Are user reviews reliable?

Only France has attempted to regulate the sector by establishing a correlation between the obligation of a review and the actual purchase of the product and service (decree No. 2017-1436 of September 29, 2017).

The news of the sale by Amazon employees of confidential data and a real illegal service for removing unwanted negative reviews is very recent (September 18, 2018). A bribery scheme that poses a privacy issue that the eCommerce giant is investigating.

Even without fraudulent use as reported by PC Professionale (July 5, 2018, No. 328) in an article by Dario Orlandi that references a study published in the Journal of Marketing Research: "… the demographic profile of reviewers is different from that of the average customer: it involves a small number of people (about 1.5%) who purchase four times the average number of products and are often looking for a deal." The review can also be influenced by the expertise of the person giving it, especially for products and services intended for professional use.

There are many factors that influence the rating and the expressed review that have nothing to do with the product and service; another study published in Electronic Commerce Research reveals a correlation, for example, regarding travel and vacations between the type of company and the evaluation of the stay. Those who travel for work and alone are, according to the study, more critical.

The majority of buyers read reviews carefully, mistakenly considering them more reliable and authentic than positive reviews because they are less frequent. However, just reading some viral reviews left by Amazon users makes it clear that the reliability of the expressed opinions is practically nil, whether they are in favor of or against the product and service.

It is very easy to damage a competitor with a negative review, especially where reviews are in the order of a few dozen; mathematically, only when reviews are in the order of thousands does it become difficult for a single malicious actor to cause damage, but there are really few products that can reach such a milestone.

Integrating a review service into your eCommerce can be advantageous or harmful, depending on the popularity of the eCommerce itself. If our online store is popular, it becomes essential; if it is not, we risk having few positive reviews that users will trust little. It is still important to link the review to a real purchase and, as merchants, to always have control over what to publish. We remember that regardless of whether they are certified by third-party companies or simply managed internally (easier in terms of GDPR), the credibility of positive reviews will always be low; for this reason, the best review modules available for PrestaShop invite the customer to share them on Social Media. In fact, the customer becomes a testimonial for our product and service.

I recommend the following modules to add reviews to your eCommerce in PrestaShop:

• Our Certified Opinions Module from trovaprezzi.it.
• The Customer Ratings and Reviews Pro module developed by Business Tech