Trustpilot.com is a consumer review website that was founded in Denmark in 2007. Trustpilot.com has become a very popular website for reviewing businesses worldwide. Did you know that up to 1 million new reviews are posted every month on Trustpilot?
In this article, we will look extensively at Trustpilot and we will review the website that was built also for reviews. Let’s dive right in.
About Trustpilot.
Trustpilot is a privately owned type of website that was founded in the year 2007 about 13 years ago currently. The website has its headquarters in Denmark specifically, Copenhagen. Trustpilot mainly serves areas in North America and Europe. And the website was founded by Peter Holten Muhlmann who is the CEO of the company.
As of 2019, Trustpilot had a total of 820 employees. You can visit the Trustpilot website at www.trustpilot.com and the website ranks very well on Alexa Rank with a rank number of 411 in the whole world as at January 2020.
It was when the CEO Peter Holten Muhlmann saw that his parents had started shopping online, that he started the review company. At that time, the founder was still a student at Aarhus University but he later dropped out of university to pursue his business at Trustpilot.
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In 2013, Trustpilot opened office branches in London and New York cities. And in 2013 also, Trustpilot was named the Best Danish Start-Up of the Year by the Next Web’s European Startup Awards.
The business has also received several investments from different sources and investors. Also, Trustpilot ratings can be listed as Google Seller Ratings or even as Google Stars. This is due to a licensing agreement between Google and Trustpilot.
According to a survey, more than 50 million reviews have been published on Trustpilot for up to 228,000 different brands globally. And also, more than 1 million new product and business reviews are posted every month.
How Does Trustpilot Work?
In order to post a review about a particular product, all you have to do is to create a user account with Trustpilot. And this is very easy to do. Just a Facebook account or your valid email address is all you need to create a user account. Trustpilot allows just about anybody to post reviews on its platform. And as a business owner, you can respond to reviews posted about your business and also collect user reviews as data. Businesses and brands can do all these for free on Trustpilot. Trustpilot also offers brands a special marketing and analytics opportunity when they subscribe to the paid plans.
How Does Trustpilot Make Money?
Trustpilot makes income through paid subscriptions from brands and businesses. These brands use Trustpilot’s software to gather users’ reviews of their products and to gain business reputation. And Trustpilot offers a payment subscription plan to gain access to all these.
The business model that Trustpilot practices is the Freemium model. This means that, an introduction to the services and features that Trustpilot offers is first given out for free for a specific period of time.
After that time, the services and features are withdrawn unless the user pays for a subscription plan to continue enjoying the benefits of the service. This model is what Trustpilot offers to brands and businesses. Trustpilot’s annual reports reveal that the company’s income has increased by 34% year in and out since the year 2014 till date.
Some Criticisms of the Trustpilot System.
Some critics have mentioned that some of the reviews on Trustpilot might be fake. How is this possible? Many brands are now working on their online reputations. Because many people now research online before they go on to purchase a service or product. So, some brands have gone to the extent of manipulating their user reviews on Trustpilot and other review websites just to gain more customers.
All this is because, a positive online review will make a huge difference on the likelihood that businesses will make more sales. It is not all companies and businesses that manipulate their online reviews. In fact, a vast majority of companies do not do that. So, consumers can still rely on information gotten from review websites like Trustpilot. It is just that, a minority of businesses actually do manipulate reviews to suit their businesses.
Trustpilot Review Implementations.
– But despite all of these potential pitfalls with the Trustpilot review system, there are some implementations that Trustpilot has put in place to make sure that reviews are regulated. This means that Trustpilot is determined to create an environment that is truly honest on their website.
For example:
1. Review Guidelines.
Trustpilot has a set of review guidelines that all users must not breach. Some of their review guidelines are that, the review must not contain offensive languages, the review by the user must not mention the name of a person or individual etc. There are some other grounds on which a review can be flagged.
2. Review Flagging.
So, companies and brands are allowed to flag down reviews that do not meet user review guidelines like the ones we outlined above. When such a review is flagged down by a brand / brands, the Trustpilot team reviews it again and if it is found to breach the guidelines, the review is taken down.
These two implementations by Trustpilot have made the platform much better and fairer both to brands and to their potential customers.
Merits of Using Trustpilot both as a consumer and as a company.
– The platform is 100% free to use and is open to anybody. Although, as a company you have to subscribe to a paid plan in order to unlock your full potentials with Trustpilot.
– Trustpilot gives everyone the opportunity to be heard. If your consumers love your product or service, other people can hear about on Trustpilot. And brands and businesses can also make themselves more visible to other potential customers by putting themselves out there on Trustpilot.com.
– As a user or reviewer, you will be helping a lot of customers with making better choices with their purchases.
Conclusion.
We will say that, Trustpilot.com is a reliable and effective review website that serves its purpose well both for users/customers and brands. The platform is highly rated.
