These are the valuation trends for online retail in 2019

The review market is growing unstoppably. The individual providers collect more reviews for stores, services and products every year, but the number of review providers themselves is also growing rapidly. In addition, there are aggregated reviews, i.e. those that are fed from multiple sources, self-built systems, review options on social media or in-store, not forgetting the in-house review services of industry giants such as Amazon or Google.

Sovereignty over a company's online reputation is increasingly shifting into the hands of consumers and is moving further and further away from individual companies (with the exception of online giants such as Amazon, who also set the rules for their own rating system themselves).

The decisive factor for consumers in the abundance of reviews is ultimately the question of which ones are genuine and trustworthy. Only these reviews offer real help when making a purchase decision. The trend towards authentic customer reviews, which come exclusively from customers who have actually used an offer or service, will therefore continue.

Customer ratings as a large content pinboard

What actually is a customer review? Companies have long been present on social media. Public comments under companies' Instagram or Facebook posts are basically nothing more than customer reviews. Here, too, consumers read and form an opinion. Customer reviews are now more than just the questionnaire that a customer receives by email after making a purchase in an online store.

But the path also leads in the other direction: classic customer reviews find their way into social media in the form of quotes or review profiles, where they form a building block in the store's presence.

A company's online reputation is increasingly fed by various sources such as comments and likes on social media, seals of approval, traditional customer reviews, product reviews or publicly answered questions. It is an interplay of different channels and sources. This is why customer reviews in 2019 are more like a large content pinboard with different posts that overlap and complement each other than a clearly structured chart.

Reviews are no longer searched for, but found

It is commonly said that "a user searches for reviews on the Internet". This may still be true for many consumers when they are looking for information as part of a purchase decision. However, as reviews are now available everywhere, the trend is for users to take reviews for granted and simply read them where they are available. This can be Google reviews directly on Google Maps, product reviews on the product page, store reviews on the homepage of a store or review stars in Google Shopping ads.

For this reason, it is becoming increasingly important to keep reviews tangible on all Internet presences of your own products and offers. Not too obtrusive, of course, so that they do not distract from the actual offer, but in such a way that they are easy to find if necessary.

Authentic beats robots

The fact that authentic reviews are best received by consumers sounds like old hat. However, the topic is more relevant than ever due to rapid technological developments. Especially in times of artificial intelligence and automated processes, more and more users are longing for offers from "real people".

Online retailers therefore have to master a balancing act. On the one hand, they benefit from the new technical possibilities, for example to provide customers with tailored offers or save resources. On the other hand, it is crucial to make it clear that there is not just a well-functioning robot behind the website, but people who can also be contacted personally in case of doubt.

There are suitable measures to breathe human life into a website. Retailers can run a blog and respond publicly to customer comments on social media or in the rating profile. Or they can appear with pictures and introduce the employees of the online store. And very important: accessibility. This can be a live chat or a traditional telephone hotline. It is not necessary to be available around the clock and smaller stores in particular cannot afford this. The only important thing is that they communicate when they are available and stick to this.