Why Product Reviews are a Must for Your Ecommerce Website

What’s one thing every e-commerce business has in common? They can benefit from customer reviews on their website. Customer reviews can increase sales by acting as proof points for your brand. Regardless of your business idea, whether you sell cookware, pet products, skin care products, or subscription boxes, your e-commerce website can benefit from reviews written by your loyal customers.

Of course, there’s much to consider when adding reviews to your website. For example, what if you get a bad review, and won’t it deter prospects from continuing through the sales funnel? Ultimately, there are several benefits to allowing reviews on your website, even negative ones. Let’s take a look at why reviews are so important for businesses:

Build Trust

As we’ve mentioned, customer reviews act as proof to other customers who are considering purchasing with you. Consumers won’t take your word for how great your product is because your opinion is biased. Instead, you may have been able to hook them with the features or benefits, but they won’t know whether you’re credible or trustworthy until they read reviews from other customers. Most online shoppers read reviews. If your website doesn’t have them, it won’t seem trustworthy. Ultimately, consumers will wonder what you’re trying to hide, which can hurt your opportunity to sell more products.

Purchasing Decision Influencer

Good reviews can influence a prospective customer’s decision about becoming a customer. Most customers prefer to read at least some reviews before they decide to buy because it can help them take the final step and add items to their cart. Whether you sell ethical clothing, supplements, or groomsman gifts, positive reviews can promote sales. Having reviews and showcasing them on product pages can help you organize them to ensure customers interested in particular products can see reviews of those products.

Understanding Customers

It’s not enough to put reviews on your website; you must read them to help you understand your customers, their pain points, and their concerns. Analyzing your customer reviews can help you determine which aspects of the product they love and which they don’t improve product development and create better products or remove poor ones from your inventory. Additionally, it allows you to learn more about each customer to find better ways to market to them.

Builds a Relationship

Customers want to know they matter to your business. If you don’t give customers a voice, they won’t feel like you care about them. Reviews give customers a voice, allowing them to write reviews online. Additionally, customers who write positive reviews are more likely to become repeat customers.

But what about customers who post negative reviews? While customers who post negative reviews won’t necessarily be interested in continuing to purchase products from your brand, communicating with unhappy customers can help them change their minds. When you take the time to respond to negative reviews, it shows customers you care about their complaints and want to resolve them. Additionally, responding to reviews publicly shows customers that if they ever have a problem, you’ll take it seriously.

Boost Rankings

If you’re like many e-commerce businesses, you know the importance of appearing in the top results on search engines like Google. Reviews can help you rank higher in search results if you invest in search engine optimization (SEO). Customers writing reviews use keywords other consumers might search for on Google, such as the product name or some aspect of its description, which essentially means they’re writing your content for you.

Additionally, when you have reviews on your website, a star rating can appear in search results to encourage users to take action and click on your website.

Improve Sales

What does all of this mean to your business? First, increasing your search engine rankings, building relationships, and delighting your customers by solving complaints improves sales because reviews enhance your marketing efforts. Online reviews are akin to word-of-mouth. Consumers are more likely to trust other consumers over brands, so allowing reviews can make more people interested in your business.

What About Negative Reviews?

We’ve already addressed how even negative reviews can be beneficial because they allow you to respond to customers publicly to show others that you take complaints and issues seriously. However, many small businesses fear negative reviews because they believe they’ll deter customers from purchasing. Of course, no brand wants negative reviews, but you can’t please everyone.

All businesses get negative reviews occasionally, but acknowledging negative feedback and responding is good business. When a customer publicly voices a negative opinion, you have the opportunity to fix it by delighting them with an offer. Instead of writing them off and ignoring negative reviews or choosing not to post them on your website, you can use negative feedback as a learning experience.

Customers post negative reviews because they want you to solve an issue for them. Frustrated customers can be turned into happy customers with the right solutions. However, if you don’t take the opportunity they give you to fix issues, you’ll lose that customer forever. Instead, use this time to solve issues; you’ll have a customer for life because it shows you care.

Getting Online Reviews

Whether you run a restaurant or a landscaping business, you have to generate reviews on your website to take advantage of them. One of the easiest ways to do this is by setting up an email marketing campaign that sends customer requests for reviews a week or so after they purchase your product. You can integrate your feedback program with your website to automatically upload reviews. Additionally, you can allow customers to post reviews directly on your website instead of replying via email.

Do You Need Reviews?

Every business that sells something should have reviews and testimonials on its website. Communication trends are constantly changing but consistently product reviews show year over year that they are vital to the success of your ecommerce site. However, you shouldn’t only post 5-star reviews. Your customers won’t believe you’ve delighted every single one of your customers. Instead, allow for honest feedback by letting customers of all types leave reviews to voice their opinions and feedback. Then, after receiving feedback, respond to your customers — whether they’re satisfied or dissatisfied — to start building valuable relationships and online experiences that encourage customer loyalty.

Author Bio:

Ashley Nielsen earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration Marketing at Point Loma Nazarene University. She is a freelance writer who loves to share knowledge about general business, marketing, lifestyle, wellness, and financial tips. During her free time, she enjoys being outside, staying active, reading a book, or diving deep into her favorite music.