Highlights. More than 99% of American consumers read online reviews before making purchases; reviews influence 93% of consumers’ purchasing decisions.
- 92% of consumers read online reviews of a local business before making their first visit.
- Up to 84% of consumers place as much trust in online reviews as they do in personal recommendations; among 18- to 34-year-olds, this share increases to 91%.
- Online reviews influence 30% of consumers’ local shopping decisions.
- Local businesses average 39 reviews and 4.4 stars (out of 5).
- 40% of consumers suspect a review is fake when it reads like it was written by AI.
Online Review Conversion Rate Statistics
A product’s conversion rate refers to the share of browsing shoppers who ultimately make a purchase.
- Conversion rates peak with a 4.9 out of 5 rating.
- Reviews from verified buyers increase conversion 15%.
- Conversion rates increase 270% when online retailers display five (5) or more product reviews.
- Increased conversion rates are more dramatic for luxury (380%) than for low-priced items (190%) when retailers display reviews.
- The first five (5) reviews have the highest impact on conversion rates.
- Large enterprises that increased their replies to online reviews from 10% to 32% saw an 80% increase in conversion rates.
Online Review Consumer Engagement
Online reviews have become a primary point of consumer engagement as users write, read, and share ratings.
- Consumers spend an average of 13 minutes and 45 seconds and read 10 online reviews before they decide to trust a local business.
- 48% of consumers only read reviews written within the previous 2 weeks.
- The number of reviews a business has influences the purchasing decisions of 60% of consumers.
- 75% of consumers regularly read reviews for local businesses.
- 91.1% of consumers typically read at least one review before purchasing a product; 54.7% read at least four reviews.
- 38% of consumers only leave positive reviews for brick-and-mortar businesses; 10% only leave negative reviews.
- Only 4% of consumers never write online reviews.
- 81% of consumers are most likely to leave reviews for businesses that go above and beyond to provide an exceptional experience.
- 31% of Americans read customer reviews to gather product information.
Online Review Business Engagement
88% of consumers are likely to choose a business that replies to all reviews, an 87.2% higher rate than businesses that do not respond to reviews.
- 53% of consumers expect a business to respond to negative reviews within a week.
- 71% of consumers are more likely to use a business that responds to online reviews.
- 89% of consumers read responses to reviews from the business.
- 70% of online reviews result from businesses requesting feedback from customers following a transaction.
- In 2023, 45% of consumers were offered a discount for leaving a business review, up 73.1% year-over-year (YoY).
- 80% of consumers were prompted by a local business to leave a review in 2024.
- 69% of customers have left reviews after being prompted by the business.
- 32% of people report being likely to leave a review when requested by a business via email; 28% are likely to do so when requested in person.
Online Review Consumer Confidence
Consumers are increasingly more receptive to online reviews.
- 54% of American consumers trust crowd-sourced review websites; 21% distrust online reviews.
- 24% of U.S. consumers are undecided about whether or not they trust online reviews.
- 43% of consumers find online customer reviews very helpful when making purchasing decisions.
- From 2015 to 2018, consumers were 64.7% less likely to distrust online reviews as a rule.
- Also from 2015 to 2018, consumers became 27.9% less likely to trust online reviews only under certain circumstances and more than twice as likely to trust reviews all the time.
Online Review Rating Statistics
Most review sites use a 5-point scale with averages expressed to the first decimal point.
- A 1.0-point (out of 5) rating increase boosts a restaurant’s revenue between 5% and 9% and raises a hotel’s room rates by 11%.
- A 0.1-point (out of 5) online rating increase may boost the brick-and-mortar store’s foot traffic up to 25%.
- The average verified buyer leaves a 4.34 out of 5 rating, which is 13.9% higher than the average rating among anonymous reviewers (3.89 out of 5).
- 85% of consumers consider a business’s star rating to be the most important aspect of their online reviews.
- Only 24% of consumers would consider choosing a business with an average rating below 3 stars.
- 37% of consumers only consider businesses with an average rating of 4 stars or higher.
Online Review Fraud Statistics
Fraudulent online reviews are usually positive reviews that the product manufacturer or seller has purchased; for example, some retailers offer store credit in exchange for positive reviews.
- 82% of shoppers look for negative reviews to establish credibility (studies indicate that consumers mistrust 5-star reviewed products as “too good to be true”).
- 54% of consumers will not purchase a product if they find fake or fraudulent online reviews.
- Consumers browsing online reviews are 514% more likely to focus on negative as opposed to positive ratings.
- 49% of consumers are confident they have seen fake reviews on Amazon in 2024, down 9.26% from 2023.
- 42% of shoppers report seeing fake reviews on Facebook in 2022, up 13.5% YoY.
- An estimated 64% of supplement reviews and 63% of beauty product reviews are fake.
- Electronics and sneakers also have high rates of fake product reviews, reported at 61% and 59% respectively.
Online Review Website Statistics
73% of all online reviews are Google reviews.
- 81% of consumers use Google to read reviews and evaluate local businesses.
- 42% of consumers trust Google most for travel accommodation reviews; 31% prefer TripAdvisor.
- There are over 1 billion reviews on TripAdvisor as of 2023.
- 44% of consumers refer to Yelp for business reviews; 21% use TripAdvisor.
- As of 2022, there are over 265 million reviews on Yelp.
- Of the 128.5 million monthly visitors to Yelp.com, 72.5% access the site on their mobile devices or through the Yelp app.
- 10% of all social media users in the U.S. use the review website Yelp.
- In 2023, 45% of consumers read reviews on Facebook for local businesses; 20% use the Better Business Bureau.
- The online book review website Goodreads has over 90 million user-submitted reviews as of 2019.
These data and insights were compiled by the Capital One Shopping team based on publicly available data.
Sources
- Northwestern University Spiegel Research Center, How Online Reviews Influence Sales
- National Public Radio, Why We Usually Can’t Tell When a Review is Fake
- National Institute of Health Library of Medicine
- Uberall
- Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, Bulletin 2022-05: Unfair and Deceptive Acts or Practices That Impede Consumer Reviews
- PickHVAC, Local Review Statistics
- Statista, Industry Overview
- BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey