Ratings and reviews are becoming increasingly important for companies. Especially on platforms such as Google My Business, Amazon or the App Store, reviews and ratings have a significant influence on the consumer behavior of users. Every year, studies are published which show that ¾ of all users can be significantly influenced by reviews. So-called “smart shoppers” even rate reviews higher than the price.
In this guide, we want to explain the topic of online shop reviews, consider their relevance and also address the offerings of the various technical providers.
Content:
Why shop reviews are important
Having a good reputation and maintaining it is often much easier than some people think. Simply put, the basis is your satisfied customers. Nothing is more obvious and easier than letting customers report on their experiences with the store and thus provide information to potential buyers. These experiences often inspire a trust that should lead other shoppers to make a purchase.
Shop reviews are seals of approval and create trust
Shop reviews for online stores or on platforms such as Google & Co are clear, confidence-building measures, if used correctly. They convey customer satisfaction when they are positive, but also honesty and transparency when they are less positive. 5 stars on average is not always “realistic”. Every company has a weak point somewhere or an employee has a bad day somewhere and such supposedly negative reviews are evidence of an honest picture of the ACTUAL situation. An average of 4.5 stars often means three times more trust in a company than just countless 5-star reviews. Several studies have investigated this and came to this interesting conclusion.
Overview of review providers
Review portals are Internet sites that collect and publish opinions from customers or employees. Among other things are evaluated:
- Products
- Services
- Company
- Organizations
The principle of review portals is based on the simple idea that reviews of companies, services or private persons should be bundled and in particular examined and seriously accessible for the user, so that he/she has a complete picture of the provider or product etc..
Shop reviews are seals of approval and create trust
But a rating portal is not only used by customers to find out about the quality of a product, a company or a service. Companies or service providers can also use customer ratings to create trust and to analyze their quality and customer satisfaction.
As already mentioned at the beginning, we want to take a closer look at the area of shop reviews in this article.
Some examples are:
- Trustpilot
- Trusted Shops
- eKomi
- Käufersiegel (German dealer association)
And many more …
Even smaller stores often benefit from the cooperation with the rating providers, as there are significantly higher visitor numbers with improved conversion rates.
Three core areas in particular play an important role in terms of the marketing effect, which we have listed for you below:
1) Star ratings for the online store
With nearly all review portals one receives a quality seal as Shop, which represents the reviews of the Shop and the products clearly. This seal leads in most cases to an increased willingness to buy, as well as a greater confidence in the online shop
2) Stars for Google
Depending on the provider, the overall ratings of the online shop are collected and displayed on the own website and on Google. This increases the clicks on the own entry
3) New entry in the search results
With most providers, the online shop receives its own entry in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) of Google. This is especially useful for smaller companies, as they often have very low visibility on Google.
Comparison of Trustpilot vs. Trusted Shops
As an example of the review portals we have concentrated here on Trustpilot and Trusted Shops and summarize the most important criteria in the following.
Trustpilot
Trustpilot is a Danish company, founded in 2007 and mainly serving the European and North American markets. With more than 700 employees, Trustpilot is one of the world’s largest solutions for customer reviews.
Between 2013 and 2014 the number of monthly reviews on Trustpilot increased from 265,000 to 400,000 – and the annual turnover increased by 80 percent. To date Trustpilot has published more than 17 million reviews in 15 languages on over 120,000 stores in 65 countries. This means that every five seconds a new review is added to the website.
Because Trustpilot is an official Google ratings partner, verified Trustpilot ratings will be included in your Google seller ratings and Bing merchant ratings. Seller ratings add stars to your ads that will make you stand out from the crowd and increase your click-through rate. Every month, consumers share more than 1.6 million reviews on Trustpilot to help each other find great sellers and make better buying decisions.
Trusted Shops
Trusted Shops is originally a German company, founded in 1999, and is represented in most European countries, including the UK, Poland, France, Spain and Germany.
In co-operation with over 25.000 on-line Shops throughout Europe Trusted Shops strives for a safe E-Commerce experience of the consumers. In Europe Trusted shops is probably the most well known service and enjoys high customer trust. A quality seal with extensive quality criteria, an own buyer protection (similarly as with PayPal), as well as reviews with several control instances make this possible.
A good rating in this review portal is particularly useful for companies: Trusted Shops is an official partner of Google, so the ratings are displayed directly in the search results. A large number of trading companies are listed at Trusted Shops, from vacuum cleaner and clothing manufacturers to mobile phone providers.
Trusted Shops offers several different types of reviews. In addition to the most popular shop reviews, Trusted Shops also allows online stores to generate product reviews.
Summary
In summary, one can say that there are several technical providers on the market to integrate reviews on web shops. Which technology an online shop selects from the offers of Trusted Shop, Ekomi or Trustpilot etc. is not crucial for the consumer. For the consumer it is important that real and valid reviews are displayed in order to get a good picture of the queried “address”. For the shop owner it is important to keep an eye on its reviews and manage them. A bad review does not have to be negative as long as the “responsible person” comments on it and presents his/her own view. Thus the consumer also recognizes that reviews are taken seriously and also criticism or suggestions reach the shop owner.
In conclusion, one can say that every operator of an online shop should have eyes on all relevant platforms, take every review serious and also analyze and comment on it. What could be better than to interact with the end consumer and maybe even after “closing time”, when it is no longer expected.