As shoppers continue to shift their weekly grocery shopping online, ratings and reviews (should) have become an integral part of any CPG e-commerce strategy focused on growth. Product ratings and reviews inspire buyer confidence, in fact 75% of shoppers use reviews to discover and evaluate products.1 While ratings and reviews impact shopper decisions differently depending on the category, CPGs in any category can take advantage of competitor insights via ratings and reviews and understand how they impact visibility. Read on to learn about the five steps you can take today to optimize your online conversions with a strategic approach to ratings and reviews as part of your e-commerce strategy.
How optimized ratings and reviews can influence your strategy
In an online buying environment, shoppers use ratings and reviews to assess your brand and whether the product they're looking to buy matches their search (and identity to a degree). So, how can you harness their power?
- Increase conversion to basket. When shoppers have the option to sort by "highest rating" and your products fall behind, it will negatively influence your conversions over time. Shoppers are increasingly looking for social proof; higher ratings evoke the confidence they need to add to cart.
- Influence your search rankings. Products with higher ratings appear higher in organic search. Our research finds that within US retailers, products at the top of search results are twice as likely to carry ratings compared to all products for a particular search. Optimize for volume to increase conversions while keeping an eye on authenticity of the feedback.
- Identify content optimization opportunities. Negative reviews on competitor products can highlight gaps that you can exploit in your marketing messaging. Use positive reviews on your products to reinforce your messaging or identify additional product innovation areas to optimize.
Five steps you can take today to influence your online sales
Monitoring and reacting to your products' ratings and reviews is a critical component to driving your category leadership on the digital shelf. For this, you want to include a strategic approach to ratings and reviews as part of your e-commerce strategy. Base your approach on daily, automated digital shelf insights to take these five steps:
- Capture where you are now. What's your category average rating and number of reviews - are you below / above average for each? How are your bestsellers performing?
- Identify your priorities. After step 1, segment your range by number of reviews and score to identify where your efforts should be focused e.g. increase reviews on core SKUs through retailer programs.
- Review your SEO keywords. Analyze if your keywords match what consumers associate with your product or brand. Consciously reading reviews will open up untapped potential for fine-tuning your SEO strategy.
- Act on negative reviews. By making this a cornerstone of your strategy, you'll create deeper relationships with your customers. Challenge fake reviews, attempt to put feedback into action e.g. if poor reviews are disproportionately driven by supply chain and logistics, review packaging or processes to help optimize shopper experience.
- Build your team's capabilities to monitor and measure. Assess available programs for digital couponing with retailers and external partners, leverage your CRM and social media channels. Critically, measure your actions over time with Digital Shelf Analytics and correlate against your sales data to understand if you're truly harnessing the power of ratings and reviews.
It's time to take control of your digital shelf and make analyzing the feedback your brand is getting from shoppers an integral part of your e-commerce strategy. Optimizing your ratings and reviews impacts your visibility in retailers' search results and ultimately your profitability. Growth-driven CPGs should review existing strategies in order to keep up with the ongoing changes of today's marketplace. Digital Shelf Analytics will be vital for achieving this allowing sales and marketing teams to adjust with pace and at scale.
Ready to transform your team's decision-making and agility online? Get in touch to see what you can achieve with actionable data and expert-led digital commerce insights.
