9 min
Having a high conversion rate is an important element in sales. Conversions can be influenced in various ways, and one of the most useful ones is reviews. Find out what ways reviews influence conversion in today's article.
Conversion rate or a conversion expresses what percentage of users will complete the action they came to the site for. So in our case, it's about how many shoppers buy the product and how many leave the page without buying. The higher the conversion rate, the better the product sells.
So how to achieve better conversions?
Imagine an average customer. He wants to buy something, browses the website, and looks for the best offer. He finds two products. One looks like a great buy. It has everything he could want, the price is adequate, and... there's not a single review. Does that mean no one's bought it yet? Or is there something more to it? What's going on? Why hasn't anyone written a review yet?
The other product is basically identical. But several people have written what they think of it and their impression of it. Some reviews are positive, some negative, and some are mediocre.
In the case of one product, they wonder how it is possible that it is completely review-free, in the case of the other, thanks to the reviews, they know exactly what to expect.
Which of the products do you think customers will buy? If you guessed the latter, you made the right choice.
In fact, it has been shown that reviews are one of the most important parameters for customers when making a purchase. 99.9% of them read reviews and for 98% of them, reviews are a key factor in their decision making. This means that if they have to decide between a product without reviews and a product with reviews, the product with reviews will win.
Thanks to the 2018 consumer research, we know that 97% of consumers follow product reviews and ratings closely, and 89% of them consider reading reviews an essential strategy during the buying process. If a product doesn't have reviews, they go elsewhere. That was five years ago, and those numbers have gone up since then.
What makes reviews so influential?
Reviews are an important and credible source of information. A reviewer is an unbiased user who has already had a chance to see the product with their own eyes, handle it, and try it out. If they discover a major flaw or shortcoming, they will certainly mention it in their review.
If anyone on a site trying to sell a product can be trusted, it will be the reviewer. And for 86% of online shoppers, that means they won't buy until they've read at least a few reviews. Not only do they want to know what the reviewer thinks of the product, they need to know. Especially if it's an online purchase and the customer has no choice but to rely on the provided information.
And how much of an impact do reviews have on conversions?
A 2021 analysis found that any shopper interaction with product reviews and ratings directly increases conversions. And it does so by up to 120.3%.
Reviews have surpassed even product prices in their importance. In the graph, you'll notice that while the product price influences consumers 91% of the time, reviews have a 3% lead!
The good news is that thanks to the halo effect, a product without reviews can still win over consumers, and that's thanks to the fact that products of the same brand and from the same category have a lot of reviews. So the credibility of one product will carry over to the new product, and the credibility of the brand will help consumers believe that even a product without reviews will be of good quality and a good choice.
The more reviews, the better?
Not just the existence of reviews themselves, but how many reviews there are has an impact on users and conversion. How much impact the number of reviews has depends on the product category. The second part of this article will focus on each category and the relation of the number of reviews to conversion rates. But before we get to those, let's look at the more general findings.
The authors of the following analysis evaluated the impact of review volume on all stages of the purchase process and found that the more reviews on a product page, the higher the conversion rate.
- If there is at least one review on a product page, the conversion rate rises by 52.2%.
- If a product page has 11 to 30 reviews, the conversion rate is double.
- And if a product has more than 101 reviews, its page conversion rate goes up by up to 250%.
More reviews lead to more sales. In addition to a practical study, this is confirmed by University of South Carolina marketing professor Dr. Sungsik Park, who points out in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the more reviews available, the more likely shoppers are to learn about the true quality of the product. The higher number of reviews simply shows more credibility.
There is a clear linear relationship between the number of reviews a customer is exposed to on a product page and the increase in conversion rate.
Each category is affected in a different way
The fact that increasing the number of reviews increases the conversion rate is true in every category. However, conversion increases at a different rate for each category.
In this section, we focus on the analysis of the following categories:
- Electronics and Computers
- Health & Beauty
- Apparel and accessories
- Footwear
- House and Garden
- Consumer Goods
In the chart below, you can see that reviews are most important for those who are shopping for electronics, computers, and products in the health, beauty, and clothing categories. But even in the category where the percentage of shoppers is lowest, reviews are important to 4 out of 10 respondents.
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Electronics and computers
For 95% of consumers, reviews are essential for buying even very ordinary electronics:
- When a shopper visits a product page with 1 to 10 reviews, there is a 70.5% increase in conversion.
- 31-50 reviews, conversion boosts by 224.7%.
For 81% of consumers, reviews significantly help with computer purchases.
- When a customer visits a product page in the Computer & Software category with 1-10 reviews, there is a 115.2% increase in conversion over a product page with 0 reviews.
- 11 to 30 reviews will increase conversions by 255.4%.
- 31 to 50 reviews will increase conversions by 314.6%.
- 51 to 100 reviews will boost conversions by a huge 378%.
Health and beauty
In this category, reviews are appreciated by 83% of consumers, and the amount of reviews will significantly affect the conversion rate.
- When shoppers visit a Health & Beauty product page with 1-10 reviews, conversions increase by 22.1%.
- But when a shopper visits a product page with more than 101 reviews, conversions increase by a staggering 275.7%.
Clothing and accessories
75% of consumers find reviews useful when buying clothes and 68% when buying shoes.
- When shoppers find an item in the Clothing & Accessories category with 1-10 reviews, conversions increase by 33.6%.
- 11-30 reviews increase conversions by 67.6%.
- 31-50 reviews increase conversions by 98.6%.
- 51-100 reviews increase conversions by 107.5%.
- 101+ reviews increase conversion by 162.8%.
Fast Moving Consumer Goods
When an FMCG customer visits a product page with 1-10 reviews, their conversion rate almost doubles (specifically, it increases by 194.5%).
- 11 to 30 reviews increase conversion by 286.2%.
- 31 to 50 reviews increase conversion by 474.4%.
- 51 to 100 reviews increase conversion by 579.5%.
- And the best part: a buyer who visits a product page with 101 or more reviews will see an incredible 686.2% increase in conversions.
Despite the slower take-up, we see a similar pattern of rating effects in the Food & Drink category.
- With 11 to 30 reviews, the increase in customer conversion is 74.4%.
- 31 to 50 reviews increase conversions by 160.3%.
- 51 to 100 reviews increase conversions by 211%.
- 101 or more reviews increase conversions by a sensational 270.3%.
House and garden
67% of buyers are looking for reviews in this category.
For garden products, the effect peaks at 30 reviews, increasing conversions by up to 211.6%. After that, it grows only very slowly.
But in the furniture category, reviews work wonders. The growth of the effect here is literally exponential:
- 11 to 30 reviews increase conversions by 346%.
- 31 to 50 reviews increase conversions by 564%.
- 51 to 100 reviews increase conversions by 838%.
- And with more than 101 reviews, conversions have increased by up to 1 326%!
Conclusion
The amount of reviews really matters. And indeed, the more reviews the better. While a product without reviews seems untrustworthy, a product page with even just one review motivates consumers to buy. The numbers vary from category to category, but even in the least impacted categories, reviews have the power to convince shoppers to make a purchase.
Marketing through reviews essentially transforms into a reliable investment you can bank on. According to the numbers in this article, the return on investment is clear and easy to evaluate explicitly. People simply prefer to believe other consumers rather than the ones trying to sell the product. So help them out. Allow them to read enough reviews so they can make an informed decision for themselves and buy the product exactly right for them. After all, it would be a shame if they walked away from a purchase just because of a loss of credibility, even if the product would have been the perfect choice for the shopper.
