![]() Websites often provide filters for managing this shortlisting process, and one widely used filter is by products’ review ratings. So, a shortlisting process reduces these to a manageable “choice set”. Often, a buyer would face too many choices, and realistically couldn’t individually evaluate all of them. The findings were robust – 10.5% of participants chose the product in the control conditions with no fake reviews, but this rose to 23.1% for an identical product where faked comments and inflated scores were presented.īuying processes typically have distinct stages, especially where a purchase is unfamiliar to the buyer and involves high uncertainty. It undertook a controlled experiment with 10,000 consumers who were presented with varied experimental conditions relating to faked scores and comments about a product. The UK consumer organisation Which? has been following the issue of fake reviews. It has also estimated that such reviews potentially influence £23bn of UK customer spending every year. The CMA estimated that the average UK household spends about £900 each year after being influenced by online reviews. There is now copious evidence of the effects of reviews on consumers’ choices. For sellers, having good reviews can be the primary basis for achieving sales. In this buying environment, other customers’ reviews play a much bigger role in overall evaluation than they have traditionally done. ![]() With transition to online, consumers have had to learn new ways of buying and navigating their way through the often much more extensive choices available. Reviews therefore provide a valuable heuristic for consumers, informing their evaluations of products and suppliers. Online, they have less certainty about their availability, especially where an unfamiliar supplier may be located overseas. ![]() Furthermore, in a physical store, buyers can get a good idea about the availability of the goods they see. Instead of potentially using all five senses to judge a product, online evaluation is generally limited to what can be seen on a two-dimensional screen. Online shops give buyers fewer evaluative cues than traditional shops. But if customer reviews are actually sponsored by sellers, how can a market work efficiently? The UK government has stepped in with plans to give the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) powers to fine companies and individuals involved in creating and disseminating fake reviews.Īlthough this intervention has been widely welcomed, the question can also be raised whether regulation will just push illegal activities underground, and whether market mechanisms themselves will provide more of an incentive to improve the trustworthiness of review websites. A condition for markets working efficiently is freely available information which allows buyers and sellers to make informed decisions. Sellers realise their importance for influencing consumers’ choice, and on the back of this, a murky world of “fake reviews” has emerged. Customer reviews have become an important guide for online shoppers. ![]()
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