Impact of product reviews for online stores
You can hardly find anyone who just buys something without checking product or service reviews first.
Reviews from consumers are important, as they are often the deciding factor when it comes to buyers making an online purchase.
It is no longer just about good reviews because bad reviews matter, too.
Online store owners can and should use reviews as a navigational tool.
If buyers who are looking for an answer find it in your shop, then you have already used reviews to your advantage as you are already attracting traffic to your online shop.
How customer reviews can help
It is quite obvious how customer reviews help a product or service gain following, but they are most effective at getting rid of consumers’ doubts.
Potential customers will always want to make sure that they will be spending their money on something that does all that it claims to do.
Happy and satisfied customers love leaving reviews as well. People like to be heard and they like sharing experiences, whether they are pleasant or not. Their experience and opinions matter greatly to new and potential buyers.
Reviews also present your online stores with unique content that helps boost your SEO. Online buyers always use the word “review” so you know you can use this to help your online shop gain more traffic.
Bad reviews help too
Bad publicity, they say, is still publicity.
Consumers are smart people who see red flags when all the reviews they read are good.
Leaving the negative comments helps in showing honesty and, therefore, helps in gaining the trust of your buyers.
Reading about the bad reviews, in turn, makes the good reviews more realistic and believable.
Potential buyers will be searching for both the good and the bad, later on weighing the pros and the cons before buying a product.
However, bad reviews should be limited, as you do not want to drive your customers away.
A product that has 20 reviews with 3 or 4 negative reviews on it shows that although some people were not satisfied with it, there were actually a bigger number of people who thought that the product was a good buy.
The best way for reviews to work for you is to seek help from your own consumers.
If your online store gets reviews from people who did not actually test the product, buyers might question your credibility.
When asking your loyal customers to fill out forms or to write product reviews for you, make sure that you present them with a simple process that is not tiring or time consuming.
Not all people are good with words and some simply just can’t be bothered to write. You may ask them for a product rating before check out, that way you still get some input on your items.
It is also a good idea ask them to give suggestions and opinions on a service or product.
Online store owners should always find a way to connect and reach out to customers, and while there are many different ways of achieving this, providing valuable product or service reviews remains to be one of the most positive and effective ways of providing information to your consumers.
