There seems to be a growing concern that reviews online are fake, not useful, and caught up in the clutter of all the information available to us online. Turns out, however, that online reviews are affecting a staggering amount of business each day and play a critical role in the buying process.

For instance, I recently purchased a mattress. Having never bought a new mattress before, I first went online to discover my options. Over the course of a couple weeks, I began to narrow my options down to three "bed-in-a-box" companies that had begun retargeting me through social media and elsewhere online (chances are you've seen at least one of these companies yourself named after a popular friendly ghost we all know about).

After speaking to a couple of people in our office I discovered that two of them had actually purchased from one of the companies I was considering. That evening, I immediately went online to compare reviews of each side by side. After pairing their recommendation with many other glowing reviews, one stood out amongst the rest. Two weeks later I was sleeping in my new bed.

So what does this all mean? Understanding the buying process, and how the internet plays it's unique role in your industry is something Flypaper can help with. Although roughly 15 percent of reviews online do seem to be fake, consumer confidence online continues to rise. Here are some numbers for you to chew on:

• Sixty-one percent of consumers read reviews before deciding whether or not to buy (Econsultancy).
• Consumer reviews are trusted up to 12X more than manufacturer product descriptions (eMarketer).
• After seeing how a brand responds to reviews, 71 percent of consumers change their opinions about the brand (Bazaarvoice).
• Customers who view user-generated content show a 133 percent higher conversion rate (Bazaarvoice).
• 79 percent of customer trust online reviews as much as personal reviews (BrightLocal).