In a world where everything is digital, businesses always try to find an edge to one-up their competitors. Everybody’s got a trick up their sleeves and all businesses try to find an angle that would make them the best in the market. Yet, at the end of the day, most of these edges have something to do with the website. An e-commerce business is completely dependent on the online aspect of the job, and it’s where all the action takes place and where a business must outplay its competition. People log into websites, and they expect something unique and trustworthy. If that something is not there, they won’t come back or finish the sale. It’s as simple as that. One of the most important angles that people look for and many websites ignore is online reviews, and they can do wonders to your conversion rates.
Why are online reviews important?
While shopping online is quite pleasant and an experience that many people enjoy, it’s still not easy. People want to make the purchase but they quite often, and quite easily, can find half a dozen reasons not to. This is where the website and its efficiency kick in, and your website has to ensure the customers that they’re making the right choice. Online reviews play a huge part in this because they help potential customers trust your website and your products. People feel much better if they know someone had gone through the same experience they did. Some studies show that over 80 percent of customers believe online reviews are as important as a personal recommendation, and over 70 percent said positive reviews help them trust a business more and more.
This is particularly true in younger generations, who put much stock into user-generated experience and reviews. It’s quite simple really. If you want to pay a pair of headphones, but you’re not sure how good they are, you’ll simply check online reviews to find out what other users think and how the product panned out for them. If the overall reviews are favorable, then you’re in for the purchase. If not, then you’ll look for another product.
All the big companies are doing it
Have you ever asked yourself why any major e-commerce website puts so much emphasis on reviews? It’s because they’re that important to any customer. All the big players are doing it, and if you want to get ahead in the game, so should you. If you look at different websites, you’ll find that the better the reviews, the better the sales. Weave is one of those businesses that have benefited greatly from adding online reviews. The number of positive reviews the site got led to a boost in sales due to the fact that word got out that the service is reliable and of quality. Studies show that 50 or more customer reviews can increase your conversion rates by over 4 percent!
People are more likely to buy a service or a product from a website that offers online reviews. You’ve probably heard of Amazon, unless you’ve been living under a rock. Amazon reviews have always been a staple of the website’s success, and a reason why many people put so much faith in their products. If you check any popular products, you can find tens –– even hundreds –– of reviews, which makes the decision-making process much easier.
Search engine optimization
Believe it or not, user-generated reviews do much for the betterment of your SEO. The thing about customer reviews is they’re unique, so it’s not a fixed piece of content being repeated all over. The more reviews people write, the more distinguished your site can be and the better your ranks are going to be. In simpler terms, because many people write reviews on your site, when people search for a certain product that you actually have, your site has a bigger chance to appear higher in the search results. It also helps that many people search by the product name with the word “review” next to it. This can lead to increased traffic to your website since it does have reviews of said product, and ultimately excellent conversion rates.
Now’s the time
If by any chance you’re an e-commerce business, you definitely need to have a review section on your website. It is not a luxury anymore and it can do wonders to your conversions if executed right. It doesn’t cost much and it can be easily done, but you need to put your mind into it. Simply put, customers trust websites with plenty of reviews on the product or service. And when they trust a website, they tend to come back, which will reflect positively on your customer conversion rate.
