In the ever busy lives we live today, how often do we read a product review or comment before we buy it? I am one of THOSE people that will read the product reviews prior to buying something as simple as vitamins from my favorite Vitacost.com or something from Amazon or a new car. I especially pay attention to customer reviews for hotels. People are very vocal if they like or dislike their stay at a specific hotel. If a person is willing to take the time to write a review whether good or bad, I feel that it is worth reading. You can ask others buy word of mouth about a particular product but some of the smaller ticket items may require that level of time.
One of my favorite websites is http://www.vitacost.com/ to purchase anything from vitamins, sunscreen, shampoo, lotion or diet products. One of the things I love about this site is nearly every product will contact product reviews. I always go through and read them. They even have a blog that people can post/read for information.
It is a great way to collaborate with others about a product you wish to purchase. Customer reviews are effective in connecting a future buyer with a previous buyer on any given product that you would not normally encounter.
I even read customer reviews on http://www.amazon.com/ to aide in my purchase.
Overall, I believe that you can gain a certain level of data when reading a customer review to purchase a product.
EXAMPLE FROM AMAZON.COM
15 of 16 people found this review helpful:
5 our of 5 stars " Best briefcase I ever owned" May 23, 2010, by T. Boyce, (New Jersey)
EXAMPLE FROM VITACOST.COM:
Dynamics Health Vitamin C Liquid, 1,000 mg. -16 fl oz.
"Tastes great, not sour at all"
reference:
http://www.amazon.com/ retrieved 25 April, 2011
http://www.vitacost.com/ retrieved 25 April 2011
Kim Loucks
7 comments:
I agree with this article 100%. When I traveled to Austin, TX, I looked up hotel reviews on Yelp! and Craigslist. To my surprise many people were leaving comments saying certain hotels had bedbugs. Like Kim said, "People are very vocal if they like or dislike their stay at a specific hotel. If a person is willing to take the time to write a review whether good or bad, I feel that it is worth reading." It is nice to have the option of going online and looking at how others feel about products and businesses.
yes,it is in anybodies best entrest to read the reviews of any product before they can buy it or rent it. I often take time to read on amazon the ratinngs of the sellers that I am going to buy my books from. Few minutes to read several comments seems to me like a good thing.
I am also one of those who reads the reviews before I buy a product. However, I have found that unless you venture outside of the merchant's website, you may be getting biased reviews. I prefer to use consumer reports or check some online forums about the product.
I like to read comments people make about products and services. I can honestly say that I do not always trust all of the reviews that I read. I often find conflicting reports and it causes me to dig a little deeper for the information that I wish to know. All in all, we all have our own opinions and just because some one else did not like something, does not mean I would like not like it.
I agree with this blog 100 percent. If it is a product that I am not sure about I will read the reviews before I will buy it. Reviews can help you in knowing if the product is good or not.
With today's technology, those people who do not read reviews are simply out of tune with the rest of the world. I am not one for blogs, tweets, Facebook or one of the many other networks, but product reviews are a must. Most people can pull out their phone while at the store and find the product reviews with-in a matter of mins. With this info, a person can then make a more educated decision of the purchase at hand... cell phones are a great tool if used correctly!!!
Product reviews definitely influence people's purchasing decision and can be helpful but there are also downsides. First, all of that data is being used to further market junk to people online and second, how well can reviews be trusted? I know most are fairly real but I've encountered on Apple's appstore in the early days cheap developers from china would boost their own ratings for apps that were just pure junk so people would buy. What's to keep companies from manipulating the opinions you are shown?
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