How top reviews influence consumer decision-making

The half-star chasm, however, may not be that significant, according to recent research.

It turns out that when a customer is comparing products, the best reviews influence their final purchasing decisions more. The study disproves a commonly held belief that serious online buyers select products with higher ratings.

Dezhi (Denny) Yin, a researcher who co-authored the study, said, "It's surprising because as a researcher, a business, or a consumer, we typically believe that when we go to Amazon, the most important piece of information is the average rating,"

Since the starred average rating is a compilation of hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of online reviews, according to Yin, it is the best indicator of a product's quality.

Yin, an associate professor in the School of Information Systems and Management of the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida, explained, "what we found was that when they read some reviews, just a few reviews can overturn the impact of average ratings".

How top reviews influence consumer decision-making.

To separate the impacts of online ratings and top reviews on consumer decision-making, the research team carried out three studies using a clever "trade-off" design.

The first study was based on actual daily data from 538 apps that were among the top 100 in the Apple App Store over a period of two months. The apps were divided into 21 different categories, including news, business, and gaming.

In the other two experiments, undergraduates were asked to choose between two digital cameras whose "stars" from average ratings and top reviews did not align. Not only did the studies provide converging evidence for the swaying effect of top reviews, but they also suggested a potential cause for this effect.

Review details matter

The text of the best reviews, according to Yin, was what made a difference. "Only the text reviews experienced this swaying. People cannot be persuaded without text. The impact is being driven by the specific details."

Yin clarified that the research does not imply that average ratings are irrelevant. Consumers are less likely to consider a product and read customer reviews if it has a low average rating.

However, he added, when customers are evaluating various products and reading their reviews, a select few stellar testimonials can quickly influence their choice of which product to buy.

The game of ratings

What are the implications for online retailers? In order to increase their average star rating, Yin advises retailers to put less effort into soliciting or writing false reviews.

"Companies shouldn't invest a lot of time in manipulating the rating system. According to our findings, that effort isn't actually very worthwhile or productive", stated Yin. Our research indicates that even if your average ratings are satisfactory, it's the best reviews that count.

Retailers would also be wise to address any unfavorable top reviews since most customers are likely to read those. Retailers could mitigate the swaying effects of such reviews, he suggested, by stating that the complaint was unfounded or that the issue has been resolved.

Retailers shouldn't invest a lot of time in manipulating the rating system (Illustrative image).

Researchers advise online review sites like Yelp and Amazon to design their layouts so that they emphasize individual reviews rather than average ratings in order to benefit consumers.

Yin's co-authors include Zhanfei Lei of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Saby Mitra of the University of Florida, and Han Zhang of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Reference:Zhanfei Lei, Dezhi Yin, Sabyasachi Mitra, Han Zhang. Swayed by the reviews: Disentangling the effects of average ratings and individual reviews in online word‐of‐mouth. Production and Operations Management, 2022; DOI: 10.1111/poms.13695