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Our new report Brand integrity: the new frontier for marketing explores consumer expectations surrounding purpose-driven brands, including which social, political and environmental stances make them more or less likely to buy from or recommend a brand.

The consumer research uncovers: 

- How much a brand’s purpose matters to consumers today
- The top social, political and environmental stances consumers consider when making a purchase 
- Which factors make consumers less likely to buy from a brand
- Which information sources consumers check to find out if brands live up to their claims 


Brand integrity: the new frontier for marketing

Trustpilot gir deg den nyeste statistikken i form av rapporter og forskningsresultater innenfor blant annet motorbransjen, finansverdenen og netthandel.

Veiledninger og rapporter | Trustpilots blogg

Guides and Reports

The complete guide to marketing with customer reviews: 2021 update

Trustpilot's complete guide to reviews

Marketing with customer reviews is a surefire way to build trust in your brand, and turn that into measurable ROI through increased web traffic and sales. In this practical guide, we'll show you 15 ways you can improve your marketing strategy with reviews.

I rely on reviews. You rely on reviews. 

We all rely on reviews. 

In fact, [consumer behavior](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/consumer-behavior-in-the-age-of-coronavirus-global-review-trends-by-industry) has evolved such that shoppers the world over are relying on reviews from their fellow customers to find the most up-to-date and accurate information about businesses in their local communities and beyond. 

So, if you’re wondering whether you could be doing more with customer reviews, know this: reviews can provide your business with so much more than feedback on your products and services. 

They're also a powerful marketing engine in their own right. Customer reviews are a way to build trust in your brand, and turn that brand trust into measurable ROI through increased web traffic, sales, and revenue. 

In this practical guide, we’ll show you exactly how to turn your customer reviews into better business results by putting them to work throughout your entire marketing strategy. 

And on the off chance you’re totally new to the world of reviews, we’ll start with a quick overview of their many benefits, and how they work together to propel business growth. 

## Why every business needs customer reviews and testimonials

We’ll keep this brief — the virtuous cycle of collecting reviews goes something like this: 

### 1. Build trust in your brand by collecting and responding to reviews.

Reviews are an opportunity for anyone familiar with your brand to publicly share what they love about your products, services, and [customer experience](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/5-reasons-why-customer-experience-is-the-pulse-of-every-business). So, having reviews publicly available conveys to potential customers that you’re safe to do business with.

Once you have some reviews about your business, you can:

### 2. Attract new customers by using reviews, ratings, and testimonials throughout your marketing strategy. 

Showing off your customer reviews is how you turn your hard-earned brand trust into measurable ROI. 

Whether you dream of becoming the search result they actually click, driving more traffic with your emails and ad creative, or converting more browsers into buyers on your site — [social proof](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/why-and-how-social-proof-influences-consumers) like reviews, star ratings, and testimonials can help with that. 

To meet the expectations of all the new customers you’ll attract from showing off your reviews, you’ll need to: 

### 3. Tap into the goldmine of fresh consumer insights within your reviews.    

You’ve built a trusted brand. You’ve attracted more customers than ever before by exuding trustworthiness in all of your marketing. Now you need to understand what all of your new customers thought about their experience with your brand. 

Reviews act like a window into the minds of your customers, allowing you to discover exactly what they want — and deliver it — so you can build customer loyalty, get even more customer feedback, and continue using that feedback to attract new customers.

Sounds good, right? It all begins with [getting reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/get-reviews) for your business so you can start showing off the trust in your brand. 

This is especially easy for businesses built on major eCommerce platforms to get up and running thanks to Trustpilot’s native integrations for [Shopify](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/shopify-plus), [BigCommerce](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/bigcommerce), [WooCommerce](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/woocommerce), [Magento](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/magento-commerce), [PrestaShop](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/prestashop), [Shopware](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/shopware), and [OpenCart](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/opencart). 


complete-guide-to-reviews-img1

Trustpilot reviews displayed on a phone

## 15 Ways to use customer reviews in your marketing strategy

Once you’ve collected some reviews about your business, you can start showcasing the voice of the customer throughout your marketing strategy to increase organic traffic, dial up your paid digital campaign performance, and ultimately win more customers. 

## Improving organic SEO with customer reviews

With [91.5% of organic traffic](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101/seo-statistics/) going to sites listed on the first page of search engine results, we can’t overstate how important your organic search ranking is when it comes to attracting new customers. 

__With that in mind, here are five ways you can use customer reviews to improve your organic search rankings.__

### 1. Build strong off-page SEO by collecting reviews on a third-party platform. 

Off-page SEO describes any actions you take to build up a digital footprint outside of your actual website — whether it’s building credible backlinks to your pages, staying active on social media platforms, or even creating a profile on a [third-party review platform](https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2018/02/26/can-independent-review-platforms-make-google-love-site/) like Trustpilot. 


Off page SEO

off-page SEO diagram

Even though search engine algorithms are always evolving, the experts at [Moz](https://moz.com/learn/seo/off-site-seo) suspect that off-page SEO considerations like relevance, trustworthiness, and authority carry more than 50% of the ranking factor weight. 

Fortunately, building up your online presence with third-party reviews can help your business tick all three of those boxes. 

### 2. Drive more referral traffic from your Trustpilot business profile. 

On top of the off-page SEO benefits for your actual website, creating a profile on Trustpilot can also lead to a huge spike in referral traffic. 

That’s because when someone searches for reviews of a brand, they’re likely to find that brand’s Trustpilot [business profile page](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013930439-Introduction-to-your-company-profile-page) at the top of the search results. Why, you ask? 

We don’t mean to brag, but Trustpilot’s [domain authority](https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority) is strong. So, the more reviews you collect — and the more you [enrich the content](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/202616716-Customize-your-company-profile) on your business profile page — the easier it will be for search engines to associate your brand with ours, and show your presence on Trustpilot right at the top of search results.

This could be your competitive advantage since referral traffic is so often overlooked — even though it’s a free source of qualified leads, and can even [improve your organic search performance](https://moz.com/blog/organic-traffic-without-ranking). 


Learn how TaxSlayer used their enriched business profile page to generate a 500% increase in referral traffic to their site.

### 3. Get more organic traffic by displaying customer reviews on your website.

Featuring customer reviews on key landing pages is easy to pull off with review widgets, and this small addition to your website can improve how often your pages show up in organic search results. 

That’s because reviews are a form of user-generated content, and UGC is SEO gold:

- __Reviews increase the amount of text on each page.__ This extra text makes your page more valuable in the eyes of Google because you’re offering them more context for what the page is really about — and whether it should surface for the user’s search query. 
- __The ratings associated with your reviews help Google understand the quality of your products and services.__ At the end of the day, Google wants to show the most reputable search results in hopes of delivering the best experience to their users. 
- __Review text adds fresh content to pages that might not otherwise get frequent updates.__ This tells Google that the information about your business is recent and up-to-date, and is therefore worth surfacing for the user’s search query.  

These elements work together to [help Google understand your website](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/why-does-google-care-if-your-business-has-online-reviews-in-2019). Over time this can lead search engines to show your pages in search results more frequently, and drive larger volumes of high quality traffic to your site.


reviews are great for SEO because they provide fresh content and long tail keywords, both of which Google loves

complete-guide-to-reviews-img4

Google search on a laptop

### 4. Earn review snippets in organic search with product reviews. 

When marketers think about star ratings in search results, paid listings usually come to mind — and we’ll get there in the next section. But most marketers don’t realize they can also earn star ratings on their organic search listings and appeal to those savvy shoppers who might be [less inclined to click-through an ad](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/can-online-reviews-revive-consumer-trust-in-advertising). 

As it turns out, collecting [Product Reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/product-reviews) can help you qualify for [review snippets](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/rich-snippets-stars-for-product-reviews-can-boost-seo) in organic search.  

And those shiny gold stars on your listings can help attract more attention to your product pages, and even improve your click-through rates by up to 35% in organic search. 

Not bad!

It’s not hard to do — our range of [eCommerce integrations](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/type/apps) allow you to make your Product Review data discoverable to search engines in just a few clicks that add some simple code (aka schema markup) to your product pages. This allows search engines to easily get a sense of your products’ overall ratings, and determine whether you meet their requirements for displaying review snippets. 

If your review stats meet [Google’s requirements](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/review-snippet), your product pages could appear with performance-enhancing review snippets in the SERPs. 


According to Conversion XL, review stars in search engine results can improve CTR by as much as 35%.

complete-guide-to-reviews-img5

According to ConversionXL, review snippets can improve click-through rate by as much as 35% in organic search

### 5. Rank for long tail search queries with product reviews.

Collecting product reviews can also amp up the SEO power on each of your product pages, and help you rank for a broader range of relevant keywords. 

It’s pretty straightforward. Allowing customers to leave reviews about your individual products — and putting them front and center on your product pages — can improve your site’s visibility for [long tail search queries](https://yoast.com/focus-on-long-tail-keywords/#:~:text=Focusing%20on%20long%2Dtail%20keywords,as%20they%20are%20more%20specific.), with no copywriting effort on your part.

Try as you might, thinking of every possible descriptor, use case, or problem your product solves can be difficult to say the least. Thankfully, product reviews let your customers become the copywriters, enabling them to share their own unique experiences with your products. 

The icing on the cake is that all this happens automatically — no extra copywriting or content creation for you.

## Enhancing paid digital campaign performance with customer reviews

Today’s consumers have seen it all — and many of them don’t want to see ads or slick marketing messages anymore. In fact, more than [75% of consumers](https://deloitte.wsj.com/cmo/2018/04/03/are-consumers-adlergic-a-look-at-ad-blocking-habits/) regularly use an adblocker.

To make matters even more challenging for digital marketers, research shows [fewer than 3 in 10 consumers](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/learn-from-customers/trustworthiness-in-advertising-what-consumers-have-to-say) report a solid level of trust towards digital advertising channels.  

__Fortunately, customer reviews and star ratings can enhance your digital campaign performance on the channels that have the [biggest influence](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/can-online-reviews-revive-consumer-trust-in-advertising) on consumer’s purchasing decisions.__

### 6. Qualify for Google Seller Ratings to improve Google Ads performance.

A close relative of review snippets in organic search, [Google Seller Ratings](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/how-to-land-great-reviews-and-boost-your-google-seller-rating) are a one-stop-shop for:

- Adding a healthy dose of social proof to your paid search listings.
- Making your business stand out from the competition.
- And increasing click-through rate on your Google Ads campaigns.

A higher click-through rate often leads to increased sales, and will usually improve your [Quality Score](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/140351?hl=en) — meaning you’ll get traffic at a lower cost per click. This in turn gives you a lower cost per acquisition, and frees up more budget for the rest of your business.

Just keep in mind that whether Google Seller Ratings display on your paid search listings is up to Google’s discretion in line with their [latest guidelines](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375474?hl=en) — which tend to stipulate that a business must have a certain number of reviews and a certain aggregate rating before those shiny gold stars will appear below your [Google Ads](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/why-wont-my-google-seller-ratings-show-up-and-4-other-gsr-questions).

Once you do earn them though, your [Google Seller Ratings](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/how-to-land-great-reviews-and-boost-your-google-seller-rating) will appear in Google search results, Google Shopping listings, and even on Google search partners’ listings. 

So if you ask us, it’s worth setting yourself up to qualify for them.

### 7. Enhance your retargeting campaigns with customer testimonials, reviews, and ratings.

[Retargeting campaigns](https://blog.alexa.com/retargeting-vs-remarketing/) can straddle a range of platforms using paid ads to re-engage potential customers who have visited your website or social media profiles. 

No matter which platform you’re using to run a retargeting campaign, you can see a [performance improvement](https://business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/finance-insurance/why-taxslayer-chose-trustpilot-to-leverage-customer-feedback) if you include your reviews and ratings in the ad creative. This can look like:

- Quoting an individual customer review.
- Using your overall rating in your ad creative.
- Showing off how many customers have rated you highly.

The best part? Highlighting your reviews in ad creative can be done without design skills (or even an in-house designer) with some help from Trustpilot’s social media [Image Generator](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/social-media-tools).

With retargeting, you’re putting ads in front of people who have some existing relationship with your business. The extra social proof you add to your retargeting creative might be the deciding factor that nudges customers to purchase from you.


Learn more about Trustpilot's social media tools. 

## Getting more from your email marketing with the voice of the customer 

Though it’s a tough number to pin down, email marketing experts estimate that the average person sends and receives [126 business emails per day](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/knowledge-base/how-many-emails-does-the-average-person-receive-per-day/). That’s a whole lot of emails.

It’s easy to see why the average open rate for emails is about [22%](https://mailchimp.com/resources/email-marketing-benchmarks/) — and why it can be so challenging to cut through the noise with email marketing.

__Here are four ways you can let the voice of the customer do it for you.__

### 8. Boost email click-through rates by adding customer reviews and testimonials.

Every improvement in email click-through rate is going to drive more qualified traffic to your website and increase the odds of a conversion. So you might be interested to know that customer reviews can improve the click-through rate in all of your [marketing emails](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/4-email-marketing-strategies-to-unlock-black-friday-sales-volume-throughout).

Unlike channels with strict word counts and requirements for visual creative, with email you’re free to be creative with how you show off your reviews. You can even use them as the entire basis for different types of email content and CTAs. 

Whether you’re drafting a monthly newsletter, a seasonal product promotion, or a dynamic remarketing campaign – [highlighting a customer review](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/inside-trustpilot/social-proof-in-email-marketing-is-easier-than-ever-with-trustpilots-klaviyo) that’s directly related to your offer puts the social proof your customers crave right on a silver platter, and [increases the odds](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2019/06/improve-your-ctr-using-social-proof/#:~:text=4.,a%2037.5%25%20increase%20in%20conversions.) that they’ll click-through to your landing page, and ultimately convert. 

And with [82% of shoppers](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/why-and-how-social-proof-influences-consumers) reporting that ratings and reviews in email marketing can make them more likely to purchase, that’s pretty promising.  

### 9. Let customer reviews do the talking in your welcome campaigns.

Welcome campaigns are your first opportunity to build a direct relationship with a future customer. Most of your email signups probably haven’t made a purchase yet, and they could even be brand new to your business.

This is your opportunity to convince them you’re a brand they can feel comfortable buying from — and it’s the perfect time to let your satisfied customers do the talking. 

Think of your reviews as a dynamic database of nuanced marketing content to make your campaigns as compelling as possible to your email audience segment. 

When you’re in the early stages of building a relationship with your future customers, it’s a good idea to: 

- Include a relevant customer review in each email, whether it’s about a specific product or your customer experience in general. 
- Feature your top-rated products and services based on your reviews. 
- Show off your brand’s personality by curating some surprising or funny customer reviews. 

This is just a sampling of the creative ways you can make a first impression through your customer reviews and generate warm responses to your email campaigns. 

### 10. Show off your trustworthiness in the email header, footer, and subject line.

Every email you send should include some proof of your trustworthiness. One easy way to achieve this is by including your star rating to your email template’s header, or adding a customer testimonial in the footer. 

With email [open rates](https://mailchimp.com/help/about-open-and-click-rates/) hovering around a modest 22%, it’s also in your best interest to lead with social proof right in the subject line. Here are some sample ideas to get you started:

*- "Our top reviewed products this month."*
*- "Thank you for making us a 5 star company."*
*- "5 ways we’ve used your reviews to improve our customer service."*
*- "Meet Sue, our top customer service rep."*
*- “We thought our teapots were great, your feedback has made them even better!”*
*- “The products you love.”*


Complete Guide to Reviews Quote Jillian Lore

Trustpilot logo Round Star BlueBG 420x420

Digital Marketing Specialist, Rush49

### 11. Abandoned cart emails are more effective with customer reviews.

No matter how watertight your online shopping journey is, abandoned carts are bound to happen. 

According to the experts at [Klaviyo](https://www.klaviyo.com/blog/whats-is-abandoned-shopping-cart-email), the average cart abandonment rate is about 70% on desktop and a whopping 85% on mobile — so it’s not surprising that abandoned cart email flows have become so popular. 

Many retailers rely on special offers and promotions in these email campaigns to lure would-be customers back to their website, but adding a testimonial, review, or rating can be more than enough to bring them back without compromising your precious margins.  

So if you’re putting together an abandoned cart email flow, consider including a few reviews about your customer experience or best-selling products to reassure any hesitant shoppers out there that your business is not only safe to buy from — but that there’s plenty to love about your brand.

No matter what type of email campaign you’re running, it’s easy to feature Trustpilot reviews with our integrations for major email providers like [Klaviyo](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/klaviyo), [Fresh Relevance](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/fresh-relevance), and [Movable Ink](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/movable-ink). 


Adding reviews to your cart abandonment email campaigns can boost CTR by up to 220%

complete-guide-to-reviews-img7

NewYorkDress saw a 220% increase in CTR after adding reviews to their cart abandonment emails

## Improving website conversion rates by putting customer reviews front and center

Today, [89%](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/4-things-every-business-owner-should-know-about-the-state-of-reviews) of consumers check online reviews throughout the online shopping journey. So, by the time a potential customer lands on your website, chances are they’ve already formed a first impression about your brand. 

If you want to make sure that first impression leads to a conversion, it’s a good idea to provide all the reassurance they need to click “BUY” right on your website. 

__Here are four ways to [improve your conversion rate](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/what-is-conversion-rate-optimisation) with customer reviews on your website.__

### 12. Use reviews to make a stellar first impression on your homepage. 

When you improve the trustworthiness of your marketing campaigns, you’re likely to drive a lot more qualified traffic to your website. If your goal is turning more site browsers into buyers, your website should be just as trustworthy as the marketing materials that led them there. 

When it comes to website optimization, the homepage is often overlooked in favor of product pages and the checkout page — and that’s a missed opportunity.

Even if the majority of your site visitors arrive via a specific landing page, there’s a good chance they’ll still want to check out your homepage, especially if they’re unfamiliar with your brand. 

With this in mind, try to highlight customer reviews as much as possible on your homepage. You could:

- Showcase the quality and quantity of your reviews — for example, *“We received 2,365 reviews this year, and 95% of customers gave us a 5/5”.*
- Feature 3-5 recent reviews to show off what your others love about your customer experience.
- Round up your most reviewed or highly rated products and services — for example, *“Here are some products our customers gave 5 stars”.*

Remember, your homepage is where site visitors turn to find [trust signals and other social proof](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/what-is-social-proof-and-why-is-it-important-for-marketing) for your brand — so don’t miss this opportunity to easily build trust with curious customers by showing off a highlight reel or some summary statistics about your customer reviews. 


complete-guide-to-reviews-img9

ThirftBooks have embedded customer reviews throughout the customer journey

### 13. Add review widgets to product pages to make the buying decision easy.

We’ve already established that product reviews are an SEO secret weapon — but they can also make [conversions skyrocket on your product pages](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/get-seen-in-search/ann-summers-uses-product-reviews-to-increase-sales-up-to-230). 

According to the experts at [Shopify](https://www.shopify.com/blog/15359677-why-online-store-owners-should-embrace-online-reviews), 79% of online shoppers trust information shared in product reviews as much as a personal recommendation. And other studies have revealed that [product reviews are 12x more trusted](https://econsultancy.com/ecommerce-consumer-reviews-why-you-need-them-and-how-to-use-them/) than manufacturer or product descriptions. 

In short, [showing relevant reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/trustbox-widgets) on product pages makes the buying decision easier for hesitant shoppers. 

That said, not all reviews carry the same weight. 

Research shows that shoppers want to see real product images from other customers (aka [user-generated content](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/product-reviews)) when they look at product reviews:

- Millennials trust user-generated content [50% more](https://www.iab.com/insights/user-generated-content-for-marketing-and-advertising-purposes/) than traditional media and think it’s 20% more influential on their purchasing decisions.
- Consumers are [3x more likely](https://www.iab.com/insights/user-generated-content-for-marketing-and-advertising-purposes/) to perceive user-generated content as authentic compared to content created by a brand.

So if your goal is to increase conversions on your product pages, make sure your product review provider gives customers an opportunity to share their own photos.

If you display these on your product pages, your conversion rate is sure to thank you. 

### 14. Add star ratings to the site header and footer to make every single page more trustworthy. 

Depending on what they searched to find your business, customers can land on almost any page on your site from the SERPs. With this in mind, every page is an opportunity to convince them to make the critical decision to purchase.

The easiest way to make sure your trustworthiness comes across loud and clear — no matter where visitors land on your site — is to add your star rating to your header or footer.

It’s a small change that can make a big difference.

### 15.  Reduce your exit rate by highlighting reviews and ratings on exit pages. 

Every journey has a start point and an end point — and if that end point isn’t the order confirmation page, you should take every opportunity to increase your conversion rate.

First, identify any pages with high exit rates by checking out your [exit page performance](https://www.paperstreet.com/blog/how-to-use-google-analytics-to-identify-exit-pages-and-improve-them/) in Google Analytics and noting which ones have high traffic and a high exit percentage. 

With exit pages, it’s worth taking the time to look at the actual page and see if you can spot a problem:

- Are there enough calls to action on those pages to keep people on the website?
- Is the page a dead end on the website?
- And of course, are there any customer review sentiments that might help keep people on this page?

Once you’ve ruled out other potential issues, it’s worth exploring any opportunity to show off relevant reviews on your exit pages — and Trustpilot’s [Review Tagging](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-tagging) feature makes this easy.

Here’s an example.

If your Delivery and Returns page has a high exit rate, you might start tagging reviews that mention delivery or returns so you can easily filter reviews by those keywords. This should make it easy to find a testimonial or two that sings your praises about delivery and returns — so you can feature them on your Delivery and Returns page. 

This tiny consideration could lead to a meaningful drop in your exit rate, and more conversions down the line. 

## Grow your business by amplifying the voice of the customer

If you made it this far, it should be clear that there’s an infinite number of creative ways you can integrate reviews into your marketing strategy to attract more customers — and make sure they actually convert. 

As we laid out at the beginning of this guide — customer reviews are all you need to kickstart a sustainable cycle of business growth. 

1. __Build trust in your brand__ by collecting and responding to reviews.
2. __Attract new customers__ by adding reviews to your marketing campaigns and across your website’s shopping journey. 
3. __Tap into the goldmine of fresh consumer insights__ within your steady stream of new customer reviews.

And then the cycle repeats, all because you put your customers at the heart of your marketing strategy. 

And if you really want to make the most of your customer reviews in your marketing strategy, focus on growing your [review collection](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-invitations) until your [social proof reaches critical mass](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/3-reasons-why-you-really-need-to-get-more-reviews). This makes it easier to highlight your reviews across your marketing channels, and eventually tailor your review curation to campaigns and product promotions.

So, the next time you approach a marketing campaign or a business challenge — whether it’s online or [offline](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/ratings-and-reviews-in-above-the-line-advertising) — ask yourself if customer reviews could be used to boost performance results.

You heard it here first: the answer is yes. 


Speak to one of our review experts today. 

Trustpilot Consumer Insights: 2020 Holiday Readiness Guide, featuring 8 tips to help your customers buy with confidence in peak shopping season

2020 Holiday Report

Trustpilot Consumer Insights: 2020 Holiday Readiness Playbook

This holiday season is poised to mean more than ever to consumers, so we used Trustpilot consumer insights to create 8 tips to help your customers buy with confidence this holiday season.

Suffice to say that COVID-19 and the resulting global recession, disrupted supply chains, and mass uncertainty have had a lasting effect on [consumer behavior](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/consumer-behavior-in-the-age-of-coronavirus-global-review-trends-by-industry), with some industries seeing unprecedented sales as the world sought to entertain themselves with new hobbies during lockdown — and others finding themselves more [prone to fraud](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/2020-consumer-report-combating-misinformation-in-the-health-beauty-sector), disappointing customers who had less to spend in the first place.

According to the consumer sector experts at [McKinsey](https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-consumer-sector-in-2020-and-beyond), two pandemic-fueled consumer behavior trends are here to stay. The first is that in the face of widespread economic uncertainty, shoppers are more focused than ever on the perceived value of their purchases — a measure which tends to skyrocket when [the brand in question is trusted](https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/how-to-increase-sales-by-building-brand-equity-shaping-brand-perception.html). The second is the obvious shift to making purchases almost exclusively online.

Some consumers are doubling down on loyalty while shopping online, purchasing only from [brands they already trust](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-future-of-brand-strategy-its-time-to-go-electric). But some are taking chances on new brands and products now that their options have multiplied, in many ways leveling out the playing field and creating more opportunity for lesser known brands and businesses.

Either way, this holiday season is a huge opportunity for businesses of all shapes and sizes: consumers have shifted so much of their spend to online channels that eCommerce shopping levels have been tracking well above peak holiday shopping levels, and compared to predictions from the [2020 Adobe Digital Economy Index](https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/www/us/en/experience-cloud/digital-insights/pdfs/adobe_analytics-digital-economy-index-2020.pdf) for the period of March to June 2020, an extra $77 billion dollars have been spent online.

Image courtesy of the Adobe Digital Economy Index

Online Retail Spend Actual vs Expected via Adobe Digital Economy Index

Online Retail Spend Actual vs Expected Adobe Analytics

Whether consumers are tightening their purse strings or trying to forget the last six months by immersing themselves in holiday cheer, it’s safe to say that shoppers’ expectations will be higher, and businesses will be under the microscope.

And with recent action around the [Black Lives Matter movement](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/business/media/companies-marketing-black-lives-matter-george-floyd.html) placing an even stronger emphasis on corporate social responsibility and belief-driven buying (particularly in big gifting categories like fashion retail and health and beauty) this is the year to make sure your brand is trusted leading up to the winter holidays — and always.

To that end, we took a deep dive into more than 30 million consumer reviews on Trustpilot posted from August 2018 to August 2020 to uncover consumer behavior trends leading up to peak shopping season, and formulate some helpful tips to make sure your business is primed and ready to turn more browsers into buyers on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and beyond.

## Here are 8 tips to help your customers buy with confidence this holiday season.

### Tip 1: Timing is everything, so start building your online presence with third-party reviews by the end of October.

Collecting reviews for your business is always a good idea, but know this: in the world of eCommerce, not all reviews are created equal. Most major eCommerce platforms offer native review solutions, which can offer business owners perhaps too much control over the review process — and provide consumers little transparency into the origins and authenticity of the reviews.

[Social proof](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/why-social-proof-marketing-essential-business-growth) works best when consumers genuinely trust that the sentiments are authentic, and unlike native review solutions, third-party review platforms tend to have the proper [checks and balances](https://www.trustpilot.com/trust/combating-fake-reviews) in place to reassure shoppers that the reviews they encounter haven’t been curated or fraudulently sourced by unscrupulous business owners.

And that’s exactly why so many consumers consult the business profile pages on Trustpilot to research their purchases, especially leading up to the [holiday season](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/holiday-playbook-5-ways-to-win-over-wary-holiday-shoppers).


Consumers search for reviews more often leading up to the holiday rush

Traffic to Trustpilot Profile Pages by Industry

Our Trustpilot platform data from the past two years consistently shows a swift uptick in traffic to Trustpilot’s business profile pages in the month of October, as shoppers begin planning their holiday shopping hauls and researching the best businesses to buy from. Traffic increases have been significant year over year — especially in major holiday shopping categories like fashion apparel, electronics, health and beauty, and home and garden.

It’s no mystery why traffic across all categories has reached a new high watermark in April 2020. As consumers had to adjust their shopping behaviors in accordance with the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdown, they turned to [reviews to reduce uncertainty](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/the-importance-of-trust-in-uncertain-times) around potential purchases.

While we don’t have a crystal ball, it stands to reason that between the return of cold and flu season and a projected second wave of coronavirus, shoppers will not only carry out their entire customer journey online during peak shopping season, but rely even more heavily on third-party reviews to make sure their holiday season goes off without a hitch.

And if the past two years are any indication, it’s in your business’ best interest to have third-party reviews in place by the end of October. With that in mind, below are some helpful resources for getting a jump start on your [review strategy](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/learn-from-customers/the-complete-guide-to-reviews):

- [Intro to Automatic Feedback Services](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012437420-Introduction-to-Automatic-Feedback-Service-AFS-)
- [How are reviews collected?](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/223402468--How-are-reviews-collected-)
- [Send a basic review invitation](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/115008302187--Send-a-Basic-Invitation)
- [More is better: why review quantity matters](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/more-is-better-why-review-quantity-matters)

### Tip 2: Be ready to reply to reviews as they roll in, and don’t be afraid to reply retroactively — a late reply is better than no reply.

According to our platform data from the last two years, customers leave far more reviews beginning in November and lasting all the way through New Years. Sure enough, more transactions leading up to the holidays leads to more feedback from customers — and that’s a good thing.

Customers leave more reviews on Trustpilot during the holiday shopping rush

Customer Reviews Left on Trustpilot by Industry

More public customer feedback means more opportunities to show off what shoppers love about your [customer experience](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/5-reasons-why-customer-experience-is-the-pulse-of-every-business), ultimately building more trust in your brand. But more feedback can also highlight areas of improvement, and potential customers are just as interested in [how brands respond](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/dos-and-donts-best-practices-for-responding-to-reviews) and resolve any issues raised in their reviews.

The charts below show that most companies, regardless of industry, are mostly responding to reviews during peak shopping season — and responding to positive reviews far more often than they reply to negative ones.

This presents a unique opportunity to differentiate yourself by becoming the business that replies all year round to negative and positive reviews alike. This is an especially valuable opportunity in more saturated categories like fashion, home and garden, and health and beauty.

most companies, regardless of industry, are mostly responding to reviews during peak shopping season

Reviews with Replies by Industry

Companies mostly reply to positive reviews, even though negative reviews are more deserving of a response

Reviews with Replies by Star Rating

Taking time to respond, no matter the season or sentiment, will show potential customers that your business has integrity, cares deeply about its customers, and is therefore safe to buy from.

And if you’re lucky enough to have plenty of reviews from last year’s peak shopping season, don’t miss the opportunity to start replying retroactively. Believe it or not, shoppers understand that no one’s perfect, so a late reply is better than no reply. Going back to respond to unresolved reviews will show this year’s shoppers that you’re human, and help you earn their trust.

Below are some helpful resources for replying to reviews:

- [6 Ways to make trust your essential brand differentiator](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/6-ways-to-make-trust-your-essential-brand-differentiator)
- [Bad reviews: why people write them and what they expect](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/learn-from-customers/bad-reviews-why-people-write-them-and-what-they-expect)
- [How to respond to negative reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/how-to-respond-to-negative-reviews)

### Tip 3: Show off your customer reviews on key shopping pages and landing pages.

Collecting reviews on a third-party platform is the crucial first step to building a trusted brand leading up to the holidays. When it comes to converting more site visitors into paying customers, however, [embedding third-party reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-trustboxes-but-were-too-afraid-to) right on your site is the way to go.


Trustpilot data shows that impressions on TrustBoxes always see a spike around peak shopping season

TrustBox Impressions by Industry

Our data shows that [impressions](https://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/impressions-digital-marketing/#:~:text=Definition%3A%20Impressions%20are%20when%20an,intent%20on%20spreading%20brand%20awareness.) on [TrustBoxes](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/trustbox-widgets) always see a spike around peak shopping season, but they have also skyrocketed since lockdown began in categories like fashion and home and garden.

Displaying reviews right on site is a surefire way to improve conversions, increase basket size or order value, and even reduce cart abandonment. To level up with competitors in saturated categories and win the lion’s share of conversions this year, make sure you’re displaying reviews not only on product pages, but any landing page a potential customer might encounter along the buying journey.  

Here are some additional resources for how to best apply social proof on your website:

- [7 Tried and true conversion strategies: a guide](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/browsers-to-buyers/7-tried-and-tested-conversion-strategies-guide)
- [How luxury brands can use social proof to ignite high-ticket conversions](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/how-luxury-brands-can-use-social-proof-to-ignite-high-ticket-conversions)
- [5 Tactics to increase your eCommerce conversion rate](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/5-tactics-to-increase-your-ecommerce-conversion-rate)

### Tip 4: Double down on customer service and fulfillment leading up to — and throughout — the holiday shopping season

To get to the heart of what this year’s shoppers will care about most during the holiday season, we analyzed the most common 2-word phrases in both positive and negative reviews published between October and January from 2018–2020.  


For positive reviews left during peak shopping season, “Excellent Service” and “Customer Service” were among the most common phrases, showing up in about 5.5% of all English-language reviews from the time period.

Sentiments from Positive Reviews

For positive reviews left during peak shopping season, “Excellent Service” and “Customer Service” were among the most common phrases, showing up in about 5.5% of all English-language reviews from the time period.

Not far behind in popularity were “Highly Recommend”, and “Fast Delivery”, which were mentioned in about 4% and 3.5% respectively in favorable reviews left during peak shopping season over the past two years.

When it came to negative reviews, “Customer Service” was mentioned in about 20% of negative reviews left during peak shopping season between 2018 and 2020. “Money Back” and “Phone Call” were also mentioned in about 3% of negative reviews.



Sentiments from Negative Reviews

When it came to negative reviews, “Customer Service” was mentioned in about 20% of negative reviews left during peak shopping season between 2018 and 2020. “Money Back” and “Phone Call” were also mentioned in about 3% of negative reviews.

So, what can businesses take away from these trends in customer feedback?

According to holiday shoppers leaving positive reviews over the last two years, attentive customer service and quick delivery have meant the most. While it might be difficult to guarantee fast shipping with supply chains still reeling from the global pandemic, your customers will appreciate detailed shipping information and updated fulfillment times on your website so they can know what to expect.

And if you’re able, it’s a great idea to invest in customer service resources before and during peak shopping season. Even if it’s a short-term investment, having more hands on deck to help resolve issues and make customers feel heard will likely pay off in dividends — and even help you retain customers for life.

Here are some additional readings on how to tune up your customer service and customer experience leading up to the holidays:

- [6 Types of online customer service you can implement on your website today](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/6-types-of-online-customer-service-you-can-implement-today)
- [7 Ways to improve customer experience on your website](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/how-to-improve-customer-experience-on-your-website)

### Tip 5: Showcase your company's rating in Google Shopping listings

If you’re not familiar with how Google Shopping works yet, it enables users to view and buy products from merchants directly through Google. Merchants are usually charged a fee every time a shopper clicks on a listing and buys from a website. However, this has now changed in the US market.

In April 2020, Google announced that it’s now [free to sell on Google](https://blog.google/products/shopping/its-now-free-to-sell-on-google/) in the US, making it easier for retailers to gain visibility and sell on Google Shopping. Following their first April announcement, in July 2020, they also revealed that [‘Buy on Google’ is now commission-free](https://blog.google/products/shopping/buy-on-google-is-zero-commission/) in the US. According to Google, these changes will be made global by the end of the year.

They also announced two new integrations with Shopify and Paypal, which allow businesses to integrate tools they might already be using, whilst letting consumers checkout directly in Google, without having to go through their website at all.

This is great news for merchants wanting to get more exposure on Google. But how can you guarantee more sales this holiday season whilst trying to stand out from the new competition in Google Shopping’s free listings?

A recent Trustpilot and Canvas8 study found that, today, [89% of global consumers check online reviews](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/the-critical-role-of-reviews-in-internet-trust) as part of their online buying journey, and 49% of global consumers consider positive reviews one of their top 3 purchase influences.

Collecting reviews with a Google Review Partner can help you qualify for Seller Ratings, which you can then display in your product listings in Google Shopping.

Adding trust signals such as ratings and reviews to your listings can make a big difference when it comes to building trust and credibility earlier on in the customer buying journey — especially now that consumers can buy products on Google Shopping without having to go through the retailer’s website at all.

Being as transparent as possible by showcasing consumer trust in Google Shopping can help you stand out from the crowd, especially at the busiest time of year.

[This article](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/what-the-new-google-shopping-updates-mean-for-reviews) might be of interest if you’d like to learn more about the new Google Shopping updates.

### Tip 6: Use product reviews to earn Review Snippets and improve organic search performance

Organic SEO is a prime channel for product discovery, especially during the holiday season, and businesses who are looking to improve their SEO performance might be interested to hear more about reviews and Review Snippets...

If you’ve ever typed into Google’s search bar, you’ve seen Review Snippets in action. Yet not many people have heard of that term.

Review Snippets is the markup of your content with ‘structured data’ that allows search engines to better understand and index this information. This markup helps businesses stand out by displaying their star ratings in organic listings on Search Engine Results Pages. Showcasing trust signals so early in the funnel can help attract more attention, and can therefore help brands increase their click-through and conversion rates.


Example of review snippets in action

So, how can businesses obtain Review Snippets in time for Q4?

Review Snippets can be earned by collecting product reviews through a Google Review Partner, and adding a simple code to your product pages. If you meet [Google’s guidelines](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/review-snippet), you will then qualify for Review Snippets in organic search results.

But that’s not all. Product reviews can also help you rank better for long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are usually a group of 3 or 4 keywords that are a lot more specific than normal keywords. They tend to have lower search volumes, but convert a lot more as they are so specific and are usually used by people on the lower-end of the funnel. Long-tail keywords can be anything from “best running shoes for women” to “Christmas trees with built-in lights”.

With customer product reviews, you’re essentially getting fresh content every month. Because reviews tend to be written in a familiar, more ‘human’ way, they’ll likely contain a lot more long-tail keywords than any other type of content. And with the rise of voice search, longer-tail keywords are a great opportunity for smaller businesses to stand out from the crowd.

Long-tail keywords from product reviews can be a great opportunity for businesses to start engaging with prospective customers who are already at the bottom of the funnel and looking to buy soon.

These articles might be of interest if you’d like to learn more about Review Snippets, and the importance of long-tail keywords for organic search performance:

- [The powerful SEO hack you probably haven't tried: Review Snippets](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/rich-snippets-stars-for-product-reviews-can-boost-seo)
- [The complete guide to reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/learn-from-customers/the-complete-guide-to-reviews)
- [The new face of SEO: Answer Engine Optimisation](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/get-seen-in-search/the-new-face-of-seo-answer-engine-optimization)

### Tip 7: Use customer reviews to earn Google Seller Ratings and improve paid search performance

With shopping continuing to move almost entirely online, paid search is getting more and more competitive by the day.

Many businesses choose to spend a large amount of their digital budget on paid search, but don’t always see the results they’d hoped for.

So how can brands stand out in paid search during the holiday season?

If you’re not familiar with Google Seller Ratings, they are an automatic Google Ads extension that is displayed globally to customers to help them find businesses that offer quality services. The extension allows businesses to display their star rating underneath the URL on their Google Ads, like this:

Trustpilot profile pages often show up at the top of results and get thousands of search impressions per month

complete-guide-to-reviews-img6

example of Google Seller Ratings

Google Seller Ratings were created to demonstrate consumer trust in businesses. They can help brands stand out from the competition, and build trust earlier in the customer journey. Why? Simply because consumers are more likely to click on an ad with star snippets, than an ad without.

So how can you get Google Seller Ratings in time for the holiday season?

Well, Google displays Seller Ratings on a per-country basis, and requires at least 100 reviews per country in the last 12 months, and a rating of 3.5/5, to showcase the star snippets on ads. Collecting reviews through a Google Review Partner is a great way to start your Google Seller Ratings journey.

Showcasing consumer ratings directly on Google Ads can help businesses increase their click-through rates, and improve their overall search performance during the busiest time of year.

If you’d like to find out more about Google Seller Ratings and how they can help your paid search performance, here are some articles that might interest you:

- [Google’s new Seller Ratings threshold lowered to 100](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/google-new-seller-ratings-threshold-100)
- [How to land great reviews and boost your Google Seller Rating](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/how-to-land-great-reviews-and-boost-your-google-seller-rating)
- [How to calculate Google Seller Ratings’ effect on CTR for Google Ads](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/how-to-calculate-google-seller-ratings-effect-on-adwords)

### Tip 8: Turn more browsers into buyers with a trustworthy presence online and offline

Today’s consumers no longer base their purchasing decisions on what they hear or read from brands. Instead, they turn to their peers for third-party validation and trustworthy information.

There’s no doubt social proof is now one of the most powerful tools available for businesses out there. In fact, Trustpilot research found that [66% of customers](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/why-and-how-social-proof-influences-consumers) said the presence of social proof increased their likelihood to purchase a product, and 82% said positive star ratings and reviews made them more likely to make a purchase.

A lot of brands already [display their customer reviews](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/what-is-social-proof-and-why-is-it-important-for-marketing) online — from their website and emails, to their social channels and paid ads. But what about showcasing reviews offline? 

A London Research survey found that [only 8% of businesses](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/ratings-and-reviews-in-above-the-line-advertising) using Trustpilot are harnessing their trustworthiness offline, compared to 84% online. 

An omnichannel presence is essential to ensure there is no disconnect in the customer experience — both online and offline – to create a seamless buying journey for consumers.

It’s all about creating as few barriers as possible, so that a customer would never notice a difference in their experience with your brand, whether they shop on your website, app, or in-store. And that works with trust signals too. 

Consider displaying and mentioning your reviews in-store, at the till or in the fitting rooms, in your TV ads, on the radio, on your packaging, and even on billboards. 

Those are all great places where you can showcase customer reviews to build confidence and trust outside of your online channels. Remember, many shoppers still like to browse in-store before they buy online, or vice-versa, and brands are missing an opportunity to harness their trustworthiness offline, especially during the holiday season.

## This year, showcase the trust in your brand

With so many choices when it comes to gifts, the best way to differentiate yourself and win customers this year is to cultivate a trustworthy brand presence online and offline. In the wake of the global pandemic and human rights movements this year, consumers are rightfully more skeptical than ever. This year shoppers will want to support the businesses who lived by their values, spoke up about important issues, and did right by customers when times were tough. 

So as we head into the peak shopping season of a high stakes year, why not align your business with a universal symbol of trust? Collecting reviews on Trustpilot will show customers that your business is not only a safe bet for a smooth holiday season, but also a brand they can feel good about supporting at a time when each transaction means more to everyone. 


### Methodology

We analyzed more than 30 million global reviews on Trustpilot within relevant online retail categories written between August 2018 to August 2020 to look at trends in review activity month over month, and uncover commonly used words and phrases in positive and negative reviews. The keyword analysis was carried out on an English-language subset of the reviews published within the peak shopping season of October to January between 2018 and 2020.  


Trustpilot Consumer Insights: 2020 Holiday Readiness Guide

7 Tried and Tested Conversion Strategies

According to research, in 2020, the average global conversion rate is [4%.31](https://www.invespcro.com/blog/the-average-website-conversion-rate-by-industry/). But in today's competitive landscape, it's getting harder for businesses to keep visitors engaged. So how can brands keep customers hooked and ensure their business generates more revenue?

In this guide, you’ll learn how to:
• Easily turn browsers into buyers
• Leverage your social proof to increase sales
• Use customer feedback to shape a great customer experience and encourage customer loyalty.

key cart abandonment statistics

## 1. Create an efficient checkout process

Needing as few steps as possible to actually complete the purchase process is a surefire way to increase conversions. Here are some of our top tips.

__Avoid complex clicks and unnecessary steps__

Make sure your checkout experience is completely linear - no confusing steps within steps. Never make objects clickable during the checkout phase so visitors get distracted and leave, abandoning their basket. You want the sole focus of the checkout page to be the checkout!

According to [VWO](https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/12/22/seven-fascinating-stats-on-ecommerce-and-cart-abandonment/), a confusing checkout is among the top five reasons for cart abandonment.

__Don’t push customers to register__

Make it optional to create an account. Some customers just want to buy their goods and be gone, and that’s fine. Have an express route for these shoppers. Baymard claims that [35%](https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate) of shoppers leave a purchase if they’re forced to create an account.

__Create a compelling checkout page__

We all like something to function and look good at the same time.

Think about the colours on your checkout page, the data fields you require, and even the calls-to-action you use. Don’t forget to add credibility to your checkout too by informing the customer what payment methods are accepted, or how secure their data actually is by adding security icons to your website.

Don't forget be clear about your final pricing so customers can see where their money is going.

__Reduce the amount of manual work__

A shipping address that is also the billing address by default can save the customer a lot of time in their purchase. You should also inform customers as early as possible if an item is unavailable or will be subject to delayed delivery, rather  than notifying them after they’ve gone through several steps.

Provide customers with a back button that leads to the previous page, so the customer doesn’t need to fill in their details again. Providing users with real-time support can also be a crucial tool to keep them on the path to completion.


## 2. Optimise your site for common web browsers

Different browsers – and even different versions of the same browser – see your site differently. When you’re designing your website, try to avoid to rely on browser-specific behaviour, and test its appearance and functionality on multiple browsers to make sure that all your visitors are getting the experience you’ve worked hard to create.

Once your site is up and running, be sure to retest at regular intervals and adapt where necessary. A site that is not regularly upgraded will not keep pace with new browsers or new versions of browsers affecting how the site is displayed. 

Don’t forget to consider your site’s overall accessibility. Not all users may have JavaScript enabled in their browsers and technologies such as Flash and ActiveX may not render well (or at all) in every browser. 

According to real-time web stats analysts [StatCounter](https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share), as of April 2020, the top five browsers by market share are:

- Chrome - 64%
- Safari - 13.6%
- Firefox - 4.21%
- Samsung Internet - 3.4%
- Edge Legagy - 2.23%


## 3. Optimise your site for mobiles and tablets

It’s no secret that mobile ownership and usage [has surpassed desktop](http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/). 

Mobile marketing is arguably the closest you can get to the consumer, as there is no other device that is as personal or portable. 

If your website doesn’t automatically resize to fit the screen that it’s being viewed on, you are running the risk of losing a lot of business. More than this, Google might not consider your website as much if you avoid mobile adaptability, thanks to a 2015 update to their algorithms (popularly dubbed ‘Mobilegeddon’). Without a mobile-optimised site, your mobile discoverability will suffer.


## 4. Display online reviews to boost trust

There’s no better way to build consumer trust than by showcasing the experience of your customers with your company. 

Canvas8 research found that, in 2020, [89%](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/4-things-every-business-owner-should-know-about-the-state-of-reviews) of global consumers check online reviews as part of their online buying journey, and 49% of global consumers consider positive reviews one of their top 3 purchase influences.

Having customer feedback on display on your site gives customers the encouragement they need to complete a purchase. More than that, customer reviews give you unparalleled insight into customer trends. 

You might notice the same kind of feedback appearing again and again in reviews. If so, this tells you you’re either doing something great, or there’s something that requires attention. 

Make sure you’re encouraging customers to leave reviews - and quickly respond to all of them, whether they’re positive or negative. It shows that you are listening and that you care. No matter how great your product is, if people don’t trust you, they won’t want to engage with you. 

## 5. Use social media to drive online sales

Savvy ecommerce managers are now exploring social media as a tool to directly boost sales. Over a quarter of individuals say brands that are active on social media are more “human”, meaning they appear more approachable and helpful by having real conversations with customers online.

Don’t forget, there are customers and prospects out there ready to connect with you on social media. Here are some tips to transform your social media success. 

__Develop a content strategy for your social media channels__

Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin have become great vehicles for content, meaning brands are paying attention and making the space more competitive than ever. Make sure you have a well-thought out strategy around your messaging, what you want to promote, and how you’ll differentiate yourself.

__Use YouTube playlists to showcase your own products__

Cisco predicts that online video will account for [82%](https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-much-ip-traffic-will-be-video-by-2021-2017-6) of all web traffic by 2022. YouTube playlists allow channel owners to select which videos will play sequentially, so a company’s use of this tool enables it to present viewers with additional products they may be interested in, increasing potential sales. 

__Manage and monitor social media and customer feedback in one place__ 

To find succeed in social media, you need to effectively monitor it. Save time and energy by monitoring your online reviews and social media activity from one console. If you use Hootsuite, Trustpilot has just the [Hootsuite app for you](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/hootsuite).

__Share your customer reviews on social media__

Today, [90%](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-stats/) of people follow at least one business on Instagram. Instagram has become known as an ideal fit for eCommerce marketing. 

The social platform is often used as the discovery portion of the sales funnel. [83%](https://www.facebook.com/business/news/insights/how-instagram-boosts-brands-and-drives-sales) of Instagram users say they discover new products and services on the platform. That's why encourage businesses to share their customers' feedback on social channels too. 

It’s a great way to showcase great stories from your customers and convert prospective customers. If you're not sure where to start, check out Trustpilot's guide to [social media reputation management here](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/trustpilot-guide-to-social-media-reputation-management).

## 6. Dedicate staff to web design

If your company has separate departments or suppliers for marketing and web design, the responsibility for turning website visits into sales tend to fall between two camps. This can be bad news for any business hoping to turn their online investments into real profitability. 

A web designer is a technical expert who can dedicate their time to testing and retesting website variations to further optimise your website’s buying process. However, a marketer should have a unique understanding of the needs and wants of your customers, and therefore a valuable insight into what will convert visitors into clients or customers, and what won’t. 

Ideally, the staff dedicated to website conversions should have a background in both areas. Including financial incentives for reaching performance goals will also correlate in getting your conversion rates closer to where you’d like them to be.

If you’re working within a smaller budget, consider investing in a professional developer, or try Shopify, the leading e-commerce website building tool. With [Trustpilot’s online review app for Shopify](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/shopify-plus), so you can design a sleek site that displays customer feedback in no time at all. 

## 7. Consider a retargeting strategy

Retargeting can help reduce shoppers’ concerns and turn hesitant visitors into happy customers.

Start by determining which shoppers have added something to their cart, but haven’t completed their purchase. Once you have identified your audience, it’s important to decide how long you want to target cart abandoners. 

Reaching consumers as soon as they abandon is a must, but the length of time you target them should be determined by the products your business sells. Bigger purchases such as furniture, holidays, or electronics can have a longer consideration cycle, whereas other products like clothes or cosmetics don’t usually have a very long decision-making cycle.

__SMS retargeting__

According to Search Engine Watch, SMS messages are more effective than emails. Consider sending a reminder to cart abandoners. Typically, [90%](https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/12/22/seven-fascinating-stats-on-ecommerce-and-cart-abandonment/) of all SMS messages are opened, and 90% are read within 3 minutes.

It’s a great way to convert those hesitant shoppers, but if you’d rather use display retargeting, here are some of our top tips.

__Display retargeting done right__

- Test the kinds of displays to show cart abandoners - personalised, or static? 
- Use a promotional offer like free shipping to increase conversions 
- Offer a discount on future products to encourage a repeat purchase.


## Key Takeaways

By now, you should have a long to-do list to ensure you’re optimising your eCommerce business for conversions and efficient checkouts. But if you need a cheat sheet, here’s a quick list of key points. 

Turn your ecommerce conversion rates around by: 

- Making sure your checkout process is optimally designed  
- Optimising your site for mobiles and tablets 
- Using social media to drive online sales 
- Making sure your site is optimised for your visitors’ browsers 
- Using online reviews widgets to boost trust 
- Assigning responsibility for online performance and conversion goals to a dedicated member of staff.

If you'd like to learn more about Trustpilot and how reviews can help you amplify your marketing efforts, request a free demo below.

7 Tried and tested conversion strategies

Truspilot 5 trends that will define the future of fashion

Trustpilot 5 trends that will define the future of fashion

A survey from London Research and Trustpilot has shown that fashion shoppers are more cautious on spending this year, and are also acutely aware of the need to buy items from fashion brands with strong ethical and sustainability practices.

[London Research](https://www.londonresearch.com/) and Trustpilot's latest international survey has shown that not only are fashion shoppers more cautious on spending this year, they are also acutely aware of the need to buy items from fashion brands and retailers with strong ethical and sustainability practices.

Fashion brands and retailers now have an opportunity to reach out to consumers who are actively seeking to shop from companies that are kind to the people working in their supply chains, as well as the environment.

Those seeking to market themselves to modern shoppers need to listen to what consumers have revealed they are looking for in sustainable and ethical brands, as outlined in this research.

### Five key trends that will define the future of fashion brands

__1. Four in five customers are led by ethics__

Size and fit are not the only priorities. Fashion brands and retailers need to be aware that treatment of workers across their entire supply chain and environmental footprint are now a vital part of a customer’s purchasing decisions. 

More than four in five customers (82%) reveal they would definitely (31%) or probably (51%) stop buying from a brand found to be lacking ethical standards. 

__2. Shoppers are cautious on spending__

The recession looming over the global pandemic is shaping fashion spending habits. Just under three-quarters of consumers (72%) are spending less or the same as they did before.

As befitting markets where many are working from home, casual clothing and leisurewear is the category with the highest proportion of consumers having increased spend (21%). This figure is nearly double that seen in formal wear or luxury items.

__3. Fashion shoppers trust reviews and each other__

Consumers are eager to seek out fashion brands and retailers with solid ethical and sustainability strategies.

They are getting advice on which brands meet these criteria from many sources, but they trust each other above all else – 89% of consumers have a high or medium trust level in word of mouth and 85% in ratings and reviews.

The levels of high trust placed in word of mouth and reviews are two to three times greater than other sources, such as magazines, advertising and brand websites. The least trusted source is celebrity influencers. People are three times as likely to highly trust ratings as they are a well-known figure touting a fashion product on social media.

__4. Fashion shoppers are acting on a brand’s ethical record __

The research found brands must not think of ethics as an issue to be addressed in the future. Shoppers are already acting on their concerns right now. More than half (54%) of consumers say that coverage of working conditions and sustainability policies has influenced where they buy, or don’t buy, fashion items.

Nearly as many (41%) have been steered by coverage of a fashion retailer’s diversity and inclusivity policy and 33% by a brand pretending to be ethical but not backing it up with real action (‘slacktivism’).

Given that consumers trust word of mouth and customer ratings three times or two times (respectively) as much as the media, savvy brands should realize the need to communicate how their ethical and environmental strategies match the modern shopper’s concerns. This way, those credentials are more likely to be reflected in customer conversations and ratings.  

__5. Brands can tap into consumers’ ethics and sustainability wishlist__

Customers have revealed what they want to see from fashion brands and retailers. Joint top spot (46% each) goes to a commitment to good working practices throughout the supply chain as well as to environmentally-friendly packaging. A recycling service (41%) was just behind in third place.

Feeling inspired? Let's dive in!

## Introduction – cautious consumers tell brands their values are more important than discounts

Consumers are changing their mindset and behavior when it comes to buying clothes, and the effects are set to be profound for fashion brands and retailers.

The national and local lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic have accelerated a change in attitude among shoppers to be more caring for one another and the environment. Communities have come together to fight a common foe and taken stock of the values they find important to them, which they want to see reflected in the brands they buy from.

This prompted London Research, in association with Trustpilot, to ask fashion consumers in the UK, the US, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Sweden to reveal the importance of brand values around issues such as sustainability, working conditions and diversity. What principles do they expect fashion brands and retailers to live up to? 

Just as importantly, how do they know they are truly committed to these causes, and whom do they trust in making those judgement calls?

### Sustainability over discounts

[Research from McKinsey](https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/survey-consumer-sentiment-on-sustainability-in-fashion) has already shown lockdown has forced fashion consumers’ priorities to change. They now place the welfare of employees and supply-chain workers, as well as protecting the environment, way ahead of being offered promotions and discounts.

This points to a significant change in consumer priorities, according to fashion writer Olivia Pinnock. She has created a series of events, called [The Fashion Debates](http://www.thefashiondebates.com/), through which the industry can come together to discuss how to clean up an industry with a poor record on worker conditions and sustainability.

“We had the sweatshop scandals of the ‘80s and ‘90s but the issue seemed to have been swept under the carpet,” she says.

“Now, though, we’ve got a generation who realize they can’t ethically buy a T-shirt for £5 when there are so many people in the supply chain to pay. There are also a lot of executives who are pushing for real change because they have been shocked by the industry’s record and don’t want to be a part of it any more.”

Pinnock believes the push for change is real and is relying on changing attitudes among shoppers. However, there are two major challenges.
“Fast fashion’s cutting corners on worker rights and the environment has got us all used to cheap clothing,” she explains.

“It’s skewed our perception of cost. Then there’s availability. The vast majority of clothes, outside a pandemic, are bought in stores and it’s only the big chains, who are highly competitive on price, that can afford to roll out chains of shops in every town.”

### Consumers are cautious on spend

It is not surprising that in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic, the majority of respondents are not spending more on fashion. Instead, they are maintaining previous spending patterns or cutting back. 

On average, 28% of respondents say they are spending more. That leaves exactly a quarter who are spending the same amount as before (25%) and nearly half (47%) who reveal they are cutting back (Figure 1).


Figure 1: How has the coronavirus pandemic impacted your overall monthly spending on fashion and clothing products?

As shown in Figure 2, the standout category for increased spending is casual and leisure clothing (21% of consumers), nearly double the percentage of respondents spending more on luxury apparel (11%) and significantly more than the proportion of consumers increasing their outlay on smart clothes (13%).

Across all international markets surveyed, those going through lockdown and social distancing measures have clearly been prioritizing comfortable attire for home use over spending on formal clothes for the office or expensive luxury items for big nights out.


Figure 2: How has the Covid-19 crisis impacted the amount you’ve spent on the following types of fashion and clothing products?

- Consumers in the US are more likely than those in other countries surveyed to be increasing their spending on casual clothes (28%), footwear (20%), smart fashion (20%) and luxury products (15%) (Figure 9, see appendix).
- The UK, on track to have its worst economic downturn on record, leads the way for the most cautious shoppers. Just over a fifth (22%) reveal they’ve been cutting fashion spending by more than half (Table 1, see appendix).

### More careful? Or more thoughtful?

Consumers are clearly cautious when it comes to fashion spending. It will become clearer when the developing global recession caused by the global pandemic eases whether this is an economic decision or an environmental choice.

Dialing down consumption is what Olivia Pinnock refers to as ‘the elephant in the room’. In addition to looking out for fair trade labels and commitment to ethical and environmental standards, she believes modern consumers will soon realize they need to buy fewer clothes.

It is a message echoed by Laurel Wolfe, VP of Marketing at deferred payment platform [Klarna](https://www.klarna.com/).

“The pandemic has made us all think carefully about how, where and why we shop - whether that's online instead of in-store, or with smaller, local brands.” she says.

“For us, this has meant helping people be mindful consumers, to ensure they buy items they will truly use and love. We have been running campaigns, particularly with thought influencers, echoing the money management advice on our site and asking shoppers to ‘think thrice’. Do I love it, will I use it, is it worth it?” 

The message underlines how the market is evolving to row back from the days of fast fashion by being more considerate in how workers in the supply chain are treated and mitigating the industry’s impact on the environment.

## People trust ratings and each other, not celebrities and magazines

People are clearly cautious about their spending, given the massive uncertainty hanging over the global economy. With budgets curtailed, consumers are looking to make sure the items they buy are right for them. This no longer means right look, size and price.

As shown through our survey, customers are attracted to brands that share their ethical values and are kind to their workers and the planet.
With ethics, sustainability and environmentalism playing a large part in purchasing decisions, who are people trusting for guidance on purchasing decisions?

Here, the research provides a resounding answer. Consumers trust one another. Word of mouth from friends and family is the most trusted source, with 44% rating their trust level as ‘high’. Consumer ratings and reviews (36%) is a close second (Figure 3).


Figure 3: How would you describe your level of trust in the following sources of information when you are researching fashion products and retailers?

In all, 89% of consumers have a high or medium level of trust for word of mouth compared to 85% for ratings and reviews.

The two categories are two or three times as highly trusted as other high-profile sources of fashion information, such as magazines, advertising and social media.

Fashion is an industry filled with well-known designers, models and celebrities who are reported on daily for what they are wearing. However, a key takeaway from the research is that celebrity influencers are poorly trusted as a source of information by nearly two in three consumers (63%).

The research could not be any clearer. Consumers want to make the right decision on fashion, for fit, price and look as well as sustainability and ethics. When it comes to making these decisions, they trust one another’s spoken advice or ratings much more highly than the world of social media and advertising where brands pay a fortune hoping to be noticed.


The Savile Row Company website, displaying the company's Trustpilot rating. This research shows that ratings and reviews, along with word of mouth, are the most trusted sources of information.

The Savile Row
Company website,
displaying the
company's Trustpilot
rating. This research
shows that ratings
and reviews,
along with word of
mouth, are the most
trusted sources of
information.

- The US and Italy stand out as the markets where reviews are most highly trusted (43% of consumers) (Figure 10, see appendix).
- Sweden and the Netherlands show the highest trust for word of mouth, for nearly half (49% and 48%, respectively) of consumers (Figure 10, see appendix).

## Customer loyalty depends on ethics

Everyone needs clothes and it is fair to say that the driving force in purchasing decisions will depend on garments matching an individual’s sense of style and budget. Increasingly, however, image and price point are being joined by a new criterion. Customers want to know a business shares their values.

More of us want to know a business is run ethically and that it tries its best to ensure people in its supply chain are treated with respect and paid properly, while attention is paid to sustainability.

One of the major takeaways from this research is that more than four in five customers (82%) would either ‘definitely’ (31%) or ‘probably’ (51%) stop buying from a brand that was found to lack ethical standards (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Would you stop buying from a brand or fashion retailer you knew to be lacking ethical standards?

The finding should serve as a warning to brands who have yet to put ethics at the heart of their brand strategy. While nearly a third would definitely withdraw their business if non-ethical practices were discovered within the business or wider supply chain, half of the market would consider it.

This is not only a hypothetical question. For any fashion brand wondering when the market will evolve to a point where bad press around their ethics will lose them customers, the answer is we are already there.

More than half of consumers (54%) say that coverage of working conditions and sustainability policies has influenced which brands they buy or don’t buy fashion items from (Figure 5). Nearly as many have been steered by a fashion retailer’s diversity and inclusivity policy (41%) and 33% by a brand pretending to be ethical but not backing it up with real action (‘slacktivism’).


Figure 5: Has positive or negative coverage relating to any of the following issues impacted where you buy (or don’t buy) fashion and clothing items from?

Sophie Slater, who co-founded online women’s ethical fashion business [Birdsong](https://birdsong.london/), is not surprised by the findings. The company’s workers in London are paid the London Living Wage to produce garments made from organic cotton which are packed by a charity supporting adults with learning difficulties. Protecting staff from Covid meant closing down production, which has relied on customers accepting delays in deliveries because ethical fashion is not fast fashion.

“We’ve seen fashion businesses talk about sustainability for the past few years but the last year or so has definitely seen a rise in people thinking about ethics,” she says.

“People have seen how workers are treated in sweatshops in Leicester (in the UK) by well-known brands… there’s been a lot of bad press for fast fashion. We rely on good press and social media to get our message out to people who are motivated by social inclusion and treating people ethically and so will pay a little more for clothes made by people paid the London Living Wage.”

- Italy is the clear leader in customers making decisions based on media coverage (Figure 11, see appendix). More than three in four have been influenced by stories about a brand’s ethics (79%) and working conditions (77%). Perhaps this is a result of the country being the EU’s biggest producer of clothing so environmental impact and working conditions are factors that are far closer to home for Italian shoppers.

## Trust – winning over the ‘moderately trustful’ half by being kind to workers and nature

The good news for the industry at large is that more than a quarter of consumers (28%) have a ‘very’ (9%) or ‘quite’ (19%) high level of trust in fashion brands and retailers in terms of their ethical standards (Figure 6).

The bad news is this is negated by a quarter of the market (26%) which has a ‘very’ (7%) or ‘quite’ (19%) low level of trust. This leaves almost half of consumers (46%) sitting on the fence, with only a moderate level of trust in the industry.

Figure 6: How would you describe your level of trust in fashion brands and retailers in terms of their ethical standards?

With a quarter of the market trusting the industry and a quarter not trusting it, the battleground is clearly winning the hearts and minds of the remainder who are fairly neutral.

Given that four in five respondents have also revealed they are ready to dismiss a brand which treats workers or the environment disrespectfully, the focus should be on convincing customers with a moderate level of trust that a brand is truly committed to treating its workers and the planet with respect.

There are some novel ways of improving trust being deployed at eco-friendly fashion brand [SANVT](https://sanvt.com/) (which means gentle on nature in German). The company’s Head of Marketing and Co-Founder, Benjamin Heyd, reveals the company is dedicated to working with suppliers who use organic cotton and do not use toxic chemicals in the dyeing process. To underline the point, they have an unusual approach to transparency and promotions.

“We keep our environmental impact low and our ethical standards high by using a factory in the EU, in Portugal,” he says.

“We offer a virtual tour of the factory so people can see for themselves the high standards we adhere to. We also don’t run sales promotions, we just offer to plant more trees within our carbon offsetting program when people buy promoted items. I don’t think we’re quite at the point yet where sustainability is the most crucial part of a customer choosing a brand, compared to the design and fit of clothing. However, in the long term, we are definitely getting there and brands will soon need to be able to show consumers they are eco-friendly and ethical.”

- Sweden and the Netherlands stand out as the markets with the lowest opinion of fashion brands and retailers. In each market, only 4% trust them highly. France is close behind with a high level of trust reaching just 5%.
- The US has the biggest level of ‘very high’ trust in fashion brands and retailers at 14%, backed up by a 20% level of ‘quite high’ trust.
- Overall, Italy is the most trusting nation, with more than a third (39%) of consumers having ‘very’ (8%) or ‘quite’ (31%) high trust levels.

## Customers need ethical and sustainable fashion brands

It is clear today’s fashion customer is starting to look for more than items that suit their style. In particular, they are committed to avoiding brands found to be acting in a non-ethical and unsustainable way. They are also expecting brands to embrace diversity and inclusivity.

So, what does this mean in practice? What are the strategies, commitments and services modern customers are looking to see more of in the future from fashion brands and retailers? When allowed to suggest three proof points that companies are walking the proverbial walk, what do they pick out?

Joint top, for nearly half of respondents, was commitment to good working conditions throughout the supply chain (46%), along with environmentally-friendly packaging (also 46%). A recycling service (41%) comes in third place, with clothes made from recycled materials (38%) and initiatives aimed at reducing the carbon footprint (36%) completing the top-five wishlist (Figure 7).

Methodology note: Respondents could select up to three options.

Figure 7: What three things would you like to see more of in the future from fashion brands and retailers?

For menswear brand [The Savile Row Company](https://savilerowco.com/), it is not a major surprise that environmentally-friendly packaging tops the list, alongside ethics. 

Marketing Director Lee-Anne Harris reveals the business has replaced plastic with biodegradable and potato starch bags, with shirt collars and shoulders held in place by paper fasteners rather than the traditional plastic clips.

“The data we’re getting from our Trustpilot reviews shows customers are reacting well to orders arriving in recyclable paper packaging and a biodegradable bag,” she says.

“We didn’t ask customers first; it was just a no-brainer for us because it’s how we want to live and we were pretty sure it’s how our customers want to live as well. It’s more a question of why wouldn’t you? It’s just a base level of decency.”


The Savile Row Company has replaced plastic packaging (left) with a recyclable paper bag (right).

Despite the uptick in positive reviews, Harris confirms recyclable packaging is still a feature that customers appreciate rather than demand as standard. However, she believes it is only a matter of time before customers “truly hold fashion companies to account for their record on plastic waste”. Hence it makes sense to be prepared in advance.

- American customers are way ahead of their European counterparts on the values they want to see from fashion brands and retailers which did not make the top-five list above (Figure 12, see appendix). These include working with charities (35%), offering inclusive product ranges (27%), ensuring diversity in advertising (26%) and taking a stance on social issues (24%).
- It is likely a result of the deep social issues Americans are examining in the year the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement gained massive national, and global, traction. Support for brands taking a stance on social issues, including BLM, is more than twice as high in the US as it is in all other countries surveyed, other than Italy.

## How brands can embrace ethics and sustainability

They know their size, they know their style and they have a good idea of what they are starting to want to see from fashion brands and retailers. But what indicators are customers looking for to find out if a brand shares their values on treating people and the environment with dignity and care?

The challenge for companies is there is no single standout attribute consumers are seeking out. Instead, there are four key drivers of trust which are being actively sought out by a little over half (58% and 59%) of fashion shoppers (Figure 8).

Respondents reveal transparent values and policies, fair trade badges and certification, on-site and off-site ratings and reviews are equally as important, on average.


Figure 8: Do you look for any of the following to give you confidence that you are buying from an ethically responsible fashion brand or retailer?

These are areas high on the radar for luxury online fashion retailer [FARFETCH](https://www.farfetch.com/). Its Director of Sustainable Business, Thomas Berry, explains the fashion brand not only helps customers make more ethical and sustainable purchases, it also has reselling schemes to extend an item’s life.

“As part of Positively FARFETCH, we have an extensive Conscious collection which customers can shop, using either filters, or our dedicated edits, to ensure they’re getting items that meet good independent sustainability standards and certifications,” he says.

“We also have two service offerings that help our customers extend the life of unused clothes. FARFETCH Second Life is a resale service, where customers submit their old hand-bags, get a price quote, we arrange a pick-up slot and, once the item is verified, the quoted price is added as a credit to their FARFETCH account.

“We do the same with our FARFETCH Donate service, where a customer fills a bag with any fashion item they no longer want, the items are sold in aid of their chosen charity, and customers get a third of the proceeds as FARFETCH credit. In both cases someone else gets to enjoy the items so everyone’s doing their bit to help the environment by reducing overall consumption of 'new' items."

The proof that customers are now looking to make more sustainable and ethical purchasing decisions comes from Berry revealing that the Conscious range is growing at a significantly faster rate than all other sales through the site. Additionally, across the industry, he estimates new clothes sales are predicted to grow at most around 3% whereas clothing resale growth is in the 15%-30% range.

## Conclusion

The primary motivators in fashion will likely always be the look, feel, design and price of an item. However, there is a growing consideration to filter fashion brands and retailers according to their action on sustainability and ethics.

This was always bubbling under the surface but it would appear the global pandemic has prompted consumers to take stock of what is important and to value brands who treat their workers and the environment with care and respect.

Research coordinated by Cardiff University found, for example, that the proportion of Britons who believe tackling climate change is urgent rose from 62% to 74% between August 2019 and August 2020. Additionally, nearly half the UK population (47%) is now vowing to fly less than before once restrictions are lifted. In the US, media reports have suggested taking a step back from the daily grind of driving to work has seen air pollution drop by 30%.

These issues should resonate with fashion brands and retailers, given that four in five consumers reveal they would not shop with a brand that lacked ethical and sustainable values. Hence, half of consumers have already revealed they have avoided fashion companies that have received poor media coverage over their ethics and sustainability record.

__Consumers have spoken clearly. They want brands to:__

- Treat workers throughout their entire supply chain fairly
- Produce clothes without damaging the environment
- Use recyclable packaging
- Embrace recycling schemes which extend garments’ lives
- Work hard on carbon reduction measures
- Operate according to transparent brand values

These are the action points fashion brands and retailers need to embrace to win over the half of the market that currently only trusts the industry to a moderate degree and the quarter which does not trust them at all.

When it comes to trust, they need to remember fashion shoppers highly trust one another’s advice and online reviews two to three times as much as glossy magazine articles, social media and advertising. As for celebrity influencers, these are the least trusted source available to fashion marketers.

The message is clear. Consumers want to see sustainable and ethical fashion, and they place their trust on which brands match these values in word of mouth and reviews, not the media and most definitely not on what celebrity influencers are paid to say.

If you'd like to find out more about Trustpilot, and how social proof can help you build trust with consumers, request a free demo below.


### Methodology

London Research was commissioned by Trustpilot to carry out surveys of 2,800 nationally representative consumers across the UK (n=1,000), US (n=1,000), France (n=200), the Netherlands (n=200), Italy (n=200) and Sweden (n=200) in September 2020.

The research was conducted using a Toluna research panel. London Research also carried out a series of interviews for this report.

### Acknowledgements

London Research and Trustpilot would like to thank the following people for their help in compiling this report:

- Thomas Berry, Global Director of Sustainable Business, FARFETCH
- Lee-Anne Harris, Marketing Director, The Savile Row Company
- Benjamin Heyd, Head of Marketing and Co-Founder, SANVT
- Olivia Pinnock, Fashion Writer and Creator of The Fashion Debates
- Sophie Slater, Co-Founder, Birdsong
- Laurel Wolfe, VP Marketing, Klarna

Why ethical fashion brands are future-proof

Health-and-Beauty-Hero - smaller

Combating misinformation in the health and beauty sector

Buying the right health and beauty products can be a minefield at the best of times, with consumers wasting millions each day on health and beauty products that are counterfeit, substandard and in many cases bought on the basis of fake reviews. 

## The cost of fake reviews and counterfeits

The harsh reality is that the products may well be counterfeit. This means customers have not only wasted hard-earned money on a fake product, they could also be risking their health.

If you need to get a hook on why people should be concerned about fake health and beauty products, a good place to start is the Netflix documentary ‘[Broken: Make-Up Mayhem](https://www.netflix.com/title/81002391)’.

In the show, police investigators and doctors list the heavy metals and carcinogens they have found counterfeiters use to create cheap copies of expensive ingredients. At one level, these cause skin diseases, such as dermatitis, impetigo and pustules. At the other extreme, heavy metals can cause fertility issues and lead to miscarriages. One interviewee revealed how a counterfeit Kylie lipstick got its shiny appearance from superglue which stuck her lips together.

### COVID-19 exacerbates the problem

Covid-19 is raising the stakes, considerably. Legitimate businesses and industry experts know that regardless of what is happening to the economy, consumers still want to feel good about themselves. When official outlets they trust run out of stock, as global supply chains come unstuck, even savvy consumers can be tempted to check out online stores they may not totally trust.

Wellness and beauty industry influencer and ITV This Morning guest presenter, Gina Akers, has warned of the dangers of counterfeit products on BBC’s ‘Fake Britain’ television show. She believes many consumers, especially young people, want to look like their favorite celebrity, but cannot afford the high-end prices required. When you add reputable stores running out of stock, you have a counterfeiter’s dream scenario.

*“The big issue is the celebrity influencers have their own lines of cosmetics which are high end and are prone to running out of stock, particularly with the supply problems around coronavirus,”* she says.

*“Young people wanting to look like these celebrities are sorely tempted to get something cheaper from somewhere online that claims to have stock. But they’re often fake and, even worse, they have been made in unsanitary conditions. My advice is that if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Always buy from a reputable store.”
*

### Market overview: spending is up, so is waste

The [coronavirus pandemic](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/consumer-behavior-in-the-age-of-coronavirus-global-review-trends-by-industry) has prompted a significant leap in spending in the health and beauty markets. According to our research, 59% of US consumers and 55% of UK consumers say they are spending more on health products due to the coronavirus crisis.

Around a quarter of survey respondents in both markets (26% in the US and 25% in the UK) reveal they are spending more on beauty. As seen in Figure 1, almost half of those consumers spending more on beauty across both markets suggest the extra spending is rooted in wanting to treat themselves (45% in the US and 51% in the UK).



Why consumers have bought more health and beauty products as a result of lockdown and the coronavirus pandemic.

Figure 1: Why consumers have bought more health and beauty products as a result of lockdown and the coronavirus pandemic.

In unprecedented times, both American and British consumers (42% and 40%, respectively) are spending more because they fear that stocks could run out if they do not make a pre-emptive purchase and there is clearly a desire under lockdown to stay healthy and feel good about oneself through a treat purchase.

Consumers are also spending more because salons are closed (45% in the US and 35% in the UK).

In the health category, both markets are clearly showing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. The most popular products so far this year have been hand sanitizer and soap, with pain relief, vitamin supplements, and prescription and over-the-counter medicines following closely behind (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Which health-related products have you bought since the start of this year?

A third of consumers in the UK and around two in five in the US had already bought plastic gloves and face masks when our survey was carried out in April. This is a new market for both countries which have no tradition of wearing face coverings in public, unlike some parts of Asia. This category will continue to grow as lockdown measures are relaxed, the use of face masks becomes increasingly recommended or enforced, and anxious members of the public return to busy public areas, particularly on public transport.

In beauty, hair and skin care are the most popular categories for spending so far this year in both the US and the UK, with bathing accessories, foot, hand and nail care, fragrances and makeup not far behind (Figure 3).

Which beauty products consumers have bought since the start of the year

Figure 3: Which beauty products have you bought since the start of the year?

The closure of retail outlets has led to an increase in online sales for health and beauty products

The closure of retail stores due to coronavirus has led to an increase in online sales, especially for health and beauty products

The closure of retail stores has led to an increase in online sales

According to Meghan Stabler, VP of Global Product Marketing and Communications at ecommerce platform [BigCommerce](https://www.bigcommerce.com/), ecommerce spending has increased significantly in 2020 as consumers are forced to rely on digital channels during lockdown.

She said: *“Whether specific to health and beauty, or looking broadly across industries, we’ve seen surges in ecommerce since the start of mass shelter-in-place guidance began in March. Consumer spending online has grown significantly year over year, with some recent days even topping sales numbers from Cyber Week 2019.”*

*“Though we expect YoY increases to remain strong for the foreseeable future – particularly in categories deemed essential like health and beauty – looking at week-over-week trends shows more consistency in sales numbers, indicating that consumers are finding their ‘new normal’ and pandemic panic-buying may be levelling out. We’ll continue to see slight shifts in consumer behavior alongside public health guidance, though one thing has been made crystal clear: ecommerce has cemented its role as a modern-day shopping staple, and will likely serve as a long-term foundation for the way customers interact with brands across channels.”*

The picture that emerges in both the US and the UK is of consumers significantly increasing their online spending on health and beauty products. This is attributable to anxiety surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. Anxious consumers reveal they want to secure favored items as shops are temporarily shut and online suppliers run the risk of running out of stock. As ever in the health and beauty sector, the motivation of a treat purchase is just as important.

### The impact of fake reviews and misinformation

When customers are concerned about trusted online sources running out of stock, there's a high probability they will look to new sources — for both new product suppliers and advice from fellow shoppers.

A third (33%) of American and 29% of British consumers reveal they are more cautious about the products they purchase because of online misinformation relating to health and beauty products (Figure 4). This can include fake or inaccurate reviews, spurious or exaggerated claims about a product’s efficacy and lies about its contents.

Just over half of consumers in both the US and UK (59% and 55%, respectively) feel confident they have not suffered from misinformation, but a further 12% in each country say they are ‘not sure’. This reflects the fact that consumers do not always know with certainty if they have received poor advice.



Figure 4: Has misinformation online relating to health and beauty products made you ore cautious about the products you purchase?

Trust is always a major issue in any health or beauty purchase because, more than any other decision, there is a real risk of not getting the desired result and even accidentally inflicting harm by ingesting a toxic substance or applying it to the skin.

Fake reviews are an everyday occurrence and Ed Saper, Director at [Pai Skincare](https://www.paiskincare.us/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlqWyjOvy6QIVGQiICR3hOgDFEAAYASAAEgLlHvD_BwE), believes far more should be done to punish brands who engage in what is called ‘astroturfing’. This is where a company’s own staff or third parties are encouraged to post positive reviews for their products and sometimes negative reviews for competitors.

*“When a major brand got caught ‘astroturfing’ recently, the view we heard back from the industry was that it was bad but everyone’s at it,”* he says.

*“Even when someone big is caught, they don’t suffer. We need big fines to ensure the public knows they are reading authentic reviews because it’s the consumer who suffers from being defrauded and honest companies who risk being squeezed out. It’s against our company policy for a member of staff to review our products. If they talk about us online, they have to be clear that they work for us.”*

But aren’t fake reviews plainly obvious? According to Thomas Vermeulen, Head of Fraud Investigations at Trustpilot, spotting dishonest reviews that don’t represent a genuine experience and deliberately attempt to manipulate consumer perceptions isn’t as easy as it sounds. 

*“One isolated review doesn’t tell much — it’s more about finding patterns and anomalies,” he says. “With that in mind, you should look out for more than one red flag within the reviews. When in doubt, compare reviews with other sources of information and don’t discount common sense — if it seems too good to be true, often it is.”*

He also suggests the following things to look out for. 

- Take note of the spread of scores within the ratings and the span of time in which the reviews were left. An honest company is likely to have both positive and negative reviews in the mix, and if all reviews were posted in a short period of time they might not provide a genuine representation of the business. 

- If a company only has five-star reviews, look at the total number of reviews a company has and their recency to make sure you harness the wisdom of the crowd and not just a select group. 

- Within those reviews, are you able to identify patterns or recurring structures? If the reviewer mentions the name of the business a number of times, or if it reads more like marketing collateral than a consumer experience, those could be red flags.

- Are the reviews invited or left organically? If all positive reviews are invited and the negative reviews left organically, this might suggest a biased invitation process. 

These are just a few ways to identify dishonest reviews. Lastly, Vermeulen recommends evaluating the company in question’s website and overall presence as a brand outside of reviews. *“Reviews are just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to a company’s trustworthiness,”* he says. 

### Consumers place trust in reviews

With only half of consumers feeling confident they have not been duped by online misinformation around health and beauty products, whom can the market look towards for sage advice? Whom can the public trust?

It turns out consumers are digitally savvy enough to know that advertising and information shared through social media and messaging apps aren’t always to be taken at face value. Depending on each channel and the market involved, these information sources are only highly trusted by between 10% to 14% of the public (Figure 5).



Figure 5: Proportion of consumers describing their level of trust in information sources as high for health and beauty products

Conversely, customer and expert ratings and reviews are the preferred sources for a significant proportion of consumers despite the issue of fake reviews in the marketplace. In the US, these are assigned the same level of ‘high’ trust (41%), whether they come from consumers or from experts.
The same sources of information are the most trusted in the UK. Britons are slightly more likely to trust experts over fellow consumers (35% versus 29%).

Interestingly, Figure 5 also shows that nearly twice as many consumers in both markets assign a ‘high’ level of trust to consumer and expert reviews as to news articles.

Perhaps even more telling for brands that are built around famous people or rely heavily on them for promotional activities, celebrity influencers are the least trusted channel for information. Digitally savvy consumers probably realize that the rich and famous have endorsement contracts in place and there is a risk their advice isn’t impartial and is limited to the brands they have a financial arrangement with. Such posts will typically feature the #ad (or similar) hashtag.

Both US and UK consumers are significantly more likely (four and three times, respectively), to assign a high level of trust to a rating from a fellow shopper than they are to a celebrity’s words of wisdom.

The clear trust-related takeaways are:

- The public places a significantly higher level of trust in ratings and reviews than in  news articles and retailer websites.

- Retailer websites are trusted only slightly more than advertising. Consumers clearly draw a comparison between advertising and skilled copywriting on a slick website.

- Advertising is only trusted ‘highly’ by around the same proportion of those who trust information shared on social media and messaging apps.

- Celebrity influencers have the lowest level of trust among consumers – two-thirds (67% in the US and 65% in the UK) describe their level of trust in this source of information as ‘low’.


ManCave Trustpilot Reviews

### How can retailers build trust?

As seen in the previous section, the promotional copy retailers have spent a great deal of effort perfecting is only trusted a little more than advertising. Customers are around twice as likely to believe the word of a fellow shopper or expert reviewer than they are the slick words and beautiful photographs on a retailer’s site.

This means reputable retailers need to find a way to show their credentials and prove to the public they are trustworthy and that their products are authentic and work in the way described. Showcasing customer approval stands out as the most effective way to achieve ‘[social proof](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/why-and-how-social-proof-influences-consumers)’ authentically.
According to Daniel Durose, Brand Marketing Manager at male grooming business [ManCave](https://mancaveinc.com/), the key is to talk about the authenticity of the brand as well as be seen to actively embrace customer reviews.

On the company’s site, the pictures show models and the products in outdoor settings to underline the cruelty-free, sustainably resourced message, backed up with certification from the appropriate bodies, such as Cruelty Free International. However, as Durose points out, people expect a website to convey what a brand wants to show about itself. Where companies can go much further is encouraging reviews and, even more importantly, [engaging with them](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/5-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-remove-negative-feedback).

*“Reviews are essential for a retailer to show new customers they’re trustworthy,”* he says. *“Trustpilot is the Holy Grail of trust for us but we can’t just rely on good ratings and hide away from occasional unfavorable comments. We want to resolve any issues so we always respond to people and do what we can to help. We find people react really well when they see you take the time to engage with people and resolve issues rather than hide away. It’s a great way of showing you listen and care.”*

Tim Peckover, Content Marketing Manager at brand loyalty business [Smile.io](https://smile.io/), agrees. In his experience, the power of customer testimonials lies not just in what they say about a company’s products, but also the brand itself.

*“Reviews are powerful for health and beauty brands because of the social proof they attach not just to the brand, but to the quality of the products as well,” he says. “In today’s ecommerce world, health and beauty shoppers don’t just look for a fun and engaging brand, they also want products that are going to give them the results they want. Shoppers are looking for health and beauty brands that will become their go-to, and customer reviews show them how loyal other customers already are, and help turn potential shoppers into long-term brand advocates.”*

### Counting the cost of fake reviews

Reviews can represent a two-edged sword. On the one hand, as our research shows, they are the most trusted way for consumers to find out which goods experts and fellow shoppers rate highly.

However, if review systems are not properly overseen, they can provide a means through which an online business can try to appear more popular than it really is. Fake reviews are such a problem that nearly half (47%) of US consumers reveal they have been duped into wasting money on a health or beauty purchase by an inaccurate or fraudulent review (Figure 6).

Our research shows that the average American health and beauty shopper has wasted $39.6 in the past year – 9% have lost more than $100 over the same period.

This equates to 3.7% of their total spending on health and beauty, an industry worth $90bn in the US. That means a staggering $3.3bn is wasted every year due to fake reviews. That breaks down to $275m a month, or $63.5m a week or $9m every day.



Figure 6: How much money have you wasted on health or beauty products due to fake reviews?

Figure 6: (US Respondents) How much money have you wasted on health or beauty products due to fake reviews?

In the UK, more than a third of consumers (37%) have been duped into buying a product on the basis of inaccurate or fake reviews. The average shopper has wasted £19.7 in the past year alone (Figure 7).

This accounts for 3.3% of their spending on health and beauty products, which is a £9.9bn market in the UK. This means fake reviews lead to £327m of wasted expenditure each year, equivalent to £27m per month, £6.3m per week or just under a million pounds (£895,890) every day.


Figure 7: (UK Respondents) How much money have you wasted on health or beauty products due to fake reviews?

For Rebecca Hopkins, Founder of skincare brand [Balance Me](https://www.balanceme.com/), fake reviews are a common way for unscrupulous online retailers to try to hoodwink the public.

*“We find the occasional bad review on our site and third-party sites from purported customers that are difficult to verify and trace and we’re almost certain we didn’t actually sell them anything,”* she says.

*“When we investigate further we often find they can’t prove they’re a customer, even though we always offer to put things right. On third-party sites, such as Amazon, we can often see that they have left similar poor reviews on several other brands and then left a glowing review for a rival, often for a lesser known, non-high street brand. I suspect that there are individuals or businesses out there that provide this kind of service to less scrupulous brands but they are very hard to pin down, yet their comments can be quite harmful in the customer's eyes.”*

Hopkins also highlights the issue of non-authorized ecommerce businesses claiming to sell the company’s stock: *“We also have people using our brand name as a storefront in other markets, usually on third-party platforms. They seem to be able to get hold of some of our stock through the grey market and they then lift photos from our website. It’s very hard to police but we do what we reasonably can to stop it. It seems to be particularly prevalent where we are not actively operating in a specific market, such as America. We can’t be sure it’s definitely our products or not, we don’t know how old they are and, either way, consumers may not be buying from whom they think they are, and they won’t be getting our level of customer service or quality guarantee.”*

This issue is also of particular concern to Sarah Brown, Founder of Pai Skincare. She reveals the company spends hundreds of thousands of pounds protecting its formulas and the look and feel of its products. However, only a global giant, she believes, can afford to protect themselves in every market, regardless of how many sales they make in it.

She believes some businesses are ‘passing off’ counterfeit goods as original. The look and feel of their products and the packaging are copied, but the natural ingredients are not.

*“We have spent a dozen years building up a reputation for certified, natural products which are kind on skin,”* she says.

*“We run our own manufacturing and control our own supply chain to make sure every ingredient is stored and handled properly. Someone passing off our products will not do this and so the end result could well include skin irritants which are usually added to make the product last longer. It’s annoying. It’s damaging to our brand, but it also means people buying the product won’t get what they think they’re paying for and there’s a good chance it will cause skin irritation.”*

### Counting the cost of counterfeits

Wasting money is bad enough but the even more alarming impact of fake reviews for consumers is the purchase of counterfeit or poor-quality goods which damage their health. This risk is heightened when salons and stores are closed and people cannot talk to a professional for advice.

Nearly two in three (64%) American consumers have lost money in the past year by buying fake or poor-quality health and beauty goods (Figure 8). The average loss in the past year has been $43.9.



Figure 8: (US Respondents) How much money have you wasted in the last year because health or beauty products were poor quality or fake?

In the UK, there is a similar picture, with nearly half of consumers (48%) revealing they have bought poor-quality or fake beauty and health products (Figure 9). The average loss was £25.2 in the past year.


Figure 9: (US Respondents) How much money have you wasted in the last year because health or beauty products were poor quality or fake?

It is here that campaigners are particularly worried. Losing money to a counterfeit or adulterated product is one thing, but consumers are risking far more than cash. As Janet Nudelman, Director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, reveals, there are very real risks of people inadvertently jeopardizing their health with these bad purchases.

*“We regularly hear horror stories about what happens when health and beauty products are counterfeited or tampered with using dangerous chemicals,”* she says. *“There was [a recent case](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/09/12/california-woman-coma-after-using-face-cream-tainted-mercury/2300376001/) of a woman in California ending up in a coma because the skin lightening cream she had bought contained mercury."*

*“This is only going to be made worse as the lockdown and recession lead to more stores closing and more people shopping online and buying products they’re not familiar with that could be counterfeit, especially because they can’t see or feel the packaging to get an idea of whether the product is real or not.”*

## Conclusion: social distancing and recession raise the stakes

Covid-19 did not create fake reviews and misinformation that are employed by unscrupulous ecommerce operators to sell counterfeit health and beauty products. Nor is it the sole reason why people waste money and risk their health by using goods of unknown origin.

However, industry experts agree that the lockdown and inevitable global recession have, and will, exacerbate the problem. The unprecedented global pandemic brings with it lower wages and the real risk of reputable retailers regularly running out of stock. This is happening because international supply chains are already strained and some manufacturers are heeding the call to switch production to hygiene products to support communities emerging from lockdown.

The risk goes beyond supply chains being stretched, of course. Consumers are having to make important purchasing decisions without any access to trusted professionals running boutiques. Even when salons reopen, capacity is reduced by social distancing requirements, meaning access to advice is not as available as before.

As Robert Myers, General Manager for Memberships at the Professional Beauty Association, explains, the public has to be vigilant when buying products without the advice of a trusted professional.

*“Consumers must be careful about where they purchase their professional salon products,”* he cautions.

*“Counterfeit products, phishing campaigns, defective inventory and other deceptive business practices are ever-present and a risk when going outside authorized channels. False claims have been an ever-present issue and we recommend seeking the advice of a licensed professional to select the best products and solutions.”*

So, who can the public turn to for advice if stores and boutiques are moving from closure to social distancing measures which restrict the number of people a professional can assist? As international supply chain challenges lead to legitimate online and physical retailers running out of stock, customers run the risk of being conned. Misinformation about a product’s authenticity and efficacy are rife, so too are fake reviews.

The result? Nearly one in two US consumers and just over one in three UK consumers feel they have lost money on the basis of fake reviews and misinformation.

The solution? As our research shows it looks like the public already knows where it can go for advice – reviews from experts and fellow consumers. The digital savvy public understands how ecommerce and online marketing works and it has placed its trust firmly in expert advice and social proof.
This means reviews are not only clearly the most trusted source of information, they’re nearly twice as highly trusted as the news. Retailer websites only have trust levels comparable to advertising. The same applies to social media.

In fact, the public is passing on some social media insight here that an industry so heavily reliant on celebrity endorsement really needs to listen to. Two in three consumers do not trust celebrity influencers highly. They are nearly four times more likely to trust one another, than a superstar.
Clearly, the public has spoken. Pop stars and actors are not the go-to source to differentiate between trustworthy brands and those relying on fake reviews and misinformation to sell counterfeit goods.

The public is looking beyond the hype and glamour of slick advertising, beautiful copywriting and well-known faces. It’s even looking beyond the words of praise laid out by journalists in news organisations.

Our research is clear. Consumers are placing their trust in one another.

### Methodology

London Research was commissioned by Trustpilot to carry out surveys of 1,000 nationally representative consumers in the US and UK in April 2020, while both countries were under lockdown during the coronavirus crisis. The research was conducted using a Toluna research panel. London Research also carried out a series of interviews for this report.

### Acknowledgments 

London Research and Trustpilot would like to thank the following people for their help in compiling this report:

- Gina Akers, TV and radio presenter, and wellness and beauty expert
- Sarah Brown, Founder, Pai Skincare
- Daniel Durose, Brand Marketing Manager, ManCave
- Rebecca Hopkins, Founder, Balance Me
- Robert Myers, General Manager for Memberships, Professional Beauty Association
- Janet Nudelman, Director, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
- Tim Peckover, Content Marketing Manager, Smile.io
- Ed Saper, Director at Pai Skincare
- Meghan Stabler, VP of Global Product Marketing and Communications, BigCommerce
- Thomas Vermeulen, Head of Fraud Investigations, Trustpilot







2020 Consumer Report: Combating Misinformation in the Health + Beauty Sector

Ratings and reviews in above the line advertising

Above-the-line (ATL) advertising refers to more conventional media such as television, radio, print and billboards, as opposed to digital channels such as websites, online display advertising and email.

The research seeks to understand the importance of ratings and reviews in consumer decision-making at a more general level, as well as the value of using specific Trustpilot assets, such as the logo, stars, ‘TrustScore’ (Trustpilot's proprietary rating) and reviews.

The key findings of the research are as follows:

__Ratings and reviews are the most important sources of information in the consumer buying decision- making process __

A survey of 2,000 UK consumers carried out by London Research has found that ratings and reviews are the most important sources of information for consumers when they are in buying mode, ahead of a range of other digital and offline touchpoints including search engines, ecommerce platforms and television advertising. More than three-quarters of UK consumers (77%) regard customer reviews as ‘very important’ or ‘important’, while 74% attach the same level of importance to consumer ratings (i.e. scores or stars).
Consumers are most likely to regard ratings and reviews as ‘very important’ in the context of buying holidays / vacations (43%), followed by financial services products and retail products (both 41%), and lastly property (35%).

__Trustpilot increases consumer trust and the likelihood that people will buy from a brand__

The consumer survey shows a high level of awareness of Trustpilot in the UK market, with more than half of consumers (58%) aware of Trustpilot ratings and reviews. More than a third (36%) said they had written a Trustpilot review. More than three-quarters (76%) of Trustpilot-aware consumers said they agreed that a good Trustpilot score makes them more likely to trust a brand, while 72% said that a good score makes them more likely to buy from a brand. The Trustpilot logo is the most important driver of likelihood to buy, mainly via its impact on trust.

__Many brands are missing an opportunity to harness Trustpilot in their above-the-line advertising__

A separate London Research survey of advertisers within Trustpilot’s database found that only 8% of businesses are harnessing Trustpilot for their above- the-line advertising, compared to 84% who are using it on their websites. The overwhelming majority of advertisers (91%) who are either using or considering the use of Trustpilot in ATL advertising activity regard trust-building as a ‘major benefit’, while a further 7% see it as a ‘minor benefit’. The second most important business benefit cited by advertisers is the creation of a more customer-friendly brand, cited as a major benefit by just under three-quarters (73%) of business respondents.

## 1. The importance of ratings and reviews in the customer journey

In a world of declining trust in advertising, ratings and reviews have emerged as the most important sources of information in the consumer decision- making process, ahead of other touchpoints such as social media and search engines. Ratings and reviews are important drivers of trust which, in turn, drives consumer propensity to purchase. This section also looks at the relative importance of ratings and reviews in different sectors, including travel and retail.

Trust in online advertising has declined in recent years, with growing numbers of consumers becoming intolerant of ads due to disruptive experiences and an avalanche of often irrelevant information. It was estimated last year that 11% of the global internet population were using ad blockers1. Furthermore, international research2 published by Rakuten Marketing last year found that the majority of consumers associate online ads with fake news, a phenomenon that has done much to damage the credibility of information sourced online.

According to the Rakuten survey of 2,500 consumers in the United States, United Kingdom, France, German and Australia, 80% of respondents said that online advertising had not improved over time, on any device or platform.
The display advertising industry has also been tarnished by ad fraud, and its association with inappropriate and sometimes disturbing content, which can be damaging to a brand’s reputation. Brands including Adidas, Mars and Diageo withdrew campaigns from YouTube last year after their adverts featured on exploitative videos. A study by London Research3 published in January 2018 found that 79% of senior executives with responsibility for ad buying were worried about levels of transparency in programmatic display advertising (79%).

It is against this backdrop of increased cynicism that customer ratings and reviews have become an increasingly vital source of information for consumers when they are interested in purchasing a product or service from a brand. Retailers and other brands have become mindful that shoppers can easily and quickly compare brands by cost, quality and customer experience, making it more difficult to stand out from the online competition.

As consumers, we often want reassurance that we are buying from a trusted brand and also that the product or service has been well received by others. If ratings and reviews are positive – and, crucially, also perceived to be authentic – then this kind of social proof can often be the tipping point for making a decision to purchase something. Research by BrightLocal4 has shown that 91% percent of people read online reviews, and 84% trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.

__Our research__

With this context in mind, a key objective of this proprietary research was to explore in more detail the relative importance of consumer-generated ratings and reviews in the purchase decision-making process, compared to other digital and traditional media touchpoints.

Figure 1

Customer reviews and consumer ratings emerge as the most important sources of information when consumers are interested in buying something (Figure 1). More than three-quarters of UK consumers (77%) regard customer reviews as ‘very important’ or ‘important’, while 74% attach the same level of importance to consumer ratings (i.e. scores or stars).

Over the last few years the customer journey has become increasingly complex and non-linear, with consumers often engaging with multiple online and offline touchpoints - often across multiple devices - before they make a decision to purchase something.

After consumer ratings and reviews, the next most important touchpoints in influencing a buying decision are search engines (e.g. Google or Bing), company websites and more generic ecommerce sites such as Amazon, which consumers routinely visit for information in the build-up to purchasing something. Separate research by BloomReach5 shows that consumers in the US are actually now more likely to start their product searches on Amazon than on Google.

It is important to note that not all these touchpoints are mutually exclusive. Ratings and reviews can themselves feature across other touchpoints, such as search engine results pages, company websites, within email campaigns, and on sites such as Amazon which sell products from multiple brands. In an offline context, the main focus of this research, they can also feature across offline channels such as direct mail and TV advertising.

This study finds that direct mail, social media, TV advertising and online display advertisements are the least important touchpoints when consumers are interested in buying something. That is not to say that they are not important for building brand awareness, with seeds of interest in products and services often planted sub-consciously. But there is no escaping
the fact that consumers regard these channels as less influential when they are on the cusp of making a purchasing decision.

Figure 2 shows the different touchpoints mapped against both their perceived importance (i.e. based on the percentage of respondents regarding them
as ‘very important’) and their impact on propensity to buy. The latter is determined through multivariate regression modelling, with the scores on the x-axis representing rescaled weightings for each touchpoint based on answers to a question relating to their likelihood to buy. As the chart suggests, marketers should be paying particularly close attention to promoting the touchpoints in the top-right quadrant, namely ratings and reviews, when it comes specifically to driving purchase intent.

While other touchpoints are not as strongly correlated to propensity to purchase, they can of course play an important ‘upper-funnel’ role in the customer decision-making journey, for example by raising awareness in brands and their products and services, most obviously in the case of brand advertising conducted through TV and online display media.

Figure 2

When it comes to influencing their decision to buy something, two of the least important channels from the perspective of consumers are direct mail and TV advertising. The statistical analysis confirms that they have relatively little impact on likelihood to purchase, and this reflects their diminishing importance as lower-funnel drivers of purchase in the digital age.

After ratings and reviews, search engines and social media are found to be the next most important drivers of purchase. Consumers are much more likely to acknowledge the importance of search over social because the former typically features much more prominently when consumers are in buying mode.

Research by marketing technology company Pardot has found that 70% of buyers return to Google at least 2-3 times during the course of their research, to get deeper and more detailed information6. According to a consumer study by Forrester, 74% of consumers use search engines for consideration and purchasing.

The same Forrester7 research found that social, while it doesn’t match search for volume, does provide impactful and trusted information to customers while they are engaged in shopping behaviour. Their study showed that 43% of consumers were influenced by a company’s social post when shopping, and 30% reported that they were influenced by paid social ads.

____

Based on our research, marketers seeking to convert consumers into customers should focus on touchpoints in the ‘promote’ top-right quadrant shown on Figure 2, namely ratings and reviews. Those touchpoints in the left-hand quadrants should be maintained and monitored. Advertisers should strive to understand how different touchpoints and channels work together to build trust and positively impact the decision-making process during the customer journey, and then invest accordingly.

Companies should also consider how they can do more to harness the power of ratings and reviews across other touchpoints, including offline touchpoints such as television and direct mail. As we shall see later in the report,
relatively few companies are using Trustpilot ratings and reviews in their above- the-line advertising or direct marketing.

____

Figure 3

__Comparing the importance of ratings and reviews for different types of purchase__

Figure 3 shows the relative importance of ratings and reviews across four particular categories. Consumers are most likely to regard ratings and reviews as‘very important’ in the context of buying holidays / vacations (43%), followed by financial services products and retail products (both 41%), and lastly property (35%).

The value of positive reviews for travel companies such as hotels and travel firms cannot be overstated, given the emotional importance consumers attribute to booking a holiday they can look forward to, and the amount of money often associated with this type of purchase.

Separate Trustpilot research8 found that 64% of consumers consider a company’s reviews before booking a vacation with them, and over one-
third (39%) say that they consider those online reviews more powerful when booking a trip than a recommendation from a friend or family member.

As with booking travel, the purchase of financial products and services can also represent a significant financial outlay, also commonly resulting in thorough due diligence for consumers before they take out a particular product. As can be seen in the chart, in the context of finance-related products, almost three- quarters (74%) of consumers describe good reviews as at least ‘important’.

An even greater proportion of consumers (78%) regard good customer ratings and reviews as being very important or important in the purchase of retail products, and (as we shall see later in the report) the ubiquity of reviews written and read by consumers provides further evidence of their influence.

While consumers also value reviews in the context of property, the customer experience typically relates to estate agents or online property websites, rather than the actual properties being purchased themselves. That probably explains why this sector lags slightly behind the others when it comes to
the influence of positive reviews, though two- thirds (66%) of consumers still regard them as at least important when considering property-related purchase decisions.

It is important to note that ratings and reviews are not restricted to these categories, with consumers turning to reviews for a range of products and services, covering everything from buying a car to booking a plumber or choosing a doctor.

## 2. Consumer awareness of Trustpilot and brand assets

Trustpilot has significant recognition in the marketplace among consumers. A survey carried out by London Research shows a high level of awareness of Trustpilot in the UK market, with more than half of consumers surveyed aware of Trustpilot ratings and reviews. More than three-quarters (76%) of Trustpilot-aware consumers said they agreed that a good Trustpilot score makes them more likely to trust a brand, while 72% said that a good score makes them more likely to buy from a brand. In the context of various Trustpilot assets, the logo is the most important driver of likelihood to buy, mainly via its impact on trust.

Trustpilot, founded in Denmark more than ten years ago, has emerged as a leading ratings and reviews platform with significant traction and recognition in the marketplace among both consumers and businesses. Consumers leave more than one million reviews on the platform each month, and the site is now ranked by Alexa as a top-100 UK website. There are now more than 40 million online Trustpilot reviews, with more than 200,000 businesses reviewed.

The consumer survey carried out by London Research shows a very high level of awareness of Trustpilot in the UK market, with 58% of 2,000 consumers surveyed in January this year saying that they are aware of Trustpilot ratings and reviews.

As well as exploring the relative importance of different touchpoints during the customer journey, the consumer survey also contained questions specifically about Trustpilot. Of those UK consumers who said they were aware of Trustpilot, more than three-quarters (76%) said they either ‘strongly’ (28%) or ‘somewhat’ (48%) agreed that a good Trustpilot score makes them ‘more likely to trust a brand’ (Figure 5).

Figure 5

Furthermore, 72% of Trustpilot-aware consumers said that a good Trustpilot score makes them ‘more likely to buy from a brand’, including 28% who strongly agreed and 44% who somewhat agreed.

Just as consumers are encouraged to buy from brands with good ratings, the reverse is also true. Consumers are discouraged by poor reviews. The survey also revealed that the majority of Trustpilot- aware consumers (54%) are unlikely to buy from a brand with a poor Trustpilot rating, defined as 0, 1 or 2 stars. Four in 10 consumers (40%) said they were ‘not very likely’ to buy something from a brand with a low rating, and 14% said that they were ‘not at all likely’ to do so (Figure 7).

The reality is that consumers will still buy products with poor ratings. For example, consumers will see that negative reviews may relate to specific features, services or types of design or product functionality which don’t matter to them.

However, as the research shows, poor ratings can significantly reduce confidence in the likelihood that consumers will make a purchase, especially if there are products and services available from other companies with better ratings.

The popularity of Trustpilot reviews is further highlighted by the proportion of consumers who have written a Trustpilot review. More than a third (36%) of Trustpilot-aware consumers said they had done so.

Figure 7

__Trustpilot brand assets and consumer recall__

The final element of the consumer survey was aimed at establishing the level of recall for different Trustpilot brand assets in adverts, including the logo, stars, reviews and the Trustpilot score (TrustScore).

For the uninitiated, consumers can leave a Trustpilot star rating from one to five stars. As explained earlier, the TrustScore (out of 10) is a related metric which takes into account star ratings, but also includes other factors such as the number and age of reviews. There is more information about TrustScore and its formula on the Trustpilot website.

As shown in Figure 9, the most recognised Trustpilot brand asset is the stars, cited by 42% of Trustpilot-aware consumers as something they can recall seeing in adverts featuring Trustpilot, closely followed by the Trustpilot logo (40%). A third of consumers (33%) recall seeing reviews in adverts, while just under a third (30%) remember seeing the TrustScore.

Figure 9

__Trustpilot drives trust, which increases propensity to buy__

On behalf of London Research, Bottom Line Analytics carried out structural equation modelling to understand in more detail the direct and indirect impact that different visual elements of the Trustpilot brand have on consumer trust for brands and propensity to buy.

A key finding of this research is that the Trustpilot logo and other brand assets drive both trust and also the likelihood that they will purchase something. Our statistical analysis found that the Trustpilot logo is the most prominent driver of trust, and closely linked to Trustpilot stars which are more of an ‘enabler’ than an actual driver of trust. The second biggest driver of trust is reviews from customers.

With regards to purchase intent, trust is by far the largest driver. The Trustpilot logo and other components of authenticity are relatively less important in driving purchases, but are important antecedents of trust, and, by extension, likelihood to buy.

Keeping in mind their importance for driving trust, advertisers should experiment with different combinations of Trustpilot visual assets, and also look to include reviews where the nature of the creative assets allows.

Figure 11

Figure 11 shows as rescaled percentages the impact of each Trustpilot asset on propensity to buy, an action which ultimately all companies harnessing Trustpilot assets are attempting to drive. The left-hand side of the chart shows the combined percentages for both direct and indirect impact, while the right-hand side of the chart shows the breakdown for ‘indirect’ and ‘direct’ impact.

To reiterate, the Trustpilot logo is the most important driver of likelihood to buy, but this is mainly via its impact on trust. After doing its job of driving trust, it has relatively little impact in the subsequent purchasing decision. At the buying stage, although it was seen that ‘trust’ itself is far more important as a driver, the TrustScore and stars assume greater significance, while the reviews (like the logo) assume less significance.

The survey also found that consumers remember seeing the Trustpilot logo and stars in advertising, with television emerging as the channel where consumers have by far the greatest recall (27%), versus 14% for print in second place, and outdoor advertising (13%), in third place.

In the next section of the report, these findings will be compared with the advertisers’ view on which offline channels are being used to feature Trustpilot.

## 3. The business perspective-advertisers missing the opportunity to build a trusted and customer-centric brand

London Research also carried out a survey of advertisers to understand the extent to which they are using Trustpilot in their above-the-line marketing activities, and what they perceive as the benefits of embracing this reviews platform. Many companies are missing out on an opportunity, with only a small minority of businesses surveyed using Trustpilot in their ATL campaigns. The advertisers surveyed regard the ability to build trust as the most significant benefit of using Trustpilot in their advertising. This section also includes viewpoints from some of the brands using Trustpilot in their advertising, including Glasses Direct, Lending Stream and PlantShed.

As well as exploring consumer attitudes to ratings and reviews and, more specifically, Trustpilot, London Research also sought to understand how advertisers are harnessing Trustpilot in their above-the-line marketing activities, and the benefits of embracing this reviews platform.

It is clear from Figure 13 that many companies are missing out on the significant opportunities afforded by the use of Trustpilot in above-the-line advertising. Only 8% of those businesses surveyed - predominantly advertisers using Trustpilot - are using Trustpilot in their ATL campaigns, compared to 84% who are using it on their websites.

The majority of companies surveyed are also using Trustpilot on social channels (56%) and in email marketing campaigns (54%). When it comes to
offline marketing, advertisers are much more likely to be using Trustpilot in direct mail, with a quarter (25%) saying they are doing this and another quarter (25%) considering this.

Only 14% of consumers recalling seeing Trustpilot in print marketing (direct mail), compared to 27% who recall seeing Trustpilot in television adverts.
Although 16% of advertisers are considering the use of Trustpilot in ATL activity, the high percentage of advertisers saying they have no plans to use Trustpilot in this way (76%) suggests a lack of awareness about the opportunities.

Figure 13

__Why advertisers aren’t using Trustpilot in this way__

A third of advertisers (33%) say they simply ‘haven’t got around to it yet’, while around a quarter (24%) say they ‘haven’t previously considered it’.
Interestingly, relatively few advertisers say that they are not using Trustpilot in their ATL advertising because their TrustScore isn’t high enough (only 7%), suggesting that this isn’t a significant barrier for the vast majority of businesses. Similarly, only 7% of businesses point to a lack of awareness of Trustpilot in their markets.

It should be noted that the vast majority of those saying ‘other’ (31%) say that they are not doing above-the-line advertising, with their focus purely on digital marketing activity.

Figure 15 shows in what types of above-the-line advertising businesses have included Trustpilot, though a small sample size of 29 companies for those using Trustpilot in ATL marketing campaigns should be noted.

There is more emphasis on print (60%) and outdoor (44%), than there is on television (36%), a channel where there is more than twice as much consumer recall than there is for print and outdoor (27% for TV compared to 14% for print and 13% for outdoor advertising).

The use of Trustpilot in radio advertising or podcasts (12%) is small compared to other offline channels, aligning with lower consumer recall for radio or podcasts (9%).

Figure 16

Figure 15

The vast majority of advertisers leveraging Trustpilot are using the Trustpilot logo and stars (92%). More than half (60%) say they have used their TrustScore, while 48% say they have included excerpts from Trustpilot reviews in their ATL campaigns.

This is more or less in kilter with the consumer recall shown in Figure 9, though consumers are marginally more likely to remember seeing reviews (33%) than the TrustScore (30%).

When it comes to including reviews in their adverts, for some brands there may an issue of over-cluttering their creative where ‘real estate’ is at a premium. As was seen in Figure 15, 13% of advertisers not using Trustpilot in their ATL advertising said the primary reason was that they didn’t want to dilute their creative or clutter their adverts.

__Voice of the advertiser – the benefits of using Trustpilot__

Trustpilot ratings and reviews are harnessed by many companies across a range of different business sectors for a variety of reasons, ranging from the desire to create a more customer-friendly brand through to more immediately commercial outcomes such as increased revenue from both online and offline sales.

The importance of ratings and reviews in helping to build trust among consumers is underscored by Figure 17. This shows the relative importance of a number of business benefits for companies in the context of their offline marketing activities. More than nine out of ten advertisers (91%) either using or considering the use of Trustpilot in ATL marketing activity regard trust-building as a ‘major benefit’, while a further 7% see it as a ‘minor benefit’.

A good example of a brand relying heavily on consumer trust is MyOptique Group, which is the company behind Glasses Direct, a leading retailer of glasses online. With a 9.4 TrustScore based on more than 65,000 reviews for Glasses Direct, the company regards this validation as particularly important due to the relatively small proportion of prescription glasses purchased online compared to many other types of product.

According to Jonathan Zetlaoui, Head of Customer Experience and Analytics, MyOptique Group, building trust is critical to business success: “Trust is key to MyOptique Group, especially for prescription glasses. Indeed, they are both a fashion accessory one wears every day, and a medical device. Emphasising our USPs - like free Home Trials and free returns - is important to build that trust; so are customer reviews. Ultimately, our customers are our best advocates.”

The second most important business benefit through the lens of advertisers is the creation of a more customer-friendly brand, cited as a major benefit
by just under three-quarters (73%) of business respondents. For many companies aspiring to become more customer-centric, ratings on trusted third-party sites such as Trustpilot can become a key performance indicator for assessing whether they are providing a better customer experience.

Lending Stream, part of GAIN Credit (formerly known as Global Analytics), is another good case study of a brand that has sought to differentiate itself through great CX. They are currently using Trustpilot in television advertising and direct marketing as part of a rebranding exercise which is aimed at cementing the brand’s position as a customer experience leader in the loans sector. 

Very much a data-driven organisation, the company has metrics and remuneration schemes based on its Trustpilot score which has become a core business goal. Alex Woodcraft, GAIN Credit’s Head of Customer and Market Insight, explains: “Our use of Trustpilot in our advertising is about building trust with the consumer - a high TrustScore shows that you will get a good user experience ... We will be using Trustpilot as a cornerstone in our ‘customer delight’ activities.”

PlantShed is another company that has embedded Trustpilot at the heart of its culture; According to the US-based florist’s Ecommerce Director, Ilias Iliadis, the authenticity of Trustpilot reviews is crucial. He told London Research: “Trustpilot has helped a lot with our online strategy because of the credibility it gives. We know that people feel more comfortable because Trustpilot is a well-known brand for reviews... It’s difficult to get good reviews on Trustpilot because they are real. Customers can see the difference.”

According to some brands interviewed for this report, Trustpilot has gone from being a differentiator used by disruptive brands with a customer-centric focus, to more of a ‘hygiene factor’ embraced by brands that recognise that a healthy Trustpilot score and critical mass of positive reviews are a necessity rather than a ‘nice-to-have’.

__The impact on harder metrics__

While brand and customer experience objectives are more top-of-mind for businesses considering the benefits of using Trustpilot in above-the-line advertising, advertisers are also very aware of the positive impact of the association on harder commercial metrics.

Evidence of the upside can be challenging for most companies to quantify with hard data, due to the difficulty isolating the specific impact of Trustpilot as part of their above-the-line advertising campaigns. Many advertisers have put their faith in Trustpilot because of qualitative input they receive from their customers about the importance of ratings and reviews, and also because of the upside they have seen when they use Trustpilot on digital campaigns, which are typically easier to measure, test and optimise.

Despite the challenges associated with quantifying the benefit, three in five advertisers surveyed (60%) point to improved online conversions as
a major benefit, while more than a third report an improvement in offline conversions (36%) as significant upside.

In the case of digital conversions, this shows the extent to which brands are taking a holistic approach to their advertising campaigns, with the use of offline advertising to promote ecommerce now very much part of a mainstream approach to marketing. The ability for brands to measure the uptick in online activity - for example the immediate impact of a TV ad on search and website activity - has accelerated this process.

Advertisers also recognise that the use of Trustpilot in both online and offline marketing can help them to integrate their digital and traditional activities, with 42% citing this as a major benefit, and a further 43% saying it is a minor benefit.

## 4. Conclusions

This section summarises the key findings of the report, and also contains some recommendations for advertisers about the implications of the research.

There is a significant opportunity for many businesses to harness the power of ratings and reviews in their above-the-line advertising campaigns, to complement how many businesses are already embracing this approach on their websites and through other digital channels such as email, search and social.

This research highlights the importance of ratings and reviews for building trust during the customer journey, and for increasing consumers’ propensity to buy. Among UK consumers, ratings and reviews are shown to be easily the most influential touchpoint in influencing their purchase decisions, ahead of a range of both digital and offline channels.

Consumer awareness of Trustpilot ratings and reviews stands at 58%. More than three-quarters (76%) of Trustpilot-aware consumers agreed that a good Trustpilot score makes them more likely to trust a brand, while 72% said that a good Trustpilot score makes them more likely to buy from a brand.
Despite the importance that most consumers attach to positive ratings and reviews, high levels of Trustpilot awareness, and good levels of recall for seeing Trustpilot brand assets in adverts (particularly on television), relatively few businesses are currently leveraging Trustpilot in their above-the-line advertising campaigns.

This is surprising as companies recognise the benefits of using ratings and reviews platforms to help improve trust, and to help cement the idea that they are customer-friendly.

Advertisers should seize the chance to mitigate rising scepticism for advertising by including consumer ratings which give their adverts more authenticity.

By including ratings and reviews in their digital and offline marketing activities, advertisers can present a more integrated and customer-friendly impression of their brands, which is ultimately likely to make them more commercial successful.

__Methodology__

London Research was commissioned by Trustpilot to carry out a survey of 2,000 nationally representative UK consumers in January 2018. The survey included questions about sources of information and touchpoints used during the buying process, and also specifically about Trustpilot. Of those people surveyed, using a Toluna consumer research panel, 1,162 (58%) said they were aware of Trustpilot ratings and reviews.

Further statistical analysis was carried out on the consumer survey data by London Research partner Bottom-Line Analytics, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the relative importance of different touchpoints in the customer journey, and also to understand the role of different Trustpilot brand assets - such as the logo and stars - in driving brand trust and propensity to purchase.

Additionally, an online survey of more than 300 businesses was carried out in December 2017 and January 2018. The survey was fielded to companies within Trustpilot’s international database of advertisers, predominantly including businesses already working with Trustpilot. Businesses using Trustpilot in above-the-line advertising were asked further questions. 

Senior executives at a number of brands were also interviewed in order to understand in more detail how they leverage the Trustpilot brand and assets in their above-the-line marketing activities.

Ratings and reviews in Above The Line advertising 

the new face of seo is aeo

Users are seeking a solution to a problem or the answer to a question. That has always been the case. Search engines have provided a list of options from which to choose but they have struggled to provide one single solution or answer. That’s starting to change.

- Both Google and Bing are increasingly capable of offering the correct answer.
- The devices that provide the answer are becoming increasingly ubiquitous (mobile phones, voice assistants, watches, in-car assistants...).
- As Google and Bing improve, their users are increasingly comfortable accepting the unique solution they propose. 

These changes present new challenges - but also offer phenomenal opportunities for companies.

### Converting Google and Bing’s users into your clients

Your aim, as a company, is to make sure that Google and Bing understand when you can offer the correct answer for a user for a given need at a given time and that they consider your answer to be the best. If you can do that, search engines will send their users to your site and those users can become your clients.

__How can you ensure the interactions between users and search engines turn out positively for you?__

### Optimising for Answer Engines - The Two Pillar Strategy

__Google is looking for:__

- Understanding
- Credibility

__So you need to:__

- Communicate
- Convince

You need to communicate to Google that you have the solution or answer for a given problem or question and prove that your solution or answer is better than your competitors.

This guide will provide an 8-point checklist on how to communicate and convince answer engines through understanding and credibility.

## Communicate to create Understanding

Communication provides understanding to Google and Bing so they know who you are and what you do. If you can communicate that, and provide sufficient corroborated information, these search engines will give you a place in their knowledge graphs and the opportunity to be provided as a definitive answer. There are four steps in communication to ensure your company is ready for the answer engines of tomorrow.

### 1. Leverage structured data

[Schema.org](http://schema.org) markup provides a way to present the information in your webpages to Google and Bing in a format they can easily and reliably understand. Use
basic information such as Corporation, Product, Offer, and more to explain who you are and what you do, then expand on this by giving details about you and your offers using attributes such as address, brand, price, etc. You can explain pretty much anything in this manner, and we recommend that you use schema.org markup extensively. 

### 2. Use semantic HTML5

Semantic HTML5 is an additional way to present information to Google and Bing in an easily digestible manner. By using semantic HTML5 tags such as article and navigation, you can identify parts of the page so Google can better understand and concentrate on the content that is central to the message your page is providing to the user. 

You can also give the content of the page structure using HTML tables and special HTML5 tags. Find out more [here](https://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_intro.asp).

### 3. Maintain owned and third-party channels

Multiple sources corroborating and confirming the information you provided in steps 1 and 2 will reinforce Google and Bing’s understanding. Owned and
semi-controlled channels are easy to manage and include your company’s website, EV SSL certificates, your social accounts, review sites like Trustpilot, and other relevant third-party channels that you can affect. Sources you have no control over send stronger signals and include
news sites, Wikipedia, and government sites. The more signals you can generate through various pertinent and trusted channels, the better. This is very much an ongoing task as new channels emerge and existing ones
shift in value.

### 4. Keep your company’s identity consistent

Ensure that all the information about you, wherever it appears, is accurate and up to date. The better you can manage to be consistent across the web, the more confidence Google and Bing will have in the veracity of the information you provided in steps 1, 2, and 3. Start with your social accounts, business accounts, government sites build a qualitative and quantitative review platform portfolio, and then move onto asking third party sites to update information about you (they often oblige). This is another ongoing undertaking, but is absolutely essential.

## Convince using Credibility

Your aim is to convince Google that you are the most credible available
solution. If you provide more powerful positive credibility signals than your competition, these search engines will consider you to be the best solution in your market and offer you as the best (objective) answer. This is the second pillar necessary for the answer engines of tomorrow - and consists of four steps.

### 1. Get reviews and ratings

Customer feedback, and therefore reviews, are an incredibly strong credibility signal. Reach out to happy customers post-sale by email or SMS and make it easy for them to give you a review on a third party platform.

Reviews you collect yourself have little value for AEO. Choose 3 or 4 platforms to begin with. There are two main questions to think about when choosing the right review platforms:

- Which review platforms do your prospects use and trust?
- Is the review platform credible?

The credibility of the platform that publishes a customer review carries significant weight in Google’s measure of that review’s importance. Everyone gets negative reviews. For brands with over 80% positive feedback, it is sheer quantity that makes the difference. 

__Google will prefer a brand that has 10,000 reviews giving an average of 80% over a brand that has 100 reviews with an average of 85%.__

### 2. Engage in and encourage social feedback

Get positive social buzz and chatter to generate a very strong credibility signal. To generate buzz, keep a constant flow of content on social channels:

- Engage with your clients
- Reach out to prospects
- Get your content out there
- Share other people’s great content

The sheer quantity of social chatter makes it impossible for Google to crawl and index everything in this field. Some estimates suggest that it manages to crawl 35% of Facebook. If that is true, social chatter needs to be three times more voluminous than any review or press activity in order to have the same effect. So, although much of it goes unseen, a constant low-level buzz is vital for this channel. Should your brand go viral, you will become a focal point that Google will remember.

### 3. Obtain quality third-party mentions via press and thought leaders

Links remain important, but an intelligent machine understands, and gives credit to, brand mentions (so-called linkless links). So, reach out and get quality mentions from relevant thought leaders. Although we often think of thought leaders as individuals, brands and sites can be considered thought leaders.

Mentions and (better still) reviews from thought leaders are very powerful. Getting a thought leader, whether it’s a brand, site, or person, to talk about your brand in a relevant, positive context will send an incredibly powerful credibility signal to Google - well worth pursuing.

### 4. Optimise user experience

Identifying a user’s “moment of satisfaction” is the most difficult to pin down, but potentially the most important. Google is looking to identify the moment when its user has found the solution to their problem or the answer to their question. Google is not there yet, but is rapidly developing the capacity to identify this moment and base its results accordingly. 

You need to make sure that user behaviour on your site reflects the fact that you have provided that user with the correct solution or answer at the right time. 

Make landing pages fast, attractive, pertinent, and intuitive. Use the same vocabulary as your users and make sure you address their problem or question and clearly indicate that you have the answer for them.

To see how well you are doing, track such metrics as: page load speed, bounce rate, dwell time, visit depth and conversion rate. To help improve user experience on your landing pages, you can use one of the many A/B testing and user session analysis solutions.

__Understanding and credibility are the two deciding factors in a future where Google and Bing deliver definitive answers to their users with increasing accuracy. If you want to be leading the field in the years to come, you must seek to communicate and convince. Starting today.__

__If you'd like to learn how reviews can help you improve your AEO, request a free demo below.__

The new face of SEO: Answer Engine Optimisation 

The beginner's guide to site speed for SEO 

Site speed is one of the factors Google considers in their ranking algorithm. So if your site has slow loading times, it could affect your SEO.

[53% of mobile users](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/data-measurement/mobile-page-speed-new-industry-benchmarks/) won’t wait more than 3 seconds for a site to load and every second that shoppers have to wait after the 3 second loading mark costs them 7% in conversion. 

And this problem can start before visitors even have a chance to reach conversion or your website. Site speed is one of the factors Google considers in their ranking algorithm. So if your site has slow loading times, fewer people will even reach your website. Potential customers coming from search could end up visiting one of your competitors instead and it may just be the competitor who decided to pay attention to site speed. 

Never forget — the average mobile site takes [15 seconds to load](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/data-measurement/mobile-page-speed-new-industry-benchmarks/). So, chances are, your site speed has probably already been negatively affecting your business in terms of SEO and conversion. 

To help you clean this up, we’ve rounded up some factors to consider that can help you improve your site speed.

## Diagnosing your site speed

First things first. If you aren’t sure of your current speed, [Page Speed Insights](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-pagespeed-insights/edbkhhpodjkbgenodomhfoldapghpddk?hl=en) by Google is a great way to test your site speed and see where you are currently. Once you do this, you can figure out where to make changes to get that load time even shorter. 

In short, it’s a Google Chrome extension that will quickly give you your PageSpeed score. You’ll also be directed to some insights with further stats to help you understand the score.

## How can you improve your site speed?

### Minimize and simplify redirects

Redirects on your website are a great thing if you’ve ever had to de-index pages on your site. They help you guide your visitors where you need them to be, to find the information they want. 

But if you have too many redirects, this can [significantly impact your site speed](https://moz.com/learn/seo/page-speed). Look into your redirects and make the number of steps to the correct URL as short as you can, while still guiding your visitor where they need to be. 

### Resize your images

Are your images compressed for the web? Size and format can both affect site speed so make sure they are as small as they can be. If you have .png images you may be able to switch them to compressed .jpg images to help speed up your site. 

Image sprites in CSS may also be able to help. If you have a lot of different image files on your site (and each need to load individually) it may be easier to use a sprite to send them all to your site as a single image. There are quite a few [free tools](https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/resize-images-for-web) to help you easily do this. 

### Look into using Content Delivery Networks, also known as CDNs

[Content delivery networks (CDNs)](https://mashable.com/roundup/best-content-delivery-networks/) make data load faster because they use a group of servers that are located in different geographical locations. Wherever a user is, their pages will load from the server that is physically closest to where they are. This helps your load times decrease significantly. If your load times are higher than you want them to be and the other fixes aren’t working for you, this might be worth exploring for your site. 

### Make sure your third party apps aren't slowing you down

There are a large number of eCommerce technologies that you can use on your site to make the experience easier, and more efficient for your customers. The problem is that these sites often need to fetch a lot of data, which can significantly decrease your site speed. 

This isn’t dependent on your eCommerce platform, either. If a third party has a negative impact on site speed, it will do so regardless of which platform you’re on. 

That’s why it’s important to look into which third parties you’re working with and check how they’re ranked on site speed performance. [Yottaa](https://www.yottaa.com/), an optimization tool for eCommerce sites, puts together [this report](https://www.yottaa.com/resources/2019-ecommerce-3rd-party-index/) each year, which lets you look at the top players in eCommerce and see how working with them will affect your site. 

It’s great to have handy when you’re looking for a new eCommerce solution and you want to check their speed performance. 

## Do reviews affect site speed? 

Because customer reviews tend to be part of such a large scale database, they can be pretty bad offenders in terms of slowing down site speed. As you can see, most of the review platforms available have either an inconsistent negative performance impact (yellow) or a consistent negative impact on performance (red). 

Third Party Review Software Site Speed Competitive Analysis

Fortunately, collecting and [displaying reviews with Trustpilot](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/trustbox-widgets-the-truth-about-website-performance-and-loading-speed) has little to no negative impact on your site speed. 

In fact, this year we were the only customer review platform ranked as having little or no performance impact (green) on your site speed in Yottaa’s roundup.

Trustpilot reviews do not affect site speed

## When you improve your site speed, your SEO is sure to thank you

Let’s flashback to that stat from the beginning for a second: Every second that site visitors have to wait after the 3 second loading mark can cost you 7% in conversions. This means that, chances are, your current load time is high enough that it’s causing you to lose out on would-be customers. 

The bright side is that some of these changes are really easy to implement on your site. 

Go ahead and look into your site speed today so you can start seeing the benefits of higher conversion rates on your site. And while you’re at it, if you’re looking to [increase conversions](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/what-is-conversion-rate-optimisation) on your site, displaying Trustpilot reviews is a great way to boost conversions without dinging your site speed. 

So if you aren’t already collecting reviews with us, why not start today? 

To learn more about everything you can do with reviews, get your free copy of The Complete Guide to Reviews below. 

The beginner’s guide to site speed for SEO

A guide to SEO and reputation

In this guide, we give you four advanced eCommerce SEO strategies that you can use to crowd the search results in your niche and for your branded queries to build your brand and traffic so that you can accomplish your goal of building your business.

If you’re an eCommerce business, then digital marketing is paramount to your business’s success. You need the right products and the right platform, of course, but without great marketing, your products won’t get seen and you won’t make any sales.

Fortunately, there are many tried and true ways to grow your audience that you can leverage such as SEO, Facebook/Instagram advertising, content marketing, display advertising, sponsorships, influencer marketing, and many more.

The challenge lies in the fact that there are so many different channels and if you’re not a marketing expert, then it‘s hard, if not impossible, to know where to start or how to take your marketing to the next level.

If you’ve done the SEO basics on your site and are investing in content marketing and a link strategy with the goal of ranking better, there are ways that you can expedite that process to see results even quicker.

Today, I want to share with you four advanced eCommerce SEO strategies that you can use to crowd the search results in your niche and for your branded queries to build your brand and traffic so that you can accomplish your goal of building your business.

These four strategies are:

- Branded profiles;
- Barnacle SEO;
- Autosuggest and the information net;
- Content funnels (NBED)

### How to use branded profiles for SEO and conversions

If you’re an eCommerce business, you should absolutely own your own platform and brand. Without your own website, you will forever be paying other platforms a percentage of your sales in exchange for their audience, and eventually, you may reach a ceiling on growth because their business doesn’t completely mesh with yours.

But I’m also not arguing that you should only sell your products on your own site! Platforms like eBay and Amazon do well for a reason, mostly because they have huge capital resources and have created a place where others can easily sell their own products. So, as is usually the case, a balanced approach is needed.

If you perform a search for a brand like GoPro, you’ll see that they have crowded their branded search results with profiles on other websites such as:

- Twitter
- YouTube
- Amazon
- Instagram
- Facebook

If you are a small store, then you can leverage profiles just like these to lend your site more credibility when someone searches for your brand. You can even do this as a person:

Screenshot+2017-11-15+14.09.57

Example 1

This is also known as reputation management when an undesired article or site appears in your branded search results as a few have done for GoPro, but it can be a very strong way to show those searching for your brand that you are a legitimate business.

Of course, if you’re trying to rank 10 profiles for your branded terms, it takes dedicated effort to pull this off effectively.

When you’re trying to crowd your own branded search results, you need to:

- Vary the sites and profiles that you link to with branded anchor text when guest posting or listing your site in directories.
- Link to your important profiles from your main website to pass them link equity.
- Prioritize strong websites (use Moz’s MozBar to see their Domain Authority, an indicator of strength) and make sure your profiles there are complete and robust with unique content and whatever else you are able to have (video, etc).

The final strategy here, of course, is to find websites that allow you to also have reviews posted so that searchers trust you because of independent, positive ratings.

Guider og rapporter

Brand integrity: the new frontier for marketing

Bli sett i søkeresultatene

The new face of SEO: Answer Engine Optimisation

The beginner’s guide to site speed for SEO

How to use SEO to build your eCommerce reputation — a quick guide

Bygg merkevare med tillit

Why ethical fashion brands are future-proof

2020 Consumer Report: Combating Misinformation in the Health + Beauty Sector

Ratings and reviews in Above The Line advertising

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