Think about the last purchase you made online: did you buy something after seeing their 1-star rating on Google or Amazon reviews? Probably not.

Online reviews are a big deal in e-commerce. They play an essential part in earning the consumers trust and maintaining a positive reputation.

Consumer product reviews are more trusted than product descriptions from the manufacturers or the e-commerce store owner's pen. The more expensive the product, the more critical reviews become — but there’s still no excuse for poor reviews on less expensive products.

Whether the reviews be on Facebook, Google Reviews or Trustpilot, you can be sure your customers will do their research before making a purchase decision. In fact, studies show that the purchase likelihood for a product with five reviews is up to 270% higher than the product's purchase likelihood with no reviews. What a number! 

Are online reviews good for SEO?

Yep! Reviews are great for an online store's Search Engine Optimization (SEO) too. Reviews may help to improve the website's ranking in many ways. User-generated reviews are unique and frequently updated content that search engines love. Reviews also tend to use the same vocabulary the user searching for the product would use, giving potential customers more opportunities to find your store online.

How to use online reviews to your advantage

How to use online reviews to your advantage

If you plan to use reviews (and you should!) it's worthwhile to keep in mind that adding reviews to your store needs a bit more commitment than simply setting up a Facebook page and letting the reviews flow in. Successful online stores have a well-thought strategy to encourage users to leave positive reviews.

The strategy could include, for example: 

  • automated email workflows,
  • handwritten or printed notes in shipment boxes,
  • outreach via social media, or
  • requesting reviews via email marketing.
Let's take a closer look. 

Just ask

The first step in getting product reviews is to politely ask for them. Keep the process simple and as straight forward for the customer as possible. 

Channels

Use the tools you are comfortable with: email, social media, printed cards — however you can get the message to your customer. 

Timing

Be smart about timing. Ask for reviews when the customer has placed a repeat order, has referred a new customer, or is spending a lot of time on your website.

Be real

No matter what, don't add fake reviews — your customers are smarter than that. If the product doesn't get reviews, it may be a better choice to remove the review feature altogether.

Take advantage of the order fulfillment phase

Take advantage of the order fulfillment phase

The order fulfillment phase is a mighty step in the process where you can impress and delight your customer — and ask for reviews too.

OGOship's customers have plenty of possibilities to personalize the order fulfillment phase. Besides using your custom packaging materials or, say, branded tape, you can slip in a handwritten or printed, personalized thank you card and ask for a review politely. If you want to incentivise, you can easily add a discount code or special offer, or make it as simple as possible with a QR-code linked directly to the review page.

Take it a step further and customize the process for a specific time period, or even have different add-on items based on the purchase value. You can even use packaging to motivate your customers to review your products (or post their unboxing on social media, but that’s a topic for another time…)

Honestly, the world is your perfectly packaged oyster — we’ll let you go wild, and get as creative as you like.

Has this post got you scribbling down ideas for your next thank-you note? Get in touch with our e-commerce specialists to explore your opportunities with OGOship!

 

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