How eCommerce Brands Can Use Online Reviews on Shopify

Having online reviews on Shopify products can make or break a sale. Let’s be honest, when is the last time that you bought something on Amazon without reading at least a few reviews first? Have you ever clicked on a product that had less than 3 stars? Those little stars hold a great deal of power. They provide social proof that people need if they are going to be persuaded to buy. But, you don’t have to take my word for it – the numbers speak for themselves.

• 95% of customers read reviews before making a final purchase.
• 92% of B2B customers are more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review.
• You can increase purchases by 380% by display reviews on higher-priced products.
• 80% of customers changed their mind about a purchase after reading negative reviews about the product or the business online.
• 84% of people say that they trust online reviews at the same level as personal recommendations.
• 65% of customers look up price comparisons and reviews while standing in the physical store.

Building trust between you and your customers is one of the hardest things that you can do as a store owner. Your reputation is important. In this post, I’m going to show you how to put reviews to work for your business.

 

 

Types of Review Experiences

Online reviews create an emotional connection between your store, your products, and your future customers. As they read your reviews, there are a few different types of experiences that they may have.

1. Product Experience

This product amazed me and exceeded my expectations. It works exceptionally and as described. The Rocketbook app is so simple and easy to use. The scanning is perfect, it captures the colors, exposes the page with the right lighting, and crops and adjusts the page properly. Each scan takes less than a second, and you can combine multiple pages into one scan and upload them as one document. – Amazon Customer

Product reviews give someone an idea of what it is to own your product. They will reference things like size, fit, color, durability, and other tangible things about your merchandise. These types of reviews like this help build confidence in the item that they will be purchasing to meet their needs.

2. Situational Experience

It’s taken some of the pressure off of note-taking, and I love that it has become a habit. Writing things down helps me organize my thoughts, and crossing them out incentivizes me in a ‘simple joy’ kind of way. It’s also a much less wasteful way to prefer paper in the 21st century. – Mara Leighton, Business Insider Review

Situational reviews like this help someone understand how a product fits into their situation. For example, let’s say that you sell a reusable spiral notebook. Reviews that show how someone uses that notebook in their day-to-day lives helps a future customer understand the value of the product and its impact on their lives.

3. Customer service experience

I really came through to comment on the customer service I received. Out of this world. The first notebook I received had a small defect. The first four sheets were not punched properly, so the holes were too large, so about halfway up the notebook, the pages were not actually secured to the spiral binding… I contacted the company. They responded within 24 hours, asked for the documentation of purchase and damage, and sent a replacement directly to me abroad free of charge. Post where I’m living is a nightmare, so when the package was returned to sender for no good reason, they issued a second replacement without issue. The second replacement did arrive, but was the wrong notebook – a third replacement was sent, and I was allowed to keep the one sent by mistake. All this, free of charge. Bottom line – good product, good customer service, would definitely buy again except I’ll never need another notebook 🙂   Amazon Customer

Reviews that showcase your customer service help alleviate fears. A new customer that is considering purchasing your product will have concerns over shipping, returns, and defective products. Reading reviews that showcase how is your company responded in these situations can help reduce many of these fears.

For example, let’s say that someone received the wrong size and had left a negative review. If your company responded promptly and immediately shipped them the correct size product, that person might consider changing the review. In the review, they are likely to state that they originally received the wrong size, but that you were polite and quick to fix the mistake.

In fact – 7 out of 10 customers change their opinion about a company after the company replied to their review!

 

 

How to Encourage Reviews

Now that you fully understand the benefits of reviews, types of reviews that people may write, it’s time to learn how to start generating them. First and foremost you need to have an easy way for customers to leave a review in the first place. Without this, it would be impossible to get them. However, just building this isn’t enough. You have to encourage people to use it. There are a few different ways to do this.

1. Use email marketing

Up to 80% of reviews come from follow-up emails that encourage customers to review their purchases. You can build out email campaigns that encourage people to leave a quick review. Be kind, be gentle, and make sure that you send these emails out after a customer has had the product in their hands for at least a week or two. This time gives them enough time to test the quality and ensure that it’s a good product.

2. Make the process simple

You do not want to have to force someone through a tedious process to get a review. Test the process yourself and make sure that it is easy and rewarding. If you’re using email marketing to request a review, include a photo and link to the product they purchased. This will help refresh their memory. Another strategy is to include a star-rating system in lieu of asking for written reviews.

3. Offer incentives

Even the smallest of incentives can have the most significant impact. This could be something as simple as providing a $5 coupon after someone submits a review. You could also offer a free low-cost item to increase reviews. For example, Rocketbook recently ran a promotion where they gave a free Rocketbook Everlast Mini to customers that purchased the larger Everlast notebook and left a review on Amazon or social media.

However, it can also be things that are a little bit more exclusive. For example, you could share a sneak preview of the upcoming. This is a great way to build a community around your product as well as encourage future purchases.

You can also do things like showcasing the best reviews on your site. Let your customers know that if they leave a good review, they could be featured as well. Rocketbook is another great example here. One customer took a photo of their new Rocketbook Mini that they got for leaving a review, and Rocketbook shared that photo and gave a shoutout to that customer on their Twitter page.  

Have the right tools

If you’re going to collect reviews and display them correctly, there are a few tools that you need to have in mind.

1. Email Marketing

When it comes to email marketing with Shopify, we recommend Klaviyo. It’s a popular email automation tool — but it’s also Shopify specific. Klaviyo being this specific gives it more powerful features and integrations than what you’ll find with other solutions like MailChimp. You’ll be able to send personalized messages directly based on customers purchase behaviors, cart values, purchase history, and a wide variety of other data points.

2. Product Reviews

If you’re on Shopify, there are a couple of solid options in the app store that help you quickly and easily add reviews to your site.

Product Reviews (free)

If you’re looking for a lost-cost option to get you started, you’ll want to grab the free Product Reviews app from the app store. It lets you quickly and easily add reviews to your online store so that you can engage your customers and boost sales. It includes SEO-friendly review scores and adapts quickly to your store’s design so it’s easy to add great looking online reviews on Shopify product pages.

Yotpo

If you want a review solution that has some extra and powerful features to supercharge your reviews, then take a look at Yotpo. It does have a free tier to get you started with up to 50 monthly orders at the time this was written. It gives you the ability to leverage customer reviews, visual marketing, loyalty programs, and referrals to boost your review strategy. Plus, they are an official Shopify Plus Technology Partner, so you can trust their integration to be solid.

3. Professional Assistance

Building campaigns designed to increase reviews may sound like a simple feat, but it’s important to make sure that you have the right steps in place. Having the right team to support you can make all the difference. At Future Holidays, we can help make sure that your website is set up to display reviews beautifully. We can also help you craft automated email campaigns designed around a customer’s purchase behavior to help attract high-quality positive reviews. If you’re ready to up your product review game, schedule a meeting and let’s talk about how we can help.