Reviews play a major role for e-commerce companies. In fact, it is one of the factors that most influences consumers' purchasing decisions in the digital environment. However, getting reviews is not easy.
One of the great advantages of the digital era is easy access to information. If today's customers are more demanding than they were decades ago, it is because they have access to more information and, therefore, more room for critical thinking and greater decision-making power.
On the other hand, customers have less trust in advertising, especially the younger generations. In our post on marketing for millennials we already explained that "millennials do not trust adverts, content recommended by public figures and, increasingly less, content generated by influencers. ". Instead, they do trust the opinions of other users and, in fact, reviews are the aspect that most condition their purchasing decisions.
According to a new study by Isendu:
When it comes to millennials, even more so. According to Forbes:
Everything suggests that, increasingly, e-commerce companies must find ways to leverage customer reviews and make them a priority. In the world of e-commerce, positive reviews are a great conversion push.
The big problem with e-commerce's dependence on reviews is that, while they have great power, getting them is not easy. According to the Isendu study mentioned above, less than 1.25% of e-commerce companies succeed in getting positive reviews from their product shipments.
The conversion of purchases into reviews is low, but there are ways in which we can encourage our customers to write reviews or post their ratings after making a purchase.
The customer experience and the user experience are among the factors that can contribute the most to encouraging reviews. Building a website with a user experience that encourages reviews is one of the most effective strategies for getting testimonials.
Other efficient methods:
Obviously, the first step to make users write reviews is to create a space in our website specifically for reviews and highlight it across the website.
Use visible and eye-catching Call To Actions on your website to encourage customers to leave a review.
Social media are also channels from which we can obtain reviews. Many customers or potential customers comment or give their opinion about brands when companies are active on social media and it is likely that if we encourage customers to leave reviews on a social network, we will increase our number of reviews.
Email marketing is one of the communication channels that generates more conversion and one of the most effective to get our audience to move towards the purchase. We can use the footer of our corporate email to ask our customers to leave a review.
Without a doubt, one of the most effective ways to boost reviews is to offer some sort of reward to those customers who take the time to write a review. Rewards can range from a written acknowledgement or appreciation, to a discount code for their next purchase. This is also a good way to build customer loyalty.
Conclusion
In the digital world, reviews are essential, especially for e-commerce companies. Digitalization and the democratization of information have made customers more critical and demanding than they were years ago. Consumers are also much more informed before making a purchase. In the same vein, consumers, especially younger ones, are relying less and less on traditional advertising and instead base their purchasing decisions on reviews from other customers.
Today, for e-commerce companies, a customer's opinion is more powerful than any type of marketing communication campaign. In this sense, it is essential that e-commerce companies start giving more importance to customer reviews and look for ways to enhance positive and visible reviews in their web environment.