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Hello and welcome to the programme.

Many of the items we buy, from holidays to cars, clothes to fridge as we buy them infrequently and pay for them before we know precisely what we're getting.

Is the fridge going to last?

Will the clothes stay in shape?

Who knows?

It's a particular problem when you buy online and can't even touch the product until it arrives.

Well, you might say capitalism invented that problem and it has invented various solutions.

We have brands with reputations that give us useful information about what we're buying.

We have reviews in newspapers

and consumer guides, but we also now, more than ever, have online reviews, the wisdom of the

crowd of other buyers. And it is the explosion in such reviews in a relatively short period of time

that is our topic today. Everything is reviewed on multiple

platforms. So we'd better hope the information proffered by those reviews is reliable. Let us

review the whole business. I'm joined by three guests, who I hope can help us sift the good

from the bad. And first up, let us start with a company that uses reviews.

Melissa Norton is commercial director of muddy puddles.

All right, Melissa, first of all, the business.

It's clothes for kids for wearing outdoors.

That's right, an online business.

So we designed fun, bright, printed, outdoor garments, outerware for children.

So it's like wetted boots and stuff?

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