Why Are Customer Reviews So Important for Your Online Shop?

Customer reviews are an integral part of any brand’s marketing plan whether it be an online business or a physical shop. Online reviews provide social proof to your shop’s visitors, but they are beneficial in so many more ways than that.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:

What are customer reviews?

Customer reviews generally refer to feedback created by previous customers and displayed somewhere online. These online reviews usually come in the form of written texts, but can sometimes be accompanied by images and/or videos.

With the popularity of YouTube and other video platforms, when you hear the word “reviews”, you might also think about in-depth video analyses of products/services by social media influencers or niche content creators. However, the phrase “customer reviews” most often refers to the feedback provided by the general public – normal, everyday shoppers.

Recommended reading:
Media Impact Value: How to Measure the ROI of Influencer Campaigns

With that in mind, let’s focus on the customer reviews you collect from your previous customers. When it comes to these kinds of online customer reviews, you can generally break down these reviews into three categories, especially when it comes to Google:

1. Service reviews (aka shop reviews, seller ratings)
2. Product reviews
3. Local reviews

So, what’s the difference between these types of reviews? Here’s a quick overview:

Service reviews

Service reviews are often referred to as shop reviews (or seller ratings by Google). These types of reviews and ratings are based on the shop’s services and their performance as a business.

These reviews should reflect such things as customer service, delivery times, packaging, and the general responsibilities of the shop. Normally, service reviews should only refer to those elements and not to the quality of the products. However, it is fairly common to see some overlap here, especially on platforms like Amazon and other marketplaces.

As a consumer, you might stumble on some service reviews while browsing a particular online shop or when researching a company on Google before completing a purchase.

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On the left, you can see service ratings appearing in a Google Ad in the search results. On the right, the online shop (Solarplexius) displays its service ratings directly in the widget on the lower-right side of the page. These ratings are based on the average score of the service reviews the shop has collected through their review provider (Trusted Shops).

Read their success story here:

Product reviews

Product reviews are focused on the quality of the product. Naturally, product ratings are based on the average score of all the product reviews.

Ideally, customers who write product reviews do not mention a shop’s services in their rating. In theory, a product review sticks to opinions about the item they've purchased with no mention of the shop's service, but naturally, there tends to be some overlap from time to time here as well.

As a consumer, you might stumble upon product reviews as you browse an online shop or if you do a product search on Google.

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In the example above from Dotty Fish, you can see product reviews appearing in the Google Shopping results of an organic search on the left. On the right, product reviews are displayed directly on the website.

Local reviews

Local reviews are customer reviews that rate the service of a physical shop. Therefore, you could say that local reviews fall under the umbrella of service reviews.

However, the local reviews that show up in Google are based on the reviews collected for your Google Business Profile. If your shop has multiple physical locations, you’ll need multiple profiles.

As a consumer, you’re most likely to come across local reviews in Google Maps. Here's an example for the online shop, Future Shop, which also has a brick and mortar shop.

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Why are customer reviews so important and what benefits do they have?

Surely, you know that customer reviews are important to some degree. After all, you’ve most definitely used online reviews to help you make a purchase decision in the past. What are the benefits that customer reviews bring to your brand?

Shutterstock/LookerStudio

Reviews provide social proof

Through your own experiences, you already know that customer reviews can provide social proof for your shop and its products. This, in a very clear way, is building trust for your brand.

There are endless statistics showing the power of online customer reviews in terms of converting customers. Trusted Shops recently surveyed over 750 online shoppers across Europe on the topic of trust in online shopping. Here are some interesting insights:

• Positive online reviews of the shop are the most influential element to convince shoppers to purchase from a new shop (66%).
• Positive reviews are particularly important for luxury products such as jewellery and watches (74%) and luggage, bags, and leather goods (80%).
• 90% of European online shoppers agree that authentic reviews increase trust in a company.

You can read the entire report by downloading it here:

Customer reviews can boost your SEO

Besides social proof, customer reviews can help your online shop gain more visibility. How? Through SEO (search engine optimisation).

In the eyes of Google, adding reviews to your website is comparable to adding fresh content to your website, especially regarding product reviews on product pages. Google’s web crawlers will scan websites for relevant information in order to decide where to rank it in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

This “user-generated content” provides your website with valuable keywords that will constantly be updated with the addition of new reviews. Google also loves websites that constantly add new content, so a constant influx of reviews is important. With more reviews consistently being added to your website, your pages should rank even higher on Google.

Building trust at first sight

It's no secret that visual elements can sway opinions. Customer review stars (aka star ratings) can help build “trust at first sight” for your business whether it's directly on your site or in search engines.

If you have website pages that rank high organically, that's already a great sign of trustworthiness in and of itself. However, you can grab the attention of your target audience even more by having those little orange stars next to your organic search results (some studies have shown a 35% increase in traffic when stars are displayed in Google’s SERPs).

The same goes for your Google and Google Shopping Ads. Those eye-catching stars take up more real estate and can lead to significant increases in your click-through rates.

Remember, trust often begins before a shopper ever visits your website. Star ratings are a very big part of creating the right first impression.

Want to learn about getting your star ratings seen throughout Google and its multiple platforms? Check out our whitepaper:

Reviews provide useful feedback

Not only do customer reviews provide your potential shoppers with valuable feedback, but they also provide it to you!

Remember, optimisation doesn’t always mean tinkering with a few website features and the wording of your ads. You can also optimise the customer experience as well as your product line.

If you get too many negative reviews about your customer service, for example, it might be time to consider some serious internal changes. The same goes for bad reviews for a specific product. If too many customers complain about a certain product, you might want to consider removing it from your product line.

If you collect a lot of reviews generally, there are tools that can analyse them for you. The Trusted Shops Sentiment Analysis does exactly that. Using artificial intelligence to scan your entire library of reviews, the tool gives you great insights into the specific elements of your shop that are working as well as the ones that need improvement. Learn more about the tool by clicking below:

Take the chance to show off your customer service

Do you pride yourself on making sure your customers are happy, even if something goes wrong with their order? Shops that go the extra mile to take care of their customers are exactly the kinds of businesses that should proudly display their customer reviews (particularly service reviews).

However, even if you don’t have “the finest customer service team in all the land”, you can still take the opportunity to show off your customer service. Make sure to answer negative reviews as well as positive reviews.

Tools like the Smart Review Assistant can help you answer reviews in a unique and relevant way. This shows the potential customers that are going through your customer reviews that you are paying attention and care what your previous customers think.

Reduce returns

Another big benefit of customer reviews is the reduction of returns. This particularly applies to product reviews.

Shared customer experiences help create well-informed shoppers, who have more realistic expectations for a product before finalising their purchase. A more informed potential customer is therefore less likely to return a product.

Recommended reading:
Reducing the Return Rate in the Online Fashion Industry

Other tips for customer reviews

Now that we’ve defined customer reviews and looked at the biggest benefits they bring to your business, let’s look at a few final tips to keep in mind.

Displaying reviews

In order to be an effective marketing tool, you need to present your customer reviews in the right place and at the right time.

Make your reviews visible and accessible. Some online shops use widgets to display their service reviews. They can be displayed at the top, near the navigation while other businesses display them in a widget that stays on-screen as the user scrolls.

Another alternative is for shops to place their customer rating in their footer. You can also highlight your rating (and/or individual reviews) during the checkout process.

Look for a Google-certified reviews provider

Here’s something you already know: Google displays stars throughout their platform. What you might not know is that Google sources these ratings from Google-supported review partners.

By working with a supported partner, you’ll be able to display those star ratings directly in Google’s search results, which is where many product searches begin and the best place to make a positive first impression.

Choose a reviews platform with customisable options

Collecting and displaying reviews is not always as simple as it seems. A good review platform offers lots of extra/customisable features. From helping you find the perfect time to send out review request invitations to the colours of your review widgets being displayed on your site, you’ll want a provider that gives you plenty of options.

Sending review invites to other review platforms

It’s no secret that your online reputation extends beyond your website. Google collects reviews from supported review partners like Trusted Shops and Trustpilot, which often have review profiles that also show up in the SERPs when users type something like “your brand reviews” into the search engine.

With a tool like the Trusted Shops Reputation Manager, you can distribute your review invitations to open platforms like Google Customer Reviews or Trustpilot, even if you’re not a member. By being more proactive with your service ratings across the web, you’ll be able to harmonise and build a more consistent and trustworthy online reputation.

Conclusion

Online customer reviews can bring a lot of advantages to both your business and your customers. Besides the SEO, marketing, and other performance benefits that reviews bring with them, the most essential thing to remember is that you are communicating your trustworthiness to potential customers through transparency.