70% of consumers trust online product reviews (Nielsen). And 88% of consumers consult product reviews when researching to buy (Accenture). Now these stats have been consistently going up for the last 10 years. Product reviews and their power are here to stay. And that means if a brand has low volume, only appearing in a few online e-commerce sites, they can expect poor sales volume.
If You Don’t Show up in the Beginning, You Won’t Show Up at the End
So, consumers are looking for new shoes, a new bike or new technical swim wear. They go online and search, find user experiences in the form of product reviews and line out a few brands to further research. Many times that means going to a shop, talking with salespeople, looking, touching, feeling, and demo’ing the product. And how did they qualify these brands? On the strength of what consumers said about their experiences through product reviews. If your brand isn’t there in the reviews in the beginning, you aren’t going to be there for decision time in the end.
Volume Matters
Your brand’s products need to show up in the product reviews section of many e-commerce sites and there needs to be volume. Why do we say this? Because Channel Signal has recorded that over 70% of all reviews are positive and that is drawn from a data set of millions. So, if the majority are positive then it becomes a numbers game. A lot of reviews posted on a lot of different sites means traction. This, of course, makes the assumption that the products being reviewed are well-made and backed by strong brands.
Getting More Reviews Written About Your Products
Forget about paying people to write reviews. That doesn’t work, and when discovered, you, the brand, have big problems. If you have an e-commerce offering on your site, then every single time a consumer buys from you, they should get an email in a couple of weeks asking how the product performed. Make it easy for the consumer. Supply them with the template. And work with your ecommerce partners to encourage more reviews. Promotions. Write a review and get 5% off the next purchase. Whatever works.
This Channel Signal Knows
If you don’t show up in the product reviews you are severely handicapping your chances of being considered in the purchasing decision. How are you monitoring your review volume and sentiment?
