BGH bestätigt: Kundenbewertungen haben eine wichtige Funktion im Onlinehandel

Kundenbewertungen sind gesellschaftlich erwünscht, sind durch das Grundrecht der Meinungs- und Informationsfreiheit gedeckt  und genießen somit verfassungsrechtlichen Schutz.

In der Urteilsbegründung erklärte das BGH, dass das „Interesse von Verbraucherinnen und Verbrauchern, sich zu Produkten zu äußern und sich vor dem Kauf über Eigenschaften, Vorzüge und Nachteile eines Produkts aus verschiedenen Quellen, zu denen auch Bewertungen anderer Kunden gehören, zu informieren oder auszutauschen“ schützenswert sei.

Im Rechtsstreit ging es darum, dass  hatte ein Onlinehändler für Kommentare von Kunden haften sollte, in denen die schmerzlindernde Wirkung von Tapes des Händlers behauptet wurde. Medizinisch war diese Wirkung jedoch nicht zu beweisen. Der Bundesgerichtshof hat die Klage mit der Begründung abgewiesen, dass dem Händler die Kommentare nicht zuzurechnen waren und mit dem Verweis auf die Unabhängigkeit und die übergeordnete Bedeutung der Kundenmeinungen.

Unabhängigkeit der Kundenbewertung ist wichtig!

Kunden schätzen die Unabhängigkeit und Neutralität der Konsumentenurteile. Deshalb ist wichtig, dass Online-Händler keine Einflussmöglichkeit auf Bewertungen haben oder aktiv Einfluss nehmen. Würde ein Händler jemanden dafür bezahlen, Rezensionen zu schreiben, dann haftet er für verdeckte Werbung. Auch muss er den normalen Pflichten des Shopbetreibers nachkommen und z.B. falsche oder diffamierende Tatsachenbehauptungen nach den bestehenden Regeln zu entfernen

Kunden informieren sich besser mit rateit.cool

Cool Services presents the latest features of the product review service rateit.cool at the dmexco, hall 7 booth C024 in Cologne. If you are interested, you can test the service live.

By using rateit.cool, web-shops receive product reviews from a broad community of participating shops. This way, their customers can find out what other customers are saying about the products during the purchase decision process and get a good feeling about the products. They stay in the shop and don't have to inform themselves about the product anywhere else.

rateit.cool is the only review service where all shops collect product ratings and reviews together in a community. The products receive many ratings across shops, far more than most shops can ever get on their own. All shops show all ratings for the product. The shops benefit from many rated products and look bigger overall. This leads to more immediate purchase decisions based on a lot of additional, customer-generated information. The bounce rate is reduced and the turnover is increased.

The rateit.cool service can be used in 360° trading. It can be used in online shops as well as in mobile apps or stationary retail.
Plugins for shopware, Oxid, WooCommerce, Magento and prestashop are currently available.

Termin vereinbaren

Tips all around product reviews (part3)

Tags for important product features

If a product has more than 30 reviews, most potential buyers will be pleased to find reviews easier that are of interest to them. Therefore, tags on "quality", "performance", "design" etc. are well received, which on the one hand are filter options and on the other hand, offer a closer look at the product. This is a big advantage at first sight. The tags can also increase the amount of time a buyer spends reading, as he reads more than originally intended and still postpones his purchase decision. The shop owner should test if his customers use the tags and if they have a positive effect on the conversion.

Advertising with ratings from sweepstakes is inadmissible (right)

In its decision of 16 May 2019 (Case 6 U 14/19), the Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main held that advertising with ratings generated by a company through the organisation of a sweepstake was inadmissible. Justification: A customer who makes a recommendation must be free and independent in his or her judgment of the recommendation. Even if there is no payment in the actual sense for ratings generated in the context of a sweepstake, the ratings given are nevertheless not to be regarded as objective because the reviewers were ultimately rewarded by the opportunity to participate in the sweepstakes. The average consumer, however, assumes that only satisfied customers give a positive and at the same time independent rating. In addition, the number of positive reviews allows a conclusion to be drawn as to how well known a company is in the market. Both expectations are disappointed however, if the evaluations straight such a connection are missing, straight because these were given only, in order to receive from the evaluated enterprise a suitable reward.

Thus, if positive ratings are generated by a sweepstake and are subsequently advertised with these ratings, this advertising constitutes an impermissible business activity which can be cautioned by competitors or the competition headquarters under competition law.

more in German by Sebastian Laoutoumai on t3n

 

Tips all around product reviews (part2)

Customers are interested in the division of stars

Present the average star rating of a product and written product reviews as well as how the stars were awarded. The average value alone provides good orientation at first glance. The meaningfulness increases again if one knows how many individual ratings were collected and how they were distributed. Especially in the distribution, you can see whether the reviews are largely homogeneous or whether there are very conflicting opinions. In the latter case, the potential buyer reads through more individual written ratings in order to decide for himself which of the described pros and cons are important for him.

Tips all around product reviews (part1)

Product reviews also belong on the category page

Product reviews are usually displayed on the product detail pages of online shops. Here you have high information content. For the customer, it is about a concrete product, about which he wants to inform himself as comprehensively as possible.

Category pages list some individual products that should be presented with their average rating of the product. This way, the potential customer can quickly get a first impression of how other customers rate the respective product.

On the category page or in product lists, product ratings and reviews have different tasks than on the product detail page. On the product detail page, they influence the purchase decision. On the category page, they primarily influence which products customers look at more closely in detail.

7 valuable tips for more product reviews in your shop.

1. Make it easy for your customers to rate your products. The more your customers write about your products, the better is your sales. This increases your visibility and the confidence of new customers in your products.

2. Ask your customers for reviews after a successful sale by e-mail. Place a link to your online shop. Many customers like to use this possibility. But attention! Your customers must have agreed to advertising mails in advance, otherwise this email is considered spam!

3. Ask also in social networks for reviews.

4. Respond to ratings and comments. Communicate with your customers online. You should react quickly to criticism in particular. Your comments can also be read by other customers so that they can provide further information about the product. Your customers will appreciate your commitment.

5. Include a postcard with your parcels with a request for review and brief instructions on how to rate.

6. Place a QR code on private labels that leads to the rating form.

7. Collect product reviews together with other web-shops worldwide with rateit.cool. You have more product reviews for your assortment faster. We will be happy to help you with any questions you may have.

rateit.cool takes part at the Shopware Community Day

May 23rd is the eighth anniversary of the Shopware Community Day. With annually changing key topics, it remains exciting for shop operators, agencies, brands and also eCommerce enthusiasts and offers a wide range of digital trade content.

rateit.cool is on the topic "360° product reviews - online, stationary, mobile, by voice with shopware".At stand 7, visitors can experience product reviews from the customer's point of view in various situations such as in the web shop, mobile or on price tags in the shop, etc. In conversation, they can also illuminate the dealer's site and understand the principle of rateit.cool.

We are looking forward to seeing you!

Product reviews in 360° trade

On May 17th we will show you how you can use rateit.cool in channels like webshop, stationary, via app or voice. Visit us at booth 72 at eCommerce Day at RheinEnergie Stadion in Cologne and test our service live.

Are Are wrong ratings criminal offence?

Product reviews play a very important role for buyers when making decisions. That's why companies try to put their products in a positive light.

But what happens when manufacturers or dealers write positive reviews? 
As long as the customer cannot recognize that the rating has been manipulated by the company, so-called fake valuation, or the reviewer got a discount, this is unfair competition. Furthermore, the publication of the rating is considered misleading advertising.

The situation is similar to negative ratings by competitors. 
If a competitor lets write poor ratings of competing products, it is a competitive push. No false claims should be made that could potentially damage the competitor's business.

Basically, you can say:
1) Objective criticism is permitted
as long as it is expressed as an opinion and is not directed solely at disparaging, defaming and damaging the reputation of the product being evaluated.

2) Slander criticism is forbidden, 
since the limit of what is permissible is exceeded when it is no longer a matter of dispute, but of defamation and disparagement in the foreground.

3) wrong or untrue product reviews are always inadmissible
Lügen sind keine Meinungsäußerung und damit rechtswidrig. Sie können immer entfernt werden. Im Gegensatz dazu liegt eine Tatsachenbehauptung vor, wenn Fakten genannt werden, die sich überprüfen lassen. Stimmen die Angaben in der Bewertung nicht mit der Wirklichkeit überein, kann man dagegen vorgehen.