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Positive online reviews help drive revenue for eCommerce stores – and their importance is continuing to grow. In this article, we look at why online reviews matter more than ever, as well as practical ways you can boost your online ratings.
Key highlights:
- Around 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation,
- 80% of consumers have the highest trust in 4, 4.5 and 5 star ratings
- Positive Customer and User Experiences can help boost online ratings.
- Responding to negative reviews shows retailers care about consumers and want to improve
- Offering multiple finance options at checkout will improve customer experience and encourage positive online reviews.
In today’s digital age, online ratings and customer testimonials are key factors to making your business a success.
When considering where to spend their money, most consumers’ first port of call is checking the reviews of a product or service they’re interested in. In fact, a massive 90% of consumers read online reviews before even visiting a business, with 35% using rating filters to see only those retailers with ratings of 4 stars or higher.
In our latest white paper, ‘Ecommerce best practice: Creating the best customer experience’ we divde deeper into the importance of online reviews and how they contribute to creating the best customer experience. Get your copy now.
Let’s take a closer look at how customer reviews can impact your business, and how to get your ratings to reflect the high quality service you work so hard to deliver.
Online reviews: Authentic feedback from real people
There’s always the risk of the ocassional bot or paid campaign that can be misleading. But these instances are few and far between. In general, online reviews from are real people, taking time out of their day to say what they genuinely think about a business – hence why they carry so much weight.
A recent survey revealed 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much a personal recommendation. That’s a huge percentage of your buyer base – so it’s important to recognise the impact that reviews can have on your sales, and take steps to make sure your business is worthy of good feedback.
This is especially true of the eCommerce market, where making your business personable and trustworthy can sometimes be more challenging. Fortunately, there are some simple ways to make this happen, even from behind a screen.
80% of consumers have the highest trust in 4, 4.5 and 5-star ratings. If you want your eCommerce store to stand out from the crowd, your ratings should be somewhere in that threshold.
Here’s how to make that happen.
Improve your User and Customer Experience
Delivering a simple, easy and memorable experience for website visitors means your customer will be coming back for more. You might have heard the terms UX and CX. User Experience (UX) and Customer Experience (CX) work together to create the ultimate consumer journey – making them important milestones on your road to retail success.
So what makes a great UX and, ultimately, CX?
There are lots of factors to consider when building out your prospect’s digital journey, but the two most important ones to focus on are convenience and efficiency. Both are top-tier placeholders for your customer, and both can be achieved by making your online interface as simple, easy and streamlined as possible.
This goes beyond optimising your site for mobile devices, or speeding up your page load time (although both of these things are pretty essential). Delivering a strong consumer experience is about perfecting your digital storefront, and integrating this with great customer service reps to make it as positive and hassle-free as possible.
Having a strong CX and UX puts the customers at the heart of everything your business does. It delivers a positive shopping experience which, over time, will organically result in glowing reviews.
Respond to negative reviews and take action
Receiving a negative review can be devastating, and even feel like the end of world. But negative feedback also presents a golden opportunity to demonstrate how much you value your customers.
When done correctly, replying to negative reviews can actually reflect well on your business. It shows that you care about what your customers think, and want to rectify the situation. In fact, 80% of consumers believe a business cares about them if it responds to reviews, while 45% say they’re more likely to visit a business if it responds to negative reviews.
It can be difficult seeing a negative review, but avoid reacting defensively. Instead, do your best to reply calmly and with empathy. Ask for more details about the experience that led the customer to post their feedback. Where appropriate, consider making changes to prevent the situation from reoccuring, and let the customer know once these are in place.
It’s never pleasant to hear that a customer is unhappy. But by reading reviews with an open mind, replying with compassion and implementing changes where you can, you’ll ultimately receive more positive reviews, reduce cart abandonment and boost sales.
Offer multiple checkout options to your customers
30% of UK buyers are using consumer credit options in 2022. With living costs on the rise, more people than ever are looking for affordable, accessible ways to spread out larger purchases.
If you want to boost your sales and gain higher online reviews, offering retail finance options is an excellent way to do this.
Having the choice to pay in interest free instalments over time will improve your customers overall shopping experience. It mean they can buy the product they really want, when they want it, without the stress of paying upfront or being disappointed. Not only that, but retail finance options will widen your prospect base, and keep customers coming back to you – instead of your competitor.
In a nutshell: retail finance options gives your customers flexibility and choice with how they want to pay – two big factors in achieving high levels of consumer satisfaction.
Want more information about how DivideBuy’s unique finance options are helping boost customer reviews and sales rates? Contact our Business Development Team now.
