Boost E-Commerce Website Performance with Customer Reviews
Writing by Brick Marketing on Wednesday, 20 of February , 2008 at 12:47 am
If you have a great product that you are selling on your e-commerce website, allowing your customers to write reviews can do a tremendous amount of good for your bottom line. In a bricks and mortar business, a certain amount of business is generated or lost by word of mouth. If you run a good business, people will promote you to their friends. If you run a bad business, people will do the same. It has an impact, just as advertising has an impact, but with an e-commerce website there is so much more potential for this to work for you because virtual communications are easier than person-to-person interactions.
What Kind of Person Reads E-Commerce Website Reviews and How Much can They Help a Business?
According to Dr. Ralph Wilson of Web Marketing Today, people that check comments are termed, “social researchers” and depending on the type of business involved, there might be a lot of them.
A 2007 study by the Kelsey Group found that 24% of searchers for several types of offline services, such as hotels, checked online reviews. 87% of hotel seekers who checked reviews said that the reviews strongly influenced their purchases. Gift basket e-retailer DelightfulDeliveries.com added customer reviews and within two months reported a 20% increase in conversion rates for items rated with four or five stars.
It gives you something to think about, doesn’t it? Customer reviews are a great source of information for something like a hotel or bed and breakfast, but they are just as important for a retail based e-commerce website. If you have reviews of the products that you are selling, it provides your potential customers with a range of user experiences that can help to influence their decision. It might also help them to buy a more expensive product from your line.
What if Someone Writes a Bad Review of my E-Commerce Website?
One could reasonably argue that this does not matter. Wilson goes as far as saying that it “adds credibility.”
They (online shoppers) expect reviews rating merchant customer service on Amazon and eBay. They’ve browsed reviews dozens of times. They know that there is always going to be someone who has a bad experience. But if the strong majority of the reviews are positive, a bad review doesn’t hurt. On the contrary, it adds credibility to the other reviews. If a series of reviews are uniformly positive, many shoppers will discount them as rigged.
If all of the reviews on your e-commerce website are bad then you might have a problem, but if you focus on providing great customer service and good products and or services, your customers should for the most part be happy. The odd bad review is not going to put people off your e-commerce website.
Scripts to Implement Customer Reviews on an E-Commerce Website
If you are using a content management system, you might be able to arrange a free commenting system. This will depend largely on the CMS that you are using for your e-commerce website. Alternatively, there are some commercial scripts that are widely used.. Wilson recommends any of the following: Bazaarvoice, PowerReviews, iNods, and Reevoo as suitable solutions. You could also outsource the coding of your commenting system and get something that is a true fit for your e-commerce website.
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Category: eCommerce Websites
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