When a potential new customer visits your eCommerce store for the first time, a few questions will come to their mind:
- “Can I trust this online store?”
- “Is this a credible business?”
- “Can the product deliver what it promises?”
More often than not, your customers will use seller ratings, star ratings and product reviews to answer the questions they are asking themselves. Before new customers visit your website, they will expect to see reviews through the Google Customer Review program or other 3rd party review providers.
I’m sure when you are browsing the web to buy products you see these ratings and reviews. They’re usually just below the site’s name, and the stars are pretty hard to miss. So how do they impact conversion rates?
Reviews on your eCommerce store put your brand’s reputation out on display. It not only shows all the positive experiences customers have had with your brand, but it also shows any negative experiences too. This is why a site with 4.8 star ratings with thousands of reviews, is seen as credible. After all, they are bound to have had a few negative reviews from selling so much, however, the potential customer will also be able to see how you handled that negative review from your response, so they know how issues will be resolved if they have an issue for whatever reason. What reviews do is build trust in a brand.
Ultimately, customers rely on reviews to help whether they should buy from an online store.
What If You Don’t Have A High Star Rating?
What if you have a few really bad reviews? Should you hide your reviews altogether? No!
Here’s what the data we have found shows:
- 52% of buyers said will they trust a business more if they see a few negative online reviews of their products. (Source: Capterra)
- Having 50 or more reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates (Source: Reevo)
- 63% of buyers are more likely to make a purchase from a site with a good amount of reviews (Source: iPerceptions, 2011)
- Reviews lead to an average of 18% increase in sales (Source: Reevoo)
- 89% of buyers will purchase a product within one week after reading reviews (Source: ReachLocal)
So these studies show us that potential consumers are less likely to buy from an online store with no reviews. They’re also less likely to trust a business with absolutely no negative reviews! Potential customers want to see the positives and negatives of a product/service before they make an online purchase. No product or company is perfect so they want to know the downsides first so they can make an informed decision before purchasing.
How To Get Product Reviews
The best way to get reviews for your eCommerce store and products is to ask!
You can give customers discounts, freebies or maybe even free shipping off their next order in exchange for an honest review on your chosen review platform. The best time to ask for a review is immediately after they’ve received their purchase.
You can use apps and plugins to add a customer review feature to your eCommerce store to automate this system.
If you want to improve your conversion rates why note sign up for our FREE Website Audit or contact us to discuss what we can do for your website.
