Effectiveness of Product Reviews

Anneken Tappe

This summary from the Advertising Research Foundation offers an overview of recent research and debate related to the topic of the effectiveness of product reviews.

Effectiveness of Product Reviews

Anneken Tappe

A Choice Stream (2009) survey found that shoppers definitely notice product recommendations, find them useful, and buy products based on them. In addition, the survey found that where they find the recommendation matters to shoppers with recommendations on product detail pages as the most likely to prompt purchase:

According to a Forrester Research survey among 137 retailers, only 26% of the participating retailers offered customer rating and reviews on their web sites but 96% of those who did, rated the "merchandising tactic" as effective or very effective at increasing online conversation rates...

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