How online reviews influence offline sales

Go to any shop today and you’ll likely see someone looking at their phone — they might be texting a friend, checking social media, or reading product reviews and comparing prices. For brands and retailers, it’s that last piece that’s worth paying attention to.

As an industry, we’ve gotten really good at quantifying the impact user-generated content (UGC), like ratings and reviews, has on online shopping behaviors. But what about brick-and-mortar sales? How much of an in-store boost does UGC give brands and retailers? Inquiring marketers need to know.

With data from more than 4.59 million buying signals from 30-plus global retailers in nine countries, we’ve broken down how online reviews and other kinds of UGC impact what’s happening in the aisles across key product categories.

In the following infographic, you’ll learn how online reviews influence brick-and-mortar sales — and why the state of shopping is no longer about e-commerce and brick and mortar, but the omnichannel.