How to Use Customer Reviews to Boost Your Ecommerce Sales
By Tanya Douglas Posted October 9, 2022
An ecommerce business needs to look for new and improved ways to generate sales constantly. It is ironic, then, that many such businesses pass up on a perfect resource at their disposal. Reviews! Why are reviews so precious for ecommerce businesses? Well, check out our guide on how to use customer reviews to boost your ecommerce sales and find out!
Use reviews to boost your SEO
The first way to use customer reviews to boost your ecommerce sales is by increasing your site's SEO. You see, SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is about more than just keywords. One of the highly beneficial aspects of SEO is reviews! Sites and businesses with more reviews and customer engagement will have better SEO scores. Interestingly enough, at first, it doesn't matter too much whether your reviews are mixed or even slightly bad. When just starting to build up your ecommerce business, that's still acceptable as a tradeoff for the SEO boost. However, you will definitely want to improve those reviews as you grow larger. Maybe consider using SEO tools for auditing and monitoring your site to help you do that! Of course, working on the basics of your business, such as the quality of your goods and service, is just as important.
Leverage the reviews for marketing
Another manner in which you can use customer reviews to boost your ecommerce sales is for marketing purposes. Your business needs tools to hook in new customers and reassure them of the quality and viability of your goods. There are few better ways to do this than by using reviews! Most people entirely refuse to show with businesses that don't have any reviews to their name. And even more, customers tend to follow trends and just rely on reviews to form their opinions. Now, of course, you can get swamped by fake bad reviews. Still, if you know how to combat fake reviews and learn to identify them, you can make quick progress in cutting down their numbers. So, reviews are once again overwhelmingly positive for your business, no matter how you view them. And you should always encourage your customers to leave them!
Share the reviews on social media platforms
Another way to leverage the positive effects of reviews on an ecommerce business is to share them over social media. Now, this serves two different purposes. The first, of course, is to promote one of your products and generate free and easy sales leads. This is typically the purpose most businesses have in mind when they opt to run a social media account. However, there is a second, and just as significant, benefit: brand recognition growth. One of the things every business tends to struggle with is enhancing its brand recognition and loyalty. Well, sharing positive reviews will let people remember you in a positive light. Even if the review is not perfectly glowing, and even if they don't remember the details about your business, it will still leave an impression on them. You can continue building on this foundation later to cement your brand in their minds.
Use reviews to engage customers
Customer interaction is a crucial part of running a business. It is the reason why companies rush to find a perfect solution for online membership management and CRM software. However, one fact somewhat spoils their efforts: finding opportunities to engage with customers is not easy. Think about the means you have available. Questioners, quizzes, polls, and social media comments are what most rely on when they try to achieve this. However, these depend on the customer's interest in engaging with you. You are a passive participant since you can only post what you have and wait for a response.
Meanwhile, when it comes to reviews, you are the active party. You're the one 'replying' to their reviews. This is a perfect chance to show that you listen and care. Especially if you respond to negative reviews with proof, you're working on improvements!
Link reviews to your store pages
Interestingly enough, integrating reviews into your store pages is one of the most effective tactics for reducing shopping cart abandonment. Online shoppers often suffer from insecurities and doubts before finalizing a purchase. Is the product legitimate? Will it really live up to the specifications and promotion blurb? Am I just wasting my money? These questions lead to shopping cart abandonment and prevent you from quickly building up a loyal customer base. However, link reviews and allow people to read through the objective opinions of other customers concerning your products. They will be a lot more convinced they actually want them. When they finally place an item into their shopping cart, they will be sure it's the best move. This means that they are unlikely to change their mind at the last second and make you lose the sale.
Combine them with affiliate marketing
The final way to use customer reviews to boost your ecommerce sales is by providing affiliate marketers with them. Affiliate marketers are independent contractors, often online 'influencers' and creators, who help you promote your products in exchange for a percentage of their sales proceeds. They are already extremely motivated to help you succeed since the amount of their pay depends on it. And, of course, reviews are one more tool you can use to reassure their audience that their glowing promotion of you is accurate. If they can show concrete proof that other people are happy with their purchases, they can leverage their influence and drive more sales your way!
Final Word
Reading through our guide on how to use customer reviews to boost your ecommerce sales, you should not understand just how helpful they are. Of course, you will gradually want to monitor the quality of your reviews and work to generate more positive ones. However, this can be progressively worked on, and quantity is king at the start.
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