How China Drives Online Reviews

Every year, Clavis Insight harvests millions and millions of customer reviews for products across a wide range of categories. Reviews online are incredibly important, driving shoppers to complete a purchase at much higher rates than traditional brand advertisements.

Every year, Clavis Insight harvests millions and millions of customer reviews for products across a wide range of categories. Reviews online are incredibly important, driving shoppers to complete a purchase at much higher rates than traditional brand advertisements.

In the first half of 2017, Clavis Insight harvested over 45 million reviews around the world. Most surprisingly, 85% of all online reviews were written in China, 6 times as many in the United States!

Total review counts in "rest of the world" lag
beind China and the United States

Previously, Clavis Insight put together a guide for western brands looking to win in the Chinese eCommerce market. One of the significant call outs was the importance of reviews:

“One of the key take-aways every brand must know is to never underestimate the power of user-generated content – and this is true no matter the market. Somewhat amazingly, consumers have more trust in the perspective of strangers than in a brand’s marketing and advertising claims. According to BazaarVoice, online shoppers in the United States trust reviews up to 3x more than advertising, and more than half of them read reviews before purchasing. Furthermore, reviews can add as much as a 44% sales lift. While those statistics are true for the American market, they are even more true in China.”

Many brands think they are at the mercy of reviews, but reviews make up a core part of the perfect content page. Brands like Unilever have been talking about how to increase reviews on products for years, and in China this is essential. Brands that are proactive in courting reviews, as well as responding to negative ones, are going to have more powerful pages than brands without a strategy. 

Ratings & Reviews are only one part of the perfect eCommerce product page. Product images, as well as product page content, aid in driving shoppers to add an item to their cart. As a global leader in the eCommerce ecosystem for product manufacturers, we are often asked for best practices and insights into eCommerce optimization. While eCommerce is decades old, the rapid evolution of online retailer technology and innovation means manufacturers constantly have new opportunities to win at the shelf. In China, that means excelling at onine Ratings & Reviews. 

Danny Silverman
Article by:
Danny Silverman
Marketing

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