Whether because of the constant quarantines or simply because it’s so much easier, online shopping has grown by leaps and bounds in 2020. In fact, the growth has been so substantial that the global market is anticipated to hit $4 trillion by the end of 2020. In the United States, 90 percent of the population is expected to shop consistently online by 2023. That’s close to 300 million people—and you need a trusted partner who’s going to help you reach them.
In 2020, 69% of Americans have shopped online with 25% shopping online at least once per month. Globally, the countries with the leading average ecommerce revenue per shopper are: USA, UK, Sweden, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, China, Russia, and Brazil.
While it’s amazing that shoppers are flooding the web, when it comes to your online business, simply having a great product isn’t enough. Statistics show that nearly nine out of ten consumers read reviews before making a purchase—with 56% of them reading a minimum of four product reviews. And it’s not just the review that people are looking at. 97% of shoppers who read online reviews from other consumers also read responses from businesses.
What does this mean for your business? This means that whatever your industry, having a positive online presence alongside great advertising that is driving traffic to your website is crucial. That’s why StubGroup has partnered with Shopper Approved for more than six years. Shopper Approved is one of the largest, most trusted online review platforms in the world, helping companies improve their online reputation and brand visibility across the web. By working with them, we are able to give our clients the most up-to-date, accurate representation of the overall health of their brand’s online reputation.
If you still need more convincing that online reviews alongside digital advertising are vital to the success of your company’s presence on the web, here are a few things to consider:
Proof Drives Purchases
Human beings like to know that other people have faith in what they are doing. It’s the old herd mentality – we are more likely to make a purchase when others—even complete strangers—also think that it is a good choice. Basically, you’ve got to have a great reputation, with the numbers to back it. When spending time online, reviews are the biggest source of social proof, and they have a distinct impact on conversions. At Stubgroup, we did a deep dive into the top review-collection services and evaluated numerous factors before choosing Shopper Approved as our partner for building our clients’ reputations. This is because when you really look at the data, Shopper Approved has consistently collected up to 10 times more verified ratings and reviews for clients than competitors—all without any discounts, contests, bribes or incentives. We even use Shopper Approved ourselves to collect reviews from our own clients.
Algorithms Will Love Your Brand
60% of shoppers start their research online, with a massive amount of those shoppers making Google their first stop, and as we’ve all come to learn, Google just loves switching things up on us at the most inopportune times. We know that customer reviews fuel the content engine, encouraging favoritism of your brand by the ever-changing algorithms. Basically, the higher you are ranked, the more that both algorithms and consumers are likely to view your business as an authority in the industry.
Working with a review-collection partner that has a relationship with Google can make all the difference in how quickly your company can rebound when the search landscape changes. Shopper Approved has been a strategic Google partner for 7+ years and works with Google’s review team on a daily basis to ensure that every client’s ratings and reviews are current and appear everywhere that potential customers are searching, in order to maximize their visibility and generate you more traffic—something invaluable when it comes to making sure that you aren’t missing windows of opportunity due to a glitch in one of Google’s algorithms.
Your Sales Will Shine
Although things are constantly changing, there’s a whole new batch of benchmark data that continues to surface, proving that reviews lead to increased revenue. A study by the Harvard Business School found that online reviews clearly impact your bottom line—and something as simple as improving your star rating can have a positive effect on your sales. But don’t think that once you’ve made the sale your work is done. You still need reviews from all of those deals that you’ve just made.
Did you know that you can:
- Request reviews from past customers
- Collect initial reviews in your shopping cart after checkout
- End automated survey emails that are triggered based on different criteria
The pros at Shopper Approved make collecting all types of reviews, whether product, service, video, or seller, as simple and convenient as possible for your customers through several survey options available based on the type of reviews you’re collecting. Not to mention that the surveys are optimized and responsive, so they display beautifully on any electronic device.
Every Review is an Opportunity
How you respond to a review gives you an opportunity to speak directly to your consumer on a relational level. More than simply posting reviews, consumers today expect companies to respond to their comments. You have the opportunity to quickly acknowledge and react to both positive and negative reviews and take control of any situation. When negative reviews happen, Shopper Approved adds a public message to their review on your behalf, informing other potential customers that you attempted to help them resolve their issue. They’ll also leave a public comment to any review. These public comments are incredibly valuable, and can go a long way toward building transparency, trust, and loyalty. When done correctly, they can help you turn almost any negative review into a net-positive for your business.
It’s common knowledge that creating a brand that people recognize and trust is important but many business owners find themselves asking the same question: Is it worth the cost? Researchers say yes, it’s totally worth the cost. That’s because business owners risk losing 22 percent of business when potential customers find just one negative article on the first page of their search results. That number rises to 59.2 percent when three or more negative articles are seen. With a service like Shopper Approved, creating a stellar online reputation (or salvaging a damaged one) doesn’t have to break the bank. By using the “best value” approach, Shopper Approved customers only pay for what is needed at the time they sign up—meaning that any future growth is included at no additional cost, saving you money. It may look to you like competitors in this space have similar pricing, but because the number of reviews they collect is significantly lower, your Cost Per Review (CPR) is much higher, which means that you’re actually paying a similar or even higher price for significantly less results. In other words, if you really want to maximize your results and your ROI, Shopper Approved is the best value.
And one final note—it’s so easy to work with Shopper Approved! Setup is fast and access to support is streamlined.
If you are interested in working with StubGroup and Shopper Approved to improve your brand and drive good leads to your business, schedule a demo of Shopper Approved today or contact us here at StubGroup!