13 Ways To Get Customer Reviews For An Ecommerce Website

What is one way to get more customer reviews for an eCommerce website?

To help your eCommerce business get more customer reviews, we asked marketing professionals and eCommerce business owners this question for their best insights. From providing discount incentives to holding a contest, there are several tips that may help you get more customer reviews for your eCommerce website.

Here are 13 ways to get customer review for an eCommerce website:

• Provide Discount Incentives

• Add Calls-to-action

• Offer Free Samples

• Work With Micro-influencers

• Negative Reviews Can Encourage Positive Response

• Showcase Reviews Online

• Perfect Timing

• Make Reviews a Part of Your Onboarding Process

• Simplify the Reviewing Process

• Allow Multiple Reviews at Once

• Set Off a Chain Reaction

• Use An Automated Email System

• Hold a Contest

Provide Discount Incentives

After a successful sale, offer customers a discount code for a future purchase in exchange for a review. The advantage for the customer is that they will get a discount on their next purchase, and all they have to do is leave a review. The advantage for your business is that you will not only likely get a review, but also potentially grab a repeat customer.

Peter Babichenko, Sahara Case

Add Calls-to-action

Utilize calls-to-action (CTA) to get happy customers to leave reviews. Some people need to be spurred into action, and there’s no shame in requesting a moment of their time. Make it clear throughout the sales process, on both your website and in emails, that you would greatly appreciate their feedback. Then, make it as easy as possible for customers to find where they can review your products on your site.

Stephanie Schull, Kegelbell

Offer Free Samples

The chance to get free products in exchange for a short review is a strong motivator for customer action. So, you can see how offering free samples could give customers a great incentive to leave reviews. Even people who wouldn’t normally write reviews can be swayed by an offer of free product samples. This can be a reliable method to increase customer reviews on your eCommerce site.

Vanessa Molica, The Lash Professional

Work With Micro-influencers

Working with micro-influencers is an effective way for others to review products. Influencers can promote products to a larger audience versus a traditional email marketing strategy after a purchase. By combining the two for a collaboration, both parties have the opportunity to maximize exposure and sales. If the audience is interested in the brand and influencer participating in the collaboration, they’ll purchase more products from those brands in the future, and are more likely to write a review from a word of mouth referral.

Lance Herrington, UNICO Nutrition

Negative Reviews Can Encourage Positive Response

For many eCommerce site business owners, the first inclination when they see a bad review is to have it removed, however, negative reviews can also, strangely enough, encourage more people to contribute. With the epidemic of fake reviews infiltrating websites, many customers have a sense that they are too good to be true, eroding trust that honest opinions are not going to be allowed, as studies have shown that over 90% believe there is censorship in product reviews.

By allowing negative reviews to remain, customers will be more inclined to put their thoughts on record. In addition, customers feel the business is providing them a service by allowing all reviews, as they are getting a more rounded take on a product. In being willing to display reviews unfiltered, a business will encourage customers to post knowing their opinions will not be censored, and that they are valued.

Woody Sears, Hearhere

Showcase Reviews Online

Showcasing customer reviews on your website is a great way to keep your customers engaged and excited about leaving a review. This is also a great way to show our appreciation for their business. When customers take the time to leave a detailed review, it’s either because they are really excited about a product or displeased, but are willing to offer valuable insights, and for that we are grateful and willing to showcase online.

Nataly Vanunu, Boho Magic

Perfect Timing

We all know how reviews are crucial for an eCommerce website. They play an influential role in customers’ buying process. However, to reach the desired results and avoid customers ignoring our request, send it at the right time! That means that you should choose the right time based on your product and how long it typically takes people to form an opinion of it. If your product is designed to provide a long-term benefit, consider sending your request after at least 10 days.

Chiara Sternardi, Passport-photo.online

Make Reviews a Part of Your Onboarding Process

Your onboarding process is already in place. Why not make the most of it by offering customers the chance to shout out their opinions too? Essential components of the customer engagement process, sales, and reviews always go hand in hand. And the onboarding process is an excellent opportunity to close on the sale and open up the review process. The customer is the happiest and the most engaged when making a purchase. Use this opportunity well. Moreover, the customer doesn’t even have to write a detailed review right there. All they have to do is leave their quick rating, permitting your after-sales team to get in touch later.

Jerry Ford, 4WD Life

Simplify the Reviewing Process

One of the reasons customers do not leave reviews is because they do not want to go through the trouble of signing in and writing a review or filling out some long tedious form. The easier you make it for customers to leave you a review, the more likely they are to do so without feeling too intimidated by having to navigate through various steps on your website. The best place to prompt a review is immediately after payment to ensure that only genuine customers write reviews.

Chris Thompson, Backdoor Survival

Allow Multiple Reviews at Once

When a customer buys multiple products from you, please don’t make the review process overly complex by asking them to review each item separately. Collectively reviewing multiple purchases is more efficient and increases your customer’s chances to leave a positive review for you. Instead of emailing customers with only a single product at a time, include all of their recent purchases so that they can review them in one place. This approach shortens users’ time creating content and increases the number of reviews you collect. Instead of clicking back and forth through different web pages to leave multiple reviews, an all-in-one view creates a better experience for your customers and facilitates writing content.

Muskan Rai, Web Hosting Advices

Set Off a Chain Reaction

Start a conversation on social media (Twitter is a good platform for this) and get people talking about your product. People will be more inclined to write glowing reviews about your product and services when they see others doing the same. Start the conversation and then fetch the best reviews and post them on your webpage. Place them where people can see them – and devote at least an entire page to it.
That is a better strategy than randomly posting anonymous reviews or offering a 30-second survey at the end of a purchase. Randomly posting reviews doesn’t look organic or authentic to visitors. If you post positive reviews from actual Twitter users, people will get the impression that your product makes an impact – so much so that customers will make time to post positive reviews and urge others to try it.

Patrick Samy, Span

Use An Automated Email System

The best way to get more reviews is through an automated email system that automatically sends out an email after a customer purchases something from your store. Most people shop online and never go back to check their order status or read emails from when they place an order until weeks afterward, so use this to your advantage by creating a reminder for them to leave a review. Automated emails also allow them to defer their response if they cannot respond immediately.

Marc De Diego Ferrer, MCA Assessors

Hold a Contest

In my experience, this is an efficient technique to market your business with the assistance of your existing clients. In our recent piece on social promotions that might affect your bottom line, we discussed several social contest ideas, but keeping things simple is always a smart idea. Request that customers use a hashtag on Instagram or leave a quick note on your Facebook page. I think holds Facebook contests on a regular basis, encouraging fans to submit photographs, such as the heart bokeh image at the top of this piece, that demonstrates what their unique lenses can do.

Rameez Usmani, PureTuber

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