Product reviews are a must-have for building trust in your eCommerce store. They offer a sense of security for visitors that are on your store considering purchasing your products and allow your customers to share their experience and interact with your brand.
As an eCommerce brand owner, you should definitely be using an app on your product pages to show reviews as they can result in a significant increase in conversions.
You don’t want your visitors opening a new tab, finding reviews elsewhere and then deciding to purchase a different product from another brand because they had reviews and you didn’t.
How to get your customers to write reviews
Ask them to write a review, it’s that easy. Don’t hesitate to ask your customers to leave a review, in most cases they’ll feel good that you asked them and that you value their thoughts on your product.
You should use a system that automatically asks your customers for a review after a certain period of time. You should find a middle ground for the best time to ask. You don’t want to ask them too soon as they may not have had enough chance to experience the full benefits of your products.
The best way to collect reviews is to ask through a series of post-purchase emails.
You should make it as easy as possible for customers to submit reviews. Your forms should be optimised for mobile users and easy to find. You can take your reviews to the next level by promoting your customers with insightful questions in relation to the product they purchased.
It’s often a good idea – depending on your product – to set a template for how your customers should leave reviews.
Here are some ideas:
- What was your situation before purchasing our product?
- How do our products benefit you?
- Results of their purchase?
- What would your customer say to someone considering your products?
Your questions should lead your customers to write a helpful and insightful review that will benefit other site visitors and help them make an informed decision when purchasing your products.
Quality and Authenticity
Quality and credibility with reviews on your eCommerce store are crucial. They would be well-written, thoughtful and thorough to help potential customers.
Short reviews may make up numbers but won’t do enough to convince other visitors to make a purchase.
Like with everything, authenticity is key. Visitors can see through fake reviews and as soon as you lose their trust you’ve lost them as a potential customer.
As a sidenote – Nobody expects your product/service to be perfect. There is going to be a balance of a few 4, 3-star reviews. As long as they don’t build up and outweigh your good reviews then these might actually help increase conversions even further as it shows a sense of authenticity, if all your reviews are 5-star and glowing with in-depth reviews then visitors may suspect something isn’t right.
Managing Negative Reviews
You’re going to get negative reviews. As mentioned previously, you should work to balance them and make sure you have more good than bad.
How you handle your negative reviews will make a world of difference.
Read what their review says, assess how you can improve and respond accordingly.
Be sure to check whether your negative reviews are submitted by verified buyers, you should have a system in place to determine what reviews come from verified buyers.
Once you’ve established what they’re not happy with and that they’re a verified customer, it’s time to respond.
Express an interest in their problem and make an effort to work towards a fix. Show customers that you stand with your product and that you take problems with your product/service very seriously.
Whilst many overlook this, another great way to increase both conversions and customer reviews is by responding to positive reviews. Take the time and effort to respond to them as they did when they left a review. Expressing your appreciation for their review for them being a customer is a fantastic way to prompt other customers to leave reviews, it shows that you’re active as a brand and that you actually care about what your customers have to say.
Make sure to personalise any responses so that it doesn’t look like an automated response.
Best Shopify Apps for Collecting Product Reviews
Without an automated system, you’ll struggle to collect and manage reviews. For our clients at Rainy City we work with a number of different apps for collecting reviews and each of them works well with different sites and industries.
Yotpo, Stamped io and Judge.me are all fantastic for collecting reviews and make it really easy to manage. You can also show off customer photos of your products and create loyalty and referral programs.
Product Page Reviews Are Essential
With so many choices and competitors, product reviews are crucial to your success when owning an eCommerce brand.
Whilst they offer visitors confidence when purchasing, they give a level of social proof and prove that you’re a trustworthy merchant.
Ready to scale your eCommerce store? Book a strategy session with us.
