Rewarding Reviews with Points is a Game Changer

Regardless of the products customers shop for, they almost always depend on reviews to make a final decision. The need for reviews is only growing, and with the current influx of ecommerce businesses, customers seem to want more to reassure them of their purchase.

Below are statistics to prove how valuable, powerful, and essential customer reviews are.

• About 72% of customers will not make a buying decision until they have read reviews.
• 99% of customers say they read reviews while shopping online, at least sometimes. 
• The likelihood of a product being purchased increases by 270% when it gets five reviews.

An abundance of research proves that reviews are vital for ecommerce businesses now and in the future. The caveat is that only about 5 to 10% of consumers write reviews, whereas 72% of customers say they are willing to write reviews. This means that ecommerce merchants can, to a large extent, take advantage of this gap to improve conversion rates and boost sales by rewarding customers for leaving reviews. Tapping into the power of reviews is a game changer for online business owners, particularly those in the ecommerce industry.  

Benefits of rewarding customers for leaving reviews

Win-win situation

The obvious goal of ecommerce merchants is to attract and retain customers who patronize their products and services. Both reviews and rewards serve as primary tools for fulfilling this goal. Reviews attract new customers to invest in your brand, whereas rewards go a long way toward retaining existing customers and building loyalty. Combining these two functions makes it a game changer because merchants would not have to spend much on advertising and other means to acquire new customers. You can incentivize buyers to leave reviews if you have a loyalty program. When new customers read these genuine reviews, they are more likely to purchase, and soon, they will also join the program, leave their reviews and attract more new customers. It’s a powerful yet positive snowball effect.

Boost Customer Engagement

Another advantage of rewarding customers for leaving reviews is that it fosters an atmosphere where customers can freely express their opinions and feedback on your products. Customers may not share their feedback about products if they are not asked or encouraged. Now, this might not be good for merchants because it means you may be unable to tell if they are enjoying the product. In cases where they are not, you might never notice until sales start to dwindle massively. Learning from customers’ feedback is the best way to improve a product or service. Rewarding customers for leaving product reviews allows merchants to get this feedback and engage with them. Reviews can be left on social media pages or websites, which is a great way to increase the engagement level with the brand.

More Reviews, More Sales

As seen in the statistics above, reviews largely influence the purchasing decisions of many shoppers. The more quality reviews available about a brand, the more buyers perceive it to be authentic and trustworthy. Thus, a benefit of rewarding customers for reviews is that it increases the possibility of getting more reviews. Everyone loves perks and free stuff. If you use a rewards program that gives points or free products to customers in exchange for them leaving reviews, they’ll be more than glad to do it. In the end, you generate more reviews, giving your brand a trustworthy outlook for new shoppers. Once shoppers trust the recommendations left by other consumers, they are more likely to purchase those products, resulting in a tremendous increase in sales and revenue. The more five-star reviews, the higher the chances of getting more sales.

Using Beans and Judge.me to reward customers for reviews

To reward customers for leaving product reviews, you first need a loyalty program platform such as Beans and a review app such as Judge.me. While Beans enables ecommerce merchants to create attractive loyalty programs for their stores, Judge.me is designed to help retailers collect and display reviews and ratings on their online store. Judge.me integration with the Beans platform makes reviewing and receiving reward points seamless for the customer. Follow this step-by-step guide to connect Beans and Judge.me. 

Once you have integrated Beans and Judge.me, loyalty members will be able to earn points by leaving product reviews. When they visit the product catalog, they can type out their review, rate the product and see that they have earned points when they go to the rewards page. You can also set up email notifications that will notify customers that they have received their points for product reviews.

The integration also gives you access to some advanced customization. You will be able to choose how many points you want to reward customers when they leave a review. You can also select if customers should be rewarded for all product reviews or just the first. Alternatively, you can also select a limit to the number of times the customer can earn points for review within a given period. For example, you can limit the points reward to once per day. This way, customers who leave multiple product reviews within the same day will only get rewarded for the first review.

Wrapping Up

Rewarding customers to leave reviews in your store can significantly impact your online store’s sales and conversion rates. It is also a simple but effective way to get valuable feedback about your brand, build more trust and eventually turn shoppers into loyal advocates.