5 Reasons to Include Product Reviews on Your E-Commerce Site

If you’re in the business of online sales, it’s important that your website makes a strong first impression. However, having a well-designed e-commerce site is not enough to persuade shoppers to purchase your products. They typically need social proof as well.

Approximately 70 percent of consumers today conduct online research before making a purchase. This research usually includes consulting ratings and reviews. By adding product reviews to your website, therefore, you are giving potential customers the information they need to make informed buying decisions.

In this post, we’ll explain five reasons you should include product reviews on your e-commerce site. Let’s jump right in!

1. You Can Build Trust With Customers

Building trust with your customers is important for any business. However, it’s especially crucial for e-commerce sites.

Before handing over their personal contact and payment information, shoppers will want to know that the website they’re purchasing from is legitimate. Product reviews can help alleviate their concerns, by showcasing real feedback from previous customers:

Any business can claim it is a great company, and boast about the quality of its products. However, shoppers are more likely to trust what other non-biased people have to say, even if they’re strangers.

In fact, one BrightLocal survey found that 91 percent of consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 say that they trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations. Another study found that 92 percent of shoppers are more likely to make a purchase after reading a trustworthy review.

By featuring product reviews on your e-commerce site, therefore, you can enhance transparency among consumers. In turn, this can help to drive conversions.

2. You'll Be Able to Establish Credibility

The number of product reviews on your website matters. On average, customers read about 10 online reviews before they feel that they can trust a business.

Including product reviews on your site can help establish credibility among consumers, by offering them insight into product details and expectations. Reviews, both positive and negative, communicate to visitors on your e-commerce site that you are confident in your products and you value your customers’ feedback.

The more product reviews you have, the better. Research has found that when products have similar ratings, consumers are likely to purchase the product with more reviews.

3. Reviews Help With Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

As an e-commerce business, you’re probably well-aware of the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). However, what you may not realize is how adding product reviews to your website can improve your search engine rankings.

Google values and rewards unique, relevant content. Product reviews are a type of user-generated content. In other words, through creating reviews, your customers are helping you add unique and relevant content to your website on an ongoing basis.

Let’s say you’re looking to purchase a “Revlon hair dryer brush” online. If you search for that term in Google, sites with highly-visible reviews and rankings show up even before the brand's own website:

Another way product reviews can help your e-commerce site’s SEO is through the language customers use when writing them. Customers tend towards natural language and long-tail keywords, which may include relevant terms you aren’t otherwise targeting.

In other words, by encouraging customers to leave product reviews, you’re giving them the opportunity to describe your product in a unique and realistic manner. Ultimately, this can help drive traffic to your website.

4. Many Reviews Include Valuable Details and Descriptions

You can do your best to write appealing and thorough product descriptions on your e-commerce website. However, there’s always a chance you've missed something. More likely, your product description may not address some specific concerns or questions that potential buyers might have.

Reviews can highlight certain aspects of your products and their usage, that aren’t otherwise covered in their primary descriptions. Plus, as we discussed earlier, people tend to trust other customers over brands.

If you’ve ever browsed product reviews, you may have noticed how in-depth some people get when writing them. This is common on websites like Amazon, where a buyer explains how they used the product and whether or not they were satisfied:

Many customers look to reviews for confirmation that the product looks and/or performs as advertised. Therefore, product reviews give your customers an opportunity to dive into the details of using your product. They also offer potential buyers clarification on what they can expect from the product in ‘real life’.

5. Your Product Reviews Can Help Increase Conversions

If you were choosing between two products, would you rather buy one with dozens of reviews or one with none? As we talked about earlier, consumers are more likely to buy a product that has reviews they feel they can trust.

To really drive that point home, consider this: Spiegel Research Center found that displaying reviews can increase conversion rates by 270 percent. What's more, displaying complementary reviews for higher-priced products as well can boost conversion rates by 380 percent!

Customers obviously put a lot of weight on reviews when making purchasing decisions. Therefore, having a selection of product reviews on your website may be exactly what you need to drive more sales.

How to Add Product Reviews to Your WordPress Site

Now that you understand the benefits of product reviews, you’re probably eager to add them to your e-commerce site. The good news is that there are plenty of easy ways you can do so.

If you're a WordPress user, the quickest method is by installing a product review plugin. A popular and easy-to-use option is Customer Reviews for WooCommerce:

This tool makes adding reviews to your site and customizing them simple. Plus, it's designed to work seamlessly with WooCommerce, the most popular solution for creating WordPress e-commerce sites.

Once you've added a plugin like this to your site, you'll want to encourage customers to leave reviews. One way to do this is by offering an incentive in return, such as a free sample or a downloadable piece of content.

However, another option is to simply ask. Send a follow-up email to customers after they've purchased a product, asking them to review it. You may be surprised at how willing people are to share their opinions freely.

Conclusion

When a shopper arrives at your website, you want to make sure they are incentivized to stay. As we've discussed in this article, there are a handful of reasons it’s a good idea to include product reviews on your e-commerce site.

Doing this enables you to:

1. Build trust with customers.
2. Establish credibility.
3. Boost SEO rankings.
4. Incorporate detailed feedback and descriptions.
5. Increase conversions.

Can you think of any other reasons to include product reviews on your e-commerce site? Let us know in the comments section below!

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