Today’s post is centered around a single question? Can we trust online reviews?
A simple answer YES would have made it a great life. Unfortunately, most experiences point to the other direction. In this post, we discuss the reasons why online reviews need to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Trust online reviews Vs Paid Reviews
I have come across products or companies which ship out products for free in exchange for a review. Most of these deals come with a caveat that it should be well rated.
If you see a product with too many 5 start reviews, it is worth checking the type of reviews and the number of 5 stars. There is usually a give away in the language used or the product being talked about. Sometimes having a few 1/2 stars for a product is not a bad sign after all.
This is particularly true for some electronic products which don’t yet have a market presence. The products could very well be cheap ones and unreliable.
Sponsored Products
These products come up in the search engine even after you select it based on a rating criteria. Most online softwares rank the paid reviews/products on top of their search list.
Some companies do highlight these as sponsored or advertised ones. But it pays to be weary about trusting them without a careful consideration.
Unfortunately not all searches yielded are genuine ones. I have a market preference of avoiding all sponsored links, but that’s not always the best decision. As for the question whether we can trust online reviews, it is definitely worth cross checking before believing completely. Read the small print!
Compare across other sites
It is usually very expensive to buy reviews across all sites. Most of these products buy reviews in popular e-commerce websites. If you are having second thoughts about a product, search for its reviews in other websites.
For instance, if a product is listed in amazon, it is worth checking what its ratings are in other websites. The same is true unfortunately for blogs too – many authors get paid to write good reviews about a product. You’d need to do due diligence to ensure you are not falling for a trick.
Can you trust online reviews?
As for the question – can you trust online reviews. My answer is – it depends.
Never trust any of the reviews blindly. We are unfortunately heavily influenced by the virtual world. As much as we’d like to believe that it really is genuine people talking, you need to take it with a pinch of salt.
Not everything we read or hear on the internet is true. The decision after all is finally ours. This post is merely an indicator about the type of business models that exist in the online review world.
End of the day, as a buyer, you need to be informed to make the right decision.