According to a Yelp-commissioned study conducted by SurveyMonkey, 97% of online adults spend money with businesses they find on Yelp, 93% of people using Yelp compare businesses before making a buying decision. The survey had over 6,000 adults and is a follow up to studies that was conducted by Nielsen in 2012 and 2016.
Based on the data in the 2019 survey, 51% of Yelp users conduct some sort of transaction within 24 hours of a site visit and 90% do so within a week.
The figures show growth from the 2016 study, which found:
- 92% of respondents made a purchase after visiting Yelp, “at least sometimes, frequently or almost always.”
- 42% said they purchased within 24 hours; 79% within a week.
Yelp has cited both the 2016 and 2019 studies, arguing that Yelp is the “most influential and trustworthy” site to find a local business, beating out “Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor and HomeAdvisor.” Despite that, Google has considerably more reviews than both Facebook and Yelp.
Survey respondents cited other considerations in evaluating and comparing businesses on Yelp:
- 75% valued seeing that a business has a business or trade license
- 71% valued the ability to request a price estimate online
- 69% valued seeing pictures and costs of completed projects
- 58% valued knowing about unique characteristics, such as being open late or being family-owned
Since this data comes from survey responses, this indicates user preferences, but not actual user behavior. Previously, Yelp had said that “a business with 1-5 reviews and at least 10 photos sees 200 percent more user views than a business with the same number of reviews and no photos.” That’s based on Yelp user data. The company also explained that “Businesses who complete their profiles see, on average, 5x the customer leads each month.”