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Take a moment to think about why customers come to your ecommerce site. Not HOW they get there (search engine, email, direct traffic…), but what their purpose is in doing so. Are they looking to buy something? Do they want further information on a product before they purchase? Often, it’s a combination of these two goals. And you should be able to meet them both - you (naturally) have the product for sale and copy describing the item. But for many people, that information may not be enough. A website might have the most compelling copy in the world, but it’s still heavily influenced by a marketing team, and both you and the customer know it. This isn’t a bad thing – a lot of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into SEO, copy-writing, and website design is carefully tailored so customers will choose your product over a competitor’s. But when it comes down to it, most customers are cautious and want a final reassurance before they make that purchasing leap. And, as the ‘person’ selling the product, you’re not in an ideal position to provide this assurance.

So where will your customers turn? Overwhelmingly, studies have shown that they favor the ability to read peer reviews. A survey by eMarketer found that 90% of people check the web for reviews before making local purchases. Clearly users want to see reviews. The catch-22 in this situation, however, is that you can't write reviews of your own company without sounding disingenuous. So who should?

Why not open the floor to those who have already interacted with you? It's been reported (Nielsen) that 70% of people trust reviews written by strangers. Capitalize on this! There's already an element of trust that goes along with hosting consumer reviews on your site. Not only are you trusting your customers to leave what-are-hopefully positive reviews on your product (and swiftly and politely dealing with the negative ones by working with the customer on a resolution - come back next week for part II of this post, Turning That Negative Review Into a Positive), but you are also instilling a sense of trust in future customers, who are able to hear about the desired product from their peers.

 (sample reviews: www.bungalowco.com)

We all know the stereotype of the oily salesman - the "take it from me! Trust me, why would I lie?" canned response, used only to sell a product. But each review that a potential customer reads from past purchasers means one more notch of trust that they will have in your site. Why? Their fellow customers have no reason to lie about the product, a concept that those reading will take at face value.

As an added bonus, Google’s indexing seems to favor user/customer-generated content – so by allowing your customers to have an outlet, you’re constantly generating new content, and might be able to boost your ranking while doing so. With this much evidence in your favor…why not take advantage?

Want to know how to combat poor press?  Read part II here: Web tip: customer reviews part II - turning that negative review into a positive...