You visit an online store, you find a product you like, now what steps do you take before you make the purchase? Approximately 90% of users will read product reviews.
You can’t physically touch the item and sometimes you don’t trust how the product looks in the photograph. The next best thing to touching an item is reading real reviews from people who have purchased it. Often reading even one product review can be enough to either push a customer to make a purchase, or for them to abandon the product after a poor review.
Often the more reviews a product has the better. Users want to read through enough positive reviews to get them to convert to a sale. If you have an e-commerce site, you should assume that all your customers want to read reviews on your products.
Why are customer reviews essential?
No matter what industry you are in, or whatever you are selling online you need to improve your customer experience. Oberlo discovered that product pages with customer reviews receive 3.5 times more conversions than those without.
Here are some key benefits to having customer reviews on your online store:
- They are proven to drive more sales
The Harvard Business School did a study that uncovered that online reviews impact your bottom line. It goes without saying that brands that people view positively will have better sales.
- They help build trust in your brand
Building an online reputation that customers can trust is not easy. Reviews help you build up a reputation for good quality products and services. Star ratings can be a great way to instantly gain trust in your audience at a quick glance.
- They help your SEO
Being successful online means being visible. New customers may search for your product or service on Google or Bing, these search engines favour customer reviews and fresh content.
- They help solve problems
No online store owner wants lots of negative reviews. However, negative reviews come with some positive action points. They can help store owners see problematic trends which may need to be addressed.
- They give you a chance to respond
Often users leave reviews expecting to open a line of communication between them and the store owner. This can give businesses an opportunity to rectify an issue or respond to a positive review. Appearing approachable and open to feedback can have a positive impact on your brand identity.
How to get customer reviews
It can take time to build up customer reviews and no one likes to see one or two reviews (especially if they are negative) against a product. However, there are some steps you can take to encourage and speed up the process of receiving reviews:
- Ask!
If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Ask your customers for feedback. You can do this in a number of ways – a pop up window at the end of a check out process, an email follow up after a product was delivered or a customer feedback survey form.
- Make it easy
Keeping your review process and forms clear, user friendly and short will stop customers from being overwhelmed or frustrated. Often users will abandon an online task if they feel the experience is bad. Keep it simple and to the point.
- Give incentives
Who doesn’t want a discount code or a free gift? Offer your customers a reason to leave a review, but ensure you don’t encourage just positive feedback for these incentives.
Here are just a few of the online resources we recommend:
- Facebook reviews
- Google reviews
- Yelp! Reviews
