\ Variable: Presence of Negative Reviews Negative Reviews Establish Credibility Previous PowerReviews research found that 82% of shoppers WHY NEGATIVE REVIEWS MATTER: specifically seek out negative reviews. This is consistent with our theory that near-perfect ratings undermine the credibility • Shoppers are skeptical of 1 Readers are skeptical of reviews that are too of the review. overly positive reviews positive and, in many cases, a negative online review is seen as more credible. • Most shoppers actively seek Additional research by social commerce specialist Revoo out negative reviews indicates that consumers spend four times as long on a site when they interact with negative reviews, with a 67% • The presence of negative reviews brings increase in conversion rate.2 authenticity to a site’s review content 1 PowerReviews (2014): The Proven Power of Reviews 2 RevooBlog, “Bad Reviews Are Good For Business” Maslowska, E., Malthouse, E.C., and Bernritter, S. (2017), “Too Good to be True: The Role of Online Reviews’ Features in Probability to Buy, International Journal of Advertising.” 36(1) 142-163. 10 \ How Online Reviews Influence Sales \ spiegel.medill.northwestern.edu