For established brands, online shoppers will have developed some trust in their products. Therefore, slick advertising may be enough to convince them to make a purchase. However, sometimes this isn’t quite enough.
With newer brands or ones that people are unfamiliar with, they are far likelier to look up a review. This could be a review of the website/brand itself, or the review could be for the product that’s been sold by that business. Or both.
How vital are positive website reviews in the e-commerce world? This is what we’ll be discussing below.
Better Local SEO Rankings in Google
A positive review – or several of them – goes a long way to helping Google see the e-commerce site as worthy. In local SEO search results, highly positively reviewed businesses and websites feature more heavily than ones with a bad review. To learn more about website reviews and how to get better ones, check out the articles at YourTopBlog. They regularly cover this topic, plus other ones like blogging and SEO that are relevant for e-commerce site owners.
Online Shoppers Pay Increasing Attention to Reviews
With the number of websites and online brands exploding, word-of-mouth has morphed from being shared personally to getting shared online. As a result, people are increasingly checking the reviews first and making the purchase second.
A Nielsen survey backed up this contention too. Of those reviewed, nearly three-quarters of those who participated confirmed that they relied on reviews before making a purchase.
A Lack of Reviews Is a Different Kind of Problem
While positive reviews are important, a lack of reviews is not seen positively either.
Just think about when there is a new product listing on Amazon, and it has zero customer reviews so far. Does this mean the product is bad? Or has no one even bought it yet?
No one likes to be the guinea pig for a new product unless they’re being paid for this role. Some companies have even ‘encouraged’ reviewers to create a review just to solve this dilemma. So, at times, no review can be just as damaging as a bad review because it gives a potential purchaser pause.
Great Reviews Deliver Trust in the Brand or Site
Positive reviews that are detailed and genuine bolster the opinion of other potential customers. They read the review, see how it’s relevant to what they were thinking of purchasing, and are encouraged.
A good review doesn’t just speak to the product itself but can also confirm that the e-commerce site is legitimate, ships promptly, and has excellent customer service too. These are all important aspects that influence a decision to do business with an e-commerce site.
Higher Average Spend
There is increasing information backing up the idea that great reviews lead to higher total purchase amounts too.
Rather than gingerly toying with the site and placing a test order for one item, greater trust from convincing reviews encourages people to place larger orders. Even the first time when they’ve only just signed up.
High-quality reviews make all the differencein the success of an e-commerce site. When they’re absent or a couple of bad ones are muddying the water, it can cost a serious amount of business.
