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Why Fake Reviews Hurt Retailers

Going the route of soliciting false reviews can be appealing to brands and retailers for a number of reasons. Maybe previous efforts to collect reviews from customers missed the mark or maybe the negative effects of having no reviews at all are being felt. While fake reviews may seem like the magic bullet, relying on them for customer feedback has the potential to open a Pandora’s box of trouble.  

Here’s how:

They Have A Negative Effect on Trust

Could you imagine how it may feel to read a customer review detailing their experience with a retailer in a review, only for your experience to be completely different? It’s likely that a sense of shock, anger or disappointment would probably set in pretty quickly. When customers read and analyze reviews, authenticity is among the top qualities they’re seeking. After a retailer misleads a customer with inauthentic reviews, customers are likely to avoid them at all cost. Research shows, 82% of customers refuse to shop with a retailer they’ve lost trust in. Taking that into consideration, why risk a potential customer for life all over false reviews?

Besides providing potential customers with an inaccurate depiction of what a retailer has to offer, fake reviews can lead to many more serious actions being taken. In recent years, businesses across the board have been subjected to enormous legal fees and fines relating to false reviews. Aside from the court costs, the bad publicity that comes from being caught soliciting fake reviews can feel insurmountable. Upon being caught for accepting and sharing fake reviews, bad PR may become just one out of many potential problems for retailers.

They Can Result in Legal Action Being Taken

Point blank, sharing fabricated reviews is illegal. As the problem of fake reviews populating ecommerce retailers persists, the Federal Trades Commission has begun cracking down on them in recent years. Although incentivizing reviews is fair game, the FTC imposes a $10,000 fine for every violation found. Given the hefty fine attached, its fair to wonder why anyone would take that risk all for fake reviews. It’s not uncommon for businesses who use fake reviews to pay strangers to leave one against a competitor or for a business owner to demand their employees to write positive reviews in order to entice customers to shop with them. Either way, it’s a risk that retailers should understand clearly before moving forward with the idea.

Unfortunately for customers, legal action being taken by the FTC isn’t enough to combat fake reviews. A study revealed that nearly three quarters of all shoppers feel the retail industry isn’t doing enough in the fight against them. Making the determination of which reviews are real and which aren’t can be a huge struggle for shoppers. Imagine shopping online with a brand or retailer you aren’t familiar with. Having no prior experience with them, you’re relying on reviews for feedback. The problem is each review varies wildly. Some five-star reviews have punctuation and grammatical errors while the negative reviews seem perfectly fine. This type of confusion sends you straight to their competitor. Among one of the biggest detriments of negative reviews is the fact that they often drown out the voice of the customer.

They Take Attention Away From Real Feedback

Taking attention away from customers who’ve taken time to provide real insight about their experience with a retailer can often come back to bite in the end. Imagine leaving a lengthy review, along with a couple of photos for a retailer who solicits a review from you. A few days later for you to go to their website to see your review sandwiched in between two others that are clearly fake. There’s a good chance you’d avoid leaving feedback for that retailer ever again, and possibly abandon them entirely. Retailers who rely solely on authentic user generated content from real shoppers never have to worry about those types of issues.

Although fake reviews are becoming more and more of an issue for retailers, ratings and reviews still play a key role in earning the trust of new customers. Did you know that during 2020, 87% of local shoppers used online reviews to help make a buying decision? That’s a 6% increase from 2019, and a great reason to get in touch with one of our experts to schedule a demo to find out why authentic user generated content eliminates the need for fake reviews.

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