4 Things We Learned From 16,739 Reviews of Australian Clothing Shops

Lately one of the most shared posts in my Facebook feed has been pictures of abandoned shopping malls in the US. The Internet has changed many aspects of our lives and shopping is one of the most evident ones. Everything is now available online and what used to be a visit to the local shopping mall is now purchased in the comfort of one's home.

Shopping for clothes is no different and for many consumers, going to an actual store is now the exception, not the rule it was years ago. Shopping with friends has gone virtual and with more efficient logistics, purchases can arrive within one day. With more choices than ever, ProductReview wanted to provide insight into how Australian Clothing Shops are performing. We analysed the 16,739 reviews we have received as well as the 305,918 consumers who researched our Clothing Shops category in the last 12 months.

Looking through our data, four key insights emerged:

Reviews are helping validate an existing decision. Past research into categories (Home Loans, ISPs, Car Insurance, etc.) showed consumers using reviews to identify providers and often researching several listings. For Clothing Shops, we saw reviews happening later in the buying process. Instead of researching from where to buy, consumers were checking to see the rating of the Clothing Shop right before buying.

Poor reviews can disrupt the path-to-purchase. For Clothing Shops with poor reviews, consumers researched for a longer time. Consumers can often spend 5 times as long researching when they see poor reviews. These poor reviews on a shop's listing can disrupt or even stop an existing purchase and lower conversion rates.

Reviews are critical for increasing online conversion rates. With reviews now widespread, consumers now not only want to read reviews, they expect to read reviews. By having reviews and "social proof" from reviews (like a ratings badge) readily available, Clothing Stores help enable consumers to take the next step in the purchase process.

Let reviews be your closer. One of the few areas where online shops operate at a disadvantage is that there is no salesperson to close the sale. We have all heard the phrase "Can I go ahead and ring this up for you?" while shopping for clothes. The content and scores in reviews can be one of your tools to help with that final close.

To provide more insight, we have created an interactive infographic to help display this data. This infographic will show how many reviews we have received, how many consumers are researching, and which Clothing Shops are the highest rated, most reviewed, and most popular. You can view the infographic below or click the link to see an interactive version online.

Australian Clothing Shops: April 2017 Interactive Infographic