About 65% of online customers can be classified as “social researchers,” interested in and motivated by the peer reviews of products and services that they find on Web shopping sites, according to a new study.
The research, conducted by marketing consultant the e-tailing group and sponsored by review syndication platform PowerReviews, studied 1,200 consumers who shopped online at least four times a year and spent $500 or more annually in doing so. Among this group, just short of two-thirds reported that they “always or most of the time” actively seek out and read customer reviews prior to deciding whether to buy an item.
“Social researchers are not only teaching us a lot about the evolution of online shopping, [but] they are driving the direction of consumer-generated content and peer feedback,” said e-tailing group president Lauren Freedman in a statement at the release of “Social Shopping Study 2007.”
Among this “social researcher” consumer group identified in the study, 78% said they spend more than 10 minutes reading the consumer reviews on a Web site,ate 20% higher than the average online shopper. Eighty-six percent of social researchers say they find customer reviews “extremely” or “very” important in formulating their purchase decision, while 76% say the same about “top-rated product” lists on e-commerce Web sites.
And 64% of these active review-readers say they research products online more than half the time—whether they plan to buy on the Internet or in another venue (store, catalog or phone.) Nearly all respondents to the e-tailing group survey said online product reviews would be helpful in shopping for products in a gamut of categories, including toys and video games, sporting goods, gifts, specialty foods, and health and beauty products.
“I knew there was significant interest in customer reviews, but I was startled at the passion, intensity of interest and the integral nature that reviews play in online and cross-channel shopping,” Freedman said.
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