It is common knowledge that reviews are powerful word-of-mouth gateways for any service or product-based business. However, reviews tend to be vital for travel and eCommerce trades.
Here’s why your eCommerce site needs product reviews:
The internet is a competitive marketplace
eCommerce businesses need product reviews to survive and thrive in a modern world. Gone are the days when a shop can depend on a localised product to speak for itself at a time when the competition was far less. Time has shifted and so has consumer behaviour. People are living and working in a much faster-paced environment and want answers or solutions ‘on-demand.’
Social media and instant messaging have replaced traditional means of communication
With the social media and mobile takeover, word of mouth can be delivered worldwide and at an instant. In fact, many people use social media to often write reviews about their experience with a brand product or service. The more and more people that write reviews to your social media can help it grow if the majority of reviews are good or decrease in popularity if the majority of your reviews are bad. Either way product reviews on social media can help you listen to your consumers and find ways to better your brand.
For better or worse, reviews are the people's vote!
People like yourself may search for online reviews before deciding whether to use a service or buy a product. Hearing what other people have experienced can often influence purchase decisions. Thus, reviews, a type of feedback are most valuable to both a business and a consumer. In particular, for an eCommerce business, product reviews can help determine how valued an actual product, delivery and service means to a consumer in terms of quality, usage, popularity etc and helps e-commerce enhance the customer journey and experience for that customer and the next.
More than one opportunity to write a review
There are many different web platforms that consumers can use to write a review. Most often enough a consumer will write a review on the platform used to make their purchase. Here are some of the most common: TripAdvisor, Amazon, Google, eBay, Facebook, YouTube, JustEat and Yellow Pages. However, a typical eCommerce business that sells products directly from its website, will not solely rely on or expect reviews to be written on third party websites. Some e-commerce sites will have incorporated built-in review facilities for consumers to display their interest or rate their experience. Others may have embedded reviews made about their product or service from external websites, such as those mentions above. Either way, people have more than one opportunity to write a review.
Reviews have ranking potential
People tend to follow the majority of the votes, hence trust and authenticity are key factors for both search engines and consumers. Generally, the more positive the feedback a business earns, the higher the ranking potential in local search results.
