A new study for local businesses says you can’t ignore online reviews about you!

Yelp, is one of the biggest e-catalogues that help users find local businesses and events around the globe. It lists over 117 million monthly unique visitors and over 47 million local reviews from members. Nielsen, one of the biggest American global information and measurement company on consumers and consumer behavior, conducted a research on Yelp users in order to prove the enormous impact of social media in consumers decisions.

Consumers are no longer depending on ads to be informed on new products or services and decide for their purchases. They will ask people online; view each product or service’s ratings and then purchase. And that’s official.

According to this new Nielsen study, 51% of Yelp users, that is more than half, make their local purchase decisions after visiting the review site and the online ratings for each local business! Furthermore, more than 9 in 10 said that the occasional use of Yelp results in their purchases from a local business!

What about the credibility of online reviews, you may ask. There was a separate study by Nielsen that found that 70% of the consumers consider online reviews among the most trusted sources of information and specifically “somewhat trustworthy” or “completely trustworthy”!

Mobile Yelpers were a little higher and that is also a very important aspect of the research. As it seems more and more consumers tend to check online ratings for local businesses such as restaurants or cafés right before they step in!

It is now more than obvious that in today’s digital world it comes natural for most consumers to first seek, read, talk and decide online for their purchases and then  show up in your shop’s doorstep. So, if you wish to keep up, you should be part of this procedure right at the first click!