Should Consumers Trust Testimonies and Online Product Reviews?

Online shopping is becoming increasingly popular today. This is mainly due to the availability of the internet almost everywhere. However, online shopping comes with the issue of product reliability and durability, for which people usually look out for online product reviews. Primarily their decisions are based on the type of evaluation given for the product.

Because these reviews play a significant role in the purchasing decisions, be it medical services or buying technology products, or even purchasing any service, online reviews are considered essential.

But the question remains should we trust online product reviews?

During the pandemic, most people now prefer shopping online, and due to this, online reviews are more critical now, but can we rely on what we are reading?

Online shopping previously was done for convenience, but now it has become a necessity due to the changing pattern of the world and work dimensions. And for this, we need to have access to legit product reviews.

According to the Senior Client Strategist for Marketplace Strategy in Cleveland, ‘Reviews are extremely crucial for Amazon in order to grow their sales.’ Reviews carry massive responsibility in terms of maximizing market share and sales. It is one of the main reasons online customers select one product over another. It is the role of the reviews due to which online shoppers click ‘add to cart.’

Certain common red flags can help you and indicate if an online product review is a genuine one or fake;

Look out for spelling and grammar

Look out for spellings and punctuation carefully while reading the reviews. There are lots of people who will write reviews with incorrect spellings or grammar. This indicates that they may be from a different region or country. However, if there are a high number of such reviews, a particular company is paying them for some reviews. Such reviews are fake, as broken English or broken English are usually part of fake reviews residing in foreign countries.

The sudden arrival of positive reviews

No product is 100% perfect; every product has both good and bad aspects, although the ratio might differ. Therefore, if you see positive reviews showering in great quantity for a particular product, this may signify that a business or a company pays consumers for positive influence.

So keep in mind if you see positive reviews spreading out in several countries, then this means the reviewers were paid to write such reviews because a specific product with genuine reviews will have a combination of both negative and positive feedback.

Actual reviews are more detailed

Actual reviews, in general, are more detailed. The consumers give a proper insight in describing the features and performance. Highlighting every detail in a review indicates that it is a real one. Moreover, to check the review’s authenticity, you can visit the reviewer’s profile to ensure that they gave a different rating to every product based on their experience. Their reviews are correctly phrased and structured with proper spellings and grammar.

Check the review focus

While reading the review, see if it is more focused on the company and its customer support than the product. If yes, then this indicates that the company or the seller persuaded a reviewer.

Therefore it is better to keep an eye on these common red flags when opting for online product reviews.

Moreover, check reviews on more than one review source because, at times, people working in a particular company give reviews for its products. These cannot be considered authentic as, at the end of the day, their job is to sell the product, so you have to be careful while trusting online product reviews.