--- description: 39% of consumers don’t trust around half of the online reviews on seller sites. Discover our latest findings on what elements of reviews people trust most. image: https://gdm-localsites-assets-gfprod.imgix.net/images/software_advice/og_logo-55146305bbe7b450bea05c18e9be9c9a.png title: Online reviews: How trustworthy are they for UK consumers? --- # 39% of UK consumers think around half the reviews on seller sites are fake Canonical: https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/blog/2701/uk-consumers-believe-around-half-online-reviews-are-fake Published on 09/05/2022 | Written by David Jani. ![39% of UK consumers think around half the reviews on seller sites are fake](https://images.ctfassets.net/63bmaubptoky/-qYfLnC8muWSA9w60M1-JrwLonSnaxNy5epyhCeTP4A/b43009f25c187e2778b7b76f87ca0c51/Usage-reviews-among-SMBs-1-UK-SoftwareAdvice-Header.png) > Dealing with online review management is a major concern for numerous SMEs, with negative feedback often proving costly. However, with literally millions of reviews online, the public has clear preferences for what they do and don’t trust. ----- ## Article Content Dealing with online review management is a major concern for numerous SMEs, with negative feedback often proving costly. However, with literally millions of reviews online, the public has clear preferences for what they do and don’t trust.In this articleDo consumers still trust online reviews?How often do UK consumers check reviews?What are the features of a trustworthy online review?What kind of reviews do customers check the most?What types of reviews do UK consumers write?What platforms do consumers trust the most for online reviews?Key takeawaysKnowing how the public reacts to both good and bad reviews is an essential part of assuring a business can give the best impression possible to potential customers. Yet, findings from Software Advice’s latest study into online reviews show that UK consumers still harbour a distrust of this consumer feedback, with 39% saying they believe about half of those that appear on a seller’s own websites are fake.Scrutiny of online customer reviews has risen in recent years and with the impending introduction of new laws making fake reviews illegal in the UK, care from companies is increasingly needed. This begs the question of whether online reviews are still a useful form of marketing for small to medium enterprises (SMEs).To find out the answer, we surveyed 599 UK consumers over the age of 18 —who have used online reviews to make a purchase decision— about their attitudes to online reviews. In doing so we aim to discover how effective they are and what preferences the public has when it comes to this form of marketing. Our full methodology for this study can be viewed at the bottom of this article.Do consumers still trust online reviews?39% of survey respondents claimed that they thought around half of the reviews on online sellers’ websites are fake, and an additional 15% believe more than half of all product and service reviews on these platforms are fraudulent.Whilst these are quite serious findings that UK companies should take note of, it does not mean that online customer reviews do not still hold sway amongst consumers. In fact, 45% of the consumers we asked said they trust the customer reviews left online more than even personal recommendations by a friend or family member (26%). How to spot fake reviewsThe consumer association Which? has pinpointed a number of ways that consumers can spot fake reviews.  Don’t just check five-star reviews, be sure to look at reviews with lower star ratings to get a better picture of the product.– Check the most recent reviews.– Take additional care when reading reviews on websites of unfamiliar brands.– Look for verified customers or purchases.– Review the reviewer’s other purchases.Which? Also highlights 4 important questions to ask when reading online reviews:– Is the reviewer using over the top language such as ‘perfect’ to praise the product?– Do a lot of reviews include pictures and videos? (these are often incentivised by sellers looking for positive reviews.)– Does the review go into enough detail about the product or service?- Is the reviewer posting multiple reviews at the same time?Not only this but the largest percentage of respondents (78%) demonstrated a preference for written reviews over other formats such as blogs, social media posts, and videos when choosing a product or service.What these findings seem to suggest is that written online reviews are still relied upon by consumers, although trust in their genuineness could be improved. Companies should therefore continue to strive for authenticity in the reviews they publish online and create more transparency on how they are gathered. How often do UK consumers check reviews?It was found that 24% of our participants always check online feedback before deciding on a product or service, with 45% reviewing this information often and 23% occasionally. This represented the vast majority of our survey sample. Furthermore, over a quarter of our respondents now check online consumer reviews more now than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic. 28% said they use this information more than before, whilst 71% said they checked them as much as they did before the pandemic and only 1% rely on them less.This rise in their use is perhaps unsurprising given the increase in online shopping that has occurred in the UK since the outbreak of COVID-19. This trend has grown hugely since the onset of the pandemic, with 70% of Brits preferring to shop online according to data from CreditKarma.   What are the features of a trustworthy online review? Consumers who took part in our 2022 online reviews survey indicated a number of elements that made posted feedback more trustworthy in their eyes.The most important factor for respondents was that reviews should appear on a trusted platform (such as Trustpilot, Sitejabber, and Birdeye) with 50% indicating they are more likely to believe reviews if they appear on a trusted review platform.Our findings also demonstrated that newer reviews are taken into account more than those that were posted over 6 months ago. 36% of respondents said they would only take into account rankings posted within the last 1-3 months, with a further 27% only trusting those posted within 6 months. Additionally, consumers tended to trust products which had received a moderate number of reviews more than those with tens or even hundreds. For example, when asked how many reviews a product or service should have in order for them to trust it, the most popular response from respondents was between 6-20 (42%). 20% said it didn’t matter, whilst only 7% trusted products or services that had gained 51-100 reviews, and only 5% favoured over 100.What do UK consumers find most important in an online review? The consumers we surveyed highlighted a number of factors that they found the most useful when reading online reviews.When asked to pick all the features that they considered most important in an online text review we observed the following preferences:These results show that the pros and cons of the item being sold are necessary to ensure that consumers will find the entry of use. Likewise, personal experience from the reviewer also ranks as highly important, showing that hands-on information makes a positive difference for someone making a purchasing decision.We also noted a preference for shorter reviews rather than longer ones. This seems to correlate with the fact consumer reviews appear to be preferred over more in-depth expert reviews such as blogs and other expert articles.   How many stars do consumers really want to see?The star rating of a product or service is still one of the most important considerations for online consumers in the UK. 35% ranked this as the most important feature of a review. However, we also discovered that too many five star reviews were a hindrance rather than a help. 73% of our respondents said they trust a lower score with more reviews than a higher score with fewer reviews (27%).What kind of reviews do customers check the most?We found a number of common factors that led to our sample relying on online consumer reviews more. Firstly, there was a clear trend in terms of the types of products that consumers used online reviews to assess. When asked to choose whether certain types of product/service reviews influenced them “a lot”, “a bit” or “not at all”, Electronics received the highest score for “a lot,” with 56% choosing this option. It was also seen that most of our sample of respondents tended to check the most recent reviews first (52%). This far exceeded those who checked whether the review was positive (11%) or negative (14%) first.How many reviews do consumers read before making a purchase?In general, the majority (57%) of our respondents said they would read about 2-5 reviews before forming an opinion about a product or serviceFewer (30%) said they would read 6-10 reviews. Only 6% said they read 11-20 reviews, and an even smaller quantity (2%) reported reading more than 20. This seems to indicate that, whilst consumers do try to check for a fairly wide range of opinions, the majority won’t check many more than 5 reviews. Tip for SMEs: Given that we’ve already seen a preference for recent reviews from our data, it seems sensible that companies should prioritise encouraging consumers to leave feedback on an ongoing basis. That way, businesses and marketers can ensure that they always have 5-10 up-to-date reviews that customers will want to see. What types of reviews do UK consumers write?Although consumers have clear preferences regarding the reviews they prefer to read and trust, the reviews they write themselves don’t always follow these patterns.71% of our participants said they have written an online review either once or multiple times within the last 2 years, with only 29% claiming never to have provided one during this time. 49% of those who did leave a review in the last 24 months did so for Food and Restaurants, with other top choices including electronics (44%), travel and hotels (43%) and clothing and beauty products (38%). This seems to show that online reviewers will most often leave feedback for leisure purchases rather than for services such as software (12%), or professional services (18%). This is despite the fact that these can be highly influential in helping consumers make buying decisions as seen above.What motivates users to leave reviews?      The consumers we surveyed that have left a review in the last two years reported a number of different reasons for submitting feedback online. The majority (58%) did so to help other customers before they bought a product. This appears to reveal that the main motivation to leave online reviews is to create more transparency about a product or service. In turn, this indicates that there is more to online reviews than just reporting a simple good or bad experience about a company.Additionally, this finding uncovers potential opportunities for marketers seeking to gain more reviews from their user base. For example, by using marketing tools to send out post-sales reminders that encourage clients to help their fellow consumers by leaving a review. What platforms do consumers trust the most for online reviews?When surveyed on the most trustworthy platforms for online customer reviews, our respondents had clear preferences on what platforms they did and didn’t have faith in.We asked participants to give a score between 1 and 5 (5 being most trustworthy and 1 being the least) for the trustworthiness of seven commonly used mediums for online reviews.In doing so, our respondents identified independent platforms (for example Trustpilot or Sitejabber) as the most reliable for reviews, with an average trust score of 3.86 out of 5.This stood above other common choices for online consumer reviews such as marketplaces (e.g. Amazon, eBay or Etsy), search engines and industry-specific platforms (e.g. TripAdvisor or Yelp).Whilst our earlier findings suggested a commonly held view that half or more of the reviews on vendor websites were fake, these sites still received an average trust rating of over 3. Yet it was one of the lowest-ranked choices found in our results.The data seems to show that consumers prefer review platforms that are independently moderated and properly managed, rather than user-generated platforms, which are more loosely monitored for quality purposes.(Note: Statistics are approximations calculated from the range mid-point.)Key takeawaysThere are a number of important findings about online consumer reviews that stood out in the results of this study. SMEs should keep the following information in mind when planning their online reviews strategy:Consumers generally trust online reviews more than other forms of client feedback.There is still a perception that a large proportion of online reviews on sellers’ websites are fake.Most consumers will check online reviews before making a purchasing decision.Customers want shorter reviews that quickly outline the pros and cons of the product or service.Products and services with a moderate number of written reviews, which are recent and receive a variety of star rankings are considered the most reliable.Independent review platforms are considered the most reliable sources of consumer online feedback.In the second part of this three-part series examining online reviews, we focus on how employees of companies handle the management of this online feedback.Looking for review management software? Check out our catalogue. ## Disclaimer > MethodologyData for Software Advice’s Online Reviews Survey 2022 was collected in April 2022. Results comprise responses from 599 UK consumers. The criteria to be selected for this study are as follows:UK residentAged over 18 years oldHave used online reviews to make a purchasing decisionRead online reviews always, often, occasionally, or rarely before buying a product/service ## About the author ### David Jani David is a Content Analyst for the UK, providing key insights into tech, software and business trends for SMEs. Cardiff University graduate. 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