There is a saying ‘
Brands are known by their Customer.’ It holds weightage in all aspects.
Think about it, will you buy a product from an online store without actually knowing if it is fake or not? There are just so many scams out there that people have stopped trusting brands.
That's where online customer reviews come in.
Whenever I buy a product online, I see the reviews available on it. For example, if I buy products from Amazon, I am sure to check if the reviews of the product are available. If the reviewer tells the good and bad side of the product, then that is a plus. In short, I am looking for something that gives me a clue that the product is worth it. Online Store should integrate
Rating and Review Plugins for the same reason
Why are online reviews important?
Customers' reviews are important because they help other customers determine if they should buy a product or not. In short, they are the decision-makers. Here is a list of reasons that can help you learn more about how reviews can help an
eCommerce store.
Customer reviews build user trust. People don't know where to shop for a specific thing. But when they post their query in Facebook groups or Quora questions, they are more likely to get names of a few stores from other users. This narrows down their choices. That’s how these stores build trust.
A single review can help multiple people buy a product. When more people buy a product, they are more likely to increase ROI. More ROI means more profit for the store owner.
Reviews help retain customers for longer periods of time. Customers are impressed by two things: The customer support they get, and the number of reviews others have posted about a store. Both are necessary to retain customers.
Reviews help people know about a particular product through word of mouth. Let’s say you want to buy a web hosting service. When you search online, you will see many choices. So, you will ask a few trusted friends and they will tell you which hosting solution will work best for you. This is possible because of the review your friend just gave you.
Finally, reviews can help improve the brand awareness of an online store. Stores can use their best reviews to promote their products. In fact, you must have seen how most companies use reviews side by side with a product they are trying to sell in their ads.
How to Get Customer Reviews?
Getting customer reviews is easy if you provide amazing customer support to the users.
The best way to get customer reviews is by reminding them about it. When customers purchase a product, they are less likely to share anything about it. They will only share when the product is bad. If it is good, they won’t share it. You can solve this problem by emailing them directly and asking for a review.
Checkouts can also show a popup whenever a person orders a product. The checkout counter will tell the buyer that they can post a review about the product on their favorite website with the click of a button. When reviews are made easy, buyers are more likely to write a review.
You can even throw in incentives like discounts, cashback, bonus items, and even free shipping to all the users who have bought a product from your website. They only have to post a review of your brand on social media to get the offer.
Sometimes, incentives are considered unethical by users. However, they are still an effective medium and people still use them to get more reviews about their services.
- Promote Your Customers Who Reviewed
When you give more value to your customers, more customers are going to come to you to ask how they can be promoted through your channel. You just have to tell them to review your products and they will be a part of the team soon enough.
Another effective strategy is to meet the customers in person. There are live events in almost all big cities. You can drop a message on social media that you will be attending an event and your customers can meet you in person. All of these are loyal fans and you can use them to get more reviews.
Tools to get Customer Reviews
These are some customer review platforms that you can embed on your website and checkout counters to increase reviews on your website.
First on our list is Reviews.io. It is an impartial review platform. You can use the embed code provided by Reviews.io on your website. All the reviews are also published on the platform automatically.
Trust Pilot is another great eCommerce website. You can use the Trust pilot embed form on your website and in emails to generate more reviews.
Trusted Reviews allows you to get a special page on the website about your services and reviews. The more positive reviews you get, the more people will trust you.
Conclusion
In the end, trust and reviews indeed play a crucial role in any eCommerce success.
Also, it now holds true that reviews are the crown jewel of any eCommerce store.
