Is it Okay to Offer Free Products in Exchange for Reviews?

Recently, I received a pair of earrings as a gift. With the earrings was a small card thanking me for the purchase from this small business, and offering the buyer a free pair of earrings. My first thought was, “Can this be true? Why would a small business be offering to give its product away for free?”

I decided to reach out to the storeowner asking what the deal was. She said yes, she’d be happy to send me a free pair of earrings. When I asked why she was giving her product away, she said she was looking to gain more reviews for her new line of earrings, which didn’t have many reviews yet.

The approach may seem counterintuitive to some—why would a small business give something away in the hopes it will bring them more customers? The answer is simple— reviews are priceless .

For small businesses, reviews can make or break your business. According to a 2018 BrightLocalsurvey, 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses when searching for a product or service. Additionally, 68% of consumers said positive reviews make them more likely to use a business. For a new or small business, this can make a huge impact in quickly gaining customers.

Having some number of reviews isn’t the only thing that matters, though—your reviews need to be high in both quality and quantity. The same BrightLocal survey found that the average number of reviews a business needs to have to be trusted is 40. For a new business, it can be extremely difficult to gain that many reviews quickly.

With numbers like these, it’s easy to see why a business owner would be motivated offer something of monetary value to customers who leave a review.

It’s a fair question. Is it ethical for a business to give something away for free in exchange for a review? To be fair, the shop owner I had been in contact with asked that I leave a review once I received the product. There was no incentive to leave a positive review in order to get the free earrings, which would have made the review illegitimate.

Offering something of monetary value in exchange for customer information isn’t anything new, though. We see this a lot with social media and newsletter signups. Many businesses looking to grow their follower count or gain newsletter subscribers often offer a discount of some sort if you follow them or give your email address for an email list.

The biggest issue around doing this with reviews is that it affects other consumers. People read reviews because they want an honest opinion about a product or service. In fact, 78% of consumers said they trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation, which says a lot about the importance of reviews. If they suspect a review is fake or is clearly over-promoting a product, it can actually drive consumers away. This ends up lowering the business’s credibility, defeating the purpose of the review.

Many people see any sort of monetary exchange like this as paying for reviews, something your company never wants to be accused of doing. Once you have a reputation for paying for reviews, your business becomes untrustworthy in the eyes of consumers. No amount of positive reviews is worth risking that.

At the end of the day, the ethics of your business are up to you. Your own personal ethics are yours to create and the same goes for your business. If you want to offer discounts to people who sign up for a newsletter, like your social pages or write a review, that’s up to you.

However, you should never bribe customers with free or discounted products in exchange for a positive review. You might think this is a quick and easy way to get more reviews, but the negative effect it could have on your business isn’t worth the risk. There are plenty of other methods you can use to gain reviews that won’t have you questioning your business ethics.

The best way to ensure you get reviews without compromising your values is to simply ask for them. Shortly after making a sale, follow up with your customers by asking for a review and referral to their friends. Our Review Builder service does this for you by automating emails to your customers—and then displaying the positive ones on your website.

We’ll let you decide whether or not it’s okay to offer a free product or service to customers after they leave you a review. No matter what your own set of morals tell you, giving something away in exchange for positive reviews is unethical.