Weblinx, Incorporated

The 3 Kinds of Reviews Every E-Commerce Site Needs

On a lot of e-commerce sites, reviews are treated almost as an afterthought. That’s too bad, because having the right reviews – presented in the right way – can make an enormous impression on new customers and boost your sales immediately.

To help you understand why, here are the three kinds of reviews every e-commerce site needs to have:

#1 Professional In-House Reviews

Offering professional reviews on your website gives buyers an inside look at what you sell, with a perspective they may not be able to find on their own. Not only do people like to know what industry experts think, but in-house reviews give you original content that can be indexed by Google and place you ahead of your competitors in the search engine listings (particularly for product and item names, which can be very profitable and difficult to rank for).

#2 Video Reviews

Although video reviews could easily fall within the first category, they deserve special mention here because video adds a new dimension to the information you give viewers. Things like size, scale, and ease of handling or operation can all be shown on video… and could be difficult to explain with simple text and/or images. If you want buyers to see how things work, or why you love a product, say it in a video.

#3 Detailed Buyer Reviews

As important as expert reviews are, customers also like to see feedback from other buyers like themselves, who use products in the same way they would. For that reason, it’s good if you can get your buyers to not only share their opinions, but also their own preferences, budget, and level of expertise with your products. The closer their experience is to another customer’s, the easier it’s going to be to make a sale.

Because reviews are so critical to the success of your online store, you should be doing everything you can to encourage them. Consider giving buyers thank-you gifts, or even small discounts on future purchases, if they will honestly and thoroughly rate the products they’ve bought.

When it comes down to it, having lots of reviews on your website is an easy way to get new content and separate yourself from the competition. Are you doing enough to solicit feedback from your customers?

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