Last month, we released our first monthly snapshot (summary here). This is our May edition of the same report, analyzing consumer activity across more than 1.5MM online product pages from more than 1,200 retail/brand sites.
This time, we focused on a two-month period (starting February 24 2020 and ending April 24 2020). We specifically looked at review submission levels, review length and sentiment, overall conversions/sales and review consumption.
Given this has been quite possibly the biggest disruption to retail and ecommerce since people started shopping online, the results continue to be extremely revealing.
The surge in online traffic and sales volumes have been well documented but the data is still breathtaking.
Key ecommerce market trends
01
Digital sales increase 210% between February and April
02
Review submission levels and length rise in April, while overall consumer sentiment remains steady
03
Review engagement up 105% between February and April
Order transactions surge as online traffic also rises
Unsurprisingly and as reported widely elsewhere, our data reveals that digital consumer transactions have surged during these times of self-quarantine and “stay at home” orders. However, the numbers are still staggering. Online sales volumes leapt 210% between February 24 and April 15. This continued the trend we saw in last month’s snapshot, when we reported an increase of 101%. That seemed a massive increase but proved to be a sign of what has subsequently followed.
While product page traffic had been relatively stable in March, this also began to climb in April. However, these increases have not been at the same rate as order volumes – meaning shoppers are becoming even more decisive as conversion rates have also continued to increase. We again attribute these trends to consumers buying lower consideration products so spending less time browsing and comparing products.
Online shopping volumes continue to climb
Traffic also begins to rise in April after staying steady through March
Review submission levels and review length increase in April, while average rating steady
After initially staying relatively steady in March, review submission levels actually rebounded in April topping out at 36% higher on April 20 than they were at the end of February. Given the huge growth in online shopping volumes, this actually is a decline in real terms. This is possibly because much of the growth in order volumes is likely coming from consumers who typically shop offline.
In the same way, review length did increase in April from what we saw in March, but overall reviews submitted remain shorter than before the impact of COVID-19 hit fully. However, a higher volume of reviews are still being submitted right now than in more “normal” times, meaning this still represents a good opportunity for brands and retailers to generate increased CGC levels.
Sentiment – in the form of average rating – remains flat, which makes sense given the products themselves are unlikely to have changed significantly in this period.
Review volumes begin to rise steadily after initial fall
Review submission volumes rise, peaking at 36% higher on April 20 than at end of February
Review length begins to rebound after initial fall
Review length up around 10% since low at end of March but accompanying rating stable
Engagement with consumer reviews surges
Reviews become even more important in the COVID-19 era. Consumers that convert are still engaging with review content (sorting, filtering etc) at as much as double the rate they were before the epidemic fully hit the U.S.
Given our data is based on review engagement as a proportion of consumers who buy (and, as we see above, this has jumped significantly), total review engagement is way up on “normal” levels and has climbed in line with increased sales volumes.
Shoppers are heavily relying on review content to make purchase decisions, perhaps because low inventory levels are forcing them to buy products they hadn’t previously before.
Review engagement remains skyhigh
Consumer interactions with online reviews more than doubles in COVID-19 period
Summary
The big story is the sheer increase in online sales volumes over the past two months, having more than tripled in this period.
Consumers continue to rely on ratings and review content to justify purchase decisions, providing the validation and social proof necessary to drive sales. Review engagement continued to be at around double the level of more typical times and total review engagement has soared over the past two months.
Review volumes are also starting to increase, which is to be expected given review submissions lag behind time of purchase. With sales levels at such high levels, we would expect this figure to continue to climb over the next one to two months. With this being the case, this period represents an excellent opportunity to generate deep and impactful review content from your customers.
For a deep dive into these findings, including a specific look at ecommerce trends across health and beauty, view the recording of our webinar.
Stay up-to-date on the latest data and insights.
MAY 1, 2020 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS— PowerReviews reveals the staggering changes in consumer behavior and interaction with online ratings and reviews over the past two months in its research published today.
The May edition of the PowerReviews Market Trends Snapshotis based on analysis of consumer activity across more than 1.5MM review product pages from the websites of more than 1,200 brands. It reveals:
Skyrocketing digital sales levels, with an increase of 210% in order volumes between February 2020 and April 2020
A leap of 63% in eCommerce web traffic between February 2020 and April 2020
Consumer engagement with reviews up 105% between February 2020 and April 2020
Review submission levels and length rise in April 2020, while overall consumer sentiment (in the form of average product rating) remains steady
Carol Krakowski – Director, Insights at PowerReviews, states:
“Unsurprisingly and as reported widely elsewhere, our data reveals that digital consumer transactions have surged during these times of self-quarantine and “stay at home” orders. However, the numbers are still staggering. Online sales volumes surged 210% between February 24 and April 15. This continued the trend we saw in last month’s snapshot, when we reported an increase of 101%. That seemed a massive increase but proved to be a sign of what has subsequently followed.
“While product page traffic had been relatively stable in March, this also began to climb in April. However, these increases have not been at the same rate as order volumes – meaning shoppers are becoming even more decisive as conversion rates have also continued to increase. We again attribute these trends to consumers buying lower consideration products so spending less time browsing and comparing products.
“Consumers continue to rely on ratings and reviews content to justify purchase decisions, providing the validation and social proof necessary to drive sales. Engagement with reviews among consumers who purchase continues to be at around double the level of more typical times, while total review engagement has soared over the past two months.”
Online shopping volumes continue to climb relentlessly
eCommerce web traffic also begins to rise in April after staying steady through March.
Review engagement remains skyhigh
Consumer interactions with online reviews more than doubles in COVID-19 period
NOTE: This chart outlines review engagement of consumers who purchase. Given online order volumes are up 210% in the past two months, total review engagement has also increased significantly
PowerReviews research is based on analysis of activity across more than 1.5MM product pages from more than 1,200 retail/brand sites between February 24, 2020 and April 24, 2020.
PowerReviews (PowerReviews.com) is a software and data company that works with 1000+ leading brands and retailers to bring authenticity and transparency to commerce. The PowerReviews Customer Content Platform has four solutions that help our customers collect and manage customer-generated content to improve the product and customer experience across the customer journey. We help clients meet the evolving need for social proof, accelerating the path to purchase and brand advocacy.
PowerReviews is known for innovation, consultative partnership, and actionable insights, supported by our open platform and approach. Our dedicated team of experts provides thoughtful analysis and turn-key service. PowerReviews is headquartered in Chicago, IL, USA.
APRIL 28, 2020 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS— PowerReviews and Reputation Studio today announced a new partnership, to offer an integrated solution that enables brands the ability to respond to reviews collected by PowerReviews directly from the Reputation Studio platform.
The combined solution enables brands and retailers to facilitate strategic and effective follow-up action to customer review feedback. This results in exceptional reputation management, enabling our mutual clients one platform to manage their brand reputation.
Brandon Matthies, Head of Product Management at PowerReviews, comments:
“We were really excited to form this partnership to support the needs of our clients. Reputation Studio integrated with our new Enterprise API to enable a seamless experience for our mutual clients, such as Conagra. We are really focusing on building out integrations with partners like Reputation Studio to provide more value to our clients.”
Jon Jessup, CEO of Reputation Studio, said:
“A lot of our customers leverage PowerReviews for their Ratings/Reviews and Q&A, so this new integration is a great win for them to be able to streamline their consumer care with Salesforce Service Cloud. This solution finally allows the eCommerce teams to have their customer service teams be able to handle responding to customer reviews and answering customer questions. The efficiencies our mutual customers see from this innovative approach is incredible!”
ABOUT POWERREVIEWS
PowerReviews (PowerReviews.com) is a software and data company that works with 1000+ leading brands and retailers to bring authenticity and transparency to commerce. The PowerReviews Customer Content Platform has three solutions that help our customers collect and manage customer-generated content to improve the product and customer experience across the customer journey. We help clients meet the evolving need for social proof, accelerating the path to purchase and brand advocacy.
PowerReviews is known for innovation, consultative partnership, and actionable insights, supported by our open platform and approach. Our dedicated team of experts provides thoughtful analysis and turn-key service. PowerReviews is headquartered in Chicago, IL, USA.
ABOUT REPUTATION STUDIO
Reputation Studio (reputationstudio.com) is a Salesforce partner that helps brands aggregate consumer-generated content into a single platform to complete the 360-degree view of customers and respond in near real-time. Our application of AI-driven sentiment and intent analysis yields deeper insights, incredible efficiency gains, and uncovers massive opportunities to interact with customers on a personal level, across all channels.
Born in the Salesforce AI Incubator, Reputation Studio is paving the way for brands to digitally transform the way they manage consumer-generated content. Our team is passionate about helping brands build relationships with customers and discover the full potential of data discovery using the Salesforce.com platform. Reputation Studio is headquartered in Park City, UT, USA.
On May 1, we published our monthly trends snapshot – an analysis of consumer activity across 1.5MM+ online product pages from 1,200+ retail/brand sites throughout March and April 2020. It revealed a 210% increase in ecommerce sales and a 105% increase in engagement with consumer review content.
In this recorded webinar, we will dig deeper into the data highlighting additional trends and vertical-specific insights.
We explore:
How exactly existing market conditions are affecting sales levels and for which products
Review submission levels and consumer engagement with review content during these highly unusual times
Specific health and beauty industry insights, where online sales volumes are up 450%
And much more
Webinar Speakers
Andrew Smith, Director of Product Marketing at PowerReviews
Andrew is an experienced ecommerce technology marketer. Passionate about all things internet shopping, he is excited to share the latest PowerReviews consumer trend data with the ecommerce community.
Carol Krakowski, Director of Insights at PowerReviews
Carol Krakowski partners with the Customer Success and Analytics teams at PowerReviews to maximize client value using PowerReviews data. With a passion for telling stories with data, she has more than eight years of experience analyzing ecommerce companies and datasets to power insights for internal and external audiences.
APRIL 20, 2020 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS— PowerReviews is one of the first partners to be certified to join the Shopify Plus Certified App Program, which was launched by the ecommerce platform leader last week.
The Shopify Plus Certified App Program highlights best-in-class technology solutions, chosen for their quality and alignment with Plus merchant needs. Each app is formally reviewed by the Shopify App Review and Quality Assurance Team, to ensure it meets advanced requirements in the areas of performance, security, privacy, and support.
“The Shopify Plus Certified App program is designed to meet the advanced requirements of the world’s fastest growing brands,” said Loren Padelford, GM Shopify Plus. “We’re happy to welcome PowerReviews to the program, bringing their insight and experience in reviews to the Plus merchant community.”
PowerReviews has been a Shopify partner for four years, and this further strengthens the relationship.
“The Shopify Plus Certified App Program was a must for us to join, given our commitment to the Shopify partnership and Shopify Plus merchants,” says Brandon Matthies, Head of Product at PowerReviews. “The program gives merchants the peace of mind that they’re building the best possible solution for their store. And this is so important for companies who rely on Shopify and its partners to serve the best user experience for their customers. It gives their team the confidence that our app can handle their specific requirements and manage their complex needs.”
ABOUT POWERREVIEWS
PowerReviews (PowerReviews.com) is a software and data company that works with 1000+ leading brands and retailers to bring authenticity and transparency to commerce. The PowerReviews Customer Content Platform has three solutions that help our customers collect and manage customer-generated content to improve the product and customer experience across the customer journey. We help clients meet the evolving need for social proof, accelerating the path to purchase and brand advocacy.
PowerReviews is known for innovation, consultative partnership, and actionable insights, supported by our open platform and approach. Our dedicated team of experts provides thoughtful analysis and turn-key service. PowerReviews is headquartered in Chicago, IL, USA.
APRIL 9, 2020 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS— Shure Incorporated today reveals how it has, over the last year, been leveraging PowerReviews’ ratings & reviews and social curation technologies to spearhead a comprehensive website redesign, fuel product development, broadly showcase its offerings and generate exceptional customer engagement.
Shure, a leading global manufacturer of microphones, headphones and audio electronics, has now captured more than 700 reviews of its products with an average star rating of 4.6 and 1,200 customer images on its social channels using PowerReviews software.
Also leveraging the PowerReviews platform, this content is then showcased across the company’s own digital properties and other critical ecommerce platforms where consumers can buy its product offerings. This provides outstanding and authentic endorsement from existing customers to buyers as they enter the later stages of their customer journey.
Jason Walker, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing at Shure, comments, “Our users are more than just customers; they’re a passionate community of fans. Reviews have helped us tap into our community and given us insight on how they perceive our brand.
“After we started working with PowerReviews, it’s been like opening a door on a whole new fan community. We’re able to highlight real customers using our products in a variety of places and circumstances, which we simply wouldn’t have been able to leverage without PowerReviews.”
In a couple of months, the Shure team has collected more than 1200 social images directly from customers.
Saarah Shaikh, Senior Director of Customer Success at PowerReviews, said:
“We are delighted to deliver so much value to and help a company as outstanding as Shure deliver superior experiences to its customers, showcase these to potential buyers and generally help it execute on its mission of being ‘the most trusted audio brand worldwide.’”
Walker says: “Since partnering with PowerReviews, our entire organization has seen the value of reviews and how they’ve enabled us to connect with our customers. From communicating to creating to listening, our products play a role in our customers’ passions. PowerReviews has given us the ability to facilitate and leverage their excitement and amplify it to our audience.”
This information is taken from a newly-published case study, which can be accessed on the PowerReviews website here.
ABOUT POWERREVIEWS
PowerReviews (PowerReviews.com) is a software and data company that works with 1000+ leading brands and retailers to bring authenticity and transparency to commerce. The PowerReviews Customer Content Platform has three solutions that help our customers collect and manage customer-generated content to improve the product and customer experience across the customer journey. We help clients meet the evolving need for social proof, accelerating the path to purchase and brand advocacy.
PowerReviews is known for innovation, consultative partnership, and actionable insights, supported by our open platform and approach. Our dedicated team of experts provides thoughtful analysis and turn-key service. PowerReviews is headquartered in Chicago, IL, USA.
ABOUT SHURE INCORPORATED
Shure (www.shure.com) has been making people sound extraordinary for nearly a century. Founded in 1925, the Company is a leading global manufacturer of audio equipment known for quality, performance, and durability. It makes microphones, wireless microphone systems, in-ear monitors, earphones and headphones, conferencing systems, and more. For critical listening, or high-stakes moments on stage, in the studio, and from the meeting room, you can always rely on Shure.
Shure Incorporated is headquartered in Niles, Illinois, in the United States. It has over 30 global locations which include corporate locations, manufacturing plants, distribution facilities, and engineering hubs. Its mission is to “be the most trusted audio brand worldwide.”
APRIL 1, 2020 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS—PowerReviews reveals the significant impact that COVID-19 has had on both consumer behavior and their interaction with online ratings and reviews in its report published today.
Skyrocketing conversions, with an increase of 101% between February 24 2020 and March 21 2020 but no notable increase in product page traffic
Review submission volumes and sentiment stable
Product review length falls 22% from February 24 2020 to March 22 2020
Consumer product review engagement up 104% from February 24 2020 to March 20 2020
Carol Krakowski – Director, Insights at PowerReviews, states:
“Ratings and review content is having greater impact on consumer behavior in the COVID-19 era, providing the validation and social proof necessary to drive sales. According to our figures, conversions and review engagement peak within a two day period. This is no coincidence.
“But it’s not just the fact that both these metrics increase that is significant, it’s the extent to which this is the case. Both conversions and review engagement more than doubled in less than a month.
“However, review length is down in the same period. Given broader consumer trends of high conversion levels at the moment, the next month represents an excellent opportunity to generate deep and impactful review content for brands and retailers.”
Traffic steady but conversions skyrocket
Conversion levels peak on March 21 2020 after doubling within a month.
Review engagement increases significantly
Consumer interactions with review content more than doubles during COVID-19 period, peaking on March 20, 2020.
PowerReviews research is based on analysis of activity across more than 1.5MM product pages from more than 1,200 retail/brand sites between February 24, 2020 and March 24, 2020.
PowerReviews is a software and data company that works with 1000+ leading brands and retailers to bring authenticity and transparency to commerce. The PowerReviews Customer Content Platform has four solutions that help our customers collect and manage customer-generated content to improve the product and customer experience across the customer journey. We help clients meet the evolving need for social proof, accelerating the path to purchase and brand advocacy.
PowerReviews is known for innovation, consultative partnership, and actionable insights, supported by our open platform and approach. Our dedicated team of experts provides thoughtful analysis and turnkey service. PowerReviews is headquartered in Chicago, IL.
Over the last month, we’ve been analyzing consumer activity across more than 1.5MM online product pages from more than 1,200 retail/brand sites.
Between February 24 2020 and March 24 2020, we specifically looked at review submission levels, review length and sentiment, overall conversions/sales and review consumption.
Given this has been quite possibly the most disruptive retail and ecommerce month of all time, the results are – as you can imagine – very revealing.
The surge in online traffic and sales volumes have been well documented. But what impact has COVID-19 had on rating and review trends? And what do these say about broader market trends?
Consumer review behavior: Key trends in COVID-19 era
01
Order volume up as conversions double
02
Review submission levels and sentiment stable but review length falls
03
Review engagement doubles
Order volume and conversions are up but traffic stable
Unsurprisingly and as reported widely elsewhere, our data reveals that online purchase levels are way up on normal during these times of social distancing.
However, product page traffic has been steady – noteworthy given the perception people have been living their lives online over the past few weeks. But shoppers are being way more decisive: conversion rates on March 21 were 101% the level they were less than a month earlier. We attribute these trends to consumers buying lower consideration products so spending less time browsing. This is a time when people are focusing on things they need vs things they want (e.g toothpaste instead of a sofa upgrade).
Traffic steady but conversions skyrocket
Conversion levels peak on March 21 after doubling within a month.
Review submission levels and sentiment stable but review length shortens
The COVID-19 pandemic has had little impact on consumer motivation to provide reviews, nor the underlying sentiment when doing so. We are not able to attribute any variation in either submission levels or overall ratings accompanying each review.
However, we did notice a significant difference in review length – with a 22% fall between February 24 and March 22. We believe this is either because consumers do not have the time time due to increased stress and/or greater need to multitask throughout this period.
Review volume stable
Shift in consumer behavior driven by COVID-19 has minimal impact on review submission levels.
Review length falls significantly but sentiment stable
Review length down by 22% but accompanying rating steady.
Review engagement surges
Reviews have become even more important in the COVID-19 era. Consumers are interacting with review content (sorting, filtering etc) before converting at as much as double the rate they were at the backend of February.
This is clear evidence that shoppers are now seeking significantly greater validation for their purchases, most likely because low inventory levels are forcing them to buy products they hadn’t previously before.
Review engagement increases significantly
Consumer interactions with review content more than doubles during COVID-19 period.
Summary
Ratings and review content is having greater impact on consumer behavior in the COVID-19 era, providing the validation and social proof necessary to drive sales. According to our figures, conversions and review engagement peak within the same two day period (March 21st and 22nd 2020).
But it’s not just the fact that both these metrics increase that is significant, it’s the extent to which this is the case. Both conversions and review engagement more than doubled in less than a month.
However, review length is down in the same period. Given broader consumer trends of high conversion levels and the fact that review submission lags behind time of purchase, the next month represents an excellent opportunity to generate deep and impactful review content from your customers.
Download a copy of the research:
Stay up-to-date on the latest data and insights.
Consumers are losing trust in branded content – and this includes traditional influencer marketing. The result? Influencers can’t convert followers to customers at the same scale.
In a survey from UM Media Agency, only 4% of consumers now trust what influencers say online. Instead, consumers are looking for a more transparent, authentic brand experience. To build this kind of authenticity, smart brands, like Nautica, are looking beyond paid influencers to everyday influencers – people’s peers.
In this recorded webinar, you’ll hear from brand experts such as Jenna Williams, Digital Communications Manager at Nautica on the advantages of leveraging passionate customers and brand enthusiasts, and how they can help brands earn more engagement and feedback.
View this on-demand webinar to learn:
How to build brand trust and authenticity through quality content from customers
How customer-generated content can earn you more customers
How successful brands leverage authentic customer voices to boost engagement and awareness
Webinar Speakers
Peter V.S. Bond, Vice President, CPG/Retail Strategy at PowerReviews
Peter V.S. Bond is Vice President Of CPG/Retail Strategy at PowerReviews, focused on enabling commercial success within the Consumer Packaged Goods/Retail vertical. Peter’s prior experience includes having directed category and brand omnichannel personalization for the retail business unit of CVS Health and roles at dunnhumby and IRI, working with large enterprise CPG and Retail clients like Kroger, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Campbell Soup and others.
Jenna Williams, Digital Communications Manager at Nautica
Jenna Williams is the Digital Communications Manager for Nautica. Prior to joining the digital and social team for Nautica, Jenna worked in PR, social, and a variety of other roles at Nautica. As part of her current role, she manages affiliate search, shopping, paid social, and Facebook channels.
Steve White, Executive Director, WONGDOODY Commerce
Steve White is the Executive Director of WONGDOODY Commerce. Steve helps brands and retailers navigate digital transformation, shopper marketing and human-centric experiences. Before WONGDOODY, Steve spent the past decade working for digital transformation companies Razorfish, R/GA and TBWA creating meaningful change for some of the world’s largest brands including Samsung, Walmart, Revlon, Proctor & Gamble and Starbucks.
