When you’ve launched a new product, waiting for the first ecommerce product reviews to drop is agonizing. Will they be bad? Or, perhaps even more worrisome…will there just be crickets?
The worst part is that it can feel like you have no agency. You know reviews are important—vital, even—but it’s just so tough to gain traction. Sure, you could pay an influencer to review your product, but influencer fatigue is real, and even some of the most “authentic” personalities have been embroiled in before-and-after-faking controversies that call into question the entire industry.
So, you’re left with an enigma: How can you get reviews from customers without doing anything that could hamper their authenticity and value?
Reviews serve as social proof for discerning buyers, and social proof increases conversion rates, particularly for higher-ticket items. This makes sense; when you’re about to shell out more money, you want more reassurance that you’re purchasing something good.
Here are a few more benefits of ecommerce product reviews that you might not have thought of:
It’s not just about getting more reviews—it’s also about getting good ones. We’re not talking about the exceptional ones that go viral because the reviewer has a flair for the comedic (you really can’t control those). We’re thinking in general terms of what elements you want reviewers to include.
User-generated content, abbreviated UGC, is a big one. Photos and videos show that the customer really bought and used the product, and they stand in contrast to the glitzy, perfectly lit photos posted by brands. Their gritty, non-edited quality is what gives shoppers real evidence that the product is legit.
Right up there with UGC is detail. Good product consumer reviews will present the good and the not-so-good, the ways in which the customer uses the product, and possibly some comparisons to similar products on the market.
Timing is also key. If your product is something that takes time for results to show (like, say, hair growth supplement gummies), then you don’t really want people reviewing you right after they bring it home. (“Didn’t see much hair growth yet, but I like the fruity pebbles flavor!” isn’t going to move the needle.) So, if you’re using an automated eblast to get more reviews, consider implementing a certain waiting period before it goes out.
There’s a devil sitting on many marketers’ shoulders that barks very bad suggestions … “Just buy some reviews, it’s the only way to get the ball rolling!” or “Pssst…et your employees to pen some fake ones! Who’s gonna know?”
DO NOT listen to this devil. Instead, do the following:
There are a bunch of ways to get customer reviews in an unethical manner. They might seem innocuous, but ultimately what you’re doing is helping break down the foundation of the entire ecommerce review ecosystem, which is built on trust and authenticity.
If that doesn’t sway you, then keep in mind you’ll probably get caught at some point, and the damage to your reputation will be hard to repair. For example, one skincare brand spent nearly two years having their employees write fake glowing reviews and downvote legitimate negative ones, and they ended up being investigated by the FTC.
Other unethical review-getting practices will likely get you found out also. Review hijacking, in which reviews from another product are repurposed to make it look like a new product has lots of reviews, ultimately landed one supplement company with a fine of $600,000.
There’s a gray area here. It’s OK to encourage customers to review you, and perhaps even offer a small discount or loyalty points toward future purchases, but anything more than that could be seen as manipulation. Studies have shown that incentivizing reviews leads to a boost in stars independent of the actual customer experience, hampering their authenticity.
It’s also telling that both Google and Yelp explicitly advise against any incentives whatsoever. (Yelp doesn’t even want you to nudge people.)
Keep in mind that the best, most authentic reviews are the ones that people are prompted to make themselves, without any external motivation. If you’re giving away free stuff for every review, you might wind up with a bunch of reviews that only have stars—and no actual details about what the customers really thought.
The downside of getting more product reviews is that some of them might not be positive. They could even be rude and unfair. It may be tempting to try to get rid of them—some businesses have even tried to sue the review writers, to no avail—but the best way to handle things is to assume all were written in good faith, and respond to each one with politeness and professionalism.
Responding to negative ecommerce reviews lets you do two things. It gives you a chance to make things right with the customer in a way that other prospective buyers can see, and it lets you engage with the parts of your business that aren’t working perfectly. The best time to learn what didn’t work was yesterday, and that customer review written yesterday could have a lot to say about your consumer perception.
Believe it or not, but people are actually suspicious if your reviews are all five stars, so you might want to think of the negative ones as the dissonance that makes the concerto more satisfying.
What about troll reviews and bot reviews? If you’re getting fake reviews that are definitely bot-written, then you have the right to combat this. Certain security systems can help you filter out unwanted traffic coming to your site from automated programs. For troll reviews written by humans, there’s not a ton you can do, but customer up-voting/down-voting systems can help.
Every once in a while, ecommerce companies have to contend with meme reviews. These are written by people who are trying to get in on a joke, and they can quickly spiral out of control. For example, one person wrote a (supposedly truthful) review stating that the Haribo Sugar-Free Gummy Bears had sent them running for the toilet, and then a deluge of fake reviews started pouring in with increasingly wild tales of intestinal distress. The offending product was ultimately discontinued (probably a good thing).
Some meme reviews can be great for business, as was the case for one company selling a T-shirt featuring three wolves howling at a full moon. People started writing joke reviews stating that the Three Wolf Moon shirt gave them life-changing masculine energy. The reviews ultimately prompted a deluge of sales and the creation of parody shirts like Three Shrimp Moon, Three Raccoon Moon, and Three Bearded Dragon Moon.
Did you know that you can get authentic reviews written by thoughtful customers before you even launch your product? This is one of the icing-on-the-cake benefits of in-home usage testing (IHUT).
At Highlight, we vet our product testers for their ability to give nuanced, quality feedback. On open-ended survey questions, Highlighters provide answers with an average length of 48 characters, which is significantly more than the industry average.
Do you get UCG with IHUT reviews? Absolutely! Testers are encouraged to provide photos and videos of themselves using your product. In fact, consumer goods company Church & Dwight got more than 200 DTC reviews complete with photos for its new Vitafusion smoothies thanks to Highlight’s help.
What’s more, IHUT lets you have people test out your products over a lengthy period of time—as much as a 30-day window—so that long-term results are fully accounted for.
Our ratings work well with review syndication platforms like BazaarVoice, Yotpo, and more!
We certainly don’t condone any fake review buying, which is why brands need a channel to drive authentic reviews from real consumers. If you’ve ever had this thought cross your mind, we’re here to let you know you can banish the devil on your shoulder for good, thanks to IHUT!
Reviews from Highlighters are your ticket to building up some buzz with online review generation early in the game, kickstarting the virtuous cycle of more sales, more reviews, more sales…and so on.