Whether they’re shopping for a new book to read or shoes for their next vacation, consumers are increasingly turning to ratings and reviews prior to purchase. We know that 95% of consumers use ratings and reviews and 86% say they’re an essential resource when making purchase decisions.
But if you’re a small brand or retailer, how do you know when it’s time to invest in a ratings and reviews solution? Read on for four signs that you’re ready to add ratings and reviews to your site.
You Need to Increase Traffic to Your Site
You’ve successfully built and launched your ecommerce site and now you’re looking for ways to grow your top-of-the-funnel traffic. Organic search is a great channel to invest in. According to our research, more than a third (35%) of shoppers are starting the purchase journey on a search engine, which points to the importance of having a strong presence on Google and other search engines.
[bctt tweet=”35% of shoppers start the purchase journey on a search engine.” username=”powerofreviews”]
Search engines love fresh and relevant content. One way to maintain a steady stream of fresh and relevant content is to host ratings and reviews on your site, where search engines can crawl the content and consumers can find it. This is a great way to help ensure your product pages are displaying in search engine results.
Plus, if your site is structured according to Schema.org standards (a single standard for structuring content on websites) and you have ratings and reviews, star ratings can appear with your product pages in the search results. These “rich snippets” catch the eye of shoppers, making them more likely to click through to your site.
Your Conversion Rate Needs a Boost
Your site traffic is growing, but your conversion rate is less than stellar. In other words, shoppers are finding your site, but they’re not converting. What gives?
Today’s consumers want as much information as they can about a product before they decide to purchase. And while your product descriptions and professional photos are a great place to start, consumers also want opinions from others like them, who have purchased and experienced a given product firsthand. That’s why it’s key to have ratings and reviews on your website, so shoppers can find this information without ever leaving your site.
What’s the risk if you don’t have reviews on your site? Shoppers will go elsewhere to find what they’re looking for and likely won’t return to your site. Nearly half (45%) of shoppers say they’ll turn to a search engine if there aren’t reviews (or aren’t enough reviews) for a product on a brand or retailer site. 25% say they will head to Amazon. And 20% will leave for another brand or retailer site.
You Need to Build A Strong Brand Presence on Retail Sites
If you sell your products through various retail channels, it’s important to build a strong brand presence there as well. Reviews gives you the opportunity to increase conversion wherever your products are sold.
You can do this by collecting and displaying reviews on your own site and then syndicating those reviews to your retail partners. This provides shoppers with the information they need to make smart purchase decisions regardless of the channel they’re using to shop.
You’re Looking for Ways to Improve Your Products and Website
In addition to driving traffic and conversion, product reviews can help you gather actionable insights about your products. For example, you can learn what features customers love and potential issues that can be fixed in the next iteration of the product.
Hammacher Schlemmer, a PowerReviews customer, noticed that a watch they sold on their website had an average star rating of 2.7. After digging into the reviews for the watch, the company noticed that several customers mentioned the clasp on the watch wasn’t working. Hammacher Schlemmer took this information to their manufacturer to change the clasp, and the average star rating for the watch climbed to 4.7.
Reviews can also be a great source of insights into ways to improve the content on your website. Room & Board, another PowerReviews customer, analyzed review content for their rug collection and noticed that several customers identified price as a negative. Armed with this information, Room & Board enhanced their product descriptions so customers could understand more about the quality of the rugs and why they were priced at the point they were.
Ready to start driving traffic, conversions, retail presence, and product insights with ratings and reviews? Find out which PowerReviews plan is best for you.
