A rating is a score a customer gives a product, usually out of five stars. A review is the written account that goes with it. Together they are the most consulted form of user-generated content and, for most categories, the single largest influence on whether a shopper buys.
A customer buys, is asked for a review, and leaves a score and some text. The review is checked for authenticity and policy compliance, then published on the product page.
Three things determine how much work reviews do. The first is volume, because a product with four reviews reads as untested regardless of its score. The second is recency, because reviews from two years ago describe a product that may have changed. The third is the distribution of scores, because a perfect five with no dissent reads as filtered rather than good, and shoppers routinely seek out the critical reviews first.
Where reviews appear beyond the brand's own site is a function of the review platform the brand uses. Those platforms maintain syndication relationships with retailer sites, and reviews collected on the brand's product page can appear on a retailer's listing through that arrangement.
For a brand selling through third-party retail, reviews travel to where the decision happens. The shopper comparing products on a retailer's site is reading reviews the brand's customers wrote, in a place the brand does not control and cannot advertise into as freely.
Reviews are also read by more than shoppers. Answer engines summarizing a category draw on review content, and a product with thin or stale reviews is underrepresented in those summaries whether or not it is a good product.
A brand has strong sales but thin reviews on a newly listed item. Shoppers comparing it against an established competitor with several hundred reviews choose the familiar option. The score is not worse, but four reviews is not enough evidence to act on.
Chasing the average score instead of the volume and recency. A 4.3 across six hundred recent reviews outperforms a 4.9 across twelve, because the first is evidence and the second is an anecdote.
Where TrueLoyal fits: TrueLoyal encourages review volume by giving members a reason and a prompt to write one, and by rewarding the contribution. Reviews go to the brand's own review platform, such as Bazaarvoice or PowerReviews, which handles where they are displayed and distributed.
It needs enough that the score reads as evidence rather than chance. The step change tends to come in the first few dozen, and beyond that, recency matters more than adding volume.
It helps less than brands assume. Shoppers treat an unbroken five as a sign of filtering and often read the critical reviews first. A visible spread with the brand responding to the negative ones reads as more trustworthy.
Not legitimately, and in the United States suppressing negative reviews carries regulatory risk. The effective response is to reply publicly and address the issue, which other shoppers read as a signal in itself.
They get there through syndication relationships maintained by review platforms. The brand collects reviews on its own product pages, and the review platform distributes them to participating retailer sites under that arrangement.
Review solicitation is asking customers to write a review. Almost all reviews are solicited. The share of customers who write one unprompted is small enough that a brand relying on it will have a thin product page indefinitely.
Review velocity is the rate at which new reviews arrive on a product, measured in reviews per week or per month rather than the total. It measures whether a product page is currently gathering evidence or coasting on reviews written a long time ago.
A photo review is a written review with a customer photograph attached. The shopper sees the product as it arrived, in a real home, rather than as it appeared in the brand's studio photography.
A video review is a customer recording themselves using, unboxing or assessing a product. It is the highest-effort form of user-generated content a customer can produce and, partly for that reason, among the most persuasive.
Social proof is the tendency to decide based on what other people have already decided. In a store, it is the product with four hundred reviews winning over the one with four. It is a psychological effect rather than a marketing tactic, and reviews, ratings, photographs, and recommendations are the forms it takes.
User-generated content, usually shortened to UGC, is content made by customers rather than by the brand. That includes photographs, videos, written reviews, social posts, and questions and answers. The brand did not commission it, did not art-direct it, and does not automatically own it.
The platform for consumer brands serious about earning loyalty. Rewards to shape behavior. Fan Club™ to nurture your brand's super fans.
