In today’s online market, product reviews can make or break an ecommerce business. Consumers rely heavily on product reviews in the decision-making process when making an online purchase and trust what fellow consumers say regarding a relatively unfamiliar product.
Ecommerce product reviews are beneficial for consumers shopping online, and if used correctly and appropriately, can also be a powerful, insightful tool for businesses.
Product reviews allow ecommerce businesses to:
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See firsthand feedback from consumers on products.
Depending on consumer feedback, businesses can make relevant adjustments to products or marketing strategies and learn or gain insight from the consumer perspective regarding the product value.
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Foster customer loyalty, trust, and brand credibility.
Product reviews can either encourage or discourage consumers from purchasing. When enough customers have positively reviewed your products, consumers are more likely to buy because they’ve seen social proof of the value of your product.
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Improve SEO ranking.
Consumer product reviews can positively impact your search engine placement in local listings by encouraging users to click through to your site.
Overall, having a strong review system that verifies purchasers while presenting a healthy mix of positive and constructive reviews is great for intentional buyers because they know what they’re looking for. In addition, if a consumer stumbled across a site or if they are simply browsing, a lack of visual reinforcement of excellent customer experience could have a user disengage quickly.
Product reviews alone can lead to an 18%+ sales uplift. As a result, we have put together a few strategies to follow to get more product reviews on your ecommerce website.
3 Easy Ways to Get More Product Reviews:
1. Feature testimonials across your ecommerce website, and make it easy for customers to leave a review.
Skeptical consumers who see positive customer experiences as soon as they arrive on your site can gain confidence that your products are a worthwhile purchase. Consumers are more likely to trust a recommendation from a peer than they are to trust a marketing push to buy. Featuring customer reviews on your website allows consumers to trust that you care and are intentional about a positive customer experience.
By providing returning customers with an opportunity to review your products, they are more likely to leave a review. Dollar Shave Club is an excellent example of this. Displaying the number of other customers that have already left a review can encourage others to do the same.
The customer can take a variety of paths on their journey through your website. Customer testimonials can be effectively showcased in several places:
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A testimonials section on the Home Page or in the Hero Section of your website:
Website visitors should see the benefits in buying your products at the first opportunity. This can also help reduce any suspicions they have about your services.
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Right under the product or service on the individual product page:
When website visitors browse your products, they are likely to click on items they are interested in but may not be convinced to purchase. Customers are looking for quick info that will help them determine if this product is a fit for them. Testimonials, along with strong product descriptions and excellent product images that show your product in action, can nudge them to make the purchase.
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A dedicated testimonials page:
Some website visitors are more interested in what people have to say about your product. In this scenario, having a dedicated testimonials page reduces browsing time and helps the user find what they need.
Providing customers with the opportunity to enter information based on their purchase can give strong insight to users looking for similar products and help them determine if it fits their needs. For example, some users may only want to see reviews for products that were purchased in their size so they can see if the product met other similar customers' expectations, etc.
Bonus Tip: In addition to asking for product reviews on your website, encouraging customers to use third-party review systems is a great way to boost shopper confidence in your brand. Third-party review systems are independent of your business, meaning reviews you receive on third-party review websites provide more credibility in the eyes of some consumers. This is also a good way to boost your organic SEO and increase backlinks to your website.
2. Implement quick user experience opportunities soon after purchase.
Right after purchase is the perfect opportunity to remind your customers to leave a review or a rating. For returning customers, this is a great design strategy to remind them to rate your products.
A few plugins can help you provide this review experience. This can be accomplished on WordPress, Shopify, and BigCommerce by searching the app or plugin marketplace.
- Starfish - WordPress
- Product Reviews - Shopify
- Yotpo Product Reviews - BigCommerce
These quick opportunities for users to leave a rating or review keeps the idea of providing feedback at the forefront of the user’s mind. Whether through a thank you page, order confirmation page, or a confirmation email, users should have multiple ways to provide feedback.
3. Consider offering incentives to customers to leave an unbiased review.
An incentive of a gift card or a discount at purchase in exchange for an unbiased review is likely to give consumers the push they need to complete a review after they make a purchase.
Clutch.co found that “of shoppers who don’t write reviews, about half (53%) indicated a specific reason, while the remainder of online shoppers (47%) simply do not frequently review products. These reasons reveal a lack of time and incentive as pain points that ecommerce websites can address to improve their process for collecting reviews.”
Final Thoughts
The key to convincing more customers to leave a review on your ecommerce website is to make it as easy as possible. Remember, you're asking them to take time out of their day to share their experience. Getting positive reviews can be even more challenging because unhappy customers are 2-3x more likely to leave a review than a happy customer. It's important that customers have a high quality shopping experience and are given seamless ways to leave feedback. In return, this can increase the number of ecommerce product reviews your website gets.
Visit our Customer Stories page to see another way positive customer experiences can be used to your benefit.
