How to Get More Customer Reviews for Your eCommerce Store

Over the last couple of years, eCommerce stores have taken the world by storm. Although online shopping wasn’t a new thing to begin with, it simply exploded with the pandemic lockdowns. Users have shifted their shopping habits towards online storefronts, which isn’t going to change anytime soon. Another trend that came with eCommerce shopping was searching for online reviews. Simply put, users are more likely to spend money at a store that comes with plenty of good reviews. In this article, we will give you a few creative tips on how to get more customer reviews for your eCommerce store.


The importance of reviews

As we’ve already mentioned, online shopping usually begins by looking up reviews and comparing them. Only then do users decide where they are going to be spending their money. However, there are a few additional benefits that come from having good customer reviews for your eCommerce store:

  • Boost brand confidence. Assure users that you are the real deal and that they can rely on you to deliver quality goods on time.
  • Show customers how you deal with bad reviews and complaints. Let’s face it; not every review is going to be glowing praise. However, you can benefit even from the negative reviews by responding to them and solving the problem that caused your customer to leave such a review.
  • Increase engagement. It’s no secret that search engines favor websites that have high user engagement. You can foster communication and interaction by engaging your customers in the reviews section. Remember to be kind and respectful, and ask for additional clarifications if needed.

Here is how to get more customer reviews for your eCommerce store:

1.  Send promotional products and ask for reviews

It can be a little bit problematic for small eCommerce stores when they are just starting out and have no reviews of their business. It’s up to you to get the ball rolling. You can send promotional packages for free, and kindly ask the recipients to leave you a review. Use this approach to build up hype for a new product launch. Have people sign up for testing before the official release date for that product line and send them promo copies. This is a great way to generate buzz and get those initial reviews you need for your eCommerce store.

However, you should be careful not to directly incentivize positive reviews since this is frowned upon by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Just send your customers a product and ask for a review without any strings attached.

2.    Have customer-centric marketing

Marketing experts have realized that, when it comes to online advertising, the name of the game is the end-user. Marketing is no longer about your product or company. You need to organize your entire marketing strategy so that the main focus is on your customers. If the customers have the spotlight in every part of their journey through the sales funnel, they will be more likely to interact with your brand. Lean into that interaction and make sure that your customers feel that everything is about them and that they have the center stage. This way, you will surely get more customer reviews for your eCommerce store. What’s best is that you can expect satisfied customers to leave a positive review and spread word of mouth to their friends.

3.  Do a follow up after every purchase

Send customers an email asking them to leave a review after they make a purchase on your website. You can even use an autoresponder and integrate this into automated follow-up emails. However, you shouldn’t necessarily rush the email when asking for a review. Give your customers enough time to familiarize themselves with your product. Depending on the type of product, this can range from several days to a couple of weeks. On the other hand, you shouldn’t wait too long. Users are the most enthusiastic immediately after making a purchase and receiving their product. Asking them for a review after 6 months will probably yield an: “It’s okay, I guess” type of answer, since all the excitement and hype are long gone.

Your customer service staff needs to understand the importance of reviews to your business. They will be the ones who are most likely to interact with customers, so make sure to stress how critical reviews are. They can then bring up the topic of reviews when talking to customers, especially if they have just solved an issue the customer was having.

This works equally well for small online stores with just a few employees. Inform everyone that getting more customer reviews for your eCommerce store is a priority and that they need to work on it. Whenever you have direct interaction with a satisfied customer, you can let them know how much you will appreciate their feedback. People tend to favor helping the underdog and will probably leave you a positive review.

The best time to ask customers for reviews is when you are directly communicating with them. This can be through phone calls or instant messages, whichever means of communication your customer contacts you through. People will be less likely to turn you down if you ask them for a review in a one-on-one conversation.

4.  Make it easy to leave reviews

Ease of use is something that often gets overlooked. If your customer needs to make a specialized account and log in just to leave a review, many of them will see that as too much of a hassle. Instead, you need to go above and beyond to make leaving a review simple and easy:

  • Have a presence on multiple different platforms. Include widgets for social networks so that customers can use their pre-existing accounts for reviews.
  • Have surveys and polls on your website. Streamline the process of leaving feedback and have another form of interaction that doesn’t require a lot of effort.


In conclusion

Now that you know how to get more customer reviews for your eCommerce store, the only thing left is to ensure that you offer customers a quality product and fantastic service. Happy customers will undoubtedly give you positive feedback and boost your sales by letting others know they had a great experience.

Meta description: Do you have a new online store but no one knows about it? Here’s how to get more customer reviews for your eCommerce store and drive sales.