\ Prompted vs. Unprompted Reviews ENCOURAGE VERIFIED BUYERS Implement a post-purchase email plan to collect reviews from verified buyers. Retailers can expect to see average star ratings increase by prompting What This Means for Brands buyers to submit reviews. OPTIMIZE DEFAULT SETTINGS Offer a “verified buyer only” default setting Having more reviews from verified buyers on your review platform so readers can view can help improve the value of the reviews only those reviews. in multiple ways. When developing their online review strategies, retailers should OFFER BUYER “BADGES” consider the various benefits of prompting In addition to fostering a representative sample reviews from customers. of reviews, retailers can improve the perceived credibility of their sites by including “verified buyer badges.” MITIGATE BIAS Retailers can play an active role in mitigating selection bias and social influence bias in the online review ecosystem by incentivizing reviews from verified buyers. BE TRANSPARENT Be transparent about incentives used to solicit reviews (e.g. entry into a sweepstakes) or consider non-prize incentives (e.g. stars or badges for frequent reviewers). 17 \ How Online Reviews Influence Sales \ spiegel.medill.northwestern.edu