The Highest-Spending E-Commerce Customers Are Seeing Stars—Star Ratings, That Is

By Barry Feldman

Star ratings are simple, but they have an immense effect. They increase social proof, boost word-of-mouth marketing, and improve the results of paid ads. And, most important, they influence purchases.

So… What’s social proof?

Social proof is “a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation.” That’s the answer you get by Googling “social proof,” courtesy of Wikipedia.

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