Positive reviews can more than double searches for some fashion products

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 1, 2022

​Good product reviews can make or break consumer searches for key fashion items, driving traffic to search engines, a new study claims. 

Based on research among 1,000 consumers as well as looking at more than 7,000 product reviews on Google Shopping and 450,000 monthly Google searches, the study claims that items with good reviews can see the search demand rising strongly and even doubling.

Produced by Trustpilot and e-commerce specialist Remarkable Commerce, it said that among 25 popular fashion items, those with the highest number of 4 and 5-star reviews saw a search growth on average of 34% in the last three months. 

And some trend-led items saw search volumes surging even higher. One item in the research, a crochet dress, saw a 234% increase in searches in the last year, while sleeveless blazers, which had a 98.2% 4-star and above score, also saw a 125% jump in searches in the last three months.

Other fashion items that saw rising search volumes included a blue satin dress, green pleated skirt, black pleated skirt, and a green satin dress.

Consumers appear to be a little more likely to review a fashion item they’re happy about, with an average 4-star review of 91% on items with over 400 reviews, compared to 82.3% on items with fewer than 200 reviews.

Reviews of fashion businesses make up an estimated 13% of all reviews on Trustpilot’s platform and separate research has found found that overall, 82% of fashion consumers claim they find ratings and reviews useful, which is only 5% lower than that of beauty and wellbeing.

Brad Houldsworth, head of product at Remarkable Commerce, said that “consumers can have a general consensus on the quality of the apparel item before they even click ‘add to basket’. Online fashion, while convenient to order, doesn’t give you the benefit of being able to try it on, so e-commerce reviews can be a massive boon to customers.

“Reviews not only help people to understand the pros and cons of a product, but they also encourage customers to look outside of the box and consider a brand or product that they might not have been familiar with before. For e-commerce sites, it’s no longer a situation of if you have product reviews on your site - it’s when you start to implement them.”