Earning a reputation in the E-commerce world is not easy due to the virtual nature of the relationship. Every online store and the dropshipping website provides informative product descriptions, photos, and videos about their collections. However, consumers trust each other’s words more than what’s written on E-commerce web pages. It’s said that online product reviews have become the new recommendations and a guaranteed method for recognition in the digital world. Still, some business owners ignore the importance of customer reviews and their impact on sales and revenue.
The best way to convince an online customer is another satisfied online customer. Since people can’t touch or feel the products when buying online, recommendations and reviews become the best option available. Users consider customer reviews with product’s real photos the most useful and valuable ones.
Many research proved the tendency of customers to read reviews about a product or service before making a purchase. If you run an online E-commerce business, this article will interest you, as we’ll talk about the benefits and importance of customer reviews for E-commerce stores.
Table of Contents
What is a Customer Review?
The opinion of a customer after engaging with your company’s products or services is called a customer review. Customer reviews can be shared and distributed across various networks, from those dedicated to reviews only such as Trustpilot to those social media accounts, your customers use daily, such as Facebook, Instagram and Yelp.
Please note that the users share their bad experiences more than good or normal ones. Here is a good guide on this
Why are Customer Reviews Important for e-commerce?
Let’s talk statistics, 62% of US online users read reviews before selecting service providers, and 82% check customer reviews before making an online purchase. Moreover, 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Below are the reasons why customer reviews are important.
1. Customer Reviews Build Trust Online
The e-commerce market is large and diverse, with millions of online sellers and billions of customers. People can find the same product or alternatives on multiple websites, and customer reviews play an important and critical role in decision making.
Since the whole buying process is virtual, customers can’t evaluate the quality because they can’t touch the product or test it themselves. Furthermore, they know nothing about the credibility of the online seller. Customer reviews make a difference because people believe the best way to find out about an online product or a supplier is to check previous customers’ experiences.
Therefore, the importance of customer reviews is allowing online shoppers to find out about the quality of a product they have not previously seen or touched. According to the research:
- 93% of customers say online reviews influence their buying decisions.
- 72% of online shoppers stated they trust a local business more if they find positive reviews on its website.
- 86% of online shoppers hesitate to buy from a business with negative reviews.
In addition, when an e-commerce store adopts negative reviews about its products and publishes these comments, the level of credibility and trust increases. It helps the company to appear realistic and not fake. The company’s response to these comments and its keenness to solve the problems mentioned in negative customer reviews will contribute to its good image online, which is another way that proves why online reviews are important.
2. Customer Reviews Drive Sales
The probability of an online purchase increases when customers read positive feedback about the product. Customer reviews eliminate hesitation and boost confidence in the buying decision. Allowing both positive and negative customer reviews is a sign of the trustworthiness of an E-commerce store. It raises the conversion rate and increases sales as people feel more comfortable about their purchases.
The importance of customer reviews is when people find a product they want. They usually have some questions in mind, and finding realistic answers in other customers’ reviews makes it easier to make a buying decision. Moreover, positive reviews can drive traffic to online stores when published on social media platforms.
For further reading: 7 Effective Behavioral Targeting Ideas
3. Customer Reviews Contribute To SEO Efforts
Customer reviews improve ranking on search engines due to the good impression they have on search engines about the E-commerce store and its products. Moreover, written reviews naturally enrich the content with keywords and phrases other online shoppers will probably use when looking for specific requirements in a product. Having better search engine optimization for free is one of the vast benefits of customer reviews since they’re responsible for around 15.44% of SEO ranking credit.
4. Customer Reviews Let Your Customers Market For You
Business owners launch online advertising campaigns to promote their E-commerce stores and increase brand awareness. Good customer reviews support that endeavor by acting as a digital word of mouth. It’s like having your old customers convince the new ones of your products.
These evaluations and reviews contribute to a positive image of products or an E-commerce store, enhancing brand awareness beyond what traditional marketing campaigns can achieve. The more positive feedback an online store gets, the higher it sells. According to a new study, a 0.1 increase in star rating can boost the conversion by 25%.
5. Customer Reviews Create Customer Loyalty
Allowing customers to review products and services on E-commerce stores plays a primary role in building customer loyalty for the following reasons:
- Encouraging communication with customers, especially if online stores follow up with reviews. For example, website admins can appreciate positive reviews and help address negative ones.
- Customers prefer to buy from engaging E-commerce stores where they feel their comments are considered and their feedback is welcomed, bringing them back in the future.
- Sharing customer reviews on social media platforms contribute to their brand loyalty, and they subconsciously become advertisers themselves.
The impact on customer loyalty proves the importance of customer reviews.
4 Ways to Get Even More Customer Reviews
Even though writing a review will not take a minute of a customer’s time, some might be hesitant and discouraged about the matter. But, an E-commerce store’s credibility relies heavily on a couple of words and a single photo from a happy customer. So, the importance of product reviews motivates business owners to foster a culture of feedback and review.
1. Feel Free to Ask for a Review
It’s totally fine to ask customers to leave reviews about a product they have already purchased. Some customers, even regular ones, won’t add a review unless prompted. Furthermore, business owners can adopt a comprehensive review strategy utilizing their customer database. Sending emails, mobile application notifications, and social media posts can help push customers to review products in E-commerce stores.
2. Encourage Your Customers With Promotions
Most businesses understand that the importance of online reviews is so big that they should create efficient incentives to motivate customers to leave reviews by offering them a discount or a special offer. However, the success of this method relies on picking the right time to offer. For example, it could be at checkout or after confirming delivery by email. Promotions have always motivated online store customers to contribute in different forms.
3. Make the Process Quick and Easy
Any complicated matter related to buying from E-commerce stores is repellent. Review steps should be simplified for the customer by asking direct questions and shortening the expected review time. Leaving reviews should be easily accessible via email or asking customers to provide their reviews onsite within the purchase order confirmation page.
4. Send Timely Post-purchase Emails
One of the most well-known ways to help effectively attract customers and encourage them to write reviews that are important for your business is by sending a post-purchase email. Choosing the right time is quite essential to urge customers to express their experiences. For example, it’s recommended to give customers some time to test the product before asking for feedback. Customer reviews could also exceed the product to cover the company’s support and after-sale services.
Conclusion
The importance of customer reviews lies in their influence on current and potential customers in the future. Despite the simplicity of the review concept, business owners must be aware of its vast benefits, from increasing sales to improving SEO ranking and attracting more traffic to the website. E-commerce competition is not easy in today’s world, and winning requires considering all possible means.
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