Part 1. Consumer Trends in Online Reviews

Part 1 of this year’s Online Reviews Stats report is based on a consumer survey ReviewTrackers does each year to gauge when, why, and how consumers are using online reviews. The main online reviews stats and trends from this year’s survey:

1. Google is the review site of choice. 63.6 percent of consumers say they are likely to check online reviews on Google before visiting a business — more than any other review site.

2. Consumers expect brands to respond to reviews—and are disappointed. 53 percent of customers expect businesses to respond to negative reviews within a week. But 63 percent say that a business has never responded to their review.

3. Negative reviews drive away customers. 94 percent say an online review has convinced them to avoid a business.

4. Customers don’t really trust businesses with lower than 4-star ratings. 80 percent of consumers say the star ratings they trust the most are 4.0, 4.5, and 5 stars.

5. Reviews are increasingly at play in financial services and insurance. Last year, only 13 percent of consumers said they were likely to leave a review after a positive experience at a bank. This year, that number jumped up to 19 percent. A similar trend is happening in insurance: last year, only 14 percent said they were likely to leave a review after a positive experience with an insurance agent. This year, that number rose to 18 percent.

Part 2. Meta Trends in Online Reviews Stats

For part 2 of our report, we took a sample of 9 million reviews (unaffiliated with ReviewTrackers’ clients), to look for big picture trends in online reviews stats. These trends included:

1. Reviews are getting shorter. Reviewers are writing simpler and more to-the-point reviews. The average review has gotten 65 percent shorter since 2010 and is now roughly the size of a tweet.

2. Google and Facebook have become No. 1 and No. 2 for online reviews. Sites that focus primarily on reviews (like TripAdvisor) are seeing less growth than Facebook and Google.

3. There are more and more positive reviews. Reviews are increasingly shifting from being a place where consumers air their grievances to being a place to recommend businesses after a positive experience.