100+ Online Review Statistics You Need to Know in 2019

66% of Americans trust an anonymous, online review more than they trust a recommendation from an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend. ²⁸

74.6% of people have looked online to find out about a doctor, a dentist, or medical care. ²⁹

66% of consumers stated many online reviews make them trust a brand online. ¹

27% of people that look for local information are actually looking for reviews about that particular store. ²

When choosing a restaurant, Gen Z and Millennials are 99% more likely to rely on social media and online reviews than are Gen X and Boomers. ²⁸

Buyers require an average 40 online reviews before believing a business’s star rating is accurate (up from 34 in 2017) ³

Shoppers across all age ranges expect an average of 112 reviews per product when they search online. ⁴

Shoppers in the 18- to 24-year-old range expect an average of 203 reviews per product page.

Ages 25-34 expect 159 reviews
Ages 35-44 expect 141 reviews
Ages 45-54 expect 91 reviews
Ages 55-64 expect 38 reviews
Ages 65+ expect 46 reviews ⁴

After having a positive experience with a company, 77% of customers would recommend it to a friend. ⁵

24.4% Comment card
20% Restaurant website or app
19.8% Online review site
5.3% Text message ⁷

57% of buyers expect a business to have more than 11 reviews ³

91% of 18-34-year-olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations ³

86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses (including 95% of people aged 18-34) ³

When choosing a healthcare provider, 69.9% of people consider a positive online reputation to be very or extremely important. ²⁹

60.9% of shoppers use Google to find local businesses and 11.4% of use Yelp ⁸

59.2% of people read online reviews when choosing a restaurant. They are most likely to read reviews on:

29.2% Yelp
28.1% Google
16.2% Facebook
14.2% Trip Advisor
9.8% Open Table
1.7% Zagat
0.9% Zomato ⁷

Overall rating is most important to 41.4% of consumers when reading reviews to select a restaurant. ⁷

When reading reviews to select a restaurant consumers:

29.2% value positive content
21.8% look for details/depth
7.6% find reviews they like ^7

Shoppers are most likely to read restaurant reviews on:

29.2% Yelp
28.1% Google
16.2% Facebook
14.2% Trip Advisor
9.8% Open Table ⁷

73% of customers value the written review over the overall star rating ⁹

33% of customers leave a review when the experience was really good or really bad…

25% when the experience was really good
8% to help business/community
6% to help other consumers
5% only when the experience was really bad
4% to inform business ¹⁰

86% of customers would consider leaving reviews for businesses ³

Consumers ages 18-65+ prefer to leave reviews on:

36.8% Business website
32% Google
17.1% Facebook
12.5% Yelp
1.6% Other review sites ¹¹

Consumers ages 25-34 prefer to leave reviews on:

40.8% Google
24.3% Business website
19.4% Facebook
14.1% Yelp
1.4% Other review sites ¹¹

69% of diners would leave direct feedback or a review using various channels if asked. You can no longer dictate that they leave it in one certain way. ⁷

When dealing with a local merchant, 34% of customers will complain due to lack of or poor customer service and 23% will complain due to rudeness and a bad attitude. ¹²

75.4% of consumers are willing to answer 1-5 survey questions. ¹³

Even with restaurants possibly being the easiest industry to acquire reviews for, over 50% of guests still never write a review. ⁷

The likelihood of purchase peaks at a star rating of 4.0 – 4.7, then decreases as the rating gets closer to 5.0. ⁶

Between similar products online, 35% of consumers said better reviews have driven them to spring for the higher priced option. ¹

Having five reviews results in purchase likelihood increasing by a factor of almost 4 ⁶

The purchase likelihood for a product with five reviews is 270% greater than the purchase likelihood of a product with no reviews. ⁶

36.6% of consumers were somewhat likely to choose a local car repair center that had positive reviews. ¹⁴

Reviews account for 15.44% of how Google ranks a local business ¹⁵

83.5% of shoppers would not consider a business with a 3-star rating or below ¹⁶

49.7% of consumers need to see a 4-star rating or higher to consider a business ¹⁶

Businesses appearing in Google’s top 3 local positions have an average of 47 Google Reviews ¹⁷

Quality reviews correlates to more than a 2% higher conversion rate for paid search. ¹⁹

57% of consumers won’t use a business that has fewer than 4 stars (up from 48% in 2017) ³

Positive reviews make 68% of buyers more likely to use local businesses ³

Review volume increased by 12% and ratings went up by an average of 0.12 stars just because the brand started responding to reviews. ²⁷

Because reviews are becoming more transactional and customers expect a response… increase the number of positive reviews to which you’re responding. ²⁰

…when hotels start responding, they receive 12% more reviews and their ratings increase, on average, by 0.12 stars ²¹

89% of consumers read local businesses’ responses to reviews ³

Not replying to reviews risks increasing customer churn by up to 15% ²²

Over 55% of survey respondents expect a business to reply to a review within 1 day and over 30% expect a response within 3 days ²³

A complaint can be a buying signal that a customer wants to continue to do business with you but is feeling so much pain they are not sure they can. ²⁵

62.9% of shoppers were not likely to choose an insurance provider with negative reviews ¹⁴

When a patient’s negative feedback is addressed by the practice, the rate of patient satisfaction roughly doubles, increasing 99%. ²⁹

Negative reviews stop 40% of buyers from wanting to use a business ³

Companies that make a concerted effort to improve their customer experience also see employee engagement rates go up by an average of 20%. ²⁶