How Reviews and Rating Impact eCom Sales?

According to a study, products with at least five reviews have a 270% higher chance of a sale. 

The number of stars in the rating and shoppers feedback are vital for every eCommerce marketplace be it Amazon, BigBasket, Flipkart or any other. The heating up race to grab attention of buyers via multiple images, attractive prices, product comparisons, reviews & ratings are helping buyer to make more and more informed decisions. The customers feedback & reviews help buyers learn more about the product quality, brand, seller, features, benefits, etc. The sentiments and personal experience shared by the buyers makes reviews worth reading.

According to research, about 91% of online shoppers read reviews before making a buying decision. The online shoppers want to know pros and cons of a product before deciding to buy. The negative feedbacks help judge the authenticity of the product, the core problems, irregularities, and more. On the other hand, positive reviews help build brand or product trust & credibility by stating the best features and clearing doubts about value for money.

Why businesses need to assess customers sentiment?

Reviews and ratings also influence marketing decisions. Brands often analyze the product with the worst feedback to find customers’ most problematic areas. Addressing customer concerns often helps brands to convert overall negative sentiment into positive or at least turn them into neutral. As a result, the new buyer decisions also get influenced in a positive way.

The regular monitoring of reviews can help brands enhance their customer experience and develop new ideas or features. An evaluation of your brand vis-a-vis the competition can help to identify the most used words by customers for similar products on an ecommerce marketplace. This analysis helps in optimizing the marketing strategies.

Brands need such analysis for optimizing the marketing strategies. Our solution mScanIt can even provide real-time alerts if the sentiment intensity is moving towards the extreme, keeping a tab on customer sentiment. Replying to customers reviews & ratings in real-time often results in a higher conversion rate.

Impact of online reviews

1. Boosts SEO and Product Discoverability 

Ease of finding the product listing on an eCommerce marketplace is crucial to product discoverability. Discoverability is directly proportional to Share of Shelf (SOS). So, when the keywords targeted by the brand appear higher, it enhances the share of Shelf. Most eCommerce marketplaces’ algorithm includes reviews and ratings to find out how relevant and popular the product is, before displaying the results to the online shopper. The targeted brand keywords used in the reviews also boost SEO.

For example, a Bluetooth headset review would contain words like best Bluetooth, wireless, hands-free, etc., as part of the feedback. As these words are the SEO keywords, it might help the product become more visible in the top page listings. The product may also appear in the duplicate listing under organic search results of hands-free and wireless because these have been mentioned in the reviews. eCommerce marketplaces understand the importance of reviews and display them before the product price in search results.

Products with reviews on the digital shelf listings often achieve higher conversion rates, depending upon the price parameters of the buyers. Products with good reviews and ratings on online shopping stores often boost their organic SERP on web browsers which leads to higher visits to the product display page, conversion rate, and sales. Additionally, they alter the Share-of-Voice of brands on Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines.

Even if the product is new to the online shopping platform, lack of review will affect its sales unless it is of a well-known brand or much anticipated product. The businesses continuously engage in campaigns for acquiring product reviews as in most instances, people want to see the customer experiences of the same product from other online shoppers before deciding to purchase the product.

2. Build customer trust and loyalty

Products with reviews and ratings instill trust in a brand or eCommerce seller. The likelihood of purchasing an item from an online shopping store increases as the customer trusts the brand’s reliability and resolutions. Brands use eCommerce competitive analytic solutions like mScanIt for monitoring positive and negative sentiments with such tool they can evaluate customer reviews in their marketplace dashboard and send instant responses.

Brands that proactively respond to customer reviews often witness higher conversion rates and sales. Simultaneously, they may boost customer loyalty and trust of potential buyers on the products, as they can see the resolution offered by the brand to resolve customer problems. The subjective view and understanding of the product usability also resolve frequent queries of the potential buyers, which once again impacts loyalty, trust, and the final buying decision.

3. Help customers make final buying decision

Many marketers believe that people spending a long time on a product page are probably checking the specifications, measuring pros & cons, and matching them with their needs before making the final buying decision.

Reviews and ratings are opinions or comments given by product buyers and influencers which often include the brand name. The increasing number of brands mentions indeed impacts the algorithm of the eCommerce marketplace, especially while curating the best results for its buyers to boost sales. When the viewer read about other customer experiences, and name dropping of brands in reviews build a subjective opinion about the brand or product. Do you recall when ‘Realme was first introduced into the market, and people slowly forgot about ‘Redmi?

Brands also use reviews for showcasing customer experiences to potential buyers or target audiences. You might have come across shopping ads on social media and search engines. Did you scroll past a new brand after seeing the reviews, or did you check out its product page? The length of reviews and ratings goes beyond the eCommerce sphere. Many websites have full-page articles and videos on products offered in online shopping stores. The brands also highlight ratings in product images to boost page time on their product page.

Buyers sentiment matters!

Reviews and rating could be a great tool to understand customers behavior pattern and how they are responding to a particular product or brand. Reviews not just help potential buyers but help brand analyses and improve on customer satisfaction.

Reviews are the reflection of customers sentiment & Every business need a tool that can factor in the buyers sentiment. mScanit helps analyze the reviews reflect positive and negative sentiment about the product.

Benefits include understanding the customer needs, problematic areas, aspect that shows the value for money, etc. Evaluating the feedback of your brands and comparing them with the top competitors gives insights into similar product listings and competitive advantages in the online retail ecosystem.

Its best to understand and evaluate other metrics crucial to global brands using eCommerce Intelligence Solutions like mScanIt. Click here to discuss the possibilities of scaling your marketing and advertising efforts with this new-age solution.