Online sales has increased worldwide in recent years, a trend which seems to continue. This growth in online sales makes it as relevant as ever for webshops to have a competitive edge. Results from a preliminary analysis of existing webshops show, that Social Proof is commonly used in a variety of ways serving multiple purposes. In the context of this, it is interesting to investigate how the concept of Social Proof might be used to improve potential customers’ impression of a given webshop and motivate them to navigate beyond the front page. This study investigates the effect of Trustpilot as Social Proof in this context.

By use of Think Aloud protocol, the effect of Trustpilot is examined through a quantitative evaluation of prototypes with and without a Trustpilot element. After the evaluation participants are asked to choose a preferred prototype, and elaborate on their choice. The results of this evaluation is analysed by use of an Affinity Diagram. The results indicate a primarily positive effect of the Trustpilot element on potential customers’ impression of the webshop and that they are more likely to navigate beyond the front page when the Trustpilot element is present. However, not all subjects who participated in the study seemed to be affected by the Trustpilot element.