Why People Still Buy From Shops With Bad Reviews

There's nothing more useful than customers' feedback when it comes to online shopping. There's nothing more useless than customer's feedback as well. 

(Yes, I know how that sounds.)

Many people often misunderstand this about reviews: A bad review doesn't mean "don't buy". It means "something happened". 

It's data. Information.

And as a buyer, you decide whether that "something" matters.

Still confused? 👀

Why People Keep Buying From Shops With Bad Reviews

I'll go first: So, for those of you who know me a little, you know my... thing about books. There's no such thing as "too many books". And since I discovered this foreign second-hand online bookstore, it became my favorite place to go.

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of reviews. They fall mostly in the two far opposite sides: Splendid 5-stars and Furious 1-stars. Almost nothing in between.

The Furious People of the 1-stars complain about the same thing: 

"Never arrived"

"Terrible condition"

"Took AGES to receive!"

The Splendid 5-stars also praise the same things:

"Excellent purchase for its price"

"Finally found the missing piece to complete my collection"

"Fast Shipping!"

Those aren't necessarily contradictory, despite looking as such. They're pieces of information.

[Related: The Good Complaints: How Feedback Improves Our Craft]

And my personal calculation was something like:

"I want this particular book. I can't find it anywhere else. I don't care much about condition, I just want to read it and add it to my shelf. It's cheap. I'm not buying a collectible. If it disappears in the mail, I'll be annoyed but not devastated. Risk: High. I'm buying it."

So I made a choice. And my first ever purchase was rather disappointing!

I ordered five books, two of them arrived together three weeks later, all tracking numbers were "blind" (or dead, or simply fake),

no one knew to tell me where the rest were,

customer support was generic and robotic and completely unhelpful, 

one book came in a terrible condition (despite being described as "like new"),

one was described as "acceptable" and I kid you not was in excellent shape,

and the last one... well.

The last one came after two full months, after giving up on it entirely and moving on with my life. 

You're gambling a little here, Kat.

Fine. I can live with that.

Few weeks later I went back to that shop. I still buy from there regularly.

(Yes, I know how that sounds, too.)

(For the record: All books arrive... eventually. It can be after few weeks, or after few months. So my guess is that this shop deliver fast within their own country/region, but it is very slow internationally.)

(PS. Do you know how quickly most of my European countries orders arrive? Within 4-5 days. Do you know how long it takes for an order to arrive in Africa? One full month. Fun Fact: It arrives in Africa in less than 10 days. Don't ask me why it takes ages to reach its final destination.)

(PS2. I wrote about the quirks of International Shipping and Tracking Nightmares here)

My point is: the particular site's risk profile is acceptable for me.

While someone buying a €150 first edition as a birthday gift might look at exactly the same reviews and run screaming in terror.

That's a fantastic lesson!

(Some of my latest second-hand purchases. Acceptable quality. Me enjoying my reading time a lazy, slow mid-August afternoon: Priceless.)

Reviews Are Evidence

A shop with 4.9 stars isn't automatically trustworthy, and a shop with a handful of angry customers isn't automatically terrible.

Here's What to Look For When Reading Reviews

What exactly went wrong?

A one-star review could be about:

The product

About poor quality, maybe inaccurate description. It could be about wrong measurements,
misleading photographs, counterfeit item, or an item that didn't function.

(Fun Fact: My first ever 1-star review was from a customer who received a bracelet with a faulty clasp. I don't make the closure parts myself (I wish!) and the closure broke after just 2 weeks.

I reached out and offered a free replacement to the customer, who once they received it, they edited their feedback, turning the 1-star to 5-stars, leaving a heartfelt comment that left me in tears.

This taught me two important lessons: a) Make sure to find the best possible quality closure parts supplier and stick with them b) Own mistakes and take action.)

The service

About seller not responding to messages, or about rude communication. It could be
about refunding issues, or poor packaging.

Delivery

About slow dispatch, postal delays and customs, lost parcels, courier damage - which are mostly things out of seller's control.

The customer

Customers make mistakes too (no, the customer is not always right but it's part of our job to do our best to fix things.)

Maybe the customer ordered the wrong size, didn't read the description, misunderstood what they were buying. Maybe they expected something the seller never promised, or
didn't understand customs/import fees.

Those are not equivalent problems.

A bad experience is not automatically evidence of a bad seller.

But equally: “It wasn't the seller's fault” doesn't automatically make the customer's bad experience irrelevant.

That's a lovely bit of nuance.

If 30 people say “delivery took six weeks,” it doesn't matter whether the seller personally caused the delay or if postal services are malfunctioning. If you're buying something for Christmas and it's already mid-November, that information is extremely important.

Learn To Read The Pattern, Not The Star Rating

Let's say a shop has 1000 reviews, with a nice mix of splendid 5-stars, meh 3-stars and angry 1-star reviews. 

Ask yourself: What are the 1-star reviewers actually complaining about?

If they're all complaining about international shipping taking longer than expected, that's a completely different signal from "the stones are plastic, not real gemstones!" or "the pictures are AI, not the real product!" etc

One is a logistical risk.

The other is a product integrity problem.

And patterns are the ones that matter the most.

One vague or weird 1-star review might tell you nothing.

But twenty people independently describing the same issue tells you a lot.

[Related: The day AI tried to sell my work back to me]

Some Shops Are Successful Despite Bad Reviews

This is where things get interesting, because there are legitimate reasons.

Maybe these shops are selling something difficult to find. Or maybe they're way cheaper than the rest. Maybe they're one of very few sellers offering that particular item (remember my second-hand online bookstore?)

Maybe they're excellent at one thing and mediocre at another. Or the product itself is good, but fulfillment is inconsistent. 

Maybe customers accept the risk because the reward is worth it. Or buyers simply don't mind the issues previous customers complained about.

It could be that the shop has a huge catalogue and occasional mistakes are inevitable.

That's more or less the reality of online shopping.

(P.S. I wrote about the 6 things online buyers hate the most on Medium, check here]

What Are You Actually Buying?

This matters too, because sometimes you're not buying quality and it's perfectly fine.

(I don't buy quality when I visit my favorite second-hand online bookstore. I buy availability.)

People buy different things for different reasons.

They buy rarity, convenience, price or speed. 

They buy authenticity, craftsmanship, or customization.

They buy a particular aesthetic or something they can't find locally.

Different buyers assign different weights to those things.

So, all the angry 1-star reviews on that bookstore mentioning extremely slow delivery and bad condition of books is irrelevant to me, because I only care about the price and availability of the books I'm searching for.

I'm also willing to wait forever, receive it in a bad shape (I just want to read it!) or not receive it at all (very low price so I don't care - plus, this never actually happened (yet)). 

Same shop, same reviews, completely different buying decisions.

Not Every Review Deserves Equal Weight

A wall of 5-star reviews can sometimes tell you less than a handful of detailed mixed reviews.

Because: “Amazing! Love it! Five stars!” doesn't tell you much, does it.

Whereas: “The bracelet is beautiful, but the leather was stiffer than expected and annoyed me. I applied leather conditioner and after wearing it regularly it softened.”

Now that is great information.

If you are the shop owner, the details your buyers share are a great way to improve your products or services. And if you are a buyer, these details will help you make decisions or reach out to the shop's owner before placing a order.

Oh, and let's talk about fake reviews, shall we?

So. Fake reviews exist. But where exactly "fake" falls into? 

Let's say I own a shop, I put my mom (or brother or best friend or the elderly neighbor upstairs) to buy a bunch of things, she pays, she appears as a verified buyer, I give her the money. The reviews this person leave are fake.

Now, let's say I own a shop, my friends and relatives want to support me, they buy things, they leave splendid reviews. My friends didn't genuinely want something from me, but they did want to support my first steps in the e-commerce world. 

Small businesses absolutely do sometimes have family/friends buying and reviewing. They actually need them to make a start. Are their reviews fake?

(Tell me, fully honest: How likely it is for you to buy from a shop that opened just three months ago, has no sales at all and therefore no reviews? Especially if it's a small business, with handmade items, and not the lowest prices.)

My own site here just turned 1 year old. I built it entirely myself. It took me three full months working from 6 am to midnight, straight. I sent my kids to their grandparents for this exact reason, otherwise I would never make it. 

And once I launched it, three months later...

I imported my Etsy shop's reviews. 

They are reviews about my own items, from real buyers who have been buying from me for the past 5 years. But they are not reviews from this shop, here. 

BuT-bUt-buT-But until people find me here, realize that I am the same shop owner they saw on Etsy, that I make everything myself, that I am trustworthy, and until my site's wheels begin to turn, until I have enough reviews to show on Google or Trust Pilot etc, 

I need my etsy reviews here. 

My customers base includes exactly the sort of person who may be buying an unusual handmade object online from an unknown maker they've never encountered before.

Hm. 

A Practical Review Checklist

Before you let a review decide for you, ask yourself:

1. What exactly went wrong?

2. Was it the product, the seller, the delivery, or the buyer?

3. Is it a one-off or a recurring pattern?

4. Does the problem actually matter to me?

5. Is the thing difficult to find elsewhere?

6. What am I paying in exchange for taking this risk?

7. If something goes wrong, how bad will the consequences actually be?

8. Are the positive reviews specific enough to be useful?

9. Are the negative reviews specific enough to be useful?

10. Am I comfortable with the risk?

What really matters when you read a shop's reviews, is not just a "Oh, so many 5-stars! It's a great shop!"

Because: Great at what? And for who?

or "Oh, there's a bunch of 1-stars, too bad"

Because: What was those 1-stars about? Slow postal service? That's good to know if you're in a rush for a birthday gift, but it doesn't mean the shop itself or the products are not of good quality and worth buying.

Reviews Are There To Help You Make a Better Decision

A shop with hundreds of glowing reviews can still be completely wrong for you.

A shop with a handful of angry customers might still have exactly what you're looking for.

The question isn't: “Is this a good shop?” for all reasons we discussed above, but it's: “Is this a good shop for what I am buying, what I expect, and the risk I'm willing to take?”

Because online shopping is, in the end, a little bit of a gamble. And reviews help you understand the odds. And you decide what you do with that information.

(PS. You can always reach out and ask questions!)