Online reviews have become an important factor in consumer shopping choices. A consumer’s opinion of a brand is often shaped by these reviews. But it’s not just the review that affects consumers – it’s also what a brand does with those reviews. 

A recent survey from Trustpilot included shoppers from around the world. The survey found that negative reviews caused a loss of trust in a brand. In addition, 95% of the survey respondents said deleting negative reviews played a big role in their developing a distrust for a brand. A large number of respondents (81%) said that having no reviews at all also increased their distrust of a brand.

On the flip side, 30% of the factors leading to increased brand trust included reviews.

• Almost all of the respondents said their trust in a brand was increased by positive reviews.
• 80% said a lot of reviews increased their brand trust.
• Responding to negative reviews improved level of brand trust for almost 80% of respondents.

Reviews can affect shoppers’ choices in other ways. For example, a study from 2018 by TurnTo found that when internet users in the US considered two like products with a small price difference of $2, they most often went with the more expensive item if it had a higher consumer rating. And if there was no review or rating on the brand’s site, just over three-fourths of that survey’s respondents would be less likely to purchase anything at all.

Consumers use reviews to learn more about a brand. Most of the Trustpilot survey respondents (93.4%) said that when considering a brand they’d never heard of before, they looked at customer reviews. Another way to consider that is to realize that customer reviews were more important than social media channels, price comparisons and coupons/offers/discounts when making a purchase.