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Shopify Entrepreneurs! Here Are 4 Strategies for Generating Tons of Reviews for Your Online Store

Shopify Entrepreneurs! Here Are 4 Strategies for Generating Tons of Reviews for Your Online Store

Once a customer is on your Shopify store, it doesn’t take them long to gauge your brand reputation. One glance at the product pages or the site’s UX and customers have almost made up their minds.

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But they are still a few steps away from making a purchase decision. At this point of uncertainty, something that can give them that extra nudge to act in your favor is social proof in the form of customer reviews and recommendations.

That’s the strategy adopted by these Shopify e-stores who know how to leverage the power of reviews!

These Shopify Stores Are Getting Between 3% and 6% Conversion Ratest By Adding Social Proof!

A survey by Bazaarvoice revealed that product pages with at least one customer review experienced a 354 percent increase in conversion rate and a 446 percent lift in RPV (revenue per visitor) compared to product pages with no reviews.

Reviews are the most authentic type of marketing content your eCommerce site can have. It shows the level of confidence your existing customers have in your business. No wonder, 9 in 10 online shoppers read reviews before making a purchase decision. 

What’s more? Online reviews are good for your Shopify store’s SEO! 

  • Search engines love reviews because they help searchers get the most accurate information and make decisions about the future. 
  • In his presentation on 2020 Local Search Ranking Factors at Whitespark’s Local Search Summit, Darren Shaw shared how review signals (keywords in Google reviews, high numerical Google ratings, and the quantity of Google reviews with text) are among the top local pack ranking factors.
Source: https://whitespark.ca/blog/2020-local-search-ranking-factors-presentation/ 
  • Finally, reviews on social media and third-party review platforms are a critical component of your eCommerce site’s off-page SEO. They signal Google about your business’s authority, relevance, and trustworthiness. All this impacts your search engine rankings. 

What online shoppers say about your brand matters! Whether you need to enhance your store’s online reputation, create a feedback look with your audience, or boost conversions, working towards generating reviews can help. Here are four strategies that can help you acquire customer reviews, allowing you to boost your online business reputation and bottom line.

1. Lure in the Reviews 

A simple strategy like tweaking your business strategy to make it more customer-centric can improve your business reputation and encourage customers to leave a review. Use these quick tips to catapult your business into an online review-generating powerhouse. 

  • Offer Awesome Service 

There’s no great validator for a business than the customer service it offers. Train your customer service team to prioritize customer satisfaction. Each person in your team should understand customer expectations and be motivated to exceed them. 

  • Simply Ask (But at the Right Time!) 

Many merchants miss out on requesting their patrons to leave a review. Train your team to ask for a review, especially after they have delivered a positive customer experience.

Timing is critical when asking a customer to review your products. Assess the approximate time of delivery for your product, add a margin of 3-4 days, and then check for their response. Scheduling a review request as per your store’s delivery date will capture all the customer satisfaction that will soon precipitate into a valuable online review. 

  • Make It Easy for Them to Leave a Review

If your customers have to log in or fill in a complicated questionnaire to share what they feel about your brand, it’s unlikely they’ll leave a review. Get rid of any friction they may encounter in the process. Design a seamless process that allows them to leave reviews with minimal effort.

Leave links on relevant pages. Check out this Shopify store, Bailly, a vegan all-natural fragrance company. Customers find it easy to leave a review of their products. All they need to do is click the side tab and share their feedback. 

  • Send Personalized Review Requests

A personalized review request with the customer’s name and recent purchase can act as a reminder for them to share their feedback.

Notice how iHerb, a California-based retailer of health supplements sends an email to customers, encouraging them to leave a review on products they have purchased recently. 

The retail giant, Amazon, uses this strategy too!

2. Count on Social Media

On average, internet users around the world spend 144 minutes (2 hours 24 minutes) a day on social channels. Since most of your customers are already on these platforms, it’s wise to encourage them to leave a review here.

Add a ‘Review’ tab on your Facebook store just like Kirrin Finch. The gender-defying apparel store is clearly winning the heart of its social audience. 

Source: https://www.facebook.com/kirrinfinch/reviews/?ref=page_internal

Encourage user-generated content by inviting customers to share their brand experiences using a hashtag. Check out how, Cheekbone Beauty, a Shopify store for vegan beauty products, encourages customers to use branded hashtags. 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFh7ujGHdPT/

Also, use social media monitoring tools like Keyhole, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social to monitor audience behavior and listen to what they have to say about your business. These tools can also offer interesting insights on your competition.

3. Show How Much You Value Every Opinion

A survey by ReviewTrackers reveals that 53.5 percent of customers expect a quick response from businesses on their reviews, especially when it’s a negative one. Yet, 63.3 percent share that they’ve never heard from businesses about their review, leaving them disappointed. 

Customers want to know whether or not businesses are listening to feedback. The only way to prove that you value their opinion is by responding to reviews, regardless of whether they are positive, negative, or neutral.  

Check out how Suta, a Shopify fashion house, responds to each piece of feedback from their customers. They are listening to their customers and this entices more buyers to share their opinions. 

You may also highlight a few reviews or create a video of the top testimonials to show how much you value this user-generated content. Notice how these exceptional Shopify stores have managed to highlight a few customer opinions.

Source: https://www.velasca.com/
Source: https://partakefoods.com/
Source: https://www.tsuno.com.au/

When shoppers browse a business site, they expect to see a neutral third-party source of information from people who have already experienced your product. Hence, besides working with a reputed SEO agency to improve your online reputation and ranking, it’s critical to listen to what your customers are saying and looking for.

Make sure you respond to these reviews promptly. That way, even a first-time shopper will know what to expect from you and carry a positive impression of your brand.

4. Use Smart Review Apps

Collecting reviews doesn’t have to be a tedious task. There are several apps available to a Shopify store owner that can make this job easy.

Shopify’s Product Review app allows customers to share reviews with ease. It offers features like a theme-friendly design and easy customization, allows store owners to import and export reviews as a spreadsheet, and adds review scores to Google search results. The reviews can also be added to the individual product pages.

Besides, you have tools like Yotpo, Loox, Kudobuzz, and Judge.me that can help you collect and display ratings and reviews about your products and Shopify store. Use these tools to display your product reviews, images, and Q&As related to your store and build the trustworthiness of your business.

Wrapping Up

For an eCommerce owner, nothing’s more exhilarating than customers returning to shop from their store. While it’s great to have repeat customers, Shopify entrepreneurs should study the factors that improve customer engagement, how customers use their products, and what they think about the brand. This can help them improve their offerings and customer service.

Working towards collecting reviews for your business can offer valuable insights on customer preferences and buying habits. Moreover, adding these reviews to your Shopify store will work as social proof, thus improving your reputation in the eyes of Google and boost your store’s conversions.

Use the strategies shared in this post to earn valuable reviews for your online store and generate more business.

This is a guest post contribution by Tim Ferguson. Tim is a writer and editor of Marketing Digest. He helps marketing agencies with SEO, link building, content marketing, online reputation management, and blogger outreach. When he is not writing and editing for Marketing Digest, he spends time on learning more about content marketing and getting better at it.

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