In the age where information is easily accessed and obtained via digital networks, consumer opinions and feedback are crucial to the success of e-commerce businesses. Consumer reviews and feedback are powerful: According to a report by Invesp, 90% of customers would consult reviews before making a purchase, while 88% said they trusted consumer reviews and feedback as much as personal recommendations (1). How can businesses leverage the power of their customer’s opinions to tailor their business offerings to what customers desire, minimize pain points on customer journeys, and build a more experiential e-commerce experience?
- Collecting customer reviews and making them visible
As previously mentioned, customer feedback plays an important role in influencing consumer behaviour. This applies to businesses in various industries, from food and beverage to technology. 60% of customers said they tend to look at product reviews on a weekly basis, which suggests that reviews are a trusted source of information and social proof, especially when it comes to making a purchasing decision (2). Positive reviews from customers could improve a business’ credibility, as well as the chances that a customer is willing to make a purchase.
On the other hand, customer reviews can facilitate conversations between different consumers, in order to create a more interactive shopping experience, especially for e-commerce businesses. Making your consumer reviews visible to visitors of your site will help your customers to gain better insights into your product offerings while allowing your customers to communicate with one another to build a community of customers.
- Leveraging customer insights to improve your product offerings and business operations
When leaving reviews and feedback, your customers can unlock insights into new opportunities to better serve them. Using their opinions and suggestions, businesses can better tailor their product offerings and business operations to create a buyer-centric customer experience. A few big brands have successfully involved customers in their process of improving business operations or new product development, such as LEGO, DHL or Made.com. Leveraging your customer reviews and feedback to co-create new products, as well as improving customer experiences is the key to better cater to your customer’s wants and needs while helping you to save time and resources on R&D.
- Turning positive customer reviews into your brand ambassadors
Customer loyalty is hard to win, but once won, your loyal customers will not hesitate to give positive reviews and testimonials, which are invaluable to every e-commerce business’ growth prospect. In the digital age, customers might deem influencers and experts’ opinions as “not trustworthy enough” (since they might think that these were paid reviews), a prospective customer might want to pay more attention to a fellow consumer’s testimonials. Not only does this show your brand is capable of building a loyal customer base, but it is also a cost-effective tactic to help you accelerate your direct marketing efforts, especially when compared to influencer marketing or paid reviews.
Customer feedback is one of the most valuable assets to every e-commerce business: They are a reliable and insightful source of information that helps you win your customer loyalty. Collecting and leveraging customer feedback will enable e-commerce business owners and operators to build a customer-centric experience and create major stepping stones to further grow your customer base. Interested in adding a review section to your WooCommerce store or WordPress site? Check out Etoile Web Design’s Ultimate Reviews – the WordPress plugin that is simple to set up and easy to customize, but also adds tremendous value to your business. We look forward to supporting your businesses to leverage your customer reviews to foster growth.
