How To Use eCommerce Reviews To Boost Your Revenue
Social proof sells better than you ever could.
Don’t believe us?
Just look at the success of the Three Wolf Moon t-shirt. Recognize this?
Sales exploded for these t-shirts not because they are the best designed and most comfortable and flattering t-shirts in the world (although feel free to argue with us), but because the reviews are insanely good…and funny too.
Still don’t believe us?
Check out this article on Amazon reviews and their role in the selling process.
Or this article from Marketing Profs on how reviews have changed the way we shop.
Reviews really sell above all.
That being said, reviews don’t just go one way.
What about negative reviews?
The important thing about negative reviews is to know how to react.
Whatever you do, don’t delete them.
When all of your reviews are positive, you lose authenticity and users can sniff this out. News flash: not everyone is going to love your product or service, no matter how good it is. Someone, somewhere is going to have a bad experience.
So deal with those reviews. Respond to them if you are at fault and try to win the customer back. But don’t get into a public argument on your review stream. If the issue needs further discussion, make sure to take this offline.
NOTE: There are cases where deleting them may be the best option, but only if the review is not authentic and is a directed attack on your brand for other purposes. This is not the typical case.
How do you ensure mostly quality reviews?
Well that’s simple. By delivering on quality.
In the past, you may have been able to get away with shipping bad product. Before the web, reviews were difficult to come by. But now, your customer are talking to each other everyday through social media. They can instantly slash your brand or give you rave reviews and change the course of your sales for the day, the week… maybe forever. So in today’s world, you can’t get away with shipping bad product and surviving.
The key, then, is to focus on creating a great brand and a great product that has the intent of amazing your customers. If your product and service are excellent, your reviews will be also.
Once you have that in order, it’s time to work on getting more reviews on your site.
Strategies to Get More Reviews On Your Site.
Incentivize Reviews
Now, there are laws about incentivizing positive reviews, but for reviews good or bad, you should be safe to offer something in return for customer feedback. We like to do this through email. Once your customer has received the product, send and an email requesting their feedback. Include a link to submit a review (or even better the review form in the email itself) and give your customer 10% off their next purchase.
Not only do you get a review out of this, but hopefully a repeat purchase.
DISCLAIMER: Legislation is always changing, so check to ensure your review incentives are within policy before launching a campaign.
Use Review Aggregate Services
Services like Yotpo or Power Reviews aggregate your reviews from across the web and pull them into your ecommerce store.
We like to use Yotpo paired with Shopify because it automates this process for you. It will request reviews from your past customers and allow them to enter the review right into the email that was sent.
This system is great because it ensures your reviews are authentic, from people who have actually purchased your product in the past. And review authenticity is a big deal. If your customers find out that the reviews on your site are bogus, you’re in big trouble.
