How online reviews can help to increase sales

Online reviews are crucial for increasing your brand’s visibility, keeping customers on your online store for longer and ultimately increasing sales. Many big brands have reported a dramatic increase in conversion rates after implementing new review systems and methods. The brand Figleaves, for example, explains that they experienced a 12.5% higher conversion rate with reviews than without and that those with 20+ reviews have a conversion rate that is 80% higher than other products. So reviews, reviewing platforms and quantity are all important, but what else should you be looking out for?

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Leveraging customer reviews

Customer reviews are not just static data sat on a web page. They are a dynamic way to interact and engage with customers and the platform you use to do this on is crucial. The right reviewing platform lets you collect reviews, and engage with your customers, understand data and trends, and ultimately turn reviews into two important tools. The first is actionable items that can be improved (and this often comes from negative reviews), the second is positive brand data that can be leveraged in campaigns throughout digital media channels. A good reviewing platform also helps filter out spam and irrelevant content so that you can spend your time focusing on key insights.

The transparency economy

Accenture refers to our digital age as the transparency economy where consumers expect to have the full information from manufacturers, retailers, providers, especially what other people think. Accenture also refers to reviews as a method of “unifying and amplifying the voice of the consumer”. Reviews are therefore not one offs but a type of content that builds trust through transparency and can be aggregated and used strategically. More than this, reviews are not just an add-on to an online store or a purchasing experience, the reviews themselves have become embedded in the user experience and are a key tool for gaining data (both for business owners and for potential customers).

A shift in balance

According to Deloitte, reviews are a powerful tool, which has actually shifted the power balance of the entire sales process. The proliferation of easy to access online stores has created a tyranny of choice that leads customers to rely heavily on reviews, price comparisons, and rankings. It has created disruption in the entire way we purchase and empowered customers with both access and information. To get ahead of the trend and make smart business decisions, companies must focus on creating a coherent customer journey through all the different touch points with their business. This means reviews are not an isolated factor but one part of a unified “sales story”.

Diversifying media

For so long reviews and the insights we have gleaned from them have come through text and text-based analytics. However, we know that using other forms of media (like images, video and voice) improves customer engagement, differentiates products and really helps a business to stand out from the crowd. With new technologies available, now is the time to migrate to areas like voice. Voice is a much more personal mode of communication and can be used to increase customer interactions, conversions and ultimately improve sales.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, click here.