Product reviews are an essential part of any e-commerce strategy and can play a major role in increasing conversions, sales, and customer loyalty. They help customers to make informed decisions, and can also help businesses to identify and address issues with their products or services. However, many businesses struggle to effectively collect, manage, and use product reviews as part of their e-commerce strategy.

A recent survey showed that 93% of shoppers consult product reviews before making a purchase. Another report found that nearly 84% of online shoppers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from family or friends.

In this blog post, we will provide a complete guide to product reviews in e-commerce, covering everything from the basics of setting up product reviews to advanced strategies for using reviews to improve customer experience, increase conversions and sales, and gain valuable insights into customer preferences. We will also explore the impact of reviews on search engine optimization and how they influence customers’ trust and decision-making. Whether you are a small business owner or a digital marketer, this guide will provide you with the knowledge and tools you need to effectively collect and manage product reviews to drive business growth.

Table of Contents

  1. What are product reviews?
  2. Why are product reviews important?
  3. How to get more product reviews for your online store?
  4. How to get your product reviews noticed (syndicate reviews)?
  5. Conclusion

What are product reviews?

Product reviews are customer feedback about a product or service, typically in the form of written comments or ratings. They can provide valuable information about the product’s quality, performance, or value, as well as the customer’s experience with the product or company. These reviews are usually available for customers to read, allowing them to make an informed decision before they make a purchase. The reviews can be useful for identifying areas of improvement, helping to build brand reputation and credibility, and also understanding the needs of customers. Positive reviews can also help to increase customer loyalty and drive repeat business. Product reviews typically include:

  • A rating between 1-5 stars
  • A detailed description of the product/ service quality
  • Any pros or cons experienced with the product/ service

Here’s what a typical product review on an ecommerce website looks like:

Why are product reviews important? 

Today’s consumers are more informed than ever. 

With the advent of the internet, they have access to a wealth of information about products and services. This means that when you want to sell products, you need to consider a new way of marketing: online product reviews.

Reviews are important to your brand’s success. Customers use reviews for making buying decisions. 

According to a survey, 91% of consumers between the ages of 18-34 years old trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and 93% of consumers believe their purchase decisions are influenced by online reviews.

  1. Product reviews help customers make informed decisions: Product reviews can provide valuable information about a product’s quality, performance, or value, as well as the customer’s experience with the product or company. This information can help customers to make informed decisions about whether to purchase a product.
  2. Product reviews can help to build brand reputation and credibility: Positive reviews can help to build a company’s reputation and credibility, while negative reviews can reveal areas that need improvement. By responding to and addressing negative reviews, companies can demonstrate their commitment to customer satisfaction and quality.
  3. Product reviews can provide valuable insights into customer preferences: Analyzing product reviews can provide businesses with valuable insights into customer preferences and buying habits. This information can be used to improve products, develop new products, or adjust marketing strategies.

How to get more product reviews for your online store? 

1. Make it simple to review your products 

One of the easiest ways to get more Shopify product reviews is to make it simple for customers to give them. By giving your customers a specific Q&A to answer, you’ll be able to get feedback that’s more actionable and helpful than just a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down. 

You can do this by asking specific questions, like “What was your favorite part of [product]?” or “How did it fit?”

It can be as simple as asking them to share their thoughts on a certain product feature or what they think about it in comparison with other products in the same category. This helps you understand what your customers like about your products, which can then be applied to future iterations or other products that are similar.

You could also ask them if they would recommend your product to others who might be interested in it. This gives you some insight into how well your current marketing efforts are working and whether there are any areas where you need improvement.

AiTrillion helps brands easily set up an online review form that allows customers to answer these questions easily and quickly—and then store all their answers in one place where you can see them at any time.  

2. Automate product review requests 

Did you know that 90% of customers who receive a review request will leave a review?

It’s true! You can’t afford to wait for your customers to come to you. You need to go after them. And the best way to do that is with automated review requests.

Automate your request email and web push at key points throughout the lifecycle of each order. 

After your customer has bought from you, send a post-purchase review request email and a web push notification. This can be done as part of your automatic email sequence, or it can be done manually. Either way, make sure that the email contains a link back to the product page where they can leave their review or includes a quick-fill form to do it from the inbox itself. Make sure you get the timing right so that when people see these messages, they’re still thinking about what they bought and why they bought it.

We recommend using this method because it gives you the highest chance of getting customers to leave a review—and it does so without being too pushy about it! 

You can automate your post-purchase review requests on email and web push notifications with AiTrilion. It easily integrates with your store and its logistics aggregator to trigger the requests at the right moment.

3. Request reviews from returning visitors 

You can also send automatic pop-ups to collect reviews after orders, or even when a customer has been inactive for a while, reminding them how much you appreciate their business and asking if they’d be willing to take the time to leave you some feedback on your website.[/vc_column_text]

popup for collecting review

When customers are prompted with a popup like this, they’re more likely to leave you a review than if you just ask them outright in an email. You’ll be able to customize the message, link, and color of the popup so that it fits seamlessly into your website while still being noticeable enough to encourage visitors to leave a review on the previous purchase. 

You can set up pop-ups for review requests with AiTrillion. It comes with pre-built, customizable templates that can be used to request feedback from your returning visitors. Since it comes with a customer analytics module, it ensures your popup is triggered only to those who have previously visited your website and made a purchase. 

Review Popup Shopify

4. Follow-up on review requests

When it comes to getting more product reviews, there’s one strategy that works every time: scheduling follow-ups.

Don’t just send one review request. When you’re trying to get more product reviews, make sure you create a follow-up sequence to get your request noticed.

It’s important to remember that customers may not even notice when they receive a request. That’s why it’s crucial that you create a follow-up sequence that reminds them of the request, so they don’t forget about it.

For example, if you send a single email requesting reviews after they purchase, they might not see it right away—especially if they’re busy or distracted in some other way. But if you send three emails over the course of a week reminding them to leave a review and explaining why it’s important for their business, then there’s a much better chance that they’ll actually do it!

When creating your follow-up sequence, make sure each email contains specific instructions about where and how to leave a review on your site (or app). 

With an app like AiTrillion, you can actually create powerful workflows to automate your product review requests. You can set different parameters for follow-up triggers to ensure you’re not being all too pushy. 

5. Offer rewards in lieu of reviews  

If you’re looking to boost your reviews and get more positive feedback, you need to offer some kind of reward for the time a customer invests in sharing their opinion with you. 

One of the best ways to do this is by offering loyalty points for leaving a review. This is a great way to motivate your customers and encourage them to leave feedback.

Reward your customers for giving good reviews! Give them coupons, discounts on future purchases, or free shipping—whatever works best for your business model!  

If you have a loyalty program, then it’s easy to add a new tier that gives customers rewards for leaving reviews on your products or services.

You can also consider giving out free samples or discounts when they write a review. This will help you build up a community of loyal customers who love what you do and want to support your brand!

The good thing is that with AiTrillion, you can keep your product review requests and loyalty program seamlessly integrated to tap into this strategy. This makes sharing loyalty rewards for reviews much easier and faster, creating a win-win for both you and the customer. 

Now that you have your product reviews in place, the next step is to leverage them. You need to get them noticed to be able to reap the benefits of this user generated content.

customer feedback

How to get your product reviews noticed (syndicate reviews)?

Product review syndication is the process of promoting your business through various platforms and marketplaces by distributing the reviews you have collected. This helps businesses get noticed on channels where their target audience is actively engaging in making purchases. 

In times when multichannel sales are becoming a crucial part of growth strategies, product review syndication is a must-have. Here are some strategies to get your product reviews where your potential customers are:  

1. Enhance your product review SEO 

Surveys have found that a majority of online purchase journeys start from search engines. That’s why you need to make sure that your product reviews are SEO-friendly, to capture the search intent of potential customers with content that is more convincing and likely to drive a sale for your business. 

To make sure your product reviews are SEO-friendly, you need to: 

  1. The first thing is to make sure every review has a title tag, which is what shows up in search results when someone Googles your business. This should be something descriptive and catchy so that people will click on the link and read it!
  2. Next, make sure each review has an image associated with it. Google gives more weight to pages that have images in them, so if you have a lot of reviews without images attached then your site might not rank as high as it could.
  3. Finally, you need to make sure each review has an accurate star rating attached to it—again this helps Google determine how relevant something is when they search for products or services like yours!

With AiTrillion, you can create rich snippets for each of your products on Google Shopping, including product images, star ratings, and summaries that include text from your product description. The result is that you’ll see an increase in organic traffic from search engines like Google!

Here’s an example of how a product review appears on search results: 

2. Tap into popular online marketplaces and selling websites 

If your business is also selling on popular online marketplaces, make sure you integrate them with your storefront and create a multi-channel review request strategy. The idea is to ensure that your products/ services receive positive reviews across all channels that may be used by your potential customers to explore and eventually buy your products. 

Shopify offers integration with all popular online marketplaces and selling websites like Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, Facebook and others. Using the integration and review request automation with AiTrillion, you can easily collect reviews on all important channels. 

Pro tip: Offer rewards for customers that take out time to review products on multiple channels for your business. 

3. Share product reviews on social media 

Another channel where the new-age consumer is actively exploring products is social media. That’s why you need to ensure that your product reviews find a place in your content strategy as well. 

Promote your product reviews and user-generated content on social media often to showcase how happy your customers are. They also make for an engaging content format, driving more people from social media to your website. 

Here’s a simple example of the same: 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, product reviews are an essential part of any e-commerce strategy. They provide valuable information for customers making purchasing decisions and also provide valuable insights for businesses. They help customers to make informed decisions, and can also help businesses to identify and address issues with their products or services, build brand reputation and credibility, and understand the needs of customers. Implementing a strategy for collecting and managing product reviews can drive business growth and improve customer satisfaction. By incorporating product reviews into your e-commerce strategy, you can increase conversions, boost sales, and build long-term customer loyalty.

Explore AiTrillion to see how you can create a comprehensive strategy to not just collect product reviews on auto-pilot, but also showcase them to turn visitors and followers into buyers! Reach out to us.

Additional reads: How To Amplify Your Email Marketing For The Success Of Your ECommerce Store (free ebook)