Why Online Review Matter in eCommerce? And How to Get More of Them?

March 16, 2021 EvinceMage . 0 Comments

Customers today have more than one platform to share their opinions about businesses they love (or hate): Google, social media product pages and third-party rating sites.

And the chances are, your potential customers are reading them. In fact, 95% of shoppers read the reviews before making a purchase. I’m sure you do too!

In this article, I’ll discuss

Why do customers rely on ratings and reviews?
How reviews impact the buying journey?
Why are reviews important?
How to get more reviews on your ecommerce store?

Let’s dig right in!

Who Reads Reviews and Why?

Online shopping decisions are often influenced by authenticity and not perfection.

Customers who are looking for products that you sell often read reviews before purchasing the item. They check the ratings of your business (as a whole) and the very specific products.

The two primary reasons customers depend on ratings and reviews are to understand whether the product is value for money and if your business is legit.

Also, unlike in physical stores, people cannot check the product quality or try them when buying online. Therefore, they rely on reviews and ratings to determine whether the product is worth spending their money on.

Why Are Online Reviews and Ratings Essential in eCommerce?

Did you know only 5-10% of customers write reviews, yet they influence around $400 billion of the total eCommerce sales revenue?

Having customer reviews can increase conversions by as much as 270%. 88% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. 92% of customers will hesitate to buy a product if there are no reviews.

These numbers indicate that online reviews play a major role in influencing shopping decisions. However, this does not mean you should focus on getting only positive reviews. 95% of customers get suspicious of a rating if there are no negative reviews (too good to be true, right?).

Ratings and reviews in eCommerce have a great impact on your business, such as:

Increases engagement related to your products (low impact)
Helps customer with decision making (high impact)
Contributes to your SEO efforts, helping you rank on the top of search engines (medium impact)
Acts as a good source for research (medium impact)
Helps you improve customer satisfaction (high impact)
Drives ecommerce sales (high impact)
Builds trust with potential customers (high impact)
Helps understand consumer behavior and changing trends (high impact)

Hacks to Receive Ratings and Reviews on Your Online eCommerce Store

Now that you know why ratings are important, let’s look at 7 hacks to get more of them.

1- Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews

The most obvious way to get ratings and reviews is by directly asking for them. Let your customers know that you value their opinion of your product. Send an email after the customer has received the product asking how their experience was. However, make sure to give them enough time to use their purchase.

In a Magento-powered eCommerce store, the “Advanced Rating Reviews Magento 2 Extension” by EvinceMage can automate the review process. With the extension, you can:

Set up a reminder email for feedback.
Enable fields like pros/cons, upload images, etc.
Allow customers to recommend your products to their friends.
Gather star rating values.
Filter your customer groups.

2- Make It Easy To Leave a Review

The easier it is to leave a review on your website, the more reviews you will likely garner. No customer will search for the products they bought just to rate them.

One way to do so is by allowing customers to review the product directly in the email. This will reduce one step (i.e., visiting the product page on your website) and increase the chances of getting actual reviews. Here is an example for requesting feedback on emails while actually allowing me to review without leaving the inbox.

Another way to make it easy for customers to leave reviews is by highlighting customer’s past purchases on your homepage. So while they browse your eCommerce store, they can see the option to leave reviews.

3- Incentivize Customers To Write Reviews

One of the most common ways to gather product reviews is by incentivizing customers. The incentive could be anything, like a discount coupon, early access to sales, or a certain amount on their store wallet.

You can even create loyalty programs where you reward customers for each product review. This also increases your customers’ chances to stay loyal to your eCommerce business.

Another benefit of this is that it will encourage customers to make an additional purchase that they wouldn’t have if it were not for the discount.

4- Leverage Product Sampling Programs

If your store is new or you’re launching a new product, you might not have enough customers, ratings or reviews. This is even applicable to the big brands and retailers as new product lines often take time to generate buzz.

And the best way to combat this situation is by launching product sampling programs. In a product sampling program, you reach out to your loyal customers or communities with micro-influencers who would try your product in exchange for authentic feedback.

To increase the success of your product sampling programs, target specific audiences who might buy your product after the launch.

5- Respond to Reviews (Both Positive and Negative)

Responding to reviews shows that you care about your customers’ opinions, which, in turn, will encourage new buyers to share their feedback. Therefore, make sure to respond to all the reviews related to your products (in and outside your website). You can use “Advanced Rating Reviews Magento 2 Extension” by EvinceMage to filter reviews to find positive and negative ones. You can then follow these steps to respond to them.

For positive reviews:

Show gratitude and thank the customer for providing their feedback. Here is an example.

For negative reviews:

Apologize for compromised customer experience.
Ask customers how to reach back to them.
Explain how you can make it right.
Keep up to your promises.

Here is an example of dealing with negative reviews.

Source

Once the problem is resolved, request the reviewer to delete their negative review and instead write a positive one.

6- Leverage Social Media

Social media is one of the best channels to get reviews and spread the word about your online eCommerce store. Use social networks to engage with your customers and encourage them to leave reviews. Here’s how:

Pin a tweet on Twitter, a post on Facebook, and add story highlights on Instagram to announce your rewards program (loyalty program, discount code, etc.).
Run retargeting ads to reach your buyers. Use the ad to ask for reviews and promote products inspired by their purchasing trends (to maximize the ROI) of your retargeting campaigns.
Recognize customers who leave reviews to express your appreciation and motivate others to leave ratings as well.

Wrapping Up

Product reviews have become more important than ever. With 95% of customers reading reviews before making the purchase, you cannot avoid not focusing on getting more ratings for your products.

The above-mentioned strategies can surely help you out to gather more reviews and ratings for your products and thus increase sales. Advanced Rating Reviews Magento 2 Extension by EvinceMage can help you to automate a big chunk of efforts needed to gather and manage customer reviews.

Follow the strategies mentioned above to get more reviews for your eCommerce business and increase sales. Also make sure to use Advanced Rating Reviews Magento 2 Extension by EvinceMage to manage customer reviews. Happy Marketing!