Web Shoppers Trust Customer Reviews More Than Friends
September 10, 2009
Social networks, expert opinions also influence purchases

By Alex Palmer

Online shoppers trust the online reviews of strangers more than the recommendations of their friends, new research finds.

“Conversations Among Consumers,” a new report from online retail marketer Ripple6 and the e-tailing group, finds that shoppers buying products on the Internet are influenced both by online social networking sites and face-to-face conversations with friends. But when it comes to whose opinions influence the shoppers, strangers have as much if not more impact than friends.

The survey, which drew on the responses of 1,000 online shoppers, found that while 46 percent of e-shoppers find value in product recommendations from their friends, 47 percent look to onsite customer reviews when making a decision.

Online consumers also look to expert information (43 percent), information from individuals they consider “like me” (40 percent) and product comparison tools (38 percent) to help decide what to buy.

Two-thirds (67 percent) of respondents spend at least one hour per week on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Forty-three percent said they make purchases as a result of time spent on these sites. Sixty-five percent of respondents see value in connecting directly with other shoppers who bought similar products.

Representatives from the e-tailing group and Ripple6 believe these results point to consumers’ desires for more online communities where they can share recommendations and opinions about their purchases. In a statement, Ripple6 CEO Sang Kim said, “This research confirms that most of the things consumers find valuable are those delivered by community.”

But friends still play an important role in influencing consumers. Eighty-three percent of online shoppers said they are interested in sharing information about their purchases with people they know, while 74 percent are influenced by the opinions of others in their decision to buy the product in the first place.

Nielsen Business Media

An excerpt from Gavin O’Malley’s post Lines Between Media Channels Increasingly Blurred

From 2006 to 2008, the share of U.S. consumers using shopping Web sites doubled from 17% to 35%, according to a study released Monday by public relations firm Ketchum and the University of Southern California Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center.

More revealing, perhaps, is that 44% of those online shopping consumers reported reading consumer reviews and comments found on the sites, the study found.