The main point of this post is that fake reviews are like unhealthy junk food for your online business. They might seem appealing, but they can seriously harm your business in the long run. Fake reviews and testimonials are more damaging than many realize, and according to Invespcro, over 90% of online shoppers can spot fake reviews. In other words, you probably won’t succeed with fake reviews if you attempt it.
From a consumer’s perspective, fake reviews create challenges when researching products before making a purchase. Several studies have found that 90% of online shoppers research before deciding to buy. As reported by Podium, 93% of online shoppers will only make a purchase after reading online product reviews. In fact, 31% of customers are willing to pay more for a product that has positive reviews from previous buyers. It’s not surprising that some retailers might be tempted to add fake reviews. Curtis Boyd states that the extent of the fake review issue is in the millions.
The potential impact of fake online product reviews on your business
There are generally two main ways fake online reviews come about: one, the business owner could generate fake online reviews by hiding negative reviews, paying for or buying positive reviews from bloggers or giving incentive to customers to post positive reviews. Secondly, fake reviews can be generated by the competition in order to dent your credibility or make you lose sales. Other ways include current and ex-employes writing positive and negative reviews respectively and customers writing exaggerated or inaccurate reviews based on their subjective perspectives.
Having said that, you risk losing 22% of your online business if just one negative review is discovered by shoppers who are considering purchasing your product. If you happen to have 3 negative reviews, you risk losing 59% of customers. Yes! The stakes are quite high. Very high.
With fake reviews, your credibility is at stake…
Which customer would want to purchase a product with fake reviews?
According to Invespcro, 54% of consumers will not buy a product they suspect have fake review. In fact, having absolutely no negative review is a good indicator that you are posting negative reviews. So censoring negative reviews could have as much negative impact to the credibility of your business as actively generating non-existent positive or exaggerated positive reviews.
The domino effect of fake positive review
The paradox with fake reviews is that they result in false expectations. For instance, a customer may see a glowing review and as a result develop more than average performance expectations of the product. Eventually when the customer purchases the product and it doesn’t fulfill those expectations, they are going to be motivated to actively generate negative reviews and even more shoppers to do the same. In this case, your one fake positive review has set a stage for a lot of real, negative reviews which will be hard to control.