Virtually every purchase made online is based on reviews: Yelp for a fun tapas restaurant, Trip Advisor for an upcoming Costa Rican vacation, Google for a good handyman, and Amazon for a new coffee maker.
Actually, before making a purchase, 90% of consumers actively look for reviews. Their decision-making process is aided by unbiased feedback from past customers, particularly if they are wary of well-crafted brand messaging.
It can be challenging to get people to write reviews, but doing so is crucial to providing customers with the information they require at the precise moment and enhancing your marketing approach.
The benefits of good ecommerce product reviews
- promote referrals. Consumers place an equal amount of trust in business reviews (84%), word-of-mouth advertising, and personal recommendations—all of which can help you build your online presence.
- enhances the content library you have. Dedicated endless hours to perfecting your debut email? Reviews are a crucial component of the purchasing process because they are more reliable than other marketing collateral.
- increases trustworthiness. According to 49% of consumers, they place an equal amount of trust in internet reviews and personal recommendations.
- enhances the perception of customers. Customers will value your brand and its products more if you have higher-quality reviews.
Although establishing trust is undoubtedly one of the main advantages of reviews, they also support your efforts in other domains, such as search engine optimization and acquiring insightful product information.
- improves search engine optimization efforts. Search engine rankings for pages with user reviews are boosted by Google’s algorithm, and the additional word count increases the chance of finding relevant keywords.
- creates experiences for customers that are unique. Give customers a variety of product viewpoints and an understanding of how customers who share their size, shape, or skin type discovered a particular product.
- finds pertinent keywords. You can learn more about the actual keywords your customers use from reviews.
- enhances the creation of new products. Gain insight from your customers’ experiences and viewpoints to enhance your offerings.
- To benefit from these advantages, you don’t need a ton of reviews. Even though you don’t require a review from every client, the more you can obtain, the better.
Get more favorable reviews for your online store with these 7 simple steps.
If left to their own devices, customers will rarely write a review. The likelihood of receiving a review from a dissatisfied customer venting about their purchase is higher than that of a satisfied customer endorsing your product.
Because of this, it’s imperative to urge clients to write reviews, particularly if they’ve had a good experience.
1. Consult
Although it may seem obvious, most clients won’t write reviews unless you specifically request them. You can ask your customers to write reviews on your website directly, or you can send them surveys asking for their input.
The simplest method to accomplish this is to encourage them to submit a review with a strategically timed email or SMS message. However, make sure you give them enough time to use your product; after using a product multiple times, 81% of customers are more likely to write a review.
Casper kindly invites previous customers to provide feedback via a straightforward email review request that includes an on-brand message.
Read this:- The Role of AI and Real-Time Inventory in Quick Commerce Success
When is the ideal time to email a request for review?
In the end, the timing will be determined by the kind of product you are selling and the potential clientele. Various timeframes are suggested by one study for various kinds of products. It suggests waiting 21 days for hard goods, or items that are meant to last a long time, such as refrigerators and washing machines.
Food, clothing, and cosmetics are examples of perishables and soft goods that require less “trying” time, so you can send an email within 14 days. Furthermore, it is advisable to submit a review request email no later than seven days due to the seasonal nature of goods.
According to the same study, ecommerce brands should follow up with review request emails seven days after sending the first one, as Wednesday and Saturday emails have the highest conversion rates. Sixty-eight percent of customers leave reviews after you ask them once, but twenty-eight percent more will do so the second time, and four percent more the third time.
This email from Skin Mart requesting a review is a follow-up, and it even includes a reward for customers depending on how thorough their review is.
2. Make it simple
Customers are more likely to leave reviews if it’s simple to do so. After receiving their product, the last thing they want to do is jump through hoops.
Take customers through the procedure step-by-step, provide them with direction, and remove any possible friction by:
- minimizing (or ideally resolving) any technical problems
- minimizing the number of fields and touchpoints
- Asking them to respond to questions
Your e-commerce platform likely has features that make obtaining reviews simpler.
3. Provide incentives to consumers
Everyone enjoys getting free stuff, and 73% of customers say they would be more likely to write a review if they were given a reward. This could be an extra loyalty point, a gift, or a discount on their subsequent purchase.
For instance, customers can receive a percentage off their subsequent purchases at Camera Ready Cosmetics.
What kind of rewards ought to you provide?
Once more, it will be based on your target market and product. Customers who buy expensive electronics might be more interested in a discount on their subsequent purchase than in a freebie, but those who buy makeup might be curious about a freebie to test out a new item.
The following data-backed incentives are some that you can provide:
- 91% of customers want the product to be given away for free.
- Eighty-five percent of consumers want to get the product before it’s released.
- 67% of consumers want a discount on upcoming goods.
- Loyalty points are desired by 59%.
Depending on the extent of the review, you can even provide a sliding scale of benefits.
Customers may receive 15% off their subsequent purchase if they include a photo with their review, as opposed to 10% off if they only leave a written review.
Three different incentive levels are available to customers of LSKD: 10% off coupons for written reviews, 15% off coupons for photo reviews, and 20% off coupons for video reviews.
Comparably, the email mentioned above requesting a review from Skin Mart gives users 75 member points for writing a review and an additional 25 points for uploading a photo or video.
4. Address reviews
Over 50% of customers anticipate hearing back from companies about unfavorable reviews in less than a week. It demonstrates your concern and openness to hearing from customers.
Furthermore, your answer ought to be customized in some way. Consumers are generally more inclined to purchase from an online retailer that answers both favorable and unfavorable reviews.
Every customer review receives a customized, pun-filled message from Yappy in response.
Engaging in conversation with customers who have taken the time to share their experiences not only establishes credibility and builds trust, but also offers you the opportunity to win back customers who may not have had the best experience possible.
However, don’t react to every review with the same tone. Rather:
- at minimum use the customer’s name to personalize each response
- Respond to inquiries, but avoid becoming combative when faced with unfavorable evaluations.
- Customers who have had a bad experience are welcome to get in touch with you via email or another official customer service channel.
ModCloth handles a disgruntled customer nicely by offering an apology and referring them to the customer support department.
5. Don’t let bad reviews scare you
Customers want reviews that aren’t just positive; they want insight from a variety of sources. Given that users spend five times longer on websites when they interact with negative reviews, this isn’t always a bad thing.
Learn from ModCloth’s example above and address unfavorable reviews with composure and objectivity. An alternative would be to set up a two-step review procedure where customers are asked to rate products with a star system first.
Those who rate something with a high star are then asked to post it publicly, and those with a lower star are asked to submit feedback so that you can address the issue before the review appears live on your website.
6. Be truthful at all times when posting reviews.
Long-term success depends on gaining the trust of customers, so it’s critical that you’re always truthful about reviews, both positive and negative.
Take extreme caution not to change or remove unfavorable reviews or you may find yourself in a similar predicament to Fashion Nova. Due to the brand’s suppression of negative reviews, it lost a great deal of the trust of its customers and was fined $4.2 million.
Before beginning the process of gathering reviews, familiarize yourself with the FTC’s guidelines, which encompass:
- Avoid requesting fictitious testimonials from non-users of your product
- Sending review requests via email to clients you believe had a good experience
- Not putting restrictions on rewards
Prospective buyers anticipate a diverse range of reviews, so having exclusively glowing five-star experiences on your website may cause concerns. Rather, give customers a comprehensive experience from all angles so they can decide what’s best for their requirements and preferences.
Where to put online reviews to get the most impact
What do you do with customer reviews once you’ve started gathering them?
Use them sparingly throughout the sales cycle to best effect, providing consumers with a dose of social proof at the point where they may be considering objections.
The majority of retailers gain from having their reviews shown on:
Product webpages
Include product reviews on the relevant product pages next to the product descriptions so that customers can peruse viewpoints from individuals who share their characteristics.
On every page of Quick Flick, thousands of positive reviews are displayed and can be sorted by most helpful, oldest, newest, and ones with photos.
Social networks
Roughly 76% of buyers make purchases based on what they see on social media. To increase interest in and trust around your products, feature your reviews in feed posts and stories.
Love Corn has a whole Story Highlight on Instagram devoted to user reviews.
Social ads
Social media reviews give your advertisements and digital marketing initiatives more legitimacy and social proof.
By simply adding star reviews to its ads, Blenders Eyewear was able to generate a 2x higher click-through rate, 38% lower CPA, and 62% higher ROAS.
Provide customers with a specific location where they can read all the reviews they desire. Using the keyword “[your brand] reviews” as your target will help improve your SEO efforts. Customers can peruse over 63,500 reviews on Patagonia’s dedicated reviews page.
emails about abandoned carts
Almost 70% of customers abandon their carts before checking out. Emails to customers who have abandoned their carts can be redirected by including reviews, which also serve as a gentle reminder of the item’s original purpose.
They can use it to compare their products with those of rivals. However, you can use reviews in other sequences to establish social proof and trust, such as product recommendation emails and abandoned cart emails.
Before sending customers back to their cart to assist with their selections, Brooklinen’s on-brand abandoned cart email highlights reviews.
Invest in email marketing software that can send automated abandoned cart messages, such as Klaviyo. With just a few clicks, Klaviyo integrates with several e-commerce platforms.
Also read this blog:- From Scratch To Scroll: The Journey Of Crafting A Social Media Platform
Make reviews work for your ecommerce business
Reviews play a crucial role in the decision-making process for the majority of internet shoppers. Owners of internet businesses need to gather and present them at various touchpoints. Once you have reviews, you can incorporate them into your e-commerce website.
To boost the likelihood that a customer will leave a review, start by strategically timing email requests for reviews and offering an incentive. Don’t forget, though, to reply to reviews that are unfavorable and handle them honestly.
After you’ve gathered a respectable quantity of testimonials, you can begin using them on your social media pages, e-commerce website, and advertisements to increase sales, foster customer satisfaction, and enhance the online image of your company.
Conclusion
By putting these seven tactics into practice in 2024, you can greatly increase the number of favorable product reviews, which will increase customer satisfaction and help your brand establish a strong online reputation.
If you’re looking for an e-commerce development company to help you with the creation of a mobile app, Appic Softwares is a great choice. We have a talented development team available to help you with any of your requirements.
Why then are you acting so cautiously?
Give us a call right now!
