Posts Tagged ‘product reviews’

Product Reviews more important than ever to drive conversions

Friday, August 21st, 2009

We’re constantly reminding our website shop clients to make sure they feature customer generated product reviews and service testimonials on their online shops. When there are so many unfamiliar companies selling products out there on the net, a good assortment of customer reviews and testimonials is a great source of reassurance for online shoppers.

Customer Generated Product Reviews

Customer Generated Product Reviews

Research conducted for Feefo which is an outsourced online customer feedback forum (clients include Thomas Pink & Charles Tyrwhitt) has confirmed the importance of product reviews. Over half of those polled said they are more likely to buy from websites carrying independent product (53%) and service (51%) reviews from past customers. Another survey by Bazaarvoice found that product reviews can increase conversions by 20% and push up order values by 15-30%.  

With this in mind, a few tips for you on product reviews:

- Include some of the less favourable reviews you get as well as the good ones (maybe showing how you addressed the less favourable ones) because this is more credible than a list of reviews that only say how wonderful the product/your service is.

- Make sure your ecommerce website software has a product review feature that allows customers to easily give you their feedback and also shows those customer reviews prominently on the relevant product pages. It’s also helpful for website shop owners to have a filtering facility for all reviews they receive before publication. Try to have at least 4/5 reviews per product.

eCommerce Software Product Review

eCommerce Software Product Review

- Include a selection of testimonials on your home page or via a prominent link from the home page. Testimonials that talk about your service (delivery, customer care etc) are just as important as product reviews especially when there’s loads of competition out there selling the same products as you.

- Incorporate expert reviews from the media or any magazines that your product or website shop has been featured in. These are very powerful, so make use of any PR channels open to you. Also if your business has won any awards, always show these on your website.

- Encourage your customers to give you feedback (via customer surveys) or via a forum/blog. You could ask for feedback via email or include an insert in your delivery package. You might consider an incentive for these reviews (automatic entry to a competition, for example).

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Latest Research into ecommerce shopping habits

Friday, August 14th, 2009
Some interesting research has been published in the last few weeks which highlights areas of ecommerce best practice for website shop owners. We’re referring here to Channel Advisor’s white paper on ‘How Consumers Shop Online’ (US) and data/research into online customer satisfaction by IMRG/eDigitalResearch.
How Consumers Shop Online

How Consumers Shop Online

- Online shoppers now spending more time researching. According to Channel Advisor onine shoppers are spending more time researching and spending less (not suprising given current economic environment). Interestingly, a result of this is that consumers are using more sophisticated, specific research to seek out exact products. For ecommerce website owners this means that more clever use of keywords is necessary in their product descrptions and titles (Google has reported an 8% increase in searches comprised of 3 words or more) 

- Maximum exposure for your ecommerce website. Channel Advisor also points out that as consumers are so focused on finding the  best deals it is imperative for website shops to have as strong a presence on as many channels as possible - search engines, comparison shopping engines, marketplaces, affiliates, email. As we’ve said before, it’s no good just publishing your online shop and then hoping consumers will find you.

- Make the most of your Product Pages. As we’ve also stressed on this blog before, make sure you make the most of all features that your ecommerce website software offers to sell your product off your web pages. Video, images, compelling copy etc - see our earlier post ‘Optimise your Product Descriptions for increased conversions’ for more info.

- Free Shipping delivers conversions. According to Channel Advisor, Free shipping has the biggest influence on web shoppers, followed by product ratings/reviews and Free Returns. So, in the run up to the essential Xmas shopping season, ecommerce website owners would be well advised to review their shipping/returns policies. If you can’t offer free shipping to all, consider free shipping above a certain order value threshold, or maybe free shipping for repeat purchases or if customers ’refer a friend’ and make sure you make your delivery charges are as visible as possible wherever a potential customer is on your site. We’ve written before about customer generated product reviews (include some not so good reviews as well for a  a more credible mix). Expert (press/media) reviews are also helpful if you can get them.

Free Shipping Delivers Conversions

Free Shipping Delivers Conversions

- Focus on customer satisfaction and response rates. According to IMRG/e-Digital Research customer satisfaction in online shopping is at its lowest level since 2006. The worst performing areas identified in the survey include the speed that online retail customer services respond to queries and the ease of access to online help with purchases. We always recommend to all our website shop clients that they must publish a (visible) telephone number and contact email address, but that’s no good if you don’t respond. Online chat is also recommended. You have a much better chance of converting visitors to customers if you respond to requests for info/advice. Consider also the addition of telephone ordering as an alternative to online transactions. Online customer service expectations grow all the time - so don’t get left behind with a poor end-to-end customer experience.

Focus on Customer Satisfaction and Response Rates

Focus on Customer Satisfaction and Response Rates

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Optimise your product descriptions for increased conversions

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

IMRG have just reported that April UK online sales were up 14% compared with the same month last year. Growth is slowing as eCommerce matures and shoppers have become more cautious, but nonetheless online sales have still increased on average by 15% over the last 10 months. The outlook still looks good, but it is clear that ecommerce websites are going to have to work harder to keep delivering the numbers.

There is one area that you can look at to increase conversions - your Product Descriptions. And it really is surprising how many of the leading e-tailers don’t seem to make the most of this opportunity. How many times do you see sparse or badly written copy and poor images?

Good Product Descriptions

Good Product Descriptions

When it comes to Product Descriptions, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a small niche player or a major e-tailer. Assuming you have reasonable eCommerce website software then there is much you can do to optimise the selling opportunity, even without employing professional copy writers or putting big budgets behind your efforts.

Let’s start with images. Poor quality and/or small images are a real turn-off, whatever your product. Also, one image is probably not enough - really use  the opportunity to showcase your product. Multiple images with different views or action vs studio shots should be used and if you have high ticket items then you really should invest in high quality photography. Make use also of video, especially if it would be helpful to demonstrate how your product works and/or if your product is new to market. Read also our blog post ‘Video boosts online sales’.

Good Quality Images

High Quality Images

Your product copy really should ‘sell’ off the page – one liners just won’t do, you must inspire your customers to buy. Make sure your copy is well-written and and that it answers all the questions your prospective customer may have. Think about how to make your copy really persuasive and adapt a style that suits your offering and target audience.

Provide links to support documentation such as FAQs, Brochures/Buying Guides/Technical documentation. Make sure you use customer generated Product Reviews to endorse your product/service. These are incredibly powerful for boosting confidence and trust in what you are selling and research has shown that they can boost sales by more than 20%+.  Also make sure that you use the opportunity to cross-sell or up-sell other products and thereby increase basket values.

Support Documentation

Support Documentation

Make sure there is complete transparency on pricing and delivery charges on each product page (so important for reducing shopping cart abandonment). Also your telephone number should be visible so that prospective customers can easily contact you should they have a query (and once you get them on the phone you have an even better chance of converting them to a paying customer).

And finally, if you have some budget for your Product Descriptions then you may want to consider investing in professional graphics to enhance your product pages. An excellent example of this can be found here: http://www.squadronleader.co.uk/product/Spitfire_Mk_IIB_PKZ1700-SPIT

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