Authentic Consumer Reviews Boost E-commerce
About 93% of consumers read product reviews and star ratings. Recently, other e-commerce sites have also learned the value of consumer feedback, as fewer consumers trust advertising on websites.
In the mid-90s, Jeff Bezos needed something to advance Amazon, and so launched consumer product reviews. Today, Amazon’s massive growth can be partly attributed to giving a voice of consumers in the buying process. About 93% of consumers read product reviews and star ratings. Recently, other e-commerce sites have also learned the value of consumer feedback.
Retail media networks are leveraging this type of consumer-to-consumer marketing in an attempt at authenticity. Some marketing agencies tried incentivizing consumers with products then encouraging them to write reviews, defeating the entire purpose of authenticity and could backfire.
Consider these tips when you plan to use your customer reviews in your e-commerce marketing plan.
- Create a section on your site for shoppers to read reviews without advertising.
- Have separate product pages with brand advertising.
- Create advertising guidelines that require authentic reviews and follow these guidelines when integrating reviews into your ads.
- When quoting reviews in your advertising, make sure they reinforce the selling point.
- Do not advertise only 5-star reviews. Consumers will likely not believe this approach.
- Update often. Recent reviews are sticky in all e-commerce and social channels.
Authenticity starts with a buyer who purchased and that moves markets. Done wrong, C2C reviews could frustrate consumers.
