Why You Need Product Reviews on Your Website

Did you know product pages with reviews bring 3.5x higher conversion rates than those without? Your customers are looking for reasons to make a purchase, we’ll show you why reviews help tip them towards a sale.

Looking for a restaurant for date night? There’s a good chance you read Google reviews. Buying a new mascara? The product with 34,000 5-star reviews on Sephora is hard to look past.

When it comes to selling products and services, reviews make a HUGE difference. In fact, 9 out of 10 online customers read reviews before making a purchasing decision. And this makes sense. With endless products and services available, analysis paralysis is very real (i.e. “too many choices!!!”).

With modern customers constantly comparing products and services online, it's hard to judge if a product is high-quality or not without trying it on, testing it out, or holding it in your hands. With no shop assistant to talk to and no guarantee your money isn’t going to waste, there needs to be a qualifying feature that can help your customers build trust…

Oh wait, there is. And they’re reviews.

The benefits of earning positive reviews

If you’ve ever jumped on Google, or Facebook, or Amazon to look for a review before pulling out your credit card, then you’re living proof that reviews are a major consideration behind purchasing decisions. More than a one-off sale, reviews help to:

Build trust
Improve consideration
Increase conversions
Increase your rankings
Create social proof

Looking to make your brand more appealing and drive real-world results? Let’s dive a little deeper into the benefits of earning positive reviews.

Looking to get the most bang for your buck? Click here to learn how to make your gift enticing to the most influential influencers

Build Trust

You probably think all of your products are great - but you might be a *little* biased. Customers know that every brand claims their products and services are the best, or the most life-changing, or the most innovative.

But it’s hard to believe a brand because they’re trying to make a sale. Unless it’s a brand that customers know, love, and trust, getting people to spend money on new products and services can be challenging.

That’s where positive reviews can help.

Positive reviews help customers to trust you, and trust is the currency of the internet. Seeing that other, ordinary people have engaged with your company (and had a positive experience) means new customers are more likely to trust you. And since 91% of 18 to 34-year-olds trust reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family, those 5-star reviews you earn aren’t just for show - they help generate ROI.

Remember, trust is hard to build and easy to break, so make sure you aim to get lots of positive reviews (which #gifted can help with).

Improve Consideration

If a customer hasn’t heard of your brand before, but discovers you online and sees hundreds of positive reviews, they’re more likely to consider you as a realistic option. This is because reviews help trigger a sense of FOMO. After all, if everyone else is talking about you, you must be a brand worth getting to know.

Why haven't I heard of this? Why haven't I tried this? I better get my hands on this!

These are the questions going through a customer’s mind when they realise your brand is earning 5-star reviews month after month. And if a customer is thinking about switching from an existing brand to a new brand, positive reviews can increase the consideration of your product.

Increase Conversions

Getting customers to your website can feel like climbing Everest at times - but it’s only half the battle. Through your online and offline marketing efforts (and utilising influencers for #gifting), let’s say you’ve got the customer to your website. But what next?

Once a customer has landed on your site, what are you doing to convince them to part with their cold hard cash?

The answer is (surprise surprise) reviews.

92% of customers will hesitate to make a purchase if there are no customer reviews. Without using influencers to drive authentic 5-star reviews, you’re letting your competition take sales from you.

Keep in mind, reviews don’t just stop you from losing money, they help you make more of it too. Products with reviews are 270% more likely to be bought than a product without. For a higher-priced product, this likelihood increases to 380%. Not bad, right?

So don't miss the opportunity to convert your website visitors into customers and utilise the power of reviews to increase conversions.

Create Social Proof

As humans, we’re programmed to want to be a part of the pack. This helped our ancestors stay safe and protected from being eaten by lions. In the 21st century, the odds of being eaten by lions are low - but that doesn’t stop customers from wanting to be part of a pack.

Reviews provide valuable social proof and help customers track what’s popular, trending, and approved by others. This helps to validate purchasing decisions and confirms in a customer’s mind that they’re aligned with a brand that’s perceived positively by others. Reviews are a fast and easy way for customers to feel safe in making their purchase, knowing that other people are using and liking your brand too.

Wondering what a fair gifting exchange looks like? Click here to discover the secrets of fair compensation

So, now that you know the power of getting authentic user-generated reviews for your brand, it's time to go out and start generating them.

List your gift on #gifted today, set your request for website reviews, Facebook reviews, Amazon reviews, or all three, and watch your conversions skyrocket!