Ecommerce Truth: Consumers Trust Other Consumers
It's a proven fact that consumers trust other consumers more than they trust marketers or the companies they work for. The same is true for online consumers. 90% of consumers surveyed noted that they trust recommendations from people they know, while 70% trusted consumer opinions posted online. So give your site visitors what they want and allow shoppers to review your products. Here are some ways you can incorporate this candid insight into your ecommerce site design:
Consumer product reviews. Give your ecommerce customers the opportunity to review your products--for better or for worse--and you gain instant credibility with site visitors. Online shoppers want to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly about the item they are considering purchasing, so don't censor the reviews or risk suffering the consequences of your potential customers not trusting you. It is also advisable to call out that you do not endorse, pay or sponsor any of your guest product reviews. See the example below from Target.com.
Consumer video product reviews. If the written consumer review is powerful, video consumer reviews will rock your ecommerce world! You can solicit user feedback via a promotion or you can troll user video sites like expotv.com (shown below) to see if users have posted feedback about your products.
If you find a good product review, consider snagging the code for the video and embedding it in your site. (Code shown below in the red box.)
Consumer recommendation lists. Allow registered online shoppers to create recommendation lists for your online shoppers and tap into a free way to promote additional products that you offer. These personalized lists offer shoppers a look at what someone who bought the same product recommends. Amazon.com does an excellent job with this. Consider, if you were interested in the following cookbook:
You might also be interested in the following lists:
Customers who purchased "X" also purchased "Y" product recommendations. While this recommendation is generated by technology within the ecommerce site itself or hand coded by your company based on historical shopping data, it is also viewed as relatively impartial as shoppers can see what consumers like themselves also purchased. Amazon.com does a great job of this:
Don't miss out on the credibility that user generated reviews and recommendations can add to your ecommerce business. Be certain to tap into this powerful sales tool and include impartial user reviews and recommendations into your site!
PS--These tips hold true for B2B businesses as well as B2C businesses. Watch future blog posts about how to tap into these tools specifically for the B2B market!