Boosting Conversion Through Consumer Reviews

business hand clicking customer reviews on virtual screen interface

For online sellers looking to strengthen their online presence, customer reviews can either make or break their Amazon ranking. By keeping track of customer reviews and feedback, companies dramatically increase their Amazon conversion rates, thus boosting their sales rank.

In today’s market, online reviews carry as much weight (if not more) than in-person reviews. When searching on Amazon, consumers first notice the quantity and quality of reviews. Because online transactions are extremely fast-paced, most potential buyers are immediately drawn to products with more reviews as an easy indication of good product performance.

Quantity of Reviews

Although having thousands of reviews doesn’t necessarily mean a listing will perform well, it’s a simple fact that a product with 1,000 reviews does better than a product with 10. This is because shoppers value transparency. They want to know the good and the bad so they know what to expect. That being said, there’s no magic number of reviews to shoot for. Instead, online sellers should keep a close eye on the review volume of their competitors.

Products with larger numbers of reviews than their competitors are also more likely to capture sales even when the qualities are comparable. If two similar products both have an average rating of 4.5, the product with the higher quantity is seen as having a stronger, more validated rating. To retain a competitive edge in the Amazon market, sellers should keep tabs on their competitors’ reviews and actively work to match or exceed it.

Quality of Reviews

While quantity is relative to a company’s competition, the quality of a review—from one star to five stars—is based primarily on the experience a consumer has with that particular item. As such, it’s crucial to address any negative reviews immediately to avoid an overall negative product rating.

Generally, a product needs a general consumer rating of at least 4.5 stars to generate an impulse buy. Negative reviews can drag this overall rating down, stalling the seller’s success.

Unfortunately, when consumers are presented multiple reviews, most are drawn to negative responses. Research shows that it can take up to 12 positive reviews to counteract the effect of 1 negative review.

But how can sellers combat negative reviews?

Neutralizing Negative Reviews

Because Amazon does not allow businesses to remove negative reviews, they must learn how to mitigate the negative effects. Online businesses should make fostering positive transactions with their customers a top priority. Generating more positive reviews can ultimately balance out negative reviews.

However, it’s not enough to just get more reviews, even if they are all positive. Sellers should respond to negative feedback immediately by reaching out to the customer and offering a full return, another product, or refund. Making a concentrated effort to improve the dissatisfied customer’s experience builds trust by demonstrating a dedication to working through issues.

Companies should be aware of the dangers of offering incentives for reviews. In fact, this practice should be carefully and entirely avoided. Incentivized reviews often generate biased and inaccurate feedback. Thus, in October 2016, Amazon actually banned the practice of incentivized reviews in an effort to encourage impartiality and accuracy in product reviews.

It may seem like a tall order, but with a careful strategy, consumer responses can be cultivated to positively impact the seller’s sales.

Exposure on Review-Friendly Sites

Another tactic to multiplying positive customer reviews is to post discounted product listings on review-friendly platforms, like Review Kick. Sites like these encourage consumers to visit a seller’s Amazon product pages and leave candid feedback. These reviews dramatically increase the number of reviews for any given company or product, making them more appealing to a wider consumer market.

But remember the difference between verified and unverified reviews. Verified Amazon reviews are reviews posted by customers who paid full price for the product and posted the review after receiving it, essentially playing by the rules. Amazon takes these reviews more seriously and allows them to affect the sales algorithm, resulting in increased exposure and sales.

Unverified reviews, on the other hand, are reviews left on products by customers who may not have purchased the item on Amazon or who purchased the item at a discounted rate. These reviews may have been made prematurely and provide less accurate information. Consequently, Amazon does not allow these unverified reviews to affect the sales algorithm. While they offer upfront benefits to spark momentum, they are less valuable in the long run.

Simplifying the Process

Because cultivating reviews can be time-consuming and often requires extensive industry knowledge to be effective, the idea of garnering enough reviews to impact conversion rates may be daunting to many online sellers.

With Nozani’s time-tested experience, we offer a range of services that generate positive reviews and boost sales, resulting in overall success for our clients.

These services include:

• Specialized Email Automation: Nozani software automatically sends out follow-up emails to our clients’ customers. These emails not only express appreciation, but they also help establish positive relationships with consumers as they see that their input is valued and appreciated.
• Posting on Review-Friendly Sites: From getting the proper verifications to running ad campaigns, we save our clients time and effort while delivering a higher success rate
• Driving Social Media Traffic: Calculated social media campaigns drive consumer traffic and encourage feedback. Utilizing social media enables brands to stay competitive as they build and maintain their customer base. Because social media influence has increased so dramatically in recent years, this resource is vital to companies looking to get ahead in the Amazon game
• Product Inserts & QR Codes: Inserts not only encourage consumers to leave candid reviews of the product but also provide detailed instructions on how to do so. QR codes further simplify the process by directing the customer to a viable review platform, minimizing the hassle of leaving feedback.

At Nozani, we guide our clients through these complicated processes and provide them with the tools and resources necessary to succeed in the fast-paced e-commerce market. Additionally, because we stay with our clients from start to finish, we specially tailor each clients’ Amazon strategy to work with their brand and change with the market, engendering a higher conversion rate for greater long-term success.