How consumer reviews influence parents’ buying decisions
How important are consumer reviews to your customers? As it turns out, it’s a vital part of their purchasing process.
A recent survey conducted by Tell Me Baby (TMB) revealed consumer reviews are top of mind before parents buy for their baby.
Surveying over 500 Australian parents, TMB set out with the goal of gathering information about how parents interact with consumer reviews. How many reviews do they read before buying? Do they trust what other parents have to say? And do they make purchases based on reviews they’ve read?
The results are in
Taking a deep dive into the results, here’s what we found.
1. Most parents read reviews before buying baby products
When looking at general (non-baby) products, 86% of respondents said they read reviews before buying – but when it comes to parents looking to buy baby products, that number increases to a huge 94% of people who read reviews. For brands in the baby product space, this shows that generating consumer reviews really should be top of mind.
2. Reviews influence parents’ buying decisions
So we know that parents read reviews before making a purchase, but do these reviews have an impact on buying decisions?
Yes – especially when it comes to baby products. An overwhelming amount of parents (98%) said consumer reviews influence their buying decisions when choosing baby products, while 96% said consumer reviews influence their buying decisions for non-baby products.
3. Parents trust consumer reviews more than influencers
Forming a partnership with an influencer to share your brand’s message has its benefits – but it comes with one big flaw: they aren’t considered as trustworthy when compared to consumer reviews.
In fact, 43% of parents said they find consumer reviews ‘very trustworthy’. This was followed by retail staff recommendations (15%), and then – at a much lower figure – came influencer and blogger recommendations (7%).
When we combined the ‘somewhat trustworthy’ and ‘very trustworthy’ answers, a massive 99% of respondents said they trust consumer reviews. This was followed by retail staff recommendations (87%), and influencer/blogger recommendations (68%).
4. Parents read more than three reviews before making a purchase
Both quality and quantity counts when generating product reviews, as 88% of respondents read more than three reviews before buying baby products. And this number is set to rise: one in five respondents said they’re reading more reviews than they were pre-COVID-19.
What does this all mean for brands?
If your brand is looking to increase conversion rates, generating consumer reviews should be an integral part of your marketing strategy. The more high-quality reviews you can generate, the better for your bottom line.
As the go-to review platform for baby-related products, Tell Me Baby is a powerful community of Australian parents sharing their opinions of products they’ve tried.
TMB is a social marketplace for both brands and parents, providing an easy way for mums and dads to write and read genuine testimonials.
To find out more about how you can harness the power of reviews on Tell Me Baby, contact Lana Papadellis at lana@tellmegroup.com or Jen Horton at jen@tellmegroup.com.
