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How To Get Reviews for Your Shopify Store
The ability to shop for almost everything on the internet has revolutionized the way people shop today.
From laptops to apparel, it has become the norm for customers to first read through a couple of online reviews before purchasing. If you haven’t been paying attention to customer reviews, you really need to because customers rely on them to make buying decisions. Today, 90% of American consumers are reported to read reviews before making a purchase.
Product reviews are often overlooked by Shopify merchants as they focus on enhancing the site's appearance and optimizing the checkout page. But none of this matters if your products do not receive positive feedback.
The fact that there are a lot of customers out there who are willing to provide feedback shows that there are opportunities for brands to improve their visibility and influence more potential customers. Not only should you enable customer reviews, you should encourage customers to leave them so that you can build your online credibility while expanding your business.
If you have not added a product review section on your Shopify website yet, because you are afraid of negative reviews, you are losing out on a huge number of potential customers.
Now if you want to get more product reviews for your Shopify store, keep reading. Below we’ll share a few tips for you to learn how to take advantage of online feedback to boost your marketing, sales, and customer experience.
- Make it easy for customers to leave reviews
Your customer would be less likely to leave a review if there are too many steps to take or if it’s too much hassle. That means, particularly when asking for a testimonial via email, you should make it as simple as possible. Here are some tips:
- Include several choices so that your customer can choose the platform that fits them best whether it's directly on your website, via an app on their phone or via email
- If you are asking via email, best to include a direct link to the website where they can leave a review to cut down on the amount of clicks or steps they may take.
- Guide them with a prompt so they don't have to worry about what to write (for example, "Can you leave a comment about your most recent store visit?")
- Highlight real customer reviews
You're probably aware that nine out of ten consumers read reviews before making a purchase. But do you know when they are more likely to pay more? It’s when they see a lot of positive feedback because of supply and demand. Put a spotlight on customer reviews who share the same values as your brand to help raise your credibility, trustworthiness, and increase revenue.
You’ll soon see a snowball effect just by closely monitoring and utilizing your customer reviews properly. The more customer reviews you get, the more sales you can make, and the more sales you can make, the more customer reviews you can receive. To utilize the power of your reviews, showcase them everywhere: homepage, product pages, email campaign, social media, and more.
There are many Shopify apps and plugins that can help you display reviews on your store. Just search through the Shopify app store.
- Respond to both good and bad reviews
Apart from reading the reviews, potential customers like to see that brands are interacting and learning from their own product reviews. It shows that the brand is listening to their customers and takes their feedback seriously. Some quick tips:
- Use good reviews to build credibility
If some of your customers have provided you with 5-star reviews, we suggest putting them to good use! Show your potential customers and the rest of the world how your own customers view your brand. Inform potential customers that your brand exists, these reviews exist and make these reviews readily available on your website.
Some brands put the best reviews on their homepage, some even use them as ads themselves. That is how effective good reviews are.
- Make use of bad reviews
Here’s the tough part. Of course, you can’t please everybody and at least one of your products might have a bad review. But here’s where opportunity lies. A lot of customers do not trust brands that have perfect reviews. In fact, about 67% trust brands more after seeing both good and bad reviews. This is because it is believed that buyers who actively read bad reviews do thorough pre-purchase research and have a higher chance of converting once they compare the pros and cons from both good and bad reviews.
On the other hand, you can also work on training your customer service team to handle bad reviews in a way that reflects well on your brand. If you made a mistake, admit to it and provide a solution. If it’s not your mistake, don’t lose your cool but make sure your customers know that you are listening to them. Letting your team know how to answer to bad reviews can show potential customers that they will be in good hands should anything happen to their orders.
- Provide incentives or rewards to reviewers
Rewarding each review you get is also a good way to appreciate the time it took for customers to write about and experience your product. By providing a small incentive or reward, you are encouraging them to keep leaving more reviews on their next purchases, and to return to your store. Some quick ways to reward reviewers are:
- Introduce a point system that can be exchanged for a voucher or discount. Additionally, you can give more points for more detailed reviews.
- Giving them small freebies for each review
- Use customer reviews to improve your product or service
Customer reviews are the most effective way to gather feedback on a product or service because your actual target market is telling you exactly what they like and dislike about your product, as well as what you can change.
Here are a few examples of how you can use feedback to improve your product or service:
- Eliminate bugs early on.
There will be a number of customers who will discover product flaws before you do. They may use online reviews to inform you and potential customers about the bugs or flaws so it is important that you recognize these issues early on and solve them as soon as possible so they do not blow up in the future.
- Investigate common denominators.
Check all of your negative feedback and see what particular flaw they all agree on. Is it the packaging? The smell? The shipping and delivery? Analyze your feedback for a common theme and make changes to your product as needed.
- Check for future product offerings.
Based on your feedback, you’ll be able to see exactly what aspects of your product customers love. You will also be able to pinpoint what their thoughts are on your product. This is useful information for products that are still in the early stages of growth so your production team can adjust accordingly or offer it in the future.
- Check out the competition.
Another great thing about online reviews is that your competitors will probably have them too. Check out what customers are saying about them, what they like and don’t like about the products. This will also help you get a bit more insight into what customers are looking for. After, it will be up to you to strategize based on what you learned from your competitors’ successes and failures.
Conclusion
In any business, the customer is still king. They can take your business to new heights or bring it down drastically. That is why their feedback is highly important as their experiences can narrate how others will experience your products.
There's also no shame in receiving negative feedback. They are people's genuine perspective and experience of your brand, which you can take as a reality check and a challenge to improve. By accepting it, you demonstrate that you are open to hearing what your customers have to say.
As you can see, there are many ways that online reviews can help promote and sell your product while also increasing customer satisfaction and brand credibility. To not use such opportunities would be a loss.
Since there is currently no technology that allows consumers to examine a product online, product reviews become increasingly important.
If you need help in applying a Shopify plugin, setting it up or installing any other apps, contact your Shopify experts here at Webinopoly.
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