Online reviews: Trick that sways consumers

ONLINE reviews are now more important than ever before. According to a survey by search marketing company BrightLocal, 88 per cent of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation and an astonishing 90 per cent state that they influence their buying decisions - despite the fact that most online reviews are posted by complete strangers.

In a new consumer research study, Ali Faraji-Rad, a fellow of the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight and assistant professor of marketing at the Nanyang Business School in Singapore, investigated exactly how online users process anonymous reviews. His research reveals a previously unknown cognitive phenomenon that influences whether or not users will accept a review as good advice, and act on it - something that both owners of review sites and online review users should be aware of.

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