Two thirds of the Dutch population sometimes use comparison sites. Kieskeurig.nl is the best known comparison site in the Netherlands (67 percent have heard of it, 53 percent have used it). Consumentenbond (respectively 60 percent and 38 percent) and Vergelijk.nl (40 percent and 27 percent) are also frequently visited (mf, Dutch). People tend to have more and more faith in brands which compare the complete range of products, and less in the supplier of the product itself (who will always give his own product the highest ranking). These new types of brands can grow to be the strongest brands ever: coaching brands. Below you can read more about the survey.

User reviews are very much appreciated. More than half of the respondents value the opinion of other consumers more than the opinion of a professional reviewer (58 percent). Only 1 out of 5 (19 percent) Dutch people value the opinion of a professional reviewer more than the opinion of another consumer. People generally do not have many doubts about the information on the sites. A minority have doubts about reliability (29 percent), independence (35 percent) and topicality (36 percent) of the information on the sites.

The outcome of this survey in 2012: 85% of the consumers will value recommendations of close or distant friends more than those of consumers in general (45%) or from professional reviewers (20%). Looking at actual behavior, these figures will be even more extreme: then you will see that 95% of the consumers for their buying decisions depend on close or distant friends, 42% on other consumers and only 10% on professional reviewers.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

• in Dutch