How reviews are displayed matters when it comes to online shopping

This is according to a study by Javad Mousavi, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Arizona in the US, which found that consumers respond more positively to information displayed in simple bar graphs, rather than graphs appearing as proportions of a whole. 

The study, titled ‘Unveiling Stars: How Graphical Displays of Online Consumer Ratings Affect Consumer Perception and Judgment’, has been published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Marketing Research. 

Though previous research has indicated that consumer decisions are significantly influenced by online reviews, most of this work has focused on attributes not fully controlled by e-commerce firms. Limited research has examined how controllable attributes, such as review display formats, affect consumers. 

Neglected aspect of marketing research 

“We address an important yet neglected aspect of online word-of-mouth,” Mousavi says. “This study is a systematic examination of how displaying ratings in various bar graphs significantly affects consumers’ evaluations of products, which may have consequent impacts on sales.” 

Drawing on visual perception research, Mousavi examined the effectiveness of two prominent graphical display formats used by major e-commerce platforms.  

One format displayed ratings in proportional format, that is, as a percentage of the whole, as can be seen on Amazon. The other format, used by Google, displayed ratings in a simple bar graph representing its peak share. 

Across nine studies, Mousavi found compelling evidence that e-commerce consumers prefer ratings displayed in a simple bar graph. Consequently, consumers who consider purchasing a product might think twice when the same ratings are displayed in proportional bar graphs. 

A proportional bar chart, also known as a proportional stacked bar chart, is used to show the size and proportion of data at the same time. A simple bar graph is the most basic graphical representation of data in the form of bars. 

You can find out more about the study here.