How to Use Product Reviews To Dramatically Boost Your Sales

June 17, 2019

5 min read

There's no doubt about it: product reviews work. But there's working and then there's working - how do you really maximise their benefits to increase on-page conversion? Today we're going to answer that and much more besides by showing you how to use product reviews to boost sales in some really easy but clever ways. Let's get started.

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Before we get ahead of ourselves, let's first consider why you should be collecting product reviews in the first place. Well, most eCommerce stores now do, and for good reason. Not only will you be left behind if all your competitors have shiny golden stars and you don't, but product reviews make for more informed customers, increase trust and lead to higher customer satisfaction. All of this means more sales.

Whilst the act of collecting product reviews alone is likely to have a big impact on your sales (The purchase likelihood for a product with five reviews is 270% greater than the purchase likelihood of a product with no reviews), we want you to go above and beyond and really reap the benefits of every product review you collect. Here's how.

1. Collect more product reviews

In the case of reviews, more is usually more. one product review can lead to a10% increase in sales and 200 reviews can result in as much as a 44% increase in sales. There are a few reasons for this:

The more information customers have available to them, the more informed they can become. More informed customers have increased confidence in their choice and are more likely to convert.
Every positive product review is a testimonial for your business. The more you have, the more reliable and popular you look, which increases buyer trust and desire to buy with you.
With hundreds of product reviews, there is little-to-no hesitation in the buyer journey. Friction is reduced and customers get to the checkout quicker.

The more reviews you have, the better your business looks, and the more sales you'll get. It's simple, and it makes sense.

But that's just the B2C side - did you know that reviews can benefit SEO too? Having 8 reviews per product help SEO benefits emerge. All that UGC content will help make your website look even more relevant for Google, as it will have more keywords to crawl, including some really insightful long ones that really build depth around your products to help improve rankings and get more customers to your site.

So don't be passive about your review collection strategy. Actively collect more online reviews to really harness their benefits.

2. Showcase your feedback in a review widget

It's 2019, and customers expect your website to look as sleek as your products. In fact, 38% of online shoppers will leave a website if they find the design to be unattractive.

This goes for the customer feedback you display on site too. The content of your product reviews may be wonderful, but if it's not displayed in a digestible format that's easy on the eye, your customers might not even get to it before they bounce.

The best way to display reviews is in a well-designed review widget, preferably one you can customise to fit your exact needs. Most review sites, such as REVIEWS.io, offer a range of widgets to fit your branding and showcase reviews in an aesthetically pleasing way which will help maximise conversions.

3. Send your reviews to Google Shopping

Showcasing reviews on your website is extremely important, but if you're an eCommerce store operating in Google Shopping, you'll also want to make sure you reap the benefits of Google Product Listings too.

Google Product Listings are the aggregated star ratings for products shown in Google Shopping. In order to qualify, they'll need to be 3 verified reviews available for the products you're selling.

Google Product Listings help your offerings to truly stand out in Google Shopping and draw more customers to your site to boost sales.

4. Use reviews in retargeting Ads

The average CTR for retargeting ads is 0.7%. Given how expensive ads can be, this seems pretty low. As a business, you'll want to do all you can to make the most of the budget you're spending.

One of the ways you can give your ads a boost is by including star ratings or a review. Product reviews work particularly well for retargeting as they harness the power of social proof, reducing friction to get your customers back where you want them - on the product pages on your site.

5. Use visuals to vamp up your product reviews

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Why is Instagram so popular? Because it's so visual. Technology's advances mean we want easily-digestible, accurate, aesthetic information, fast - visuals provide this.

Photo Reviews bring customer feedback to life and enhance the buyer journey. Accurate, real-life representations of your products build trust further by providing a vivid proof of receipt and grow confidence by showing customers exactly what they can expect to receive.

If your audience is younger, imagery becomes even more important. Younger consumers respond more readily to visual cues such as product images, so it's important to fill your product pages full of them if you want to be convincing.

Photo Product Reviews really seal the deal and cement you as a reliable eCommerce business to potential customers. Plus, if you're with a review partner like Reviews.io, you'll even be able to tag products in the photo reviews, to make the process even more engaging, increase time on page and see sales soar

In Summary

Product Reviews bring a wealth of fantastic UGC to your website, which has a plethora of beneficial knock-on effects. As with all things reviews, it's important to work all the feedback you collect to really maximise its effectiveness, so don't be stagnant! Follow the tips above, and you'll be amazed at how much product reviews can impact your sales.