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  &lt;p&gt;
    &lt;em&gt;Highlights from the study include:&lt;/em&gt;
  &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;ul&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;More than half of consumers said they spent 10 minutes or more reading reviews before deciding whether to purchase. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;65% of consumers read reviews 'all' or 'most of' the time. Of these users, 76% were more likely to shop on a website that offered user reviews. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;The more reviews, the better - 68% felt that at least&#160;four reviews of a product were needed to make a purchase&#160;decision. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;For etailers, the top three reasons for adding user reviews were customer experience, customer loyalty and driving sales. &lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;/ul&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;Despite the apparent benefits of user reviews, a lot of etailers have yet to adopt them. &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;In our &lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/social-commerce-report-2007"&gt;Social Commerce Report&lt;/a&gt; last year, we found that just 28% of retailers surveyed had added them, though 52% were considering this option. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;According to &lt;a href="/blog/2038-bazaarvoice-ceo-brett-hurt-on-customer-reviews"&gt;Bazaarvoice's Brett Hurt&lt;/a&gt;, the addition of reviews can lead to an uplift in conversion rates of up to 20%, as well as increasing average order values by 15% to 30%. &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;Reviews can be especially useful for&#160;consumer electronics purchases, yet many UK websites in this sector have yet to adopt user reviews, including PC World, though both Comet and Curry's have recently added this function. &#160;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;As well as being useful to help customers decide on a purchase, reviews can have a positive effect on etailers' credibility and also provide some useful unique content, which is very useful from an SEO perspective. &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;
    &lt;strong&gt;Related research:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
    &lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/social-commerce-report-2007"&gt;Social Commerce Report 2007&lt;/a&gt;
  &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;
    &lt;strong&gt;Related stories:&lt;/strong&gt;
    &lt;br /&gt;
    &lt;a href="/blog/2009-online-reviews-are-mostly-positive-bazaarvoice"&gt;Online reviews are mostly positive &#8211; Bazaarvoice&lt;/a&gt;
    &lt;br /&gt;
    &lt;a href="/blog/1986-online-review-authenticity-do-we-really-have-a-problem"&gt;Online review authenticity - do we really have a problem?&lt;/a&gt;
  &lt;/p&gt;
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  &lt;Paragraph&gt;
    &lt;Quote&gt;Highlights from the study include:&lt;/Quote&gt;
  &lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;List Type="Disc"&gt;
    &lt;ListItem&gt;More than half of consumers said they spent 10 minutes or more reading reviews before deciding whether to purchase. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/ListItem&gt;
    &lt;ListItem&gt;65% of consumers read reviews 'all' or 'most of' the time. Of these users, 76% were more likely to shop on a website that offered user reviews. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/ListItem&gt;
    &lt;ListItem&gt;The more reviews, the better - 68% felt that at least&#160;four reviews of a product were needed to make a purchase&#160;decision. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/ListItem&gt;
    &lt;ListItem&gt;For etailers, the top three reasons for adding user reviews were customer experience, customer loyalty and driving sales. &lt;/ListItem&gt;
  &lt;/List&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;Despite the apparent benefits of user reviews, a lot of etailers have yet to adopt them. &lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;In our &lt;Link URL="http://econsultancy.com/reports/social-commerce-report-2007" Window="Self"&gt;Social Commerce Report&lt;/Link&gt; last year, we found that just 28% of retailers surveyed had added them, though 52% were considering this option. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;According to &lt;Link URL="/blog/2038-bazaarvoice-ceo-brett-hurt-on-customer-reviews" Window="Self"&gt;Bazaarvoice's Brett Hurt&lt;/Link&gt;, the addition of reviews can lead to an uplift in conversion rates of up to 20%, as well as increasing average order values by 15% to 30%. &lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;Reviews can be especially useful for&#160;consumer electronics purchases, yet many UK websites in this sector have yet to adopt user reviews, including PC World, though both Comet and Curry's have recently added this function. &#160;&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;As well as being useful to help customers decide on a purchase, reviews can have a positive effect on etailers' credibility and also provide some useful unique content, which is very useful from an SEO perspective. &lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;
    &lt;Emphasis&gt;Related research:&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/Emphasis&gt;
    &lt;Link URL="http://econsultancy.com/reports/social-commerce-report-2007" Window="Self"&gt;Social Commerce Report 2007&lt;/Link&gt;
  &lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;
    &lt;Emphasis&gt;Related stories:&lt;/Emphasis&gt;
    &lt;LineBreak /&gt;
    &lt;Link URL="/blog/2009-online-reviews-are-mostly-positive-bazaarvoice" Window="Self"&gt;Online reviews are mostly positive &#8211; Bazaarvoice&lt;/Link&gt;
    &lt;LineBreak /&gt;
    &lt;Link URL="/blog/1986-online-review-authenticity-do-we-really-have-a-problem" Window="Self"&gt;Online review authenticity - do we really have a problem?&lt;/Link&gt;
  &lt;/Paragraph&gt;
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  <created-at type="datetime">2008-02-18T12:36:00+00:00</created-at>
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  &lt;p&gt;
    &lt;strong&gt;New research from the e-tailing group has reinforced the importance of user reviews for etailers, with 98% of shoppers reading reviews before making a purchase.&lt;/strong&gt;
  &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;The US-based &lt;a href="http://www.powerreviews.com/social-shopping/solutions/whitepaper/2008_WhitePaper_0204_4.pdf"&gt;study&lt;/a&gt; (pdf) concludes that reviews are a &lt;em&gt;'must-have'&lt;/em&gt; for e-commerce sites, so why are some retailers still not adding reviews? &lt;/p&gt;
</extract-formatted>
  <extract-unformatted>&lt;FormattedContent xmlns="http://www.e-consultancy.com/schema/formattedContent/"&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;
    &lt;Emphasis&gt;New research from the e-tailing group has reinforced the importance of user reviews for etailers, with 98% of shoppers reading reviews before making a purchase.&lt;/Emphasis&gt;
  &lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;The US-based &lt;Link URL="http://www.powerreviews.com/social-shopping/solutions/whitepaper/2008_WhitePaper_0204_4.pdf" Window="Self"&gt;study&lt;/Link&gt; (pdf) concludes that reviews are a &lt;Quote&gt;'must-have'&lt;/Quote&gt; for e-commerce sites, so why are some retailers still not adding reviews? &lt;/Paragraph&gt;
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  <published-at type="datetime">2008-02-19T11:05:00+00:00</published-at>
  <slug>user-reviews-a-must-for-etailers</slug>
  <tweetbacks-updated-at type="datetime">2009-04-29T22:23:40+01:00</tweetbacks-updated-at>
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  <updated-at type="datetime">2009-04-29T22:23:40+01:00</updated-at>
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