There have been so many positive recommendations of the value of reviews for e-commerce, that the case doesn’t really need to be made anymore. Quite simply, user reviews increase conversions. They can eliminate any doubts potential customers may have about a product or can help product selection.
We like leaving reviews too. Stats reveal that 47% of online shoppers have reviewed products online, which suggests there is no shortage of people ready to provide their opinions.
Why You Need Customer Reviews
Tip Number one, why you need customer reviews. Most websites don’t even have reviews setup on their site. They use outside sources like Google or facebook reviews.
This doesn’t help them any with SEO and search engine results. This will provide social proof, but most likely customers will never see it unless they go searching for it. Take any reviews from other sources and make sure you publish them in your site so your potential leads and visitors.
See the reviews, see your social proof and see the other customers trust you. This is most important for e-commerce business to have reviews listed underneath each product. You can do this by asking customers for reviews on the specific product that they purchased. You can also send follow-up emails asking them for the reveal or incentivize them with discounts, coupon codes.
This’ll provide social proof not only in Google reviews and facebook reviews but also on your website during the checkout process.
The Stats
Tip number two, the stats. Did you know that businesses and websites that have customer reviews or more than one product can mean a five percent increase in conversion rates? Sixty-three percent of customers are most likely to make a purchase from a website that has reviews on the ideal and identical products that they’re getting ready to purchase.
Consumer reviews nearly 12 times increase for products when they’re being sent there from other websites and businesses. Think of it as a word of mouth referral online.
When somebody sees people just like them trusting your product, purchasing certain products, and leaving their honest opinion, they’re more likely to trust your brand and make that purchase on checkout.
Think about it for yourself. When you go to Amazon to make a purchase, most likely you’ll scroll to the bottom, read four or five reviews, and if they’re all happy customers, you’re much more likely to purchase that product.
- According to Reevoo stats, 50 or more reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- 63% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a site which has user reviews. (iPerceptions, 2011).
- Site visitors who interact with both reviews and customer questions and answers are 105% more likely to purchase while visiting and spend 11% more than visitors who don’t interact with UGC. (Bazaarvoice, Conversation Index, Q2 2011).
- Consumer reviews are significantly more trusted (nearly 12 times more)than descriptions that come from manufacturers, according to a survey of US internet users by online video review site EXPO. (eMarketer, February 2010).
- According to Reevoo, reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales.
Long Tail Targeting
Tip number three, long tail targeting content strategies are changing day to day and month to month, but especially in the next coming year. Your content strategy needs to be completely different. Use your reviews to make long tail targeting.
Short term targeting is clearly out of the question for most businesses. If you’re not already a trusted website on Google for years, it may take you even longer to get to the first page of Google rankings, but if you use long tail targeting around your reviews for not only social proof but also for common searches customers might search for, you’re more likely to show up in the Google rankings.
If somebody’s searching for your ideal product, which may be four or five words long, make sure you’re getting reviews on that product page, so when somebody types in that exact product, you are most likely to show up.
The additional content generated by user reviews increases the chance of ranking well for long tail searches. In addition, people leaving reviews tend to use the same language that other people will use when actually searching for them.
Email Customers Post-Purchase
Tip number four, email customers post-purchase. After any customer makes a purchase on your website, you need to have a strategy to email them, thanking them for making the product and continuing the relationship. If you can set up your email marketing like using MailChimp or constant contact based on your e-commerce products, you’ll be able to email them automatically with the product that they’ve purchased, thanking them.
Now that you have this data, you can ask for reviews on the specific product pages that they purchased. If they purchased a large black t shirt from your website yesterday, you can send them the exact link to that page asking for a review the next day or after they’ve it, it’s arrived at their door. Use this to make it easy for your customers to sign up, leave a review, and come back to your website on a consistent basis
Sending an email after a customer has purchased an item to ask for a review is a good idea, but the timing is a key issue here. You need to give customers enough time to have received the product and had to chance to start using it and form an opinion, but it still needs to be sent when the purchase is fresh in the customer’s mind.
Make The Process As Simple As Possible
Tip number five, make the process as simple as possible. Most customers will not go searching for the review page to leave you a review. You need to make it easy for them to go to the page and we recommend even giving them ideas or writing half of the review in your own language, so all they have to do is copy and paste most of it into the length of you provided.
After they purchased the products arrived and they’re happy, email them with the link to the product page that they purchased on asking for the review. With that quote that you’d like them to stay on that page, you’ll increase your chances of getting a review on that exact product. If you can set up a strategy like this,
Some users may not have a lot to say about some products or may have a limited attention span, so make it nice and easy to leave opinions. Offering customers the option of leaving a quick rating out of five or ten is one way and provides a useful summary score to add to product pages, while another way to get a little more useful detail is to ask users to give different aspects of products a rating, as Reevoo does.
The Key Takeaway
We recommend making it as easy as possible for leaving reviews, always asked them to leave reviews on your website. This will not only increase customer satisfaction return rates, but we’ll also leave social proof and get SEO content from each review and product that you have on your e-commerce website.
Internet Marketer, Sales Manager, eCommerce Expert, and Community Manager at – Ecomhunt
