It is a widely known fact that online reviews are not only necessary but very important to the success of any business. Buyers want to know more about your products before buying and the best way they can do this is to go through the reviews of other people that brought you the same products.
A study has shown that 90% of buyers admitted that positive online reviews of influenced their decision to buy a product and 86% admitted that negative online reviews also influenced their decision. This is to show that more buyers make purchases by reading positive reviews.
Reviews are not only beneficial for the seller or business owner, it is also beneficial for the customers because their workload in assessing the quality of the product they want to buy has been greatly reduced by the reviews they have read.
This is particularly important for customers who want to make online purchases because they cannot touch or see the product with their eyes, they only see a picture of what they want to buy.
Reviews don’t just give information about a product to a buyer, it also helps in creating an online reputation for the retail business and also increases the online listing of the retail business in search engines.
The more reviews you get on your business web pages, the higher it appears on search engines like Google.
You can generate online reviews for your retail business in many different ways. We are going to enumerate 10 effective ways you can apply to generate more online reviews.
1. Create business pages in popular review websites
In order for you to generate more reviews for your retail business, the first thing you should do is create a business page in major popular review sites such as Google my Business, Yelp, Bing, Yahoo, Angie’s List e.t.c.
Reviews from all these business review sites are of great importance in boasting your retail business.
2. Ask your customers for reviews
A study has shown that 7 out of every 10 people will make a review if you ask them. So in order to get more customers to review your retail business, you should ask them in a friendly but professional manner. First, appreciate them for their patronage before asking for reviews.
3. Make it easy for customers to leave reviews
Most customers won’t leave a review if they find it difficult to make a review unless they want to leave negative reviews. That doesn’t mean that negative reviews are not also important but most people won’t transact business with you if there are too many negative reviews.
So in order to get more positive reviews, make it easy for customers. You can do this by reducing the steps in making a review by providing a URL link that when customer click on it takes them directly to the review page.
4. Send Review URL links to customers
To get more customers to leave a review, send them your review URL links through their email addresses or personal phone number. This will create a more personal reminder for them and they will be prompted to write a review.
5. Incentives
Incentives such as price reduction or gifts are ways to make customers happier. When your customers are happy, they will also want to please you and do something for you and this is when you capitalize on it for reviews.
You can create an incentive by asking them to leave a review and get a free gift as an appreciation. By doing this, it becomes a win-win situation for everyone.
6. Get involved in community services
As a retailer or retail business owner, you get to meet different people when you get involved in community services. Through this, you can promote and advertise your business to them and this will invariably lead to more customers for your business.
When you get more customers, you are already steps away from generating more reviews for your business.
7. Respond to reviews
When you respond to reviews, you create a sense of assurance and trust in the mind of your customers and prospective customers. Responding to reviews (either positive or negative review) is a way to better improve your services.
When you get negative reviews, respond to them in a friendly and professional manner and assure the reviewers of improved services. When you get positive reviews, be sure to thank the reviewers and appreciate them for their patronage.
8. Use Social Media
Social media is one of the best ways to get more customers for your business. Different social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, e.t.c, have been instrumental in the development of many businesses in recent years.
Take advantage of this and post pictures and links to your retail services on different social media platforms. The advantage of social media is you are not only publicizing your business to your community. You are publicizing it to the entire world.
9. Post banners and posters
To get customers from around your neighborhood, post banners and posters of your business around parks and shopping malls. Doing this will allow more people to get to know about your business which will lead to more patronage.
When you get more customers you invariably generate for reviews from them.
10. Make your business website mobile friendly
More people use mobile phones for internet activities more than they use their desktops or laptops. If you have a website for your retail business, make it more mobile friendly so it will be easy for users to navigate.
Customers using mobile phones should be able to get the same layout and information they get when using a laptop.
These are some of the ways you can generate more online reviews for your retail business. As a retail business owner, you can also develop other ways that better works for you to generate more customers and more reviews.
Apply these ways we have shown to you and generate more reviews for your business.
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