Product Reviews Boost Revenue

Most of today’s shoppers don’t buy anything without checking for product reviews and feedback on a product or service they are going to purchase. Not surprising, a whopping 55% of consumers do their shopping research on Amazon says pymnts.com.

And it’s not just Amazon who sees larger than life traffic on their websites due to reviews. Companies like Trip Advisor, Angie’s List, Target, and Costco all utilize customer reviews to help improve their search rankings as well as boost their revenue.

Product Reviews and Why Feedback Matters

In the case with Amazon, arguably one of the leaders in eCommerce, they have proven that the more reviews a product has, the more it gets purchased and the higher it ranks in the search results online. What does this mean for merchants? Customer reviews and feedback are quickly becoming an integral part of conducting business and overall revenue growth.

Nowadays, one-third of eCommerce shoppers will not purchase a product unless it has favorable reviews. Positive reviews can boost sales by 20% on merchant sites that do a good job of displaying them according to usatoday.com.

For retail companies, reviews are just one part of the puzzle to can help reduce customer doubts and encourage them to complete the checkout process. There are other strategies that can also aid in this such as free shipping, site help, coupons and guarantees. Merchants may not be able to execute all these things but implementing the basics is a start to see how reviews can drive conversion.

Are There Other Benefits?

Feedback not only boosts sales, it also has a positive side effect. Every time a product is mentioned or reviewed on a site, the higher that keyword ranks in Google search which boosts Search Engine Optimization (SEO), upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

Research shows, consumers who interact with reviews on a merchant’s site are:

• Much more likely to convert (upwards of 58%)
• Generate more overall revenue per site visitor
• Typically spend more money per individual order

Product Reviews Drive More Business

Whether merchants and consumers realize it, reviews carry a lot of weight and are worth a lot of money. Just 5-10% of consumers give feedback but that small percentage yields almost $400 billion worth of global sales. That impact is worth paying attention to. For merchants that haven’t jumped on the review bandwagon yet, there are many reputation management software options that can get merchants off the ground.

By using reviews, merchants can build customer confidence and improve the client buying experience which translates to more purchased goods in the cart. The hardest part is getting those first reviews. But once reviews and feedback start coming in, chances are revenue will increase as well as site traffic.

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