About the author: Dan Cannon is the Lead Web Applications Developer for Nicasio Design and Development. Nicasio provides web based solutions for both individuals and businesses. Nicasio is highly proficient in WordPress design and development. Nicasio also owns and operates the E-Commerce solution NicE-Comm.

Here at Nicasio, we strongly believe that you should give your customers the tools they need to be successful. So what does this mean for you as n e-commerce merchant? It means that you should not only inform customers in descriptive way about your products (see Guide to Writing Good E-Commerce Content), but also give them tools to enhance their online shopping experience. One of these tools is the ability to review your products.

Why Do I Need Product Reviews?

Your Customers Probably Don’t Trust You
That’s right, many people have an inherent distrust for online retailers they are not familiar with. With all the talk about identity theft and online predators you really can’t blame people. So how can you instantly make your site seem more trustworthy and appeal to a wider audience? Customer Product Reviews.

Empower Your Customers
Giving your customers the ability to write reviews about the products you sell on your e-commerce website personalizes the experience for both the reviewer and any subsequent customer that may read the review. It also creates a sense of transparency on your website, and if the recent corporate corruption stories we see on the news are any indication – people like transparency in business.

It’s Not Just For Customers
You should also use the information you see in product reviews to help tweak your inventory. If you are running an electronics e-commerce site and 50 out of 50 people give a particular television horrible reviews, you may want to think about no longer carrying that product. This goes back to building customer trust. If people think you knowingly carry horrible products they will be more hesitant to shop with you. However, if you listen to your customers they will feel that their voices are actually heard and their review was not written in vain.

Best Practices

There is no standard for how customer reviews should be handled, but I feel that Amazon does a pretty good job of it. It is the Amazon model that I had in mind when I was creating the review system for Nicasio’s E-Commerce Solution. A few things to think about are:

• Don’t just allow good reviews to go through. Remember we are trying to empower the customer and create a feeling of transparency for your e-commerce site.
• Either auto-publish reviews or approve them very quickly. When someone takes their own personal time to write a review they want to see it posted.
• Don’t make users register for your website to write product reviews. Allow anyone to write one, but encourage users to describe their particular experiences with a product.
• Watch for spam and consider now allowing users to have links in their reviews. The last thing you want is to have your website full of spam. Use some sort of spam filter for your submission form, such as image CAPTCHAs or a simple logical question.

Summary

For the speed readers, a few points you will want to take away from this article are:

• Use customer product reviews to empower your customers.
• Create a sense of transparency for your e-commerce site.
• Listen to your customers and adjust your inventory whenever possible.
• Follow the best practices listed above to implement product reviews on your e-commerce site.

Next Steps

If you are interested in an e-commerce solution that has a robust product review system built right in, you may want to check out Nicasio Design and Development’s solution called NicE-Comm. If you are interested in learning more, Head Over to the NicE-Comm Site to view our client’s stores, learn more about the features of NicE-Comm, basic pricing, and check out our demo store. Or you can Contact Us Today to learn more or schedule an online demo.