When is the last time you bought something online without reading a review?
Buying a product without any reviews is like going on a blind date. You don’t know what you’ll get, and you only do it if you’re getting desperate. Reviews are important, according to a study by Advances in Economics and Business. It says that 85.57% of participants read reviews “often” or “very often” before they purchase online.
Product reviews are a critical factor in consumer purchase decisions, but many companies are doing nothing to encourage reviews. This blog post will discuss why you need product reviews and how to get them (specifically with Shopify).
The Importance of Product Reviews
According to CNN Money, even negative product reviews can increase sales by as much as 23%. Think about that. An item with negative reviews can actually out sell an item with no reviews. There are two reasons for this:
- A negative review can prepare the customer for the worst
- A company’s response to a negative review can encourage customers
To understand the first bullet point, imagine you’re a customer shopping for a lamp. One lamp has three stars, and the other has no reviews. The lamp with three stars has reviews such as, “Not the best quality, you get what you pay for” and “Arrived on time, cheap but effective”.
If the customer is shopping for a cheap lamp, those reviews probably won’t deter that customer. However, the customer has no idea what he may expect from the other lamp. It could arrive late, broken, or not as described online.
Thus, you choose the lamp with the lukewarm reviews over the lamp that has none.
The second bullet point is much easier to understand. A customer is more likely to trust a company who takes its time to respond to customer reviews. It shows that even if something does go wrong with your order, you won’t simply be left to deal with it.
Still not convinced?
You can actually calculate the importance of product reviews. William Hartston, a Cambridge Mathematician, figured out a formula for determining the percent increase in revenue do to online reviews. This formula takes into account the number of positive reviews, negative reviews, and the number of satisfactorily resolved negative reviews.
Increasing Reviews for Shopify Items
The answer to the question, “How can I get more product reviews on my Shopify store?” is actually a lot simpler than you might think.
Just ask for them.
People are forgetful, and even shoppers who avidly read reviews might not think to leave one. You need to remind your customer, shortly after their product has been purchased, to review that product.
According to Internet Retailer, Adore Me, an online retailer of lingerie, increased their revenue by $10,000 per month using this technique (They used Yotpo – an application mentioned later in this post).
Customers are often willing to leave a review, and contrary to popular belief, reviews are usually positive. According to Trustpilot, in a survey of 2000 UK shoppers, 60% left online reviews of which 83% were positive in nature.
Customers are waiting (and willing) to rave about your product. All you have to do is ask.
The Best Shopify Product Review Applications
There are two applications specifically for getting reviews in your Shopify store: Shopify Product Reviews and Yotpo’s Social Review App.
Product Reviews is Shopify’s free product reviews app. Yotpo is a competitor with a free and paid version. While the free version of Yotpo does offer more than the Shopify product review application, the paid option really shines.
With a $30/month subscription to Yotpo’s app, you get the ability to email the customer after purchase, share reviews on social media, comment on reviews, and promote your products with SEO tools, coupons, and rich snippets.
In other words, everything you need to do to get reviews on your site.
Shopify Product Review App
https://apps.shopify.com/product-reviews
Free
24/7 Shopify support
Yotpo Social Review App
https://apps.shopify.com/yotpo-social-reviews
Free or 30/mo
24/7 e-ticket support
What To Do Now
Getting reviews is an important step toward becoming a successful online retailer, but it’s just a small step toward becoming a savvy multichannel retailer. Now that you have reviews coming in, you may want to consider integrating your Shopify store with a POS system like Lightspeed. You want to continue expanding your Shopify store functionality. If you’re looking for more applications for your Shopify store, check out our post on the three essential apps for your Shopify webstore.
Have product recommendations affected your business positively or negatively? Share in the comments below.
Great post, John! And thanks for the mention : )
Thanks, and don’t mention it – Yotpo is a great product.
Hello John,
This is Md. Abdul Hashib from Bangladesh with Metrodesk. We are E-commerce image editing company. Our official address is – http:// http://www.metrodesk.com.bd
We see that you have written a review about Shopify here which is great. Now, we have an app called “Cut Out My Images” in the official website of Shopify. When you go to the official website of ‘Shopify,’ and search ‘Cut Out My Images’ in the search bar, you will be able to see it.
We are just wondering if you can write a review on this app. If you agree on write a review on this, we would like to pay you for the writing. So, may we ask what should be the amount we pay you for your writing and what the procedure is. We will be waiting for your response.
Regards
Md. Abdul Hashib
Metrodesk
YotPo is not $30/month (it’s a lot more expensive once getting past initial free threshold)
This has got to be OLD because Yopto is way more expensive (don’t disclose pricing anymore). We use Loox which works great for getting pictures from clients with reviews.
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