Customer Reviews Popular Among Online Shoppers

New York, NY, Dec. 22, 2008--Nielsen Online said that 81 percent of online shoppers have read product or retailer reviews by other customers when doing their holiday shopping this year.

Customer reviews are an important research tool foronline consumers, with 71 percent agreeing that consumer reviews make themmore comfortable that they are buying the right product. When evaluating this customer feedback, 63 percent of online shoppers indicated that it was important to have multiple reviews for each product; 14 percent looked for reviews from an established source; and just three percent sought outreviews by people they knew personally.

These results are from a Nielsen Online holiday survey intended tounderstand the mindset of the U.S. online shopper. The online survey wasfielded from Dec.  8 - 15 among approximately 1,000 online shoppers inthe U.S. who did holiday shopping online last year and/or planned to do sothis year.

"Consumer reviews are a must-have for online retailers, especially during the holiday season when shoppers are buying for others in categoriesthey're less familiar with," said Ken Cassar, vice president, industry insights, Nielsen Online. "Perhaps more than any other time of year,consumers are looking for outside feedback for guidance."

Nearly one-fourth, 24 percent, of online shoppers have spent more than $500 so far this holiday season, with 22 percent spending between $100-199 online.

More than half of respondents, 55 percent, indicated that they logged onto the Web site of a local brick and mortar retailer before visiting the physical store. The primary reason for going online first was comparingprices between retailers, followed by checking if an item was in stock andlooking for sales in stores (see Table 3).

"With strong sales growth online in recent years, online sales have becomethe sole focus in assessing Web retailers' holiday season success," saidCassar. "This year, however, retailers should consider the onlinecontribution to store sales, in addition to online sales, when evaluatinghow well the season went."

The most popular reason to shop at a particular online retailer was having made a purchase there in the past, with 62 percent of respondents. Search engines were the second most popular way to find an online retailer, followed by offline catalogs, with 38 and 31 percent of respondents,respectively.