A Complete Guide to Customer Reviews for Smart Marketers

That’s why the most effective way to increase conversions and bring new customers to your site is to hand the microphone to customers who already know and love your products so they can share their experiences with the world.

In a competitive online commerce space, it’s crucial to establish trust by displaying authentic opinions of people who have already shopped with you.

We analyzed data from thousands of eCommerce stores and found that 94% of purchases are for products with 4- or 5-star reviews. This shows how much trust consumers put in the word of their fellow shoppers.

Plus, 65% of consumers reported that they trust user-generated content like customer reviews more than brand content. It’s time to give the people what they want – and watch your conversion rates climb as a result.

This guide breaks down all of Yotpo’s resources about reviews: how to generate reviews, how to use them, and how to learn from them.

1) Why you need customer reviews

The online marketing space is crowded and competition is fierce. The best way to stand out is through the authentic, honest voices of your happy customers. Shoppers want to hear from each other, not from brands.

Why Do I Need Customer Reviews? This video explains how reviews establish trust with new shoppers. Find out why social proof is so important and how customer reviews help.
How Star Ratings Influence Customers’ Behavior Products with high ratings get more reviews and more sales than those with low ratings. This article uses data to show what star ratings mean for your business and for customer purchasing behavior.
What Type of UGC Most Influences Consumer Behavior? [Data] Customers can share their experiences with reviews, photos, videos, and more. See what shoppers say about which type of user-generated content most influences their online experience, and how you can put that data to use.
How to Boost eCommerce Revenue With Customer Verification This ebook breaks down the importance of verifying your reviews. Reviews that are authenticated by the customer who wrote them establish trust with new shoppers and increase sales.

2) How to get customer reviews

Businesses need customer reviews but busy shoppers don’t always have time to leave them, even if they had an amazing experience. These resources give insight into the best ways to generate quality reviews in any industry.

How to Get More Customer Reviews: The Ultimate Guide If you want more reviews, you need to make it easy for customers to share their thoughts. You also need to request reviews at the right time and in the right way. Here’s how to do it all.
How to Email Customers for Reviews: Data from 3.5 Million Emails Optimize your post-purchase emails to maximize reviews. This report reveals the best way to capture a customer’s attention, sorted by industry.
How to Get Reviews for Products No One Wants to Review Products with more reviews sell more. Also, a store’s conversion rate correlates to the total number of products reviewed. This article will help you get reviews for products that aren’t getting the reviewer attention they deserve.
Stop Asking for Reviews the Wrong Way! [Data Video] If your review requests have a low response rate, you may not be asking in the most effective way. Watch this video to make sure you’re making the most of your ask.
How 5 Growing Industries Attract Customers With Reviews Every business from financial services to drone brands can enjoy the benefits of social proof provided by customer content. This article shows how different industries address customer pain points with user-generated content.
Yotpo + Fomo: Amplifying eCommerce Conversion Rates With Social Proof Customer reviews drive sales by harvesting social proof. Yotpo and Fomo teamed up to create this comprehensive ebook that spells out the impact of social proof on your conversion rates.

3) How to use customer reviews on your site

Now that you’ve accumulated some stellar, multi-faceted reviews, it’s time to put them to work. The placement, design, and data selected in your review section are all pivotal when it comes to capitalizing on the power of reviews.

The Beginner’s Guide to User-Generated Content Use UGC across multiple marketing channels to get as much out of it as you can. This ebook is a complete crash course on how to increase traffic and conversions with customer content.
How Top Fashion Brands Should Be Using Reviews Some top brands are missing out on a major piece of the eCommerce pie. Read on to learn from their mistakes.
How Reviews Help Local Businesses On Google Reviews are a free, easy way to boost your local business’s search ranking. Here’s how.

4) How to use customer reviews to get more traffic

Reviews not only boost conversion rate, but also help draw traffic to your site to begin with. In these articles, we take a look under the hood at how reviews boost your search engine ranking and make your brand stand out on social media.

Using Reviews on Social Media to Drive Traffic Social media is all about social proof, as users browse the thoughts and feelings of friends and family. In that natural recommendation environment, well-placed reviews in brand posts and ads are a recipe for a major traffic influx.
How Reviews Can Boost Your Google Ranking Google draws on your site and product reviews to generate your seller-rating. There’s a lot you can do to optimize your rating and get more traffic.
Making the Most Of Google Product Listing Ads Reviews enrich your Product Listing Ads and drive more engaged traffic to your site. Here we go into what PLAs are, how to set them up, and other frequently asked questions.
The SEO Benefits of Reviews How did 30,000 businesses organically increase their traffic by more than 30% in nine months? Reviews. This article tells the story behind that data and the five ways reviews boost your SEO ranking.

5) Handling negative reviews

Some businesses hesitate about cultivating reviews because they fear negative customer ratings. The data shows, however, that negative reviews are few and far between. Plus, negative reviews actually benefit a business’s reputation by building a sense of trust and transparency. These articles will put your mind at ease about negative reviews and show you how to take advantage of them.

How to Harness the Power of Negative Reviews Negative reviews are actually easy to handle and have surprising benefits. This guide demonstrates how to make bad reviews work in your favor.
Handling the Hazards of Fake Reviews Fake reviews are unfortunately real. This article walks you through why they are insidious, how to spot them, and what to do if they come for you.

6) Why you need to own your reviews

When your customer reviews are hosted on a reviews website instead of yours you miss out on a lot of the benefits of user-generated content. These resources walk you through how to liberate yourself from third-party sites and why your reputation depends on it.

How Review Sites Can Hurt Your Business There are serious consequences to entrusting your reviews to a third party. Damaged SEO, decreased organic traffic, and losing control of your reputation are just a few. This article spells out the pitfalls of relinquishing ownership of your reviews and how to avoid them.
How to Beat Yelp You are not at the mercy of Yelp or any other review site! Our guide to winning back control of your online reputation makes it simple to own your review content and the advantages that go along with it.

7) Analyzing reviews

We crunched the numbers so you can increase yours. These articles pull from Yotpo data on eCommerce customer experience to provide you with actionable insights for your store.

What 1.3 Million Reviews Reveals About the Fashion Industry Put together from reviews of more than $9 million in purchases, this report has the latest on customer satisfaction in the fashion industry, top pain points for fashion shoppers, and how brands can use this data to improve customer service.
Analyzing Your Customers’ Feedback Through Reviews Customers communicate with brands across many channels, and there is a lot to learn from what they are saying. Here are our top takeaways from analyzing reviews in key industries like health and beauty, sports, apparel, food, and more.
How Can Review Analytics Help Maximize Conversions? An Eyes on Walls Case Study The head of marketing at this online urban art shop talks about how they understand what’s working and what’s not in their marketing strategy with Yotpo Analytics.