The definition of conversion can vary depending on what web page is in question but in simple terms, it is what websites want their users to do when they are purchasing items, downloading files, investing in eCommerce and so on. The conversion rate of a web page is calculated by dividing the total number of conversions by the total number of visits. Statistics show that having 50 or more reviews for each product you sell can mean you see a 4.6% increase in the conversion rate of your site.
If your site for any reason isn’t showing product reviews then you should reconsider as you could be losing out. This conveys that yes, online reviews have a very clear impact on conversion rate and more eCommerce sites should take note of this.
When visiting any web page with reviews, the first thing that anyone would do is look at reviews from other people. We do this without realising to compare products and see which one has the most satisfaction. Because of this, people rely on reviews when making decisions and in some cases people won’t even consider purchasing a product if there are no reviews for it. Also, most people trust the reviews of others more than the description and ratings given by the site itself.
Reviews have a significant impact on whether a customer decides to purchase from your store or not. If your store doesn’t have product reviews then potential customers are more likely to go somewhere that does like Amazon or one of your competitors. Customers are more likely to purchase a product with positive reviews, it’s important to keep this in check, and encourage customers to leave a review.
We’ve established that you need customer reviews if you want to make a good amount of sales and positively impact the conversion rate of your site. Now, all you need is people to actually review the products on your site and give ratings. This isn’t always easy and sometimes potential customers need a little encouragement to leave reviews. The first thing you could try is simply asking customers who buy your products to leave a review. If you ask your customers for their opinions they will feel as though you are about their satisfaction and are more likely to give a good honest review.
You could set this up as an automated system which sends out an Email after a customer has had one of your products for a certain length of time. If the customer isn’t fully satisfied or leaves a bad review you should try your hardest to correct the problem to keep the trust of your customers and to provide them with the best quality of service. If you manage to fix the problem and the customer is satisfied you can then ask them to update their review.
Another way to get more customers to leave reviews is to ensure that writing them is as easy and as accessible as possible. This will increase the likelihood of people writing reviews and will also prevent people from giving up and not leaving a review at all. You should also make sure that people can write reviews on other devices like mobile phones and tablets so that anyone can leave a review no matter what device they are using.
If your site isn’t accessible to these people then you are losing out on a large amount of free reviews. You should also make sure that you place the review forms in a convenient and easy to find a place so that your customers don’t have to spend time looking which is a factor that puts many people off.
No matter how good your products and services are you will always run into negative reviews at some point. This is just a normal part of eCommerce and it’s how these reviews are handled that is most important. When you do run into complaints and bad reviews you should learn from them and adapt so that you are less likely to run into the same issues.
The first thing you should do when dealing with negative reviews is to find out exactly what the problem is and see where improvements can be made. You should then reply to the negative review and apologise for any inconvenience caused. Acknowledging and replying to a negative review will show that you are aware of the problem and are doing what you can to fix it which will show your customers that you are honest and trustworthy. If you do the opposite and just delete all negative reviews without acknowledging them or you reply with sarcasm or are impolite it will make your business seem much less trustworthy and you may lose out on business because of it.
Bad reviews aren’t all bad either as they help to improve your products and services, if they are written properly and relate to actual problems, as they outline areas of improvement. Also, people find it hard to trust products or services which have only got good reviews and ratings. If you only have good reviews all across the board potential customers might assume that you are hiding bad reviews or that you are paying people to leave good reviews and this could make them lose trust in your business.
