A consumer research survey looking into whether customers would appreciate a trust signal helping them to validate the authenticity of online reviews.

Today, perusing through ratings and reviews and other user-generated content (UGC) has become a foundational part of the routine of online shopping. It's how you truly experience a product without being able to see it in person - by hearing about the intricacies of a real product experience from one of your fellow shoppers.

But even though we shop online so frequently (100% of shoppers we surveyed said they shop online at least once a month!) and therefore are utilizing UGC just as frequently, due to nefarious actors, we're unfortunately having to spend a portion of that time validating the authenticity of that UGC.

Three quarters (75%) of our survey respondents are at least somewhat concerned about encountering fake reviews when shopping online. Only 9% said they're either not very concerned or not concerned at all.

So, how can we solve this problem? Not just to make e-commerce more efficient but also to make UGC more trustworthy and transparent. A trust signal (also referred to as a trustmark) might be the answer.