May 15th, 2024, Clifton Mark
Critics may have expertise and industry knowledge, but consumers are more likely to rely on each other to help them make purchase choices. While this is true in all purchase categories, critics still play a significant role in some sectors, such as car-buying.
A recent YouGov survey of 17 international markets shows that more global consumers rely on expert critics when they’re buying a vehicle (13%) or a cell phone than any other product category. Despite this, many more say they depend more on reviews by other consumers (22%), and the greatest proportion (40%) rely on both equally.
How customers use reviews varies with age. In general, younger car-shoppers will rely more heavily on reviews. Among respondents aged 18-24, only 8% say they rely on neither expert nor consumer reviews. More than twice as many of those aged 55 and older (21%) eschew reviews.
Review preference also varies across markets. The APAC region is home to the markets that are most reliant and least reliant on critic reviews of all markets surveyed. Those would be Australia, with 18% saying they rely mostly on critic reviews, and Hong Kong at 5%. Indonesian car buyers are more reliant on reviews of some kind than those in any other market, with only 4% saying they don’t use reviews.
Consumers and India and the UAE are also comparatively reliant on reviews when shopping for a car. In India, 14% say they rely mostly on critics, 27% on consumers and another 46% on both equally. Only 5% say they don’t use reviews. Consumers in the UAE skew slightly more towards consumer car reviews (31%) and, like Indians, only a small portion (6%) skip reviews altogether.
Those markets most likely to avoid reviews when purchasing a vehicle are European. More than a quarter of Germans (28%) avoid the advice of others, the most of any market surveyed. Germany is followed by France (23%), Great Britain (22%) and Sweden (19%).
The US is slightly above average when it comes to car-review skeptics, at 15%. Americans are also among the least likely to rely mainly on expert reviews, with only 11% of them doing so.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 500 and 2002 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in February 2024. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online epresentative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
Tags:
Surveys Serviced, Custom Research
Categories:
Retail, Tech, Media