Markets / DATA & RESEARCH / Jan.17

Negative feedback can be good, says survey

Research says balance is more believable

Many shoppers head straight for the opinions of others before buying goods online, but negative reviews are not necessarily a bad thing.

Those are the findings of social commerce specialist Reevoo, whose research into the topic found more than two thirds of consumers were more likely to trust reviews of products on websites if there was a balance of positive and negative opinion.

Many people, it found, actively seek out bad reviews to give them an understanding of the downside of a product before buying. Richard Anson, Reevoo chief executive, said there was a 67 per cent uplift in conversion rate among these people as they were more engaged with the purchase process.

"Counter-intuitive as it may seem, negative user-generated content is actually one of the most effective conversion tools," he said.