55% of Germans base purchase decision on reviews

When making a purchase decision, at least 55 percent of Germans find reviews of a shop or product important. However, fake reviews are a common problem in ecommerce. As a result, 74 percent of Germans want reviews to have a label of authenticity.

Reviews can boost a customer’s confidence to buy a product from an online store. Fake reviews are a common annoyance ecommerce. A survey by European trustmark Trusted Shops looked into German ecommerce, by interviewing 2,110 Germans. It shows that 75 percent of Germans find authenticity of reviews crucial.

‘74% of Germans want a label for real reviews.’

In the survey, respondents also indicated that they desired a reliable labeling of real shop and product reviews (74 percent). Of these respondents, 43 percent want a label for every rating, while 31 percent want a label for important or expensive purchases.

Recognizing fake reviews

“There are a number of characteristics that are typical of fake ratings. Anyone who recognizes them has a good chance of not falling for it”, says Bastian Kolmsee, head of trust products and services at Trusted Shops.

‘Only having positive reviews is suspicious.’

Shops or products that have only received positive reviews are suspicious, according to the trustmark. It is unlikely that all buyers like a product or shop equally. Additionally, reviews with unusual expressions or poor writing can indicate that an automatic translator has written it, meaning that an agency wrote a fake review.

If an online store never responds to reviews, chances are that it is a fake store, says Trusted Shops. If the amount of reviews grows strongly in a short time, this could indicate that they are auto-generated. Another feature of a fake review is an unspecified author.