Eighty-Seven Percent of Shoppers Select Stores or Products with Customer-Generated Star Ratings

New Research From ResellerRatings Confirms UGC Increases Discovery, Traffic, and Sales

CLEVELAND – March 12 , 2018 — ResellerRatings, a popular User-Generated Content (UGC) reviews platform, today announced findings from its survey data from over 40,000 shoppers across store, web, and mobile channels. Overwhelmingly, the data confirms that authentic, consumer-generated content matters to shoppers and boosts sales.

The data reveals a continuing evolution in consumer behavior — as their trust shifts from brand influencers and traditional media outlets to the authenticity of first-person shopper reviews and visual content that help build social proof.

Findings from the research include:

• 61% of in-store shoppers say a memorable store experience is important, underscoring the importance for retailers of location-based online reviews in driving discovery and in-store traffic

• Only 17% of shoppers trust retailer-recommended products over reviews from customers

• 87% of consumers are highly likely to select stores or products with customer-generated star ratings

“UGC now drives discovery in almost every viable channel, online and offline,” says Nishan Sothilingam, Sr. Director of Product Management for ResellerRatings. “Our research reinforces the shift to UCG as the primary source for consumers that are searching for and finding information about product and retailers online.”

An infographic based on the research is available for download here. The findings were developed as part of an extensive retail study conducted by ResellerRatings' parent company and customer experience analytics pioneer ForeSee.

Going to Shoptalk in Las Vegas? Attend our Techtalk on Content Marketing, March 19 at 6 PM PST. We’ll show you how to increase conversions and boost your content marketing program by leveraging authentic UGC as social proof. Unable to attend? Learn more about the ResellerRatings Reviews Suite here.