The State of Online Reviews: For 97% of Americans, reviews shape purchasing decisions

Right now, big purchases feel difficult

If you want to understand how the average American consumer feels about the economy, start by looking at how many people are making major purchases — like buying a home or car, paying for renovations, covering college tuition or tackling major medical bills — and how many are holding back.

Last year, more than a third of consumers (36.5%) sat out big purchases entirely.

• Older generations are holding back. More Generation Xers (43%) and baby boomers (42.5%) skipped major purchases than millennials (31.6%) or Generation Zers (32%).
• There’s a mild gender gap. About two in five women (40.2%) held back from significant spending last year, but less than a third of men (32.6%) did.

Of the Americans who did make a large financial commitment in 2025, buying or leasing a vehicle was the most common purchase. Nearly 30% of Americans reported buying or leasing a car.

Describing major purchases in 2025, over a third of Americans (37.8%) said the experience was “very” or “extremely” stressful.

• Younger consumers are feeling the most stress. Roughly two in five millennials (40.8%) and Gen Zers (39.2%) reported high amounts of stress around major purchases. That’s roughly twice the rate of big-spending blues seen among baby boomers (20.7%).
• The hardest part? Choosing. Almost a quarter said the top difficulty in making a big purchase was “knowing which option was truly the best” (24.2%).

Overall, only a fraction of consumers feel at ease making a big buy right now. Just one in seven respondents (14.2%) say they feel comfortable making major purchases under current economic conditions. Twice as many men (18.9%) as women (9.6%) report this consumer confidence.

The good news? While a fair share of Americans are cautious about the state of the economy right now, nearly a third (30.9%) are willing to move forward with major purchases anyway.

Reviews dominate — but where consumers find them is shifting

The majority of Americans (77%) say online reviews are important when making purchasing decisions, but some see them as absolutely critical: A third of shoppers won’t buy anything without reading reviews first.

• Results vary by age — but not by much. Gen Z is slightly more likely to find reviews essential (37.5%) than baby boomers (28.8%).
• The gender gap is even narrower than the generational one. Women (36.1%) are just a hair more likely than men (31.3%) to find reviews essential.

With reviews being a key part of many buyers’ journeys, it’s worth noting where consumers most often turn to find them.

For starters, word of mouth remains huge. Two in five Americans (38.9%) start by asking the opinions of family or friends — but this habit varies widely across age groups. Advice from family and friends is preferred the most by boomers (54.2%) and the least by Gen Zers (30.4%).

A personal recommendation is tough to beat, but it isn’t the only way to hear what others suggest for a product or service. Video platforms are now mainstream review channels, too. About 29% of shoppers start by checking YouTube or TikTok. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s a massive generational gap in this practice — 42.4% of Gen Zers look for video reviews, compared with just 12.5% of baby boomers.)

Forums are another major review pipeline. More than a quarter of consumers (27.8%) begin a buying journey by going down rabbit holes — er, conducting research — on forums like Reddit.

While AI tools get a lot of hype, they’re the least popular place to turn for reviews. Only about one in six Americans (16.4%) say that AI tools are their first choice for finding reviews.

Despite the range of resources now available to consumers, Google still dominates review discovery. When looking for reviews before making a decision, most Americans (61.6%) seek out Google reviews first. Millennials are the most Google-driven, with more than two-thirds (68.2%) turning to the search engine.

Almost no one is immune to the influence of reviews. Just 3.4% of Americans say they don’t usually look for reviews or opinions when making a major purchase — leaving almost 97% who do.

Trust, dealbreakers and what turns consumers off

Whether reviews come from a TikTok creator or a trusted friend, we often think of them as a tool to help consumers move toward an informed purchase. But what happens when reviews drive consumers away?

It happens more often than you might think. Four out of five Americans (80.2%) say reviews have influenced them not to purchase a product or service.

A review’s qualitative content matters, but its overall rating has a big impact. Survey responses indicate that there is a 4-star cliff: Many Americans (37.6%) get hesitant if the overall rating of a product or service dips below 4 or 4.5 (out of 5).

Sometimes, the star rating matters less than whether reviews are present at all. One-third of Americans say that a company having few or no reviews is a dealbreaker. Only 8% say star rating doesn’t matter — and that number seems to rise with age (13.9% for baby boomers versus only about 6% among millennials and Gen Zers).

Reviews aside, when deciding whether to trust or choose a company, the majority of Americans say price is one of the biggest dealbreakers (59.2%). Other top factors include a pattern of negative reviews over time (43.7%) and poor or unreliable customer service (42.1%).

Unfortunately, even those who conduct the most thorough research before a big purchase aren’t guaranteed perfection. Most Americans (63%) have experienced buyer's remorse at some point because the experience didn’t align with review sentiment. Gen Z reported the highest rate of postpurchase regret, with more than a quarter (27.8%) saying they’ve regretted a purchase “many times.” That contrasts with just 5.1% of boomers who said the same.

Review-writing behavior: From negativity to altruism

The results are in, and anyone who’s scrolled a comments section isn’t surprised: Reviews tend to be biased toward the negative. That’s because people are more likely to leave a review after a negative experience than a positive one, even if many say they are equally likely to review positive and negative experiences, according to the survey results.

Most reviewers just want to be helpful. Among those who write reviews, the top reason they do is to help others make better decisions (46.1%).

Another sizable share of respondents (25%) said they leave reviews to warn others about poor experiences they’ve had.

• Gen Z is more “warning-motivated.” Close to a third (29.5%) of Gen Zers cite this as their top reason for writing reviews. For other generations, the rate is slightly lower (22% to 25%).
• Boomers are most responsive to companies’ solicitations for reviews. Members of this generation are most likely to leave a review because they are asked or prompted to (11.4% versus 6% overall).

Of course, these varied motivations apply only if you choose to write a review in the first place. Three in 10 baby boomers say they rarely or never write reviews. That’s much higher than the rate across all age groups (17.8%).

AI is everywhere in reviews — but trust lags behind

For many, AI is embedded in the shopping experience. About one of every six shoppers (16.4%) start their buying journey with AI tools, and nearly nine out of 10 (87.7%) say they’ve seen AI-generated review summaries.

However, AI isn’t yet trusted as an authority. Roughly half of Americans who have seen AI-generated review summaries (48.6%) trust them less than reading human reviews themselves, or not at all.

Among consumers who have seen AI summaries, only 9.3% say they trust AI summaries more. 

• Boomers are the most skeptical group. Just 2.3% trust AI summaries more than reading reviews; 63.1% trust the AI summaries less or not at all.
• Men are two and a half times more likely than women to trust AI summaries more (13.3% versus 5.1%).

People feel somewhat confident that they can spot AI-written reviews, but that confidence falters along demographic lines. About 22% of Gen Zers trust themselves to flag AI-generated reviews; fewer than 5% of boomers feel the same way.

How to find reliable information before making a big purchase

As indicated by our survey results, the vast majority of consumers plan to read reviews before making a purchasing decision

But to get the most out of your efforts, where should you start?

“Good consumer research isn't about finding a product or service fastest — it's about understanding the full context around a purchase, including benefits, risks, trade-offs and other users' experiences,” said Jon Bortin, senior research editor for ConsumerAffairs.

Next time you’re preparing to make a significant financial commitment, consider these tips to guide your research:

• Look for patterns. No single review tells the full story. One scathing review might be an outlier. Read a decent volume of reviews and notice the themes that come up over and over.
• Pay close attention to pricing details and fine print. The bigger the purchase, the more you should sweat the small stuff. For major purchases at big life transitions, dive into the details so you know exactly what to expect.
• Use reviews to assess risk, not just satisfaction. As you look for patterns in what reviewers are saying, note what they’re leaving out, too. If you have an important question about a product but no one’s talking about it, consider other options with more robust or readily available information.
• Be cautious with summaries. AI-generated summaries can be a helpful introduction to a group of reviews, but they’re no replacement for human analysis. As the saying goes, “Trust but verify” — read some reviews straight from the source.
• Compare reviews across multiple sources. A single review can only capture one customer’s story, and a single source might not represent the full range of customer experiences. Peruse reviews from different audiences and formats, from informal, user-generated content on Reddit or Reels, to verified, in-depth reviews on ConsumerAffairs.
• Use your voice. When users are engaged and authentic, review platforms can become spaces of genuine online community. Contribute to yours by leaving a review the next time you make a major purchase.

Methodology

ConsumerAffairs surveyed 2,000 Americans on purchasing behavior and the role online reviews play in decision-making. The survey was conducted via Pollfish in December 2025, and results were poststratified by age and gender to better reflect the U.S. population. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding or questions allowing multiple responses.

Reference policy

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Questions?

For questions about the data or if you'd like to set up an interview, please contact dedens@consumeraffairs.com.