Buying Positive Online Reviews - A Good Idea?

It can be quite tempting for businesses to pay for positive customer reviews. After all, online reviews boost sales, particularly when they create a great overall rating (5 stars!). That’s exactly why many online shops have a system to collect customer reviews in the first place: Social proof is a proven conversion tool. The problem for many is that collecting reviews can be really tough, particularly in the beginning. Buying positive reviews may seem like a good idea, but is it really?

Reviews signify trustworthiness

A very large portion of online-shoppers seek other customers’ opinions when making a purchase decision. Therefore, customer reviews can be considered promotional in the sense that they are a form of content that can actually improve sales.

Customers want to know if a product will arrive on time and if it fits the product description. If the reviews don’t match the customer’s expectations, they might back out of the purchase. Shoppers look towards other customer reviews more now than ever before.

In fact, new data from a Trusted Shops survey reveals some interesting numbers:

• 66% of European consumers are influenced to purchase from a new shop by positive online reviews
• 90% of consumers believe positive online reviews increase trust in a company.

You can read more of such insights about consumer trust in online shopping by downloading the Digital Trust Report:

Because of the huge impact that online reviews can have, it can be really enticing to take the shortcut and pay for some customer reviews, whether it's to get the ball rolling on a new business or to improve the reputation of an existing one.

Reviews are there to benefit consumers and retailers

Customer reviews are popular with both shop owners and consumers because they benefit both sides. At least, they do theoretically.

If a curious shopper comes across an item boasting only positive product reviews, they would naturally assume the product will fit their needs based on the product description, right? To them, it sounds like a pretty safe bet. However, if those reviews were purchased, the shopper is more than likely going to be disappointed. As a result, the seller should anticipate an upset customer and very likely, a returned item.

Stockpiling a bunch of fake reviews may benefit you in the short term by boosting sales. However, before long, the constant returns and disappointed customers will balance out and you'll see your reputation decrease over time. Of course, returned products also cost you time and money in restocking and potential cleaning fees, especially if you work in the fashion industry.

Recommended reading:
Reducing the Return Rate in the Online Fashion Industry

As much as customer reviews can be considered promotional material, don't forget the other reasons companies collect them: for the feedback. By ignoring real reviews, you're missing out on the opportunity to actually improve your business in a meaningful way.

Fake reviews can get you in trouble

Paying for hundreds of reviews at a fair price (possibly even as a monthly subscription) to get a constant flow of "customer feedback" sounds like a pretty good deal, right?

No, not really. Publishing fake reviews can be illegal. Some authorities have been investigating the situation, but because of the mysterious nature of fake reviews, it’s difficult to quantify the scale of the problem.

However, if a company is found to be acting illegally, there is always the possibility of being fined and the higher-ups at the company could even face jail time. In some countries, the company could even get sued.

The fight against fake reviews

The big marketplaces like eBay or Amazon have to fight the problem of fake reviews alongside retailers. As the topic of fake reviews has become more prevalent in the media, the pressure on these companies to combat the issue increases. If no action is taken, shoppers become more aware and therefore suspicious of any review they read on your site. At the very least, the average rating can be doubted.

A review system with damaged credibility could be devastating to a company like Amazon. This is probably why they have deleted thousands of reviews in the past. Of course, credibility and trustworthiness are paramount to businesses both large and small. 

Apart from this, if it comes out that a company’s reviews were manipulated, it could lead to a PR disaster. Any trust that customers had for that brand would most likely be severely diminished, along with their sales.

Google has also implemented measure to detect and remove fake reviews. They look out for suspicious behaviour, such as many reviews coming from the same account in a very short period of time. If deemed to be fake, Google can decide to remove the review from their database.

Rather than spending money on fake reviews that might get removed anyway, invest in a Google-certified reviews platform that makes it easy to reach out to your past customers.

It's also important to remember that you don't need to have a 5-star rating for people to trust you. You'll definitely want to aim for 4 stars and up as an overall rating, but being too perfect can also raise red flags from people. Be patient and you'll get there on your own.

Collecting more authentic customer reviews

With all the disadvantages that fake reviews bring, it is really worth the effort to collect authentic customer reviews legally. Although this can be challenging, the good news is that with the right system, it can be faster and cheaper than cheating your way to gain reviews. And this way, you won't be putting your online reputation at risk. Quite the contrary; you'll be actively improving it.

The truth is that customers rarely write unsolicited reviews for a shop unless it is for a truly extraordinary or impressive product or service. In fact, it's usually the bad experiences that motivate shoppers to leave feedback in the form of negative reviews.

With this in mind, you need to be proactive in requesting reviews. If the majority of your customers are happy, you'll be able to collect enough positive reviews to improve your reputation in no time. The trick is that you have to ask the happy customers to leave the reviews. If you don't directly ask them for feedback, don't expect them to go out of their way for you.

As mentioned, with the right review provider, you'll be able to send reviews to all your customers automatically. One of the basic pillars of Trusted Shops is the possibility to collect reviews from real customers in an optimised way.

For example, you can test the number of days to wait before sending the review invitation along with the time of day. This is really useful because some types of products simply need more time for the user to familiarise themselves with it before being able to decide if they'll leave a good review or a bad one. For example, a shopper need less time to review a new football than a new plant fertiliser. Sending the invitation at the right time can really impact the reply rate for reviews.

With the Trusted Shops review platform, you'll be able to customise these settings (including reminder emails if they haven't responded to the first request) so you'll significantly boost the number of incoming reviews.

A little trial and error can help you optimise your review invites. Send them out at the perfect time and watch the number of positive customer reviews improve consistently.

Conclusion

Buying positive reviews is not a good idea. Whether you're incentivising real customers to leave positive reviews or hiring a shady company to provide you with hundreds of reviews, the risk is too high. You could damage your online reputation permanently, which will quickly override any short term benefits you might get. The trick is to ask your happy customer proactively and collect as many reviews as possible. If your company provides a good service and sells quality products, you'll be able to boost your star ratings with ease.