{"id":25790,"date":"2021-02-23T08:29:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T14:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.powerreviews.com\/?p=25790"},"modified":"2022-03-08T12:17:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T18:17:47","slug":"how-covid-19-changed-online-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.powerreviews.com\/how-covid-19-changed-online-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"How COVID-19 Changed Online Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By now, we\u2019re all aware that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a transformational impact on ecommerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to eMarketer<\/a>, ecommerce sales have surged at a completely unprecedented rate – not just where I\u2019m based in the UK, but globally everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If anything, these figures may downplay the overall impact. According to the US Census Bureau<\/a>, for example, the first three quarters of 2020 saw a 32% increase in sales compared with the same period in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless, those numbers are in line with what we saw across our own customer base at PowerReviews. At the start of the pandemic, between February and May 2020, purchase volumes among our customer set increased 3x.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though purchase volumes have now stabilized<\/a>, they\u2019re still consistently 40% to 70% higher than they were pre-pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the pandemic\u2019s impact on ecommerce isn\u2019t limited to sales growth. COVID-19 has radically changed people\u2019s reliance on ecommerce, what ecommerce looks like, and how they make purchasing decisions online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anecdotally, we have heard from a number of the brands we work with how COVID-19 has accelerated their ecommerce strategy at an unprecedented rate. We hear time and time again how they have done work previously planned to take five years in a matter of months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At PowerReviews, we have been exploring the effect of COVID-19 on reviews monthly in our snapshot series (check out our Insights section for our back catalog<\/a>). Almost a year in, we wanted to pause to summarize our findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do ratings and reviews matter more or less in a global pandemic? Do they have a stronger impact on conversions than before? Here\u2019s what we found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Review interaction up 50% from pre-pandemic levels<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Review interaction includes actions like searching, filtering, and clicking to expand and read an entire review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on our data, people are engaging with reviews more than ever before. In the early months of the pandemic, review interaction was up 89%<\/a> compared with pre-pandemic levels:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once people settled into their \u201cnew normal,\u201d these numbers lowered somewhat. Still, the appetite for reviews remained healthy, with review interaction eventually stabilizing at a level 50% higher<\/a> than pre-pandemic times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reviews build confidence in uncertain times<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic upended several industries. Product categories like food and home decor<\/a> have soared, while travel and hospitality have suffered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, as the eCommerce data tells us, it\u2019s not that consumers stopped shopping. Rather, they just shifted their spend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in our 2021 survey of over 10,000 beauty shoppers, we\u2019ve found 54% of beauty shoppers wear less makeup now, but just as many have shifted their focus to skincare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic also strained supply chains, leaving many items out of stock. As a result, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, many shoppers found themselves forced to try new brands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With so many shoppers shifting their spend (both online and to new sectors), many of them are purchasing products for the first time. They could be trying something completely new, or buying something they previously would have purchased in store (like apparel or cosmetics).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reviews are critical<\/a> to building their confidence during this decision. It\u2019s no surprise, then, that 41% of beauty shoppers say they rely on ratings now more<\/em> than they did before the start of the global health crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When in-store shopping is either unavailable or feels unsafe, shoppers need alternatives for validating that a product looks and functions as a brand claims it does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reviews describe functionality, but nothing beats a photo when it comes to appearance. It\u2019s essential to collect visual content from your shoppers, and all the more so in a pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over a third of beauty shoppers say they are now more reliant on user-submitted visual content than they were prior to COVID-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\" <\/picture>
Juvia’s Place displays product photos next to user-submitted content. Shoppers can see how various shades of eyeshadow look on other customers who look like them.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Reviews have 25% more influence on conversions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, people are finding reviews more helpful than before. But is all that review consumption translating to more sales? Good news: the data suggests yes. A year ago, around 4.25% of shoppers who interacted with review content would go on to purchase an item.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first months of the pandemic, that percentage surged to rates between 6.45% to 6.86% \u2014 more than 2 percentage points above typical conversion rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As people settled into the new normal, that number stabilized to 5.3%. Still, that\u2019s a full percentage point higher<\/strong> than it was in 2019. In other words, people who interact with reviews are 25% more likely to convert today<\/strong> than they were pre-pandemic.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That jump in conversion rates is significant. But what about impact during the Holidays?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our research shows that reviews are even more influential<\/a> historically during this period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conversion rate actually peaked at about the same level year-on-year. During the 2020 Holiday season, the influence of reviews jumped to a massive 7.41%<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The bottom line? Not only have shopping volumes increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, so has the proportion of those purchases being impacted by UGC. Imagine what that can do for your conversion rates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reviews may be impacted by BOPIS\/Click and Collect<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no doubt that ecommerce growth has skyrocketed thanks to COVID-19, but what we think of as ecommerce has also grown.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some retailers, as many as 50% of their online orders<\/a> were picked up via Buy Online, Pickup In Store (BOPIS) at a local store. With BOPIS and curbside pickup, shoppers have a different set of expectations than they do with a traditional online order. They expect that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n