The current head of TED, Chris Anderson, rightly says, «Your brand isn’t what you say it is; it’s what Google says it is.»
With online marketplaces and eCommerce sites becoming more popular, the entire process of customer review has evolved over the years.
Ask yourself! What is the first thing you do when you decide to purchase an item online? Since customers cannot physically experience the product they want to purchase, they look for genuine online reviews and compare the same from various review platforms. Hence, finding a review opinion is not hard these days as review sites like Facebook, Yelp, Embed Amazon Customer Reviews, have expanded like never before.
Customer reviews help brands establish trust among customers and build a positive reputation in the digital place. Besides, it gives you essential insights into which negative reviews need to be attended to for better internal management.
Importance of Customer Reviews For eCommerce Business
The experience of purchasing products from an eCommerce store to that of a brick-and-mortar store is entirely different. It is easier for customers to find the right fit and style in offline stores, whereas online, they solely depend on customer reviews. Nowadays, customers thoroughly research and compare reviews from various review platforms before making a purchase decision. It also helps the customers to get familiar with your brand.
Let us look at some detailed reasons that justify the importance of customer reviews for eCommerce business.
Boost Local SEO
Every eCommerce business owner’s dream is getting a higher rank in the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). But having an SEO-friendly online presence can be challenging and takes time and effort.
That’s why many business owners opt to engage a SEO consultant to improve their search visibility.
Don’t worry! Customer reviews are here to the rescue! These reviews can give your brand a good position in the local SEO rankings against high-ranking keywords. Besides, with each review on Google, your brand has a higher chance of ranking at the top of the SERP.
Additionally, customer reviews also boost your website traffic and social sharing. This usually happens in two ways. Social sharing is identified by search engines and helps to spread the digital word of mouth, increasing your brand’s online visibility. Higher ranks in the SERP will generate more traffic as they click on your links. Hence, you should help your eCommerce business stand out online by managing customer reviews.
Gather Valuable Insights About Your Business
Customer reviews are a great way to elevate your product experience. With these reviews, you can gain insights into your customers’ perspectives on your product or service.
If you want your business to grow, keep track of all reviews, especially the negative ones.
Customer reviews can tell you a lot about your eCommerce business. For better customer experience management, take account of the positive reviews along with the negative ones for clear insights. For example, address issues and complaints regarding a product’s features, functioning and pricing to facilitate a better experience.
Never leave negative reviews unattended. It will hamper your brand image and might have a severe impact. Try switching to online reputation management tools if you haven’t yet, as they will help you track reviews and complaints accurately from different review platforms.
Increase Sales
One of the most fundamental reasons why customer ratings and reviews are important is that it leads to increased sales for your eCommerce business. As an eCommerce business owner, you should be aware that about 77% of the customers check the reviews for similar purchases while browsing through your products.
Social proof is a great way for customers to decide whether to purchase the product. The customers will look at the reviews and see whether other customers have enjoyed the experience. Research shows customers tend to trust reviews 12 times more than any other form of marketing.
Hence, it is undeniable that social proof is a powerful way to increase sales. Positive reviews help the customers be more confident about your business, which increases the possibility of future conversions.
Build Trust And Credibility
Another significant benefit to customer reviews is that they can portray your eCommerce business in a positive light. Today, modern customers do not only rely on product descriptions. Hence, for every eCommerce business, it is crucial to have good reviews to build credibility. While purchasing a high-end product, a customer might have a lot of queries about it. Hence, good online reviews and positive ratings are the best ways to convince them and create an important trust factor. To make your customers feel important, always highlight positive customer reviews and give adequate attention to your customers.
According to research, countless brands compete in different categories in the global eCommerce market, making it difficult to know whom to trust. Hence, online reviews can be the next best thing to develop an online reputation and trust in your eCommerce business.
Help In Customer Decision-Making
Due to the many available options in the market, the customer decision-making process sometimes gets complicated. Before committing to a particular product, customers usually undergo a lot of evaluation. They check the product descriptions and compare the reviews (both positive and negative) on various platforms before clicking on the purchase option.
Customer reviews are the primary key to easing the customer’s decision-making process. They give additional clarity about the product, size, quantity, image, and shape of the product. For example, as a business owner, you might have seen many customers post pictures of the products they bought, along with their reviews and personal experiences. This activity helps the prospective buyers to understand whether the description image resonates with the actual product and aid a customer in their purchase call. Hence, customer reviews are important for your eCommerce business and, if addressed properly, can drive more sales.
Increased Engagement
When owning a business, especially an eCommerce business, try to form a bond with the customers. The sole purpose of giving so much priority to the review section is because it creates customer engagement. Usually, after leaving a product review, customers visit those reviews to see if the comment has been responded to. They also check how other customers are reacting to their comments.
This activity creates an active social community where customers interact and share their experiences about a particular product. It is a form of social engagement and allows the customers to form a bond with your eCommerce business online.
Responding to positive and negative customer remarks brings the customers closer to the brand and increases the interaction. Customers feel heard and valued, which ultimately leads to consumer retention.
You can further engage your customers by employing new ways to take reviews. For example, you can use a QR code feedback to collect reviews and testimonials. You can use a QR code maker to create the QR codes.
Conclusion
Understanding the importance of customer reviews and leveraging the same to boost eCommerce business is critical to being ahead in the competition. Now that you understand why customer reviews are important, start asking for positive reviews from your customers and responding to your customer feedback as soon as possible. This will boost sales and create reassurance in the minds of other potential customers.
