How do reviews and ratings affect abandonment?

I've been running my online fashion boutique for three years now, and lately, I've noticed something troubling. Our website traffic looks solid, but our conversion rates are frustratingly low. After digging into analytics, I realized customer reviews might be playing a massive role in this conversion challenge. Some product pages have sparse or mediocre reviews, while others with glowing feedback seem to convert much better. It's like potential buyers are using reviews as a trust filter before making a purchase decision. When I see low-rated items or pages with minimal reviews, I can almost predict the higher abandonment rates. This isn't just a gut feeling—I'm seeing real data showing that products with fewer than four stars or less than five reviews are getting significantly fewer completed purchases. The psychology behind this makes sense: in an online world without physical touch, customers rely heavily on social proof. They want reassurance that other real people have bought, used, and loved the product. I'm starting to understand that reviews aren't just decorative elements—they're critical conversion tools that can make or break a sale.