How To Ask For Reviews For Your Shopify Site

Social proof is big. 

While writing excellent product descriptions for your website and investing in compelling landing pages can boost your chances of online growth, nothing quite drives sales like customer validation. 

Testimonials, case studies, and feedback are all essential to gaining the trust of new buyers, and ensuring you have the insights to retain your existing audience. 

Studies show that around 88% of customers worldwide consult reviews before buying from a business, and almost half of all shoppers say they trust the reviews they read online just as much as recommendations from personal contacts. 

The challenge for most businesses is simply figuring out how to earn reviews from customers. After all, while many consumers are willing to share feedback about your business, only a handful will go through the effort of writing a review without prompting.

Here are our top tips to help you get more reviews for your Shopify site.

How to Ask for Customer Reviews: Top Tips

The easiest, and most effective way to increase your chances of getting reviews from your customers, is to ask for them. Even if your buyers have an amazing experience with your website, around 60% of customers say they only leave reviews when they’re directly asked to do so. 

The key to asking for reviews is knowing where to approach your customers, and how to encourage them to act. The right friendly messaging, combined with the correct timing, and the best choice of platform, will improve your chances of achieving great results. 

Where to Ask for Reviews

There are a few places you can start asking customers for reviews. If you run a physical store, you can ask your salespeople to request reviews in-person. However, most Shopify store owners will mostly be dealing with their customers in the digital world. With that in mind, try asking for reviews via:

• SMS: On Shopify, you can create automated SMS campaigns which include requests for reviews. You’ll be able to send these messages a couple of weeks after your customer receives their order, and include a link to your rating platform to make giving feedback easier. 
• Email: You can also create automated post-purchase emails asking for reviews on Shopify, or integrate your store with an email marketing tool to request feedback. Make sure you schedule your email to arrive when your customer has had enough time to test the product.
• Social media: If you’re already dedicated to connecting with your audience across social channels like Facebook and Instagram, you can also use those platforms to collect reviews. You could even share the reviews provided by your customers on social media, to drive more attention to your business and products. 

Here’s an example of a review request email:

How to Ask For Reviews: Etiquette tips

Knowing where to approach your customers for reviews is just the first step. You also need to ensure you’re sending the right message, so you can actively encourage your customer to share their feedback. Remember, you’re not just asking for a review, you’re asking for your customer’s time.

When you’re asking for a review, make sure you:

• Explain the benefits: Let your customers know how much they’ll be helping you out with a review. Tell them their feedback will help you to make your products and services better for future buyers, and thank them for their time. 
• Be friendly: Always use friendly language to ask for a review. Let your customers know you’re open to both positive and negative feedback, and don’t be overly pushy. 
• Get the timing right: Avoid asking for a review straight after your customer makes a purchase. Give them time to receive the product, and experiment with it before you go looking for feedback. 

How to Increase Your Chances of Getting Reviews

Now you know how and where to ask for reviews for your Shopify store, the next step is optimizing the process, so you can collect as much valuable feedback as possible. 

Here are some of our top tips for maximizing your review strategy. 

1. Invest in automation

A good way to improve your chances of earning more reviews, is to develop an automated process that allows you to scale your requests rapidly. It’s difficult to find the time to run a business, optimize your store, and constantly ask for feedback from customers. 

Automation will help to take your strategy to the next level. You can add review links to your “thank you” and order confirmation pages, to automatically remind customers to give feedback. You can also integrate asking for reviews into your email and SMS campaigns. 

Making sure you use your automation tools to follow up with your customers is crucial too. Remember, you might need to request a review a few times before a customer gets back to you. 

2. Simplify the review process

Customers want every part of the online experience to be as simple and convenient as possible. If leaving a review for your store takes too much time and effort, your buyers just aren’t going to do it. An easy way to make reviews simpler for customers is to allow them to add comments to product pages, or simply apply a “star rating” to a product they’ve purchased. 

Banana Republic, for instance, includes the option to leave a review or star rating on all of its product pages for customers:

Another way to make leaving reviews easier is to give customers inspiration. Make sure your clients can see the reviews other buyers have left, so they know what kind of things they can write about. You can also ask specific questions when asking for reviews like:

• How did the product fit?
• How did you find our customer service?
• What did you like most about the product?

Make sure your customers can leave reviews using any device they choose. This means ensuring your website, and review page is mobile-friendly and accessible. If you’re sending emails or messages asking for reviews, you can even provide your customers with “templates” to fill out.

3. Use Shopify Review Apps

Shopify is packed with amazing apps you can use to simplify workflows and grow your business. This includes a huge range of tools dedicated to earning customer reviews. With these apps, you can set up automated strategies to collect reviews from customers, use site widgets and banners to increase review conversions, and even share your Shopify reviews with your Google accounts. 

Some of the best options include:

• Shopify product reviews: The free Shopify product reviews apps gives you a free tool for adding reviews and ratings to your product pages. You can also adjust the color, alignment, and size of your rating stars. 
• Stamped: Stamped is a powerful and easy-to-use review app that allows you to collect and display mobile-optimized text and video reviews on your site. You can also use the tool’s AI feature to moderate reviews, so you’re only publishing the best feedback.
• Loox: Loox product reviews and photos is another premium Shopify app that allows you to gather and display reviews on your product pages, home page, and cart. It gives you multiple options to display reviews in a range of different formats, and automate review requests. 

4. Offer Incentives In Exchange For Reviews

Sometimes, customers need a little push to encourage them to do something that takes extra time and effort. If you’re struggling to convince your buyers to leave feedback on your Shopify website, incentivizing them with potential rewards could be a great strategy. 

When you email or message your customer asking for a review, consider offering them a discount or coupon code in exchange for their feedback. If you can’t afford to instantly reward every customer that leaves a review, you could also consider entering your customers into prize draws. 

Offering customers the opportunity to win something in exchange for their feedback is a great way to boost your chances of getting rapid feedback:

Grow Your Shopify Business with Reviews

Customer reviews are a powerful tool for any Shopify store owner. They ensure you can gain your customer’s trust, demonstrate your authenticity, and even increase your store’s traffic with better SEO and online buzz. However, just occasionally publishing a review isn’t enough.

You need to constantly collect feedback from your customers so you can keep your future leads up-to-date with relevant, and current insights. 

If you’re struggling to make your current Shopify store review-worthy, or you need help displaying your reviews on your website, contact Storetasker today to access the help of a Shopify expert. 

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