How Many Customers Read Reviews Before Buying

Introduction

A staggering share of online shoppers rely on other customers' experiences before committing to a purchase. Reviews shape trust, reduce perceived risk, and often determine whether a visitor converts or moves on. For merchants dealing with "app fatigue" and a crowded tech stack, reviews are one of the highest-leverage retention and conversion tools available.

Short answer: The majority of customers read reviews before buying. Most studies find that roughly nine out of ten shoppers consult reviews at some point in the decision process, and many people read multiple reviews—commonly between a few and around ten—before they feel confident enough to buy. The exact number depends on the product category, purchase price, and the buyer’s risk tolerance.

In this post we’ll explain the key numbers you need to know about how many customers read reviews before buying, why those numbers vary by context, and what practical steps merchants can take to turn review-reading behavior into measurable revenue and long-term retention. We’ll connect those tactics to Growave’s merchant-first philosophy and show how our retention platform helps you collect, display, and act on reviews while keeping your tech stack lean—More Growth, Less Stack.

Thesis: Reviews are not just proof points — they are growth levers. When merchants collect the right kinds of feedback, show it in the right places, and respond the right way, reviews increase conversion, average order value, and customer lifetime value.

What The Numbers Say: How Many Customers Read Reviews Before Buying

Headline figures you should remember

• A large majority of consumers consult reviews: commonly reported rates cluster around the low-90s percent range for general purchase decisions.
• Many buyers read multiple reviews before deciding. Common findings include consumers forming an opinion after reading 1–6 reviews, while others report an average of about 10 reviews read before trust is established.
• The number of reviews consumers read scales with purchase importance: low-cost items often require fewer reviews; big-ticket purchases prompt deeper research.

These headline numbers establish that reviews are near-universal inputs into purchasing decisions. But the details matter, which is why we break the variations down below.

How the typical buyer behaves while reading reviews

Buyers rarely skim one lone review and click checkout. Their path often follows a simple logic:

• Quick reassurance shoppers look for a handful of recent, relevant comments.
• Value-seekers scan for patterns (quality, sizing, shipping).
• Risk-averse shoppers and B2B buyers dig deep: they read several reviews across platforms and look for photos or long-form testimonials.

Studies commonly find a sizable share of consumers will read between three and ten reviews before they feel confident. Younger shoppers often place more emphasis on volume and images; older shoppers prioritize consistent star ratings and credible platform signals.

Variance by product type and price

The number of reviews a customer reads before buying is not a fixed constant:

• Low-cost, low-risk products: shoppers often read fewer reviews (sometimes one or two) and prioritize immediacy.
• Mid-range purchases: customers typically read 3–6 reviews to check for repeated issues and confirm fit or function.
• High-ticket purchases and services: customers read many reviews across platforms, often 10 or more, and place special weight on detailed experiences and after-sales support descriptions.

Service purchases and local businesses follow similar trends: people want confirmation of quality and how the business handles issues, which increases review-reading depth.

Platform differences: where people read reviews

Customers consult multiple sources. The most common destinations include:

• Marketplace product pages (where available), because buyers want product-specific experience.
• Major search and mapping platforms for local businesses and services.
• Social channels for visual proof (photos, videos, before/after shots).
• The merchant’s own product pages, where curated review widgets and verified-buyer tags are visible.

Google and primary marketplace listings are usually top-of-funnel reads. Once interest is piqued, many shoppers will drill down to merchant pages for more detail.

Why Customers Read Reviews: The Psychology and Practical Drivers

The trust problem reviews solve

Buying online involves uncertainty. Reviews address three common buyer concerns:

• Authenticity: Are product claims real?
• Reliability: Will the product perform and arrive as promised?
• Service: How does the merchant react when something goes wrong?

Reviews offer direct social proof that reduces perceived risk and fills gaps left by product descriptions and marketing.

What shoppers look for in reviews

When people read reviews, they are usually looking for a small set of signals that deliver disproportionate clarity:

• Volume and recency: Are many people buying now?
• Balanced feedback: Multiple viewpoints that include pros and cons feel more credible.
• Visual proof: Photos and videos increase confidence, especially for appearance-related products.
• Response behavior: Brands that reply to reviews show they care about customers and aftercare.
• Specific details: Sizing, fit, material, and how the product performs under common scenarios.

Those signals explain why consumers often read more than one review: a single positive line is rarely persuasive without corroborating context.

Why perfect ratings can backfire

A stream of unblemished five-star ratings can look unnatural. Shoppers often prefer an honest mix that includes constructive criticism because it signals transparency. Brands that publish only glowing feedback risk losing credibility. Responding to negative reviews and making fixes visible can be more persuasive than hiding complaints.

Practical Benchmarks: How Many Reviews Should You Have On Your Product?

Minimum viable social proof

• Any review is better than none. Even one verified review increases trust relative to no reviews.
• For new products, aim to collect at least a handful of reviews quickly—photo-enabled if possible.

Short-term targets for meaningful credibility

• For most consumer products, getting to 10–50 reviews provides visible momentum. Many shoppers form a clear opinion around the 4–10 review range, so hitting that band unlocks trust for a broader audience.
• For local businesses and services, aim for higher counts on key platforms (e.g., dozens to hundreds depending on category) because consumers compare across places.

Long-term benchmarks for category leadership

• High-volume categories and flagship products benefit from 100+ reviews, with consistent recent activity. A larger review base reduces variance and increases conversions at scale.
• Frequent review inflow (fresh reviews monthly) is critical; recency often matters as much as raw volume.

These targets are directional and depend on category, price, and customer lifetime value. The key is to increase volume and freshness while keeping authenticity front and center.

How Review-Reading Behavior Impacts Conversion and Retention

Conversion uplift from reviews

Reviews influence not just whether someone clicks buy, but how much they spend and whether they return. Positive, detailed reviews increase conversion rates, while even small improvements in star ratings can lift revenue on a percentage basis. Visual UGC (user-generated photos and videos) typically delivers the highest conversion gains because it reduces doubt about fit and quality.

Reviews as content for retention

Reviews don’t stop influencing customers at checkout. They feed into retention in multiple ways:

• Post-purchase confidence reduces returns and increases repurchase likelihood.
• Reviews with product usage details create realistic expectations, reducing churn.
• Engaging reviewers and featuring them in loyalty programs fosters deeper brand relationships.

When reviews are integrated into lifecycle marketing (welcome emails, post-purchase follow-ups, and loyalty touchpoints), they become a continuous source of credibility and reactivation.

Where To Show Reviews For Maximum Impact

High-leverage places to publish social proof

• Product pages: the single best place for conversion impact. Include a mix of star ratings, recent reviews, and customer photos.
• Category and collection pages: show snippets to aid browse-to-buy flow.
• Cart and checkout: display a compact reassurance message with a top review or rating.
• Homepage and landing pages: highlight best-in-class reviews for promotional pushes.
• Email and SMS flows: post-purchase review requests and UGC-driven campaigns.
• Social and Instagram shops: visual proof reaches discovery audiences and feeds retargeting.

Each placement should present the most relevant proof for that moment. For example, a product page might showcase technical reviews and fit guidance, while an Instagram checkout should lead with photos and short testimonials.

Review schema and search results

Implementing structured review markup (schema) can increase the likelihood of rich snippets showing up in search results and improve click-through rates. Google’s review-focused updates emphasize real user reviews and penalize low-quality or AI-generated summaries, so honest, verified feedback is more likely to be rewarded in organic search.

How To Get More Reviews—Ethical, Effective Tactics

Make it easy and timely

• Automate post-purchase review requests shortly after expected delivery—this is when customers are most likely to respond.
• Offer multiple channels for leaving feedback: email, SMS, in-account prompts, and on-site widgets.
• Ask for specifics and allow photos or videos to increase the usefulness of submissions.

Incentives without crossing lines

• Use loyalty points or non-monetary rewards to encourage honest reviews. Be transparent that rewards are for the act of reviewing, not for leaving only positive feedback.
• Avoid conditioned or undisclosed incentives; authenticity matters more than volume.

Use surveys to harvest reviews

Follow up NPS or CSAT surveys with simple paths to publish a review. Customers who respond positively to a satisfaction survey are more likely to write a review when prompted.

Ask in the right voice

Personalize requests and explain why the review matters to other customers. Short, clear CTAs with direct links to the review flow convert better than generic requests.

Encourage visual content

Encourage customers to include photos or videos by showing examples of how UGC helps other shoppers. Visual submissions dramatically increase trust and are especially valuable for social channels.

How To Respond To Reviews: Tone, Timing, and Tactics

Why response matters

Customers expect brands to respond. Replies demonstrate care, resolve issues publicly, and convert detractors into advocates. A thoughtful response can even outperform removing a negative review because it shows problem-solving in public.

Best response practices

• Respond quickly to negative reviews, ideally within a few days.
• Keep the tone helpful and solution-focused; avoid defensive language.
• Offer concrete next steps—refunds, replacements, troubleshooting—where appropriate.
• Use positive reviews as marketing opportunities: thank customers and invite them to share photos or join a loyalty program.

Mistakes Merchants Make With Reviews (And How To Fix Them)

• Ignoring negative feedback: Respond promptly and transparently.
• Hiding or removing unflattering reviews: Embrace balance; it feels more authentic.
• Relying on star ratings alone: Encourage text and images to explain the rating.
• Fragmenting review collection across too many tools: Centralize to avoid "app fatigue" and get clearer insights.

We built Growave to address the last issue: centralized collection, display, and activation of reviews as part of a unified retention suite—More Growth, Less Stack. Our Social Reviews module helps merchants gather reviews, display them across product pages and landing pages, and surface visual UGC where it converts best. See how merchants use customer feedback to inspire product pages on our inspiration hub for practical examples and layout ideas (see how other merchants use reviews).

A Practical Implementation Roadmap (Phased, Actionable)

Below is a phased roadmap we recommend for merchants who want to turn review-reading behavior into a predictable conversion and retention engine. Each phase has tactical steps you can implement this week and scale over months.

Phase: Audit and prioritize

• Review current coverage: where are reviews visible today and how fresh are they?
• Identify high-impact pages: product pages, cart, and top landing pages.
• Benchmark current metrics: conversion rate, average order value, return rate, and review volume.

Phase: Collection and activation

• Set up automated post-purchase review requests timed to expected delivery.
• Add a one-click photo/video upload to the review flow.
• Use satisfaction surveys to funnel promoters toward public reviews.

Phase: Display and trust signals

• Add review snippets and photo galleries to product pages.
• Surface recent reviews on collection pages and in email.
• Implement review schema for richer search results.

Phase: Response and amplification

• Create templates and SLAs for responses to reviews.
• Highlight resolved issues in follow-ups and in product updates.
• Use top reviews and customer photos in paid ads and organic social.

Phase: Measurement and iteration

• Track how review volume and sentiment impact conversion and retention.
• A/B test review placements and the content shown during checkout.
• Iterate on timing and creative of review requests to increase response and photo rates.

If you’d like to walk through this roadmap with our team, book a demo and we’ll show how these steps work inside our retention platform. Book a demo to see our retention suite in action. book a demo

How Growave Helps You Capture Value From Review-Reading Behavior

We built Growave as a merchant-first retention platform that replaces multiple tools and keeps your stack focused. Our philosophy—More Growth, Less Stack—means you can collect reviews, turn them into shoppable content, and use them across loyalty and referral programs without stitching together five to seven separate systems.

Social Reviews: collect and show verified feedback

Our Social Reviews feature centralizes review collection and displays customer feedback in authentic, conversion-focused ways across your storefront. It encourages visual content, supports verified-buyer workflows, and helps you present the exact signals shoppers read before buying. Learn how to collect and showcase customer reviews that drive purchase confidence. collect and showcase customer reviews

Loyalty & Rewards: turn reviewers into repeat buyers

When customers leave reviews, reward them through points or perks to encourage future purchases. Our Loyalty & Rewards solution incentivizes repeat behavior while preserving authenticity—customers earn value for the act of sharing their experience, not for leaving only positive feedback. Read about integrating feedback loops into your loyalty experience to raise review rates and retention. learn more about rewards that encourage reviews

Inspiration and examples

Sometimes a layout or placement change is all it takes. Our inspiration gallery showcases how other merchants present reviews on product pages, in email, and across social channels. If you want usable layout ideas and copy examples, browse how merchants highlight customer voices to improve conversions. see how other merchants use reviews

All-in-one value

Because Growave combines reviews, loyalty, wishlists, referrals, and shoppable social features, you avoid fragmented dashboards and attribution gaps. That integrated approach improves your team’s ability to track how review volume and sentiment feed into conversion, AOV, and LTV. We’re trusted by 15,000+ brands and maintain a 4.8-star rating on the Shopify App Store—proof that a unified retention solution delivers both trust and performance. If you prefer to install directly and configure quickly, you can easily install on Shopify and start your free trial. install on Shopify

Tactics That Increase The Number Of Reviews Customers Read (And Convert)

If customers typically read between a few and ten reviews before buying, you can influence that behavior to accelerate conversion. Below are tactics that increase both the number of reviews customers read and the likelihood they convert after reading them.

• Lead with the most persuasive reviews: highlight reviews that address common purchase blockers (fit, durability, color accuracy).
• Use visual galleries: make photos easy to find so visitors see real-world usage quickly.
• Surface micro-reviews in lists: show star averages and a two-line snippet on collection pages to draw shoppers deeper.
• Promote recent reviews: freshness matters. Show recent feedback prominently.
• Combine reviews with trust badges and verified-buyer tags to improve credibility.
• Use on-site sorting and filtering (size, use-case, rating) so shoppers can find reviews relevant to their situation.

These tactics shorten the trust-building loop and reduce the number of additional touchpoints a shopper needs before buying.

Measuring Impact: What KPIs To Track

To understand how your review strategy affects business outcomes, track a mix of qualitative and quantitative metrics:

• Review volume and velocity (how many per week/month)
• Photo/video submission rate
• Average star rating and sentiment trends
• Conversion rate lift on pages with review enhancements
• Changes in average order value for products with strong review presence
• Return rate and product defect signals (to detect quality issues early)
• Repeat purchase rate and CLTV for reviewers versus non-reviewers

Correlate review activity with revenue and retention to justify resource allocation and to prioritize which products to amplify.

SEO Considerations: Reviews and Search Performance

Reviews are content—fresh, user-generated content that search engines value when it’s high quality. A steady stream of authentic reviews helps in two ways:

• On-page relevance: reviews add product-specific keywords and long-tail queries that improve organic rankings.
• Rich snippets: structured review data can make your listing more clickable in search.

Google’s updates emphasize real user reviews and penalize low-quality or AI-generated content. Focus on verified, descriptive feedback and use schema markup to give search engines clear signals. Reviews also improve internal site engagement metrics (time on page, lower bounce), which supports organic ranking indirectly.

Legal and Ethical Safeguards

Maintain transparency to preserve trust:

• Do not publish fake reviews or manipulate star averages.
• Disclose incentives when applicable.
• Avoid asking customers to change a review in exchange for compensation; instead, resolve the issue and let customers update voluntarily.
• Keep a record of review origins and verification to defend against accusations of manipulation.

Authenticity protects conversions and long-term brand trust. Consumers expect transparency and can quickly detect inauthentic behavior.

Common Mistakes To Avoid When Acting On Review Data

• Treating reviews as a vanity metric. Volume matters, but sentiment and signal relevance matter more.
• Centralizing moderation behind one person without clear policies; inconsistent responses damage credibility.
• Only showcasing perfect reviews; a balanced voice is more persuasive.
• Isolating review collection from loyalty and retention efforts. Reviews should feed into customer engagement programs.

Growave lets you centralize review workflows, tie reviewer behavior to loyalty profiles, and automate key follow-ups so you avoid these common pitfalls.

Case-Proof Best Practices (Actionable Checklists)

Below are compact, actionable checklists you can adopt quickly. These are practical rules-of-thumb based on how customers read reviews and what persuades them.

• Review collection:
  • Automate a sequence that asks for feedback post-delivery
  • Request photos or video in the same flow
  • Offer simple incentives that reward honesty, not positivity
• Review presentation:
  • Show top benefits and one recent critical review on product pages
  • Add filters for size, use-case, rating
  • Surface photos prominently
• Review operations:
  • Respond to negative reviews within a few days
  • Aggregate review signals into product improvement meetings
  • Link high-quality reviewers to loyalty perks
• Promotion:
  • Repurpose top photo reviews in paid and organic campaigns
  • Feature well-written reviews in email flows to support cross-sell and reactivation

Each tactic aligns with the observed behavior that customers read multiple reviews and look for different signals depending on purchase context.

Final Checklist Before You Launch A Review Strategy

• Audit existing review coverage and prioritize product pages.
• Implement an automated collection flow with photo support.
• Add review widgets where they matter most (product pages, cart).
• Establish response templates and SLAs for public replies.
• Integrate reviews into loyalty and referral campaigns to increase retention.
• Measure the impact and iterate monthly.

If you want hands-on help implementing these steps in your store and seeing the results faster, we offer demos where we map a growth plan to your roadmap. Book a demo and we’ll show the setup that other merchants use to convert review-ready shoppers. book a demo

Conclusion

Customers overwhelmingly read reviews before buying, and they often read more than one. The number varies by product type, price, and buyer profile—but the strategic takeaway is consistent: collect authentic reviews, present them where buyers look, and respond transparently. When reviews are treated as both conversion drivers and retention signals, they create compounding value that boosts conversion, increases AOV, and raises lifetime value.

We built Growave to make that process simpler and more powerful for merchants—consolidating reviews, loyalty, referrals, and social proof into one merchant-first platform so you get More Growth, Less Stack. We’re trusted by thousands of brands and have a strong rating in the Shopify ecosystem because we focus on outcomes that matter to merchants: retain customers, increase LTV, and drive sustainable growth.

Explore our plans and start your 14-day free trial to see how a single retention platform can centralize reviews and unlock growth. see plan details and start your free trial

FAQ

How many reviews do customers typically read before trusting a product?

Most consumers consult reviews before buying. Many form an opinion after reading between one and six reviews, while broader trust is often reached around ten reviews. The exact number depends on product complexity, price, and how much risk the buyer perceives.

Do reviews matter more for certain demographics?

Yes. Younger shoppers (Gen Z and Millennials) often prioritize review volume and visual content like photos and videos. Older shoppers may focus more on consistent star ratings and platform credibility. Tailor your collection strategy based on your target audience.

Can incentivizing reviews harm credibility?

Incentives can increase response rates, but transparency is key. Rewarding the act of reviewing (e.g., loyalty points) is acceptable when you don’t require only positive feedback and you disclose the incentive. Authenticity must be maintained.

How fast should I respond to negative reviews?

Respond quickly—ideally within a few days. A timely, helpful, and solution-oriented response can repair trust publicly and often reduces churn more than simply removing the review.

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We help merchants collect, showcase, and act on reviews as part of a complete retention suite that replaces multiple tools and reduces operational complexity. Install on Shopify to get started or view our pricing to choose the plan that fits your growth stage. install on Shopify | see plan details