Why Customer Reviews are Important for eCommerce for Small Business
We live in a world where anyone can create an eCommerce site. The influx of uneducated, low performance eCommerce sites has made it difficult to stand out. There are few methods to gain exposure more valuable than strong, five-star customer reviews. Establishing trust with an eCommerce brand and building confidence in specific products, customer reviews give new customers a sense of security.
Whether you are an established brand in eCommerce or new to the game, customer reviews have an equal impact. Even for consumers who may already trust your website, customer reviews work to promote specific products, giving insight into other consumers’ experiences with them. There are many factors that go into whether a customer makes a final purchase or not. If they have questions not already answered by the product description or their own research, reviews are another way to retrieve unbiased information. The latest research shows up to 85 percent of consumers trust eCommerce customer reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family – that says a lot about their power.
If your eCommerce small business site does not already have product reviews, shoppers are likely to search elsewhere for them. That opens up the possibility of losing the customer altogether. Therefore, it makes sense to open up your site to customer reviews and allowing visitors to leave them. Thereby, they can also be monitored and optimized according to your preference. A great way to embed a ‘reviews’ section into your site is by taking on a product review application. If you are already working with an eCommerce web design company, they may already have some suggestions on how to move forward. Keep in mind there are numerous product review apps, some free and some paid, that can help collect and display apps in the most preferred manner.
The strategy moving forward on customer eCommerce reviews should be to find a way to encourage customers to leave them. In many cases, sites have seen that just by asking or encouraging a customer review via email receipt has given them positive feedback. Beyond simply reminding a customer to leave a review, some sites have taken things a step further by offering a small percentage discount for a returning customer’s review. Some of the world’s biggest corporate brands follow this pattern by sending a ‘thank you for your purchase’ email, followed by a ‘please leave a review’ or ‘please leave a review to receive this discount code or free gift’ email.
Also, if your eCommerce site already has an email marketing campaign set up, this might be something to mention in your newsletter. If so, it’s key to ensure that this offer is only being sent to paying customers rather than those who have just signed up to receive the newsletter. Remember, if this is the route you decide to pursue then its strategic performance must be measured. At the end of the day, the more reviews, the better however if your message is not getting out there, you won’t be catching all the reviews you could. Thus, key areas to focus on and potentially make improvements include the open rate (Adjust the subject line), click-through rate (Providing a more enticing reward), and completion rate (Ease of use for the review system).
As an eCommerce web design and marketing company, Unlimited Exposure specializes in procuring and featuring quality customer reviews. See increased profits, improved sales, and more when you develop your eCommerce website alongside the experts in the field.
