How it affects your brand’s ROI and safeguards Brand Reputation and Safety
A recent study by Reprise which was conducted across Asia-Pacific highlights the shift in the pattern of a consumer when it comes to online shopping, especially during the pandemic. It suggests that the shift from offline shopping to online shopping is set to become a permanent change in retail consumption.
Covid19 has indeed accelerated online behavior in brands and consumers alike. The study reveals that the majority of the consumers look at online ads to discover new brands and products, while social media plays a key role in increasing the brand’s visibility. Not just this, product reviews top the list to influence a buyer’s decision. In India alone, 64% percent of online shoppers look at genuine customer reviews about a product before making a final decision.
Product rating and consumer reviews add an extra layer of trust to secure the customer journey, thus enabling a customer to complete the checkout process.
Why do reviews matter?
UGC (User-generated Content) is a pool of valuable consumer insights. Brands can leverage these insights to improve, ideate, and innovate products and services for their consumers whereas reviews act as a bridge of loyalty between a consumer and a brand. Another study indicates that 92% of shoppers trust organic user-generated content over and above traditional advertising. This gives a brand an opportunity to increase brand credibility and also save time and money which otherwise are spent on other marketing channels.
Consumers who are influencers enjoy reviewing products online for it allows them to gain social recognition, especially in today’s digitized era where eCommerce intelligence plays an important role and every individual wants to become the next go-to influencer. More often than not, brands also incentivize their genuine customers to share their reviews in exchange for a coupon or discount code. In short, people consume a plethora of content when they shop online and a brand has to establish its credibility among its buyers to scale its business, via genuine means.
Fake reviews vs brand reputation vs Trust
Research estimates that online reviews will influence $3.8 trillion of global-e-commerce spend in 2021 and the direct influence of fake online reviews on global online spending is $152 billion!
Phew!
Trust is the only factor that binds a brand and consumers together. While looking for a product, if consumers do not find a review or any bad review about a product, skepticism comes to play. That’s pure-play human psychology.
Brands believe that by faking good reviews on the eCommerce pages they will attract consumers, they don’t realize the fact that today’s consumers are smart enough to differentiate between a verified review vis-à-vis the ones injected by bots. Using similar wordplay such as ‘excellent product’, ‘great product’, ‘worth buying’ and more such (fake) reviews injected by bots, it’s a clear indication to the customers that these are not-so-genuine reviews, thus customers end up alienating the brand and losing their trust in the brand FOREVER. This in turn hurts the brand reputation, credibility and ultimately affecting the ROI.
Fake reviews are the final nail in the coffin for a brand. Once a shopper suspects the brand of having fake reviews, trust comes to question. In today’s era of eCommerce intelligence, it is of utmost importance that brands uphold consumer trust, provide them with adequate information and genuine reviews of their products which will ultimately translate into profit. And it’s not just a brand that may indulge in fake reviews, degrading content by competitors adds to the fake review menace to put the brand down. Automated submissions, bot programming, trolling activity, all such issues have infiltrated the e-commerce industry
The Solution
E-commerce is the viable channel for retailers in this new normal. Rising eCommerce transactions invite far potential fraudulent activities which affect the revenue and consumer trust. mScanIt e-com analytics tool by mfilterIt is packed with AI-driven technology which helps eliminate fake reviews and combat the scourge of fraud and deception. The tool leverages machine learning to identify fraudulent activities and protect the users and brand from fake reviews on eCommerce marketplaces.
It is imperative to take necessary steps by investing in the right technology to minimize risks and ensure brand reputation to garner authentic users. Tools like mScanIt not only help to review the product page but also assist in the customer acquisition funnel and beyond! It’s to act now.
Get in touch with us to understand the eCommerce intelligence solution and how can we ensure your brand’s safety and credibility and establish trust among your customers.
