Knowing how to write a product review is important, but before that, you should know what it is.
Product reviews are the opinions or feedbacks of customers for a particular product, and it is sometimes a form many online businesses put up in the review section on their website to allow customers to rate and review the product they purchased.
A product review helps other users get a clear idea of the product before purchasing it. Product reviews are important to both buyers and sellers. According to these statistics, 31% of customers spend more when a business has positive reviews.
In Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce), product reviews are used on shopping sites to allow customers to rate and comment on products they have purchased, right on the product page.
Other consumers can read these when making a purchase decision. Often, the company will include a URL on printed literature or e-mail marketing to invite customers to review their service after a transaction has been completed.
Introduction
Product reviews are the best way to eliminate any concerns consumers may have regarding your product or service.
Regardless of if the company is a start-up or a popular business, these reviews go a long way as far as credibility is concerned. Credibility is what will decide if the company will make it in the long run. Let’s look at it this way:
You start up a company that focuses on weight gain supplements. After the necessary marketing, people begin to rush to stores to buy your supplements.
Let’s assume on your packaging you ask customers to fill out a form on your site so that you can get your feedback. Now, if the feedback you receive is positive, other consumers will want to buy your product, thus vouching for the credibility of your product.
However, if the reviews are less than stellar, that would, unfortunately, make you lose sales and consumers. The scenario above gives an idea of the power of Product Reviews.
Product Reviews are easily overlooked
Merchants often overlook the importance of product reviews. Their major focus remains on designing their site look and optimizing the check-out page but none of that matters if the reviews get on your product are not good.
The importance of product reviews can be understood by the fact that 90% of the consumers read online reviews before making a purchase and 72% of the consumers will be prompted to take an action after reading positive reviews.
Importance of Product Reviews
Product reviews offer better insight into the product
Hearing from people’s past purchase experience helps the prospects identify whether the product has earlier matched consumers’ expectations or not. Of course, this is expected because consumers mostly use tested and trusted brands.
Brands will try to highlight every feature of the product in the best way possible, but it is the consumers who will give honest feedback on the product.
When a consumer leaves a review for the product, he or she is helping others understand what they can expect from the product, how is it performing, what are its flaws, what are its pros, and much more.
One of the major benefits of product reviews is they can do wonders for the Brand. Major brands have often been seen highlighting what their consumers have to say about their products or services. These are called testimonials and they make a significant impact on a prospect’s purchase.
Product Reviews Build Trust
When a user lands on the brand website to make a purchase, the first thing that they look for is reviews.
A product having good reviews would surely be able to help the prospect in his/her buying decision. They would likely put their trust in the products as well as the Brand.
Amazon displays average ratings for products based on customers’ feedbacks, right on the top of the product page, and at the bottom are the customer’s reviews. Whenever a prospect visits the product page, they are straight away displayed the product ratings along with the number of people who rated that product.
Products Reviews Reduce the Rate of Product Returns and Refunds
If the brand does not display product reviews, how are online shoppers going to decide the product quality? They would not be confident enough to make a purchase. Moreover, they will have doubts regarding product quality.
Let’s understand it this way; the brand has a product but provides no customer reviews. Now consumers can only hope that the product does not turn out to be defective or low in quality.
It is very much possible that they receive a genuine product but if in case they don’t, they will be left with no choice except to place a return request. Remember the little scenario earlier that depicted the power of Product Reviews, it comes into play here.
A product having good ratings and reviews would likely face fewer returns, simply because most of the customers are satisfied with it, whereas on the other hand, if negative reviews are dominating the positive reviews, it would have an adverse effect.
How to Write a Product Review
1. Get Your Hands on the Product
Being an independent reviewer demands that you get access to products you are going to review. You might just go ahead and buy them or pitch the manufacturers and just ask for access. It’s quite likely that a company’s marketing representative will be happy to give you access to the product at least for the time you’d need to review it.
2. Learn About Your Product(s)
Once you get access to products, make sure you do your research and study the product. You want to become an expert. Be curious and find out everything about the brand and the product itself. Include competitors in your research and the whole industry as well, before you get started on your reviews.
3. Be Honest. Don’t Hype It
Full transparency is key. Honesty wins you credibility and users will become loyal and visit your blog or site anytime they want to make a purchase.
4. Compare with Other Players
Product comparisons are pertinent to any good review. They provide readers with a clearer image of the whole category. The readers will know what the options are and will feel more confident about getting the recommended model.
5. End a Product Review with a Take-Home Message
The last few paragraphs are perfect for expressing your private opinion. This is where you can get slightly subjective and speak your mind freely.
Recap all the key points you touched on in the review, disclose the price and tell the reader if there’s a free trial. Make the final verdict in your closing remarks.
As seen in the image above, a rating system is being made use of. You can either use a 5-star rating system or a Scale of 1-10 rating. Both are commonly used by product reviewers and most consumers are familiar with them as well.
Conclusion
Product reviews can either make or break a brand and it is important to note that it is a necessary part of marketing to have every product get reviewed. Brands can work with marketers or social media influencers that are trusted by consumers.
Keep in mind that consumers rely on product reviews to not lead them astray. Their decision on whether or not they ought to make a purchase is highly dependant on the review they find on the web.
