in need of a professional service turn to online reviews.

According to online reviews statistics, 59% used online reviews to choose a lawyer or a doctor.

Young people (age 18-35) are even more inclined to hire a professional based on online reviews. Only 19% of millennials will consider hiring a lawyer without any.

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18. 95% of travelers read reviews prior to booking.

(Source: Trust You)

Leisure and business travelers alike read reviews to form an opinion.

The only difference is business travelers read an average of 5 reviews vs. 6-7 for leisure travelers.

59% of all travelers report they read reviews “always” or “very often”.

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19. Google accounts for 57.5% of all reviews worldwide.

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(Source: Review Trackers)

As is often the case, Google is in the lead here, followed by Facebook as a distant second.

Here is the online reviews distribution ranking:

• Google 57.5%

• Facebook 19%

• TripAdvisor – 8.4%

• Yelp 6.6%

• Others 8.6%

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20. 63.6% of consumers visit Google to check for reviews of a business.

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(Source: Review Trackers)

Considering the last stat, you’d expect something like this to be true as well.

Still, it comes as a surprise that Yelp (45%) and TripAdvisor (30%) come second and third, leaving Facebook (23%) behind.

These online review stats show the general popularity of a website can only go so far when it comes to trust.

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21. 98% of Yelp’s visitors purchased from a business they found on the site.

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(Source: RevLocal)

If you haven’t claimed your free Yelp business page, this is as good a time as any.

Typically, 142 million consumers visit Yelp every month.

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22. A one-star increase in rating on Yelp can lead to a 5% to 9% increase in restaurant revenue.

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(Source: Statuslabs)

Businesses that treat customers well usually prosper – and Yelp makes sure of that.

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23. Facebook affects more than 50% of consumers’ purchase decisions.

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(Source: RevLocal)

Not only is Facebook the most popular social media today, but it can also influence our preferences.

How do reviews on Facebook impact consumers?

According to social media reviews statistics, Facebook affects more than half of users’ purchase decisions.

Facebook reviews stats reveal every four out of five users are more likely to trust a local business if it has positive reviews.

Since Facebook had 2.38 billion active users as of March 2019, those reviews are immensely important.

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24. Reviews shared on Twitter increase ecommerce sales by 6.46%.

(Source: Yotpo)

Facebook impacts users and their decisions in significant ways – and other social media website can apparently exert similar influence.

Online review statistics show that in 2019, reviews shared on Twitter, do more to increase sales than those on any other social media.

Reviews on Facebook and LinkedIn increase sales by around 2.5% each.

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25. Consumer reviews on products are trusted almost 12 times more than the manufacturers’ descriptions.

(Source: Martech Zone)

If user reviews fought a company’s portrayal of a product in a boxing match, it would end in the first round by a knockout.

After all, manufacturers’ descriptions are basically ads.

26. 73% of consumers think written reviews are more important than star and number ratings.

(Source: Fan and Fuel)

Online review statistics make it clear people aren’t satisfied with scores alone.

Written reviews make the stats appear more authentic – which is what the would-be customers are looking for. Almost a third of consumers say written reviews are the only feature that makes them believe the sites’ reviews are useful and relevant.

27. Reviews are the most crucial part of the purchase decision for 90% of US customers.

(Source: Turntonetworks)

24% of US shoppers consider reviews “extremely influential”.

And, there are two more facts which illustrate the importance of online reviews and ratings:

81% of consumers will pay more for a product with reviews.

Coincidence or not, but 81% of customers are also willing to accept slower shipping times for such products.

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Stars Ratings Make or Break Your Business

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“Your brand name is only as good as your reputation.” – Richard Branson

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28. 61% of local businesses have an average rating of 4-5 stars.

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(Source: Brightlocal)

Overall two-thirds of companies have good and excellent ratings.

Only 5% of companies have a rating below three stars. One possible reason why this number is so low – businesses like that don’t last long.

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29. Best-selling products’ have a 4.2-4.7 rating.

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(Source: Spiegel Research Center)

You can’t please everyone – which is why perfect 5* ratings are suspicious.

According to customer rating stats, conversion rate begins to decrease as ratings rise above 4.7.

Now it this the same with reviews?

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The Impact of Customer Reviews

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Wondering how reviews can impact your business?

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30. Positive reviews encourage 68% of consumers to use a local business.

(Source: Brightlocal)

Since the vast majority of consumers read reviews, you’d want yours to be appealing to new customers, right?

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echos are truly endless.” – Mother Teresa

Yep, this is a Mother Teresa quote in a tech blog post.

Still, a positive online review can’t reach full impact without some salt.

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31. Negative reviews can increase conversion by up to 85%.

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(Source: Reevoo)

Negative reviews can be a positive driver for users to spend more time on your website.

According to online review statistics, people spend more than five times as long on a website when they read negative reviews.

More than two-thirds of users trust reviews more when they are a mix of negatives and positives.

An overwhelming 95% suspect censorship or faked reviews if there aren’t any negative ones.

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32. More than four negative reviews about a company or product may decrease sales by 70%.

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(Source: Martech Zone)

“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.“- Benjamin Franklin

One negative review is enough for 35% of a website’s visitors to decide not to buy.

Three negative reviews can cost a business 59% fewer sales.

Of course, they can be compensated by the sheer number of positive reviews you receive.

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33. 49% of consumers consider the number of online reviews as an essential factor in their purchase decision.

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(Source: Brightlocal)

Consumers value not only the quality or nature of the reviews – they consider their quantity as well.

The share of customers, who pay attention to the number of reviews increases year-over-year – in 2017 they were 46%, compared to 35% in 2016.

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34. 60% of consumers consult blog and social media reviews on their mobile devices before shopping.

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(Source: Collective Bias)

In-store shopping is influenced significantly by blogs and reviews on social media.

With men being twice as likely to be influenced than women.

Although this stat is important on its own, there’s a hidden implication.

70% of millennials are more likely to purchase a product reviewed by a non-celebrity blogger.

Reviews and rating statistics show people value the opinion of peers more than any other content.

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35. 70% of consumers prefer to find out about a business via articles, rather than advertisements.

(Source: Statuslabs)

Ads are all well and good, but it’s worth trying a different approach as well.

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36. Television, print and digital ads are the least influential channels to reach customers when shopping for products in-store.

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(Source: Collective Bias)

Only 7.4% of consumers are affected by TV ads when shopping in-store. Print and digital ads perform even worse – less than 4.8% success rate for each.

37. 64% of Americans agree user-generated content (UGC) improved their shopping experience in 2017.

(Source: Statista)

It is like ketchup – everything tastes better with it.

While consumers interact with UGC, they agree it increases their purchasing confidence (30%).

Nearly two-thirds of US customers agree it is more interesting than the one created by the brand.

Now.

Let’s switch from users to companies and see how they use reviews.

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The Influence of Online Reviews on Local Search

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“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.” – Bill Gates

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38. Only 44% of local businesses have claimed their Google My Business listing.

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(Source: LsaInsider)

While business listings on the major review platforms are free, a surprisingly low number of companies actually make use of them.

Although we now know why customer reviews are powerful, most businesses apparently don’t.

But stats don’t lie.

Despite the relatively weak number, Google is still in the lead – for the sole reason other platforms show even weaker results:

• 33% of local retailers have claimed their free listing on Yelp.

• 21% have done so on Yahoo.

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39. Local businesses have an average of 39 Google reviews.

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(Source: Brightlocal)

People like to share their experience after they’ve visited a vendor.

Online review trends show people prefer to comment if they had a positive experience, rather than a negative or mediocre one.

That said, there is a severe disparity between industries.

Hotels have an average of 309 reviews, followed by restaurants (220) and bars (213). Professional services, on the other hand, barely attract any reviews.

Accountants, for example, have an average of three reviews.

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40. 74% of local businesses have at least one Google Review.

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(Source: Brightlocal)

Which is far from enough to improve your website’s SERP ranking.

Looking at online ratings statistics, we found out that a business needs to have an average of 40 reviews before users “award” it with a star.

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41. Reviews are the third most influential ranking factor for Google’s local pack.

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(Source: Moz)

Now we’ll delve into the specifics of ranking.

Every website owner wants to have a higher position in Google’s search results.

Review signals (quantity, diversity, etc.) form 15.44% of Google’s algorithm for local ranking.

Only Google My Business signals (25.12%) – like proximity and keywords, and link signals (16.53%) are more important than reviews as far as ranking factors go.

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42. 54% of Americans pay the most attention to the average star rating of a local business.

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(Source: Statista)

Duh. It’s the first thing consumers see.

Still, users pay attention to other factors as well – like the quantity, recency, length, and sentiment of reviews. Each of these alone influences more than a third of US consumers.

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Reading Reviews Is Vital for Customers

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“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” — Ernest Hemingway

The same applies to read.

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43. Half of millenials “always” read online reviews for businesses.

(Source: Brightlocal)

Younger people know the value of being informed.

If businesses stop to consider the power of customer reviews over millennials, they will realize what they’ve been missing out on.

Older people are different though – only 6% of people aged 55+ “always” read reviews.

User-generated content has an indisputable impact on consumers. Let’s look at the numbers.

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44. 77% of users don’t trust reviews older than three months.

(Source: Statuslabs)

Customers don’t care how good your service/product was in the past. Part of why online reviews matter is because they are fresh and relevant.

Users know businesses lose their touch all the time, which is why most of them find older reviews irrelevant.

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45. 52% of consumers trust a software product more if it has negative reviews as well.

(Source: Capterra)

We already touched upon the negative and positive reviews and their effect on consumers.

But here’s the thing.

When you purchase a web hosting service, you buy the vendor’s software as well.

So it’s crucial to know what you really buy with your hard-earned cash.

When software is concerned, only 18% of consumers say bad reviews have a negative effect on their purchasing decision.

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What People Find Helpful in Online Reviews

Users look for specific types of positive mentions in a review.

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46. US shoppers consider “product performance” to be the most helpful information in product reviews.

(Source: Statista)

When people read reviews, they focus on different aspects of the shopping experience. But according to online review stats, 60% of them are most interested in the product’s performance.

Client satisfaction, product quality and quality over time are the next few considerations for more than 50% of US customers.

In that case, we can form another question.

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When Users Resort to Reviews in the Customer Journey

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If the customer journey was a game of “Who wants to be a millionaire” – at which question would the typical consumer ask the audience for help?

47. Almost all consumers, who use online reviews, read them early in the buying process.

(Source: Consumer Affairs)

Imagine this – you want to buy a new smartphone and there are several models which fit your criteria.

How to choose the best one?

Well, you read reviews.

With the help of other users, you manage to decide on a model.

That’s how positive reviews convert consumers into customers.

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Online Reviews: Gateway to Increased Conversions

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Using product reviews for conversion growth can pay out big time.

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48. Reviews on higher-priced products can increase their conversion rate by 380%.

(Source: Spiegel Research Center)

Let’s imagine we are mathematicians for a bit and create two simple equations:

• Cheaper products + User reviews = 190% increase in conversion rates.

• Expensive items + User reviews = 380% increase in conversion rates.

Still, your business can only benefit if people can find it, right? And guess what?

49. Online reviews have a 10.3% influence on the global Google search results rankings.

(Source: Shopify)

You may have done your SEO right in every other way, but without user comments – there’s a good chance you’re gonna find yourself on page 2.

Of course, there’s good news as well. If you add reviews to your website, you can enjoy an awesome increase in business.

50. Online reviews impact 67.7% of consumers’ purchase decisions.

(Source: Moz)

More than two-thirds of consumers agree online reviews are either a “fairly decisive”, “very decisive”, or “absolutely decisive” part of their decision-making process.

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How to Improve Your Online Reputation Management

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“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” – Warren Buffett

51. 30% of customers feel positive about a business which responds to online reviews.

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(Source: Statuslabs)

Keeping in touch with your customers builds their trust.

Even something simple like responding to their reviews and comments can make them feel appreciated.

As you might expect – clients who feel this way are more willing to spend money with a business.

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52. 95% of unsatisfied customers will return to a company if it manages to solve the issue quickly and efficiently.

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(Source: SocialMediaToday)

“Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.” – Donald Porter

If there’s nothing else a business can do to resolve an issue, a simple coupon can say “We are sorry” in a more appealing way.

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53. 88% of executives consider reputation risk as a top business issue.

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(Source: Deloitte)

Reputation management stats indicate a company’s reputation doesn’t affect just the customers. Potential employees also look at ratings and read reviews.

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54. 91% of companies believe the company’s star rating can determine whether they win or lose a potential employee.

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(Source: Career Arc)

The majority of companies (86%) doubt the integrity of online reviews.

Nevertheless, they realize the massive impact user ratings have on their business.

Unfavorable customer or employee reviews can influence 90% of job seekers.

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Which Industries Are Most Affected by Customer Reviews?

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“Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what Google says it is” – Chris Anderson

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55. Most often users read reviews for restaurants and cafés in 2018.

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(Source: Brightlocal)

This is one of the longest-standing online review trends. Even more people have read such reviews in 2018 than the year before.

57% of millennials read reviews about restaurants and cafés, followed by clothing and grocery stores reviews (each at 40%).

Older people (35-54 and 55+) read the same types of reviews, except a large part of them looks for medical and healthcare reviews as well (more than 33%).

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56. 67% of consumers say reviews are “very important” factor when choosing a solution provider.

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(Source: DemandGenReport)

When customers have to choose a solution provider, reviews have a massive impact on their decision.

Hosting Tribunal, for example, is where people come to find a good, reliable hosting solution, be that for a WordPress site or something more powerful like a VPS or cloud platform.

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57. 88% of Americans stated that product reviews were the most influential factor when buying home electronics in 2017.

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(Source: Statista)

Once again, reviews were more effective than TV advertisements (37%), social media (23%) and display ads (49%).

In the same way, a business wants good reviews – the readers have expectations too.

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The Evolution of Reviews

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58. 53% of consumers expect companies to respond within a week to negative reviews.

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(Source: Review Trackers)

Online review stats clarify that 63% of users’ reviews remain without a response nevertheless.

Too bad, because those companies are losing customers that way.

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59. 89% of users read businesses’ responses to reviews.

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(Source: Brightlocal)

Not only do most consumers read the replies, 30% of them value them highly.

As with most online review statistics throughout this blog post, millennials take center stage here as well.

Almost all (96%) read the responses to their reviews.

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60. The average review has gotten 65% shorter since 2010.

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(Source: Review Trackers)

Nowadays reviews are shorter, simpler, and more straight to the point.

The length of a review in 2019 was comparable to that of a tweet. Let’s see what 2020 will bring.

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61. 89% of consumers read reviews on their smartphones.

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(Source: Statista)

Be it via an app or a mobile browser; people prefer to read on their phones.

PC and Mac join forces… only to still end up the second more preferred type of device (63%).

Finally, 45% use tablets to see their peers’ impressions.

Considering consumers read reviews, someone has to write them, right?

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Demographics and Interests of Online Reviewers

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“I write reviews, therefore I am” – an anonymous reviewer

62. 46% of consumers post reviews about consumer electronics.

(Source: Review Monitoring)

Some categories are less likely to generate reviews. Most often shoppers post their experience getting a new electronic gadget – a smartphone, TV, laptop, etc.

Online reviews stats place home, garden, and pets at the bottom of the review-generating topics – only 12% of shoppers post reviews in this category.

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63. 77% of users would leave a review if asked.

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(Source: Podium)

More than a third (35%) would do it to inform others about their customer experience. And 24% would rather direct their review to the company itself.

Over a quarter (26%) would be willing to leave a review to help other people with their decision-making.

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64. Female and male shoppers are equally likely to post a product review.

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(Source: Review Monitoring)

Perfect gender equality exists in the world of online reviewers.

The age distribution is also relatively consistent. Almost a quarter (24%) of all online reviewers are 25-34-year-olds.

People, aged 45-54, represent 20% of all reviewers.

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65. 83% of millennials were asked to leave a review in 2018.

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(Source: Brightlocal)

And 80% of millennials did so.

Overall, companies have asked 66% of all customers to leave a review on their business. This is a marked decrease, however, since in 2017 they requested reviews from 74% of customers.

So, what is the percentage of customers who write reviews?

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66. More than half of people aged 25-34 posted reviews in Q3 2017.

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(Source: Statista)

According to Statista, the age distribution of reviewers then was as follows:

• 16-24 – 47%

• 25-34 – 52%

• 35-44 – 45%

• 45-54 – 34%

• 55-64 – 28%

The younger generations are apparently the more vocal ones.

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67. 60% of all shoppers post reviews on Amazon.

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(Source: Review Monitoring)

The ecommerce giant attracts most of the reviewers.

And it features some of the weirdest reviews you can imagine.

Online review stats also reveal 27% of shoppers post reviews on Walmart, while Best Buy rounds up the Top 3 with 16%.

Alright, that concludes our list of helpful online reviews and rating stats!

There’s just one more stat:

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68. 72% of internet users say they trust online reviews just as much as they would trust a relative or friend’s opinion.

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(Source: Statista)

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69. 61% of users say they’ve read online reviews before buying a product

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(Source: Statista)

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70. 63% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a site which has user reviews

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(Source: Statista)

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71. 50 or more reviews per product can mean 4.6% increase in conversion rates

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(Source: Statista)

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