Consumers Do Not Seek Online Reviews via Social Networks

A Lightspeed Research survey also highlights the power of negative reviews.

As online consumers we all read online reviews before making significant purchases, but survey data released by Lightspeed Research (Apr 2011) suggests that as consumers we focus more often on e-commerce and review sites, (via search engines such as Google and Yahoo), than online social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

• Most consumers seek out online reviews, but not on social networks.

The market research firm Lightspeed Research based its findings on a survey of approximately 1,500 consumers in March 2011. In the survey, 62% of respondents indicated they read reviews online before making purchases.

Lightspeed said, “These results highlight the importance to brands and retailers of accurate, up-to-date information, competitive pricing and positive reviews,”

From the survey, 49% of respondents indicated their use of price comparison sites within the last six months. They also checked competing retailer sites, brands and service providers before making purchases. Also, 19% said they had read online reviews of bricks-and-mortar stores or online shops. Of all the respondents, only 7% had turned to social network sites for product or store reviews.

Naor Chazan, Lightspeed’s marketing director for the Americas said, “Despite their role in our digital lives, social networks don’t yet seem to be the place where word of mouth is delivering its full power,”. “Consumers turn most readily to search engines, Consumer Reports, shopping web sites, and review communities for their research, while social networking sites sit at the extreme opposite end of the spectrum.”

Which information sources do consumers trust? 73% of respondents said they trust reviews in the monthly magazine Consumer Reports. 62% said they trust other consumers’ opinions. 58% said they trust recommendations from people they personally know, such as family, friends and colleagues.

The survey also indicates that negative online reviews also carry a powerful punch with 21% of respondents saying that two bad reviews about a product or brand can lead them to change their minds about a potential purchase and 37% saying their threshold is three bad reviews.

It would seem that “Consumers are more likely to share a negative experience over a positive one, and they can be dissuaded from a purchase decision after reading just a couple of bad reviews,” Chazan says.

Conclusion

Given the speed at which consumers can obtain product and company reviews in this digital age and with such high value being placed on the opinions of others, brands would be wise to invest in the people and technology necessary to monitor and respond to customer feedback.

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