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Retail reviews platform BazaarVoice has released a new report called “The ROBO economy: How reading reviews impacts offline sales” in an effort to document the impact of online reviews on in-store shopping. The term “ROBO” was coined by Yahoo and is an acronym for “Research Online, Buy Offline.”
The report examines how shopping has evolved in our increasingly connected world and the extent to which consumer-generated content (CGC) influences purchases. BazaarVoice explains CGC refers to all forms of digital content people create about a product or service, including a critical rating or comprehensive review, as well as brief comments, a photo or a video. Due to the rise of mobile, the influence of CGC now extends into all areas of sales, including in-store research.
BazaarVoice researched consumer behavior across hundreds of brands and categories to understand how often shoppers seek CGC before buying online or in-store. Its research discovered 54 percent of online buyers read online reviews before making a purchase, in comparison to 39 percent of in-store buyers.
For automotive specifically, 40 percent of products are researched online before being purchased offline. Clearly, the ROBO shopper is highly significant and provides an important marketing opportunity. This phenomenon is especially common among millennial shoppers, with 54 percent saying CGC will influence an in-store purchase.
The report indicates retailers must have the right type of reviews available to influence omni-channel shoppers across platforms in real time. Citing Google research, the report says that 82 percent of shoppers use their smartphones in stores to look at product pricing and reviews, among other things.
For dealerships, it’s important to have fresh and relevant website content in order to be ranked high in Google’s organic search results, as this will directly impact acquiring a shopper at the top of the research funnel. It is also important to have consumer content available that showcases not only products, but also reviews of the sales and service experience to help drive traffic to the dealership itself. Additionally, it’s essential to have accurate and complete product information available on the dealer’s website, to prevent in-store shoppers from seeking it out elsewhere while researching on their smartphone and potentially choosing to make the purchase from a different dealership.
In general, BazaarVoice says for every $1 of online revenue that is influenced by reviews, that impact is multiplied offline by 4 or 5 times. It is therefore important for dealerships to offer sufficient content and reviews that will influence and support offline purchases. Although buying decisions typically begin with a certain level of uncertainty, having effective consumer-generated content available helps to instill the confidence in shoppers that they are making the right choices, which will ultimately help lead to increased sales.
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