The Importance of Reading Reviews before Purchasing Products Online

Online product reviews have changed the game for the good. With so many alternatives to online stores, it becomes hard to decide which we should believe and which ones we should be skeptical about. As modern consumers, we have easy access to internet and a little bit of research help in knowing what other consumers (one who have already purchased / used the product) feel about it. While there are a number of factors that define the credibility of online reviews, statistics suggest that 88% of modern consumers trust online product reviews. Further, 90% will read these reviews before checking out a product. So whether it is about buying the best dog food or getting your hands on that bestseller, online reviews can say a lot about what you are actually going to pay for.

With so much competition around, it is important for any forward-thinking ecommerce business to take care of its reputation. Reputation and credibility takes a lot of time to be established but on the other hand, one negative feedback can ruin all of that. Product reviews have become a game changing way for marketers to hold on to that reputation and keep on engaging their customers with high quality product, services and information. Customer feedback is very important to rank how a product or a brand is performing. It also helps build loyalty while letting the potential customer know more clearly about the product, while being able to differentiate it from competition.

An ecommerce store and its products, backed by a good compilation of customer reviews, always get a wider consumer base. From the consumer’s perspective, the more the number of customer reviews/feedbacks, the more information he/she has about the working quality / usability of the product/service.

It is however very important to know that the consumer reviews you depend on for making purchase decisions are authentic and carry weight. Consequently, you need to be the judge of the platforms offering the best product reviews. The obvious next question is how to identify such platforms?

• For starters, it should be a review that offers the working feedback of the product. Beware of the extremes that sound like product promotions or product demotions (usually done by competing brands).

• Secondly, authentic product reviews can only be presented by people who have used the products and services. While there are brands that invest a lot in fake product reviews, the ones writing them only have the information that is found on the internet. Look for something that establishes that the reviewer has actually used the product.

• Another tip is to review the reviewer himself checks out the profile of the reviewer and it will be easy to know if they have vested interests.

• Lastly, real users of a product speak the language of the consumer. When you have a large compilation of reviews, it should automatically also include the negatives of the product/service, howsoever small it may be!

Use your instinct because there are several alternatives for every specific need of yours in the online marketplace. Research and read well before paying for anything!