By Rob Sanders
With so many companies selling their products online, the task of standing out to your audience gets harder every day. And with new companies entering the online marketplace, you have to be constantly looking for ways to capture those eyeballs searching for the products you carry. Some shoppers are only looking for rock-bottom bargain prices, regardless of whom is selling. But for others there is a simple option that can make your products stand out: Google Product Ratings or product reviews.
Understanding Google Product Ratings
Google Product Ratings are those little yellow stars that appear under your product listings after your product is reviewed by customers. They will show up for both paid and free product listings on the search results page, as well as the Google Shopping tab.
Adding Google Product Ratings to an online store can help increase trust and credibility among potential customers, as product reviews provide valuable insight into a product’s quality and performance from other users’ experiences. They also help customers make informed purchasing decisions and can impact their purchasing behavior. Additionally, product ratings and reviews can improve search engine optimization and enhance the visibility of the store and its products.
With a rating from 1 to 5, this collection of stars is provided as an aggregate of all the reviews the product has received and form an overall Product Rating average between 1 and 5. While ratings for free and paid listings may appear almost exactly the same, there is a difference in what each one shows.
Paid ads will show only the details that you provide, including pricing or special offers; when clicked on, shoppers will be taken directly to your product. For free listings, a list of other retailers who carry items similar to your search query will be shown, along with further information such as price comparisons.
How product reviews can benefit an online business
We’ve broken down the benefits into three important areas that could make an impact on your online store and bottom line.
1. Increase on-site conversions
One of the best things about Product Ratings is the overall impact they can have on shoppers. We all hear about marketing terms, such as social proofing and trust, but how can outside product reviews help with additional sales for your online store? According to
BrightLocal’s 2022 Local Consumer Review Survey, nearly half of all shoppers trust consumer reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family.
Let’s say one of your friends recently bought a product you’re thinking of buying. Would that one friend’s opinion influence you’re buying decision? Now, what if you were talking to 20, 50, or more people who bought the exact same product? How much would their opinions affect your decision about whether you’re going to purchase the product or not?
Do you sell high-ticket items?
Northwestern University’s Medill Spiegel Research Center found that reviews have a greater impact on expensive items, showing an increase in conversion rates of 380%, compared to cheaper products that had a conversation rate of 190%.
If you’re a savvy business owner, when you look at the potential returns product reviews can have on your bottom line, how is this not on your priority list?
2. They make your products stand out
The most obvious benefit of Google Product Ratings is making your products stand out from similar products. When people shop online, they will go to great lengths to make sure they are buying from someone that they (and others previously) can trust.
The number of people who have reviewed your product can make a difference too. According to research from
Psychological Science, when customers see two products with the similar ratings, they will generally lean toward the product that has a higher number of reviews.
As humans, we want to feel like we’ve made the right decision, and having those little yellow stars shown on the product, and not on your competitors, will go a long way to picking up those extra sales and making new customers for life.
3. Product reviews inform customers
Product Ratings equips your customers with further information to help them with their buying decision. A study from Bizrate Insights found that
54.7% of online shoppers will read at least four product reviews before buying a product.
However, if someone takes the time to leave a review, you need to take the time to read over it and respond to the person who gave the review—good or bad. If the review was positive, thank the reviewer and offer additional feedback if they’ve included further details you can respond to. If it was a negative review, it’s not the end of the world. Getting a bad review is actually a great opportunity to turn an unhappy customer into one of your biggest supporters when you resolve their problem.
Keep in mind that
more than half of customers (53%) expect businesses to respond to their negative reviews within a week, and 97% of shoppers who go to the trouble of reading reviews are also reading those responses.
If you’re worried about the quality of your reviews, you actually don’t have to worry about not getting a 5-star review on every item you stock. When it comes to increasing your conversion rates, the
Medill Spiegel Research Center reports that conversion rates peak with 4 to 4.7-star ratings, then tend to decrease when ratings get closer to 5, based on that old adage that a 5-star rating is “too good to be true.”
Getting started with product reviews
If your online business has been running for a while, contact past satisfied customers who have bought from you. Reaching out to them and asking for a review should yield some early positive results.
However, if you do come across a customer who is not happy, this becomes a great opportunity to turn them around, and they will more likely return the favor with positive feedback.
About the Author
Post by: Rob Sanders
Rob Sanders is the Google Ads account manager at Digital Darts, a leading Shopify Partner and Google Premier Partner. Digital Darts has been growing online businesses for over 10 years through Google, Facebook and Instagram ads, SEO and email marketing.
Company: Digital Darts
Website:
www.digitaldarts.com.au
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