eCommerce: How to Get More Product Reviews

I commented this morning on a discussion group I follow for eCommerce merchants. One of our members was asking how to get more product reviews (and if there is a solution for pulling product reviews across multiple sites).

Thought I’d share a strategy that seems to work well for one of my favorite online stores:

By continuing to have a dialogue with your customer after the sale, you can incent them to review their purchases (and buy more stuff). Your timing has to be spot on however. Here’s a strategy one of favorite online store uses (and it’s suckered me in).

The best time to solicit a product review is within 24 hours of your customer receiving the product. Your buyer is either ecstatic or disappointed – emotion spurs a better chance of soliciting action. This merchant sends me a personalized email the evening I receive the product (never fails!) asking me if everything was ok? Was it delivered on time, did it meet my expectations…To respond, they give me a link that enables me to comment on the product.

They also send me a small discount coupon as a thank you for commenting (which of course spurs me on to buy again). I don’t know of a way to drag comments across sites – but if the strategy works, you wouldn’t need to find a solution to do this.

Some might say the process is too labor intensive, but if you build templates and get the timing right, you could partially automate. If you’re sending out newsletters or promotions, don’t forget to address your buyers again, asking for their feedback (and incent them with a discount)