As online shopping has become more popular, so have online reviews. In fact, reviews have become an essential part of the shopping process for many people, whether they’re shopping online or not. They refer to the reviews of other customers to help them decide which products to buy.
Shoppers will read online reviews for everything from clothing to the latest tech tools and online gambling. Some will use the websites of the brands they’re considering, while others will use third-party sites like CNET or casinos.com for an outsider perspective.
More than 30% of US shoppers use reviews as their primary research source for their shopping needs. This means that reviews are one of the top methods for researching a product before buying it. The only method used more for this is search engines like Google.
The popularity of referring to reviews when researching can be attributed to the fact that reviews are a form of social proof. Social proof is a phenomenon where individuals turn to the actions and opinions of others to influence their actions or decision-making.
On the surface, online reviews, or reviews left by real customers online, seem like an informative and valuable tool—but unfortunately, they can have their pitfalls.
What Are the Pitfalls of Online Reviews?
As online reviews have become more commonplace, a few concerns have come to light that take advantage of the online review system. These concerns cause major drawbacks and make customers more hesitant to trust the reviews they come across online. The most notable of these concerns are fake, closed, and sponsored reviews.
These types of reviews provide unverified information about products and could skew the opinions of people researching what they want to buy. They could lead a person to believe a product is of better value or quality than it really is, or worse, could lead them to buy into a scam that puts their financial and personal information at risk.
Each type of review can harm a company’s reputation because, either way, consumers won’t feel confident in its overall trustworthiness or its products or services.
Fake Reviews
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) legislature has recently come into place to make fake online reviews illegal, but the problem is rampant across online platforms. Fake reviews are written by people who haven’t tried or used a product but write reviews or give fake testimonials for a company. More often than not, these people are paid by businesses to write these reviews. There’s also a growing number of fake reviews written using AI.
Fake reviews can be used to promote or discredit a brand or product. For instance, a company trying to outpace its competitor may pay for critical reviews of its competitor’s products.
In general, fake reviews make it difficult to trust online reviews, though they often have telltale signs that can help you avoid them. A few signs of online reviews to be wary of include:
- Overly positive reviews
- Poor spelling and grammar
- Reviews with multiple paragraphs
- Only five-star and one-star reviews
Closed Reviews
Closed reviews are typically found on a brand’s website, where they publish reviews. One of the biggest concerns, beyond the publishing of fake reviews, is that brands may sort through real reviews and remove or unpublish the unfavourable ones. These types of reviews can make customers question the trustworthiness or reliability of reviews.
You can avoid this by using open review websites, which are third-party sites that allow any customer to write a review for a product or company. These sites give you a better idea of people’s real sentiments about a product or company, allowing you to make a more informed decision about a purchase—especially important for major purchases like a car, computer, or insurance.
Popular open review sites include Trustpilot, Better Business Bureau, Yelp, and Google. However, keep in mind that even on these platforms, fake reviews can exist.
Sponsored or Paid Reviews
Like fake reviews, sponsored or paid reviews are regulated by laws and regulations. If a review or testimonial is paid for, such as an article or video reviewing a product for a brand, there must be clear indications that the content is sponsored or paid for, and by whom.
These reviews are generally more transparent about any biases because they disclose what the reviewer receives in return. However, even these can be met with weariness on the part of consumers.
Summary: Use Online Reviews With a Critical Eye
While online reviews have the potential to help consumers find the best products and services for their wants and needs, they sometimes become a source of distrust.
The actions of fake reviewers have undercut the value of reviews in making buying decisions because there’s always skepticism about whether a review is legitimate. Brands with tons of positive reviews on their site have also become sources of distrust, leaving shoppers wondering what’s being hidden from them. Paid reviews always come with a layer of skepticism because consumers question whether the reviewer is too influenced by what they receive in return.
This leads consumers to opt for third-party sources for insight into a product or company. These third-party sites provide a lot of information about the true sentiments of a brand or product, but they also require critical evaluation before making a purchase decision.
Despite these drawbacks, reviews remain one of the top ways consumers make their buying decisions, making them valuable for companies and consumers—as long as they’re approached with a critical eye.
