Ratings & Reviews Strategy for 2021

If there’s one thing we’re the experts on, it’s Ratings and Reviews. Which is why we’ve literally written the (digital) book on it.

We have created this Guide to enable you to optimize your Ratings and Reviews strategy for 2021. It’s full of practical steps you can apply today, all through the lens of what we know – through our own extensive data – consumers are looking for right now.

Ratings and reviews allow customers to share their experience with a product or service, and give it an overall star rating. 

After price, reviews are the second-most important factor to customers making a purchase decision.

Let’s start by level setting. What is the state of ratings and reviews in 2021?

Obviously, the Covid pandemic has had an immense effect on the ecommerce landscape.

This trend data – from our July monthly snapshot – highlights a 3x surge in online purchase volumes at the start of the pandemic (this is based on analysis of consumer activity across more than 1,200 ecommerce sites).

There has been some stabilization since but purchase volumes are now consistently at 40 – 70% above where they were before the pandemic.

The impact of ratings and reviews has also surged during the pandemic.

The below chart  highlights the percentage of online shoppers who go onto purchase after they’ve interacted with review content (i.e. searched, filtered, clicked to extend the review from preview to view entire content etc.).

It is for a representative year-on-year period post and pre-Covid (we excluded the Holidays deliberately as ratings and reviews impact always goes up at this time).

Over the three-month period highlighted, review interactors are consistently converting at 25% higher rate than a year ago.

When thinking about how to generate review content that will convert the best, always remember the purpose of displaying user-generated content is to build buyer confidence.

Reviews are a great vehicle for building confidence with customers by delivering an authentic depiction of your products.

Building a “perfect review” and considering all the elements entailed is therefore grounded in this overall concept. How do you hone and elevate the trustworthy voice of your customers?

From our experience, a perfect review typically incorporates the elements highlighted below.

Our research proves that longer reviews provide exponentially greater value – without fail. Based on the number of “helpful” votes provided by shoppers to existing reviews, a review of 500+ characters is 2.3 times more valuable than a review of 20 characters or fewer.

Why? Longer reviews provide consumers with the ability to provide the relatable use cases and stories that resonate with buyers.

As you can see, helpfulness increases in line with review length growth. The trend is very clear. The longer the review, the more helpful it is. 500+ character reviews – in particular – evidently offer huge value to shoppers.

This makes complete sense: consumers like to consume longer review content because it includes more detail that is more likely to be relevant to them.

Take a coat for example. A longer review might go into the fit, the material, the zipper, the color, the warmth, reasons for buying and so on and so on.

If you’re unclear about the value of reviews with a “helpful” rating by the way, here’s why it’s important.

Of all consumers sorting review content, those that sort by helpful rating convert at the highest rate (this actually amounts to 192% above overall average conversion rates).

So longer reviews are more helpful and helpful reviews have a huge impact on whether that shopper then goes on to buy that item or not.

Something else to consider about longer reviews: they provide more information about the product for you to analyze (assuming you have the NLP and text analytics to do so…check out our UGC Analytics platform if you don’t).

What do consumers like about your product? What do they hate? How can you improve it? Now project this across your entire catalog. That’s a whole lot of high-value and actionable information for you to leverage to drive positive and meaningful change.

We talk more about analyzing review content later in this Guide. And if you want to find out more about review length, check out the blog we wrote on this very topic.

More than half of consumers under the age of 30 say visual user-generated content is MORE important than the glossy photos produced by a brand or retailer

Imagery and video provide exceptional real-life examples of the product in actual everyday use. How does it hold up under the typical strain customers put it under? Does it look, feel and smell as described? Is performance in line with, worse or better than expected? Visual media enables each of these questions to be answered with precision and in great detail. In doing so, it generates exceptional authenticity and trust.

To give you an idea of volume you should be aiming for, our research shows that customers EXPECT at least three to five authentic customer images on each product page. And there is a direct correlation between conversion and products where this number of visual media is present.

While there is a clear and direct correlation between average rating and conversions, reviews considered the most helpful by consumers tell a very different story. In fact, our research shows one and two star ratings are deemed the most helpful by consumers.

This makes sense, given time and time again shoppers are proven to value authenticity over every other quality when it comes to user-generated content. Which stands to reason: you can’t game ratings and reviews. A disappointing product will always end up being reviewed as such and vice versa. An artificially-inflated product rating or overly positive set of reviews will only lead to consumer disappointment and distrust.

Add in purchase levels and this trend is clearly evident. There is such a thing as “too good to be true” when it comes to product ratings. As is shown by analysis of our data by Northwestern University Spiegel Research center on two random product groupings, there is a drop off in conversions once the average rating rises above around 4.5.

With authenticity being critical for shoppers, it is unsurprising that review recency is considered key.

Consumers want to see a regular stream of ratings and reviews to be sure the product continues to perform well.

And our data backs this up. Across around 1,200 brand and retailer sites that run our technology, review recency is the second most used sort option for shoppers (this is despite not all brands and retailers providing this option).

These consumers also convert at around the double the rate of those who do not engage with review content.

The first step to maximizing review collection is asking.

You may get lucky and capture some content without, but most people need at least a gentle nudge. Others may need considerably more.

The more creative you can get, the more successful you are likely to be. But here are some of our top tips.

A post-purchase email asking for a review is a staple for most brands.

And with good reason: it’s the most important. From our experience, it generates up to 80% of ALL ratings and reviews content dependent on the brand.

Although this should go without saying, they must be personalized based on the specific purchase.

They should also be simple and to the point. No fluff. Be very clear about the purpose of the communication and in your call to action.

Here are some good examples.

You can’t ask for a review as soon as the item has been purchased. Customers need time to 1) receive the product and 2) try it out.

The ideal timing is also dependent on the type of product the consumer purchased. We therefore typically provide the following guidelines for timing review request emails:

Hard goods are durable items that don’t wear out quickly, such as refrigerators, washing machines and computers. It’s a best practice to wait 21 days before sending a post purchase email for these types of products.

After three weeks, the customer will have enough time to get a good feel for the product so they can write a well informed, thorough review.

Send TWO email requests as a best practice. Although we’d all love to only make the ask once to get the desired results, that’s also not realistic.

As mentioned, studies show that up to 80% of reviews originate from post purchase emails. So if you don’t send more than one email, you risk wasting the best opportunity to boost review volumes.

A sweepstakes is an incentive to be placed in a raffle-style drawing for a cash prize or similar in exchange for providing a review.

Although not appropriate for all brands, they can work great in the right circumstances.

Here are a couple of examples of how you would incorporate this incentive in one of your review submission request emails.

You may not want to provide cash incentives. If so, consider integrating into your loyalty program.

Many brands offer up loyalty points in exchange for review content.

Dedicated follow-up emails are the most direct and effective review collection method.

But you routinely communicate with customers across a whole host of methods and channels. Brands are increasingly leveraging these to collect review content.

Product sampling campaigns – sending a product to a group of people who agree to write a review or create a social post in exchange – are a really effective method for generating reviews from a very targeted persona.

Brands and retailers find they are particularly effective in specific scenarios:

• Product launches
• Filling existing glaring gaps
• To keep review content fresh
• Generating content quickly to in advance of selling a seasonal product

Product sampling is a complex process made up of a number of critical elements. You need to be clear on your goals from the outset and this will determine the scale of the project.

Targeting the right audience, fulfilling the campaign and then ensuring your samplers provide the review content you’re seeking is also obviously super important.

Our product sampling guide provides a detailed step-by-step breakdown.

Now that you’re using the collection methods that will generate the most content, you need to ensure the quality of your reviews is as good as it possibly can be.

When shoppers view your review content, they are typically looking to address very specific questions or preconceived ideas.

In this section, we focus on actions you can take to generate the types of reviews we highlighted above.

Prospective buyers tend to look for patterns when they consume reviews. So incorporate specific questions in the review generation process to provide them with those patterns in an easily summarizable way.

In doing so, you make finding the information they need much easier.

However, there are a number of things you need to bear in mind when asking questions on a review submission form:

1. Focus on questions that you know will address key known customer issues (e.g. sizing for clothing). Also consider asking for specific demographic information (e.g. location, gender, age etc.) or invite customers to submit their perceived pros and cons.




2. Limit to two open-ended text-based questions: reviewer and shopper fatigue is real.




3. Only make these follow-up questions available to verified buyers to ensure authenticity.




4. Ensure this information is easily filterable and searchable for shoppers on your product pages. Use review snapshots at the top of the page to make a few things really clear, such as ratings distribution (in a clickable format), pros/cons, keyword filters and sorting buttons. Providing this information up front makes product returns less likely.




5. Remember that shoppers are seeking negative content, so don’t shy away from it.

Consumers place a higher value on longer reviews. Which begs the question: how do you generate this more in-depth review content?

The first thing to know: often, reviewers have the inclination and motivation to leave detailed reviews, they just aren’t always sure how to. Most consumers are not professional writers or product experts so will most likely need some guidance on how to even approach the task of leaving a useful review.

This very smartly plants ideas in the reviewer’s head that they will take into their comment submission later in the form.

“Love this couch” becomes “I needed a modern looking couch that is super comfortable (mainly for watching TV) to be the centerpiece in my one-bedroom New York City apartment. I love how flexible it is…it’s equally great for lounging and as a formal piece for hosting” etc.

The form in effect guides customers to provide helpful review content.

And of course the checklist approach also has other highly complementary purposes. Namely, they help populate the Pro/Con lists, use cases and demographic information we talk about above.

These can then be displayed in an easily scannable and filterable way for shoppers, providing super impactful social proof from “people like me”.

Once the customer hits that minimum character count, the meter lights up excitedly. The text also converts over to a “keep it up” message, further reinforcing positive behavior.

It’s very simple. But that small visual can go a long way in helping to encourage customers to talk just a little more about their experiences and/or why they like something.

The result: longer, more in-depth reviews for shoppers to read on your site.

Shoppers love video and imagery of your products “out in the wild”. We cover extensively how you can generate more of this content in Chapter 4. Go there to find out all you need to know.

But we didn’t want to talk about how you can generate better quality review content without mentioning it here.

Reviews that incorporate visual media perform way better when it comes to conversions and sales. That’s a fact.

Collecting review content is a critical part of an overall ratings and reviews program. But it’s only one component of a much bigger process.

The next challenge is the actual marketing of this content. You need to ensure you’re fully maximizing its potential. How do you get this content in front of the maximum number of shoppers for the biggest possible impact?

Ratings and Reviews boosts consumer confidence. The more customers who are exposed to it, the more sales you will make.

Throughout this section, we’ll share proven best practices that will help you get more eyes on your review content – in the places and ways your shoppers want to consume it. In doing so, you achieve the results you work day-in day-out for: more sales and bigger bottom line impact.

Let’s start with the most obvious place to showcase your review content: your product pages. But although it’s obvious, many brands and retailers get it wrong.

Of course, review displays aren’t one size fits all.

For example, a display for a pair of shoes should feature size and fit information to help future shoppers determine the correct size to purchase. But those data points would be completely irrelevant for a product page selling eye makeup. There are, however, best practices that apply across all categories.

Ultimately, your goal is to provide the information necessary to provide shoppers with the confidence to buy. This is the make-or-break point in the customer journey and the final step.

All your marketing efforts have led to this point. This is where you convert consumers, turning browsers to customers.

In this section, we focus on the information we know shoppers look for at this moment of truth.

Your PDP image galleries offer a great opportunity to further highlight great review content in a hugely visually compelling way.

Check out this example within an image carousel.

Of course, your homepage is the springboard for the rest of the customer journey. So it represents a fantastic opportunity to guide consumers down the path to purchase.

Featuring review content on your homepage does just that. Why? It helps shoppers more easily (and quickly) find the products that meet their needs.

Attention spans are notoriously short nowadays so you have little time to influence behavior as you’d like. As we’ve seen, ratings and reviews are among the most potent weapons in your arsenal. So incorporate it in your first “touch” with customers.

Be sure to display the average star rating and review volume for each of the products featured in your best sellers carousel. Or, consider adding a top rating products carousel to your homepage. 

Your professionally shot photos and videos are certainly important. But shoppers actually prefer to see photos and videos of your products being used by real people like them (as we already mentioned, we look at this in a lot more detail in chapter 6).

In fact, according to our own research, more than half of consumers under 30 say customer-generated visual content is more important than glossy photos produced by a brand or retailer.

Consider adding a visual content gallery to your website that showcases images and videos of your products that you’ve collected from social media.

If you’re like any other brand, you are constantly questioning how to improve the performance of your digital campaigns to drive more shoppers to your website.

Ratings and reviews are a fantastic resource to leverage to drive these enhancements.

With most inboxes now overflowing with promotional emails, you need to stand out.

Consider incorporating star ratings and review text. Or perhaps create completely new campaigns that feature your top-rated products.

For example, if summer is approaching, you might build a campaign featuring top-rated swimwear. Be sure to display star ratings or review excerpts in the email — as well as on the campaign landing pages.

Consumers use social media to connect with family and friends. But they also use these channels to discover products and engage with brands.

Feature star ratings, review quotes and customer-submitted photos on your paid and organic posts to drive traffic to your site and generate sales.

If you’re looking for ways to make your TV commercials pop, ratings and reviews content can help. 

Feature star ratings for your products (or even your company as a whole) in your television commercials.

We know consumers use ratings and reviews to make smart purchase decisions when shopping online. But they also depend on this content when shopping in a physical store.

In fact, a PowerReviews study found that 70% of consumers find this information helpful.

Everyone has a smartphone now and typically treats it as an extension of their own bodies. When shopping in a store, it’s now common practice for shoppers to pull out their phones to get more information about a product.

In fact, a RetailMeNot study found that when shopping in a brick-and-mortar store, 69% of shoppers are likely to use their smartphones to find customer reviews. So ensuring your reviews look and read great on mobile is now critical.

Strategically placed review content can attract the attention of in-store shoppers — and give them the confidence they need to add an item to their cart.

Some stores are starting to use digital signage to showcase UGC. And featuring this content in your stores doesn’t have to be an expensive, high tech initiative.

For example, create a display of “top rated” products. Include a product’s average star rating or the text of a positive review to your pricing labels. Or create in-store signage for a product that showcases photos submitted by real shoppers.

Another way to give in-store shoppers the social proof they crave? Feature review content on the product itself.

This can be as simple as including the average star rating or the text from an especially glowing review on the packaging of a few of your key products.

Getting a negative review can feel like a punch to the gut. After all, your brand is laser-focused on developing products and experiences that your customers love. So it’s never fun to hear negative feedback about something you’ve worked hard to create. But negative reviews are inevitable. Even the most well-loved businesses get them from time to time. That’s because it’s simply impossible to create a product that meets the needs of every single customer who comes your way.

Of course, negative reviews are never the end goal. But there’s a positive side to negative reviews. Yes, you read that right. In fact, one and two star reviews can actually be good for your business.

Today, consumers have literally endless shopping options. Of course, there are dozens of things a consumer considers when determining which companies to do business with — and which to pass up. But one top consideration is trust. 

Research from Edelman found that 81% of consumers say they must be able to trust a brand prior to making a purchase. And 70% indicate trusting a brand is more important now than in the past.

In order to earn that trust, brands must be transparent. And a key way to do that is to display feedback from other shoppers — including the negative kind. When shoppers see negative reviews, they see you have nothing to hide. And that lets them know you’re a brand they can trust.

You might assume that the higher the average star rating of a product, the more likely a shopper is to buy it. And that’s true — up to a point.

We partnered with Northwestern University and made an interesting discovery, though. We found that a shopper is actually more likely to purchase a product when it has some negative reviews (we did already touch on this in Chapter 1). 

As we already mentioned, our research found that purchase probability peaks when a product’s average star rating is between 4.2 and 4.5 (it varies a bit by product category). If the average star rating surpasses 4.5, the likelihood of purchase actually drops. 

The occasional negative review brings your average star rating closer to that sweet spot of 4.2-4.5 – actually potentially increasing sales

Shoppers depend on negative reviews to determine which products fit their needs — and which don’t. Our research found that a staggering 85% of shoppers seek out negative reviews.

To elaborate on why this may be the case, our research also highlights that a third of shoppers say that poor reviews gave balance to their shopping research, stating that a negative perspective was either a ‘very important’ or ‘important’ factor influencing their decision.

In fact, when researching products, two-thirds of ecommerce shoppers filter for one-star reviews. These visitors still convert at 108% the rate of general web traffic (incidentally, this is the type of insight our PDP Site Analytics solution routinely surfaces).

But why is this the case? Here are three things we’ve noticed from speaking to brands and looking at this data day-in, day-out:

1. Based on the negative reviews, the shopper determines the product isn’t a good fit for their needs. They keep searching for a product that’s a better match — and you avoid an unhappy customer and an unnecessary return.




2. The shopper determines the feedback in the one and two star reviews isn’t relevant to them– so they disregard it.




3. The shopper determines the worst case scenario isn’t a concern — so they purchase the product anyway.

In each of these three situations, negative reviews helped a shopper make a more informed purchase decision.

One and two star reviews can help you identify issues with your products or services that you may not have known about otherwise. This feedback can help inform improvements that’ll allow you to better serve your customers. 

For example, let’s say you sell a children’s play kitchen that has a high return rate. Unfortunately, you don’t have much data on the reasons for the returns. However, you notice the product has a pretty low average star rating. And several of the reviews mention that the product was impossible to assemble because the pieces didn’t line up correctly. 

So, you bring this feedback to your manufacturer to improve the quality control process for the product. And then, you observe how the average star rating goes up after this improvement.

So negative reviews can positively impact the performance of your brand. In fact, they should be viewed as an opportunity to do just that.

Here are three ways how:

It might be tempting to filter out negative reviews. But avoid the temptation. One and two star reviews add a layer of authenticity to your content and let shoppers know you’re a brand they can trust. What’s more, negative reviews help your shoppers make more informed purchase decisions, which will help decrease returns and boost loyalty.

So be sure to display all reviews, regardless of star rating. 

In addition, allow shoppers to easily spot the “worst case scenario” — and determine whether it’s relevant or important to them. Our friends at Athleta do this in a couple different ways. First, shoppers can filter reviews by a specific star rating. Shoppers can also sort reviews by the lowest rating.

When you get a negative review, don’t just cross your fingers and hope it’ll quickly get covered up by positive reviews. Instead, face the review head-on by responding to it. 

When you respond to a negative review, you have the opportunity to turn a bad situation around and salvage a relationship with your customer. If you’re able to fix the issue, the shopper is likely to buy from you again. What’s more, your response will show future shoppers that you value your customers and are committed to helping them resolve their issues. And that’ll give these new customers the confidence they need to make a purchase.

Remember: when it comes to responding to negative reviews, time is of the essence. If a customer is left hanging, they’ll only get more upset. 

In addition, avoid using a generic, canned response — and don’t get defensive. Instead, personalize your response by using the shopper’s name and address the specific issues raised in the negative review.

Finally, take things offline when needed. Sometimes you’ll need more details from the shopper in order to resolve their issue. 

But be sure to post a public response too, as it’ll let the customer (and future shoppers) know you’re taking action.

In some cases, a negative review might mention an isolated issue. For example, a product might be damaged in transit. 

But in other cases, a negative review can point to a larger issue that needs to be addressed. For example, one of our customers noticed several negative reviews for a watch that mentioned a broken clasp. They rectified the problem and their ratings subsequently improved.

Be sure you’re regularly analyzing your review content to gauge sentiment and identify issues early on. Then, use the insights you uncover to improve your products or messaging/marketing of those products or whatever else the data says needs adjusting.

With the right tool, you can also benchmark against your competitors. Compare by product rating, sentiment, key themes and so on by product, brand, and product category. This is critical insight to improving overall strategic direction and performance.

Creating buyer confidence at scale is critical to growing your business. A best-in-class ecommerce strategy will therefore nearly always leverage ratings and reviews as a critical mechanism to “meet shoppers where they are”.

Sharing and syndicating ratings and reviews content to different channels across the internet is a common tactic to scale brand credibility.

Sharing and syndicating your ratings and reviews content serves one main purpose: expanding your reach.

Why is this so important? It exposes the value of your products to new audiences, which means it’s critical to customer acquisition.

In an ideal world, you’d create a great product, price it appropriately, build an awesome website and product page and then sit back and watch the sales come in. But that’s unrealistic. You need to be findable across a range of digital channels. We explore a few in this chapter.

But first, here’s a brief definition of what we mean by syndication in the context of ratings and reviews.

How exactly does syndication work? Essentially, syndication is when one business shares some form of user-generated content — such as a review, question, photo or video — with another business. 

For example, let’s say a shopper submits a review via a brand’s site. The brand displays the review on its own website. The exact same review is then shared with the brand’s chosen retailer partners, and these companies display the review on their ecommerce sites, too.

For example, this shopper submitted a review on hormelfoods.com for bacon.

This review is displayed on Hormel’s website — and is shared with Target.com for display on the appropriate product page, extending the value of this specific review.

A badge is displayed as part of the review on Target.com, letting shoppers know the review was originally posted on hormelfoods.com.

The result: you are more likely to get noticed by shoppers who otherwise wouldn’t otherwise have known about your product or – quite possibly – your brand.

Search engines love fresh content. You don’t want to be constantly refreshing your website copy when the product or value proposition hasn’t changed just to improve your rankings.

A steady stream of new, relevant review content enables you to fulfill this key need. It is also typically keyword rich.

A strong review generation program therefore helps your product pages rank higher – which means more traffic on your site and more shoppers being exposed to your products (we talked about loads of ways you can maximize review volumes in Chapter 2). 

Questions & Answers, a form of user-generated content which we explore in depth later, is also great for this purpose.

Google Seller Ratings is a Google Ads extension that displays a rating between one and five stars that shows up on search ads.

It’s an automated extension that is calculated by aggregating customer reviews from various sources that Google trusts. The resulting rating is then displayed within the body of the ad.

If you’ve ever typed into Google’s search bar, you’ve seen Google Seller Ratings.

It is the star rating that displays underneath the URL on Google ads.

While Seller Ratings are most often used by ecommerce companies, any company with a digital presence can use Google Seller Ratings (Note: Seller Ratings are for the entire site, not individual products).

If they are not already, Seller Ratings should be a critical part of your digital strategy. Why? According to Google, they can increase the click-through rates (CTR) of your ads by up to 10%.

This is super important because a higher CTR means a higher quality score — which reduces your CPC (cost per click) and improves your ad rank.

Bottom line: Seller Ratings optimize the performance of your Google Ads. More click throughs, more eyeballs on your site and – in turn – more sales from “greenfield” customers. Which makes complete sense. Your Seller Ratings are determined by a cumulative and aggregated volume of trusted customer reviews. They are a direct reflection of the experiences your customers have had while dealing with your business. This provides social proof for your brand right on Google search results pages, increasing shoppers’ trust in your business and giving them the confidence they need to click through to your site.

So ensure you are maximizing your customer acquisition potential by syndicating your ratings in this way (check out our blog on the topic for technical directions).

Every brand knows about the importance of Amazon as a sales channel. In fact, nearly half of ALL product searches start on Amazon nowadays.

If you sell your products on Amazon, you’ve got to make sure you have plenty of ratings and reviews content on your product pages.

One simple way to do that is to allow your shoppers to share the reviews they’ve written on your website to your Amazon product pages (ask your ratings and reviews vendor if they have a feature that allows this).

Product reviews are actually a top reason consumers shop on Amazon. So think of creative ways to put this content front and center on your Amazon product pages. 

One way to do that is to create an image that includes the text of a product review. Then, upload it alongside your other product images.

Many brands sell their products through retailer sites like Target, Walmart and others – as well as through vertical specific platforms like Ulta, Zappos and so on.

If that’s the case for your brand, make it a priority to give consumers the content they need to make confident purchase decisions.

Again, these are critical opportunities to acquire new previously untapped customers. So don’t miss this opportunity to provide a great first impression.

Typically, a shopper will write a review on the same website where they purchased a product. That means only customers who shop on your website will see this content.

But when you share your ratings and reviews from your own ecommerce site to your product pages on retailer sites, your reach obviously increases significantly.

For example, this review for a Melissa & Doug toy was originally written on the company’s eCommerce site, but it also appears on the product page on Target.com.

So you’re fully bought into ratings and reviews syndication being something you should be doing. But how do you activate it?

The short answer: it’s enabled by your ratings and reviews technology vendor. You’ll need to talk to your preferred supplier to understand where they can get your ratings and reviews content to (PowerReviews has an extensive network).

As well as reach, accuracy is super important. Check whichever vendor you choose to work with accurately syndicates and effectively moderates content across the web.

If you’re wondering what’s the worst that could happen, here is an example of poorly-moderated syndication from Walmart’s website. The reviews contain obscenities and are mainly focused on the availability of the product rather than the product itself. 

Consumers have a big appetite for visual content. But not just any photos or videos will fit their need.

You probably already capture beautiful, stylized photos and videos of your products. That professional content certainly has a role to play, but it’s no longer enough. That’s because 88% of consumers specifically seek out photos and videos from others like them before making a purchase.

Shoppers depend on photos and videos from others like them. And brands and retailers that collect and display this content are rewarded. 

Based on data across our customer base, we’ve found that brands can expect a 69% increase in conversion when just one user-generated image is added to a product page. What’s more, online shoppers who interact with user-generated imagery are 81% more likely to convert than those who don’t.

Here’s the bottom line: if you’re not collecting and displaying user-generated imagery, you’re losing customers to brands that are.

In fact, a third of consumers report they’re less likely to purchase a product if they can’t find photos or videos of the product from other customers. This number jumps to 47% for consumers aged 18-29.

Collecting and displaying visual content from your customers is an important way to help future shoppers make informed purchase decisions. Why should you care? Because when shoppers make informed purchase decisions, they’re more likely to be satisfied when their products arrive in the mail. And that means they’ll also be more likely to:  

• Keep the product. That’s one less return for you to worry about.

• Write positive reviews. That content will help future shoppers make smart purchase decisions — and boost your conversion rate.

• Be a repeat customer. That’s great news, because it’s cheaper to nurture an existing customer than to acquire a new one.

Today’s shoppers want to buy from brands they trust. In fact, research from Edelman found that 81% of consumers must be able to trust a brand before making a purchase.

Collecting and displaying photos and videos from your shoppers is one way to earn that trust. 

In order to boost sales, brands post sleek, glossy photos that show off their products in the best light. But consumers post realistic photos that show products in real situations — and they have nothing to gain by doing so. And other consumers trust this content.

Research tells us that 65% of shoppers are more likely to trust products that have user-submitted photos or videos. And half of consumers trust user-generated videos more than brand generated videos. 

When you display user-generated visual content, you’re showing future shoppers you have nothing to hide. That’s an important way to let them know you’re a brand they can trust.

User-generated visual content allows shoppers to see what your products look like in real life being used by real people. That means there will be fewer surprises when the item arrives.

What’s more, when you display user-generated photos and videos, shoppers can better understand elements of your product that might not be captured in your professional photos. For example, imagine a consumer is shopping for a dining table. They come across this model, which looks promising and is described as narrow.

The measurements are listed in the product details, but then they scroll to the user-generated images and see several photos of the table in different kitchens and dining rooms. The scale is way too big for a small apartment, so they search for something that’s a better fit.

Seeing photos and videos from other customers gets shoppers excited to try a product. For example, our friends at Canyon Bakehouse sell gluten-free bakery products. Of course, they include a professionally shot image on each of their product pages. But let’s be honest: a photo of a bag of plain bagels isn’t very inspiring.

Enter the power of user-generated visual content. The company encourages customers to share photos of the dishes they’ve made using their products. These photos help future shoppers understand all of the great dishes they can make with the bagels — and that gets them excited to purchase the product. Avocado bagel, anyone? 

User-generated visual content can also inspire shoppers to add additional items to their shopping baskets — thus increasing your sales. For example, a shopper might be eying this Soren chair from our friends at Room & Board.

They click around the product page and find photos submitted by shoppers who purchased the chair. They especially love how one customer paired the chairs with other items, so they start exploring those items too.

A product like a vacuum cleaner looks the same no matter who buys it. But apparel and cosmetic products look different on different people. For example, a pair of jeans worn by a 6 foot tall model won’t look the same when they’re worn by a shopper who’s a foot shorter. 

User-generated visual content helps apparel and cosmetic shoppers better understand how a product looks on different kinds of people. Shoppers can find photos and videos submitted by people with similar characteristics to them. And that way, they can identify the products that’ll work best for their unique needs. 

For example, let’s say a consumer is shopping for eyeshadow from Juvia’s Place. They can see how a particular eyeshadow looks on shoppers with similar skin types and tones. And by doing so, they can find an option that’ll likely work for them.

We’ve explored the important role visual content from shoppers plays in the purchase journey. But what can you do to see the biggest impact from this type of content?

Let’s explore proven best practices that can help you effectively collect, display and analyze visual content — and drive bigger business results.

Oftentimes, photo and video collection is an afterthought. Brands ask for photos and videos — but not until a shopper has already written a review. Here’s the thing: if a customer spends time and effort writing a review, they’re likely to skip right over the visual content submission component altogether. 

Instead, ask your shoppers to share imagery and videos before providing a review. And consider making the review portion optional. It’ll help you generate more content — quickly. In fact, PowerReviews customers see an average 154% increase in visual content collection when they take this approach.

Brands can collect 154% more visual content by asking for photos and videos before reviews.

Here’s an example of a submission form that puts the ask for visual content first. After the shopper has submitted a photo or video, they’re asked to submit a review, too. But the review component isn’t required.

Another great way to generate more visual content from your shoppers is to ask for it — right on the homepage of your website. After all, this is probably one of the most visited pages on your website.

Our friends at Janie and Jack display a beautiful, eye-catching carousel of customer-generated imagery on their homepage — along with a button shoppers can click to to add their own photos.

Up until this point, we’ve been focused on ways to generate more visual content natively. But there’s another simple way to get more user-generated imagery on your website: leveraging the content that’s already being posted by your customers on social media. 

As an example, check out all the beautiful photos that have recently been posted, tagging our friends at Shopper’s Drug Mart. This is a treasure trove of authentic imagery the company can leverage to inspire future shoppers — while boosting site engagement and conversion.

How does it work? Essentially, curating visual content from social media involves a few steps:

• Setting up your campaign, which involves choosing a hashtag, solidifying your legal messaging and terms and promoting your campaign.
• Continuously mining social media for photos and videos you’re tagged in.
• Securing permission to use your shoppers’ photos and videos.
• Repurposing the content on your website and other marketing initiatives.

You’ve started to collect photos and videos from your shoppers both natively and from social media. Now, it’s time to do something with that content. 

Let’s take a look at some proven best practices for getting your user-generated visual content in front of more shoppers.

Perhaps the most obvious place to display your user-generated visual content is on your product pages. After all, when a shopper is researching a product, this content can give them the boost of confidence they need to convert. 

So be sure to prominently showcase user generated imagery — both natively submitted and curated from Instagram — in a gallery on your product pages. Here’s an example of a gallery our friends at Gardener’s Supply Company display on a product page for one of their popular watering cans.

Another option is to display your customer-generated content at the top of your product page — right alongside your own professional images and videos. 

Here’s an example from at dutchbulbs.com. Visitors to this product page can find user-generated visual content right under the glossy brand-provided images. When the visitor clicks on “buyer images & videos,” they’re taken to a scrolling gallery of photos and videos submitted by other shoppers.

User-generated imagery inspires shoppers — and increases the chances that they’ll convert. So look for other opportunities to showcase this content — beyond the product page.

A great way to do that is to display a shoppable visual carousel on your category pages and your homepage that features content from your shoppers.

For example, when a shopper lands on the homepage for WEBS yarn, they’re greeted by an image carousel, featuring visual content from WEBS customers.

These are typically photos of projects customers have made with WEBS products. When a visitor clicks on one of these images, they can see the WEBS products that were used to create the item in the photo — along with a link to purchase the product.

When it comes to displaying the user-generated imagery you collect, don’t limit yourself to your own website. There are plenty of other ways to repurpose this content in your marketing initiatives. 

In fact, the possibilities are nearly endless. 

Consider including customer-submitted visual content in your digital marketing initiatives. For example, add a user-generated photo to your email campaigns and organic and paid Instagram posts.

This content will capture your audience’s attention and help you earn their trust. And ideally, they’ll be intrigued enough to click through to the product details page to learn more (and find even more visual content from others like them.

You’ve started collecting and displaying photos and videos from your shoppers. But the work isn’t over yet. 

Instead, it’s critical to continuously measure performance and identify opportunities to increase the impact of the content you collect. Let’s explore some ways to do that.

You spend time and effort collecting and displaying visual content from other shoppers. So it’s important to understand the impact this content has on sales.

Be sure you regularly assess performance metrics, including:

• How a specific carousel performs on a specific page type
• Whether a certain image style has more impact than others
• Whether images collected from social media or those collected natively have a bigger impact

Then, use that information to drive improvements to your user-generated visual content program.

Check out chapter 8 for more on how to analyze ratings and reviews, and other user-generated content.

Questions & Answers (Q&A) is a natural accompaniment for ratings and reviews content. More important, it’s also extremely powerful when it comes to driving results for brands. But it’s underutilized. Too many brands aren’t taking advantage of this type of UGC, even though it’s super helpful for shoppers — and super profitable for brands.

No matter how you dice it, the stats all agree: Q&A is the most impactful type of UGC on consumer outcomes. In the COVID era, Q&A is more important than ever. From February through May of 2020, the number of users interacting with Q&A content increased by 60%.

Why? Q&A has become an essential resource for consumers who are now shopping solely online. They’re not able to touch, test, and feel products before they buy. They can’t hold it in their hands, or talk to one of your in-store sales associates. 

But they still have questions that they need answered before being confident enough to make a purchase.

So any best practice ratings and reviews or user-generated content strategy should absolutely include Q&A as a core component.

Q&A allows prospective customers to, you guessed it, ask questions about the products they’re interested in. Previous shoppers and your own brand experts typically provide the responses.

This content is displayed prominently on product pages. Here’s an example.

No matter how detailed your product description is, some shoppers will still have additional questions they need answered before they’re comfortable enough to buy. In fact, 45% of Centennials said they wouldn’t buy a product if they couldn’t ask a question about it.

Similarly, 55% of U.S. online adults are likely to abandon their online purchase if they cannot find a quick answer to their question, according to Forrester.

Question and answer content on your product pages is intended to address this issue. As well as driving more conversions at the consideration phase in the journey, Q&A also drives customer acquisition. How? It has serious SEO benefits.

Consistently filling your product pages with fresh, keyword rich content enhances your search rankings and drives more traffic to your site.

“Because a customer who submits a question is already engaged, if we can give them the answer they want in a timely fashion, they usually buy the shoe,” shared Tim Lakin, Ecommerce Merchandising Manager at Skechers. “We were able to boost our rankings in Google’s organic search for the keyword ‘shoes’ to be on the first page of results.”

This content is displayed prominently on product pages. Here’s an example.

In addition, Q&A helps you identify any recurring questions that shoppers are asking. You can then adjust your product descriptions or messaging accordingly.

Maybe consumers keep asking about the size of the bottle of lotion. As a result, you then add sizing information in the product description to avoid people having to ask those questions. In doing so, you remove a common barrier to purchase.

And last but certainly not least, Q&A has undeniable community-building power. Offering your biggest fans the opportunity to become content creators on your own site – while providing them with a direct communication channel to your business – deepens their relationship with your brand.

For shoppers, Q&A also of course provides extremely authentic validation of your products. As in any industry, having real customers address prospective customer questions is about as convincing as it gets.

The first step is to add Q&A to your site. But before you do, you need internal commitment to the process.

Q&A can be immensely powerful in driving desired outcomes. But only if customer questions are actually answered. Multiple unanswered questions is way worse than not providing the opportunity in the first place.

Assuming you have the processes and structures in place to support a Q&A program, you should aim to cover some basic bases to get it off the ground.

Dedicate some of your internal staff so you can respond to questions quickly. The faster, the better.

If possible, have multiple brand experts available to answer questions. This alleviates the burden on any one person, and relieves customer service reps who may already be stretched thin.

Your first step is creating questions. Whenever you add Q&A to your site, or whenever you launch a new product, add the top questions you expect customers to have, along with answers. 

You can analyze your existing review content to see if common questions come up, and pre-seed based on that. Check in with your customer service team, too. They may have additional ideas for Q&A.

Beyond that, it’s meant to be an organic process. The whole point is to address genuine concerns from genuine customers. So simply giving them the opportunity to ask by activating Q&A on your site is key.

You could of course run an email campaign to try to expedite the process. But the best content will come organically.

Not sure about capacity? Don’t launch Q&A sitewide at first. Launch it on your best-selling products. This will provide an immediate sense of its likely impact.

It’ll also give you a baseline for the volume and types of questions you’ll get. You can adjust your bandwidth accordingly as you expand Q&A to other product pages. 

Questions asked on your site can go to different queues based on the type of inquiry. You can keep it simple and route all questions to a general queue, or you can route specific questions to different kinds of people.

For example, you will for sure want questions about shipping to go to a subject matter expert. But you may choose to have product-specific questions directed to a previous buyer. 

You could also consider routing questions to previous buyers first, and then to brand experts if they haven’t been answered within a given period of time.

As we mentioned before, letting other customers respond offers your busy customer service team some relief, while allowing shoppers to hear from people like them.

Plus, nearly two thirds of Centennials (consumers between the ages of 13-18) actually prefer having their questions answered by previous customers as opposed to a brand expert.

Give your brands an opportunity to respond and interact directly with customers via Q&A on your product pages.

This increases shopper’s trust in the answers, making them more likely to convert. It also helps build a community on your site, as you have shoppers, your retailer brand, and the brands you sell connecting with each other.

When it comes to displaying Q&A content on your product pages, we always recommend some basic tips to get started.

Never lose sight of the objective of Q&A: it’s to provide critical validation and encouragement at the moment of truth.

Get the basics right

1. Customize the look and feel of your Q&A so it’s on-brand and matches the color and font you use in the rest of your product pages.
2. Strategically position Q&A content on the page: Q&A increases overall page flexibility to appeal to different types of consumer by placing UGC in multiple locations
3. Present this Q&A content in an easy-to-follow and bulleted list so shoppers can find information they’re looking for quickly.

Shoppers could ask questions about the wrong product, curse, or include personal information you don’t want to display. You want your Q&A to be valuable, accurate, and authentic. So make sure you have the appropriate moderation processes in place to ensure it hits the mark.

Ensure the answer provided is relevant to the question asked and is for the correct product etc.

That brings us to the final chapter of our Guide for 2021 but undoubtedly the most important.

Here, we will explain all about why and how you should be using your user-generated content – ratings and reviews, Q&A and image & video – as a valuable customer insight resource.

If you’re not currently looking at it in this way, you’re in good company. In fact, most brands and retailers do not effectively leverage the insights they receive from UGC. They typically see this form of feedback in a vacuum where it exists only to convince shoppers to buy products.

But the holistic analytic potential of this data is immense. If you fail to realize it, you are missing out. Big time.

Today, many businesses spend millions of dollars on research projects all aimed at getting to the heart of what their customers are thinking.

Survey programs, customer focus groups and so on are seriously expensive and often not especially effective. This is because they generally yield feedback that’s pretty generic. And that makes it hard for them to take any meaningful action.

But UGC is different.

We touched on this already, but it’s important so needs to be reiterated. Customer research is expensive. Focus groups, survey projects and generic CX improvement efforts cost a lot of money.

With UGC, you are analyzing customer data that already exists. The only cost involved is – assuming you don’t want to invest the time to do it manually – the technology to power it.

No other type of customer feedback that’s captured digitally and at scale provides that level of specificity.

That means with UGC, you can precisely map product feedback and information about those who bought it to the actual product itself.

When you regularly analyze your user-generated content, you’re sure to make a lot of powerful discoveries. And these discoveries can help you drive powerful change at your organization. 

Here are some examples:

The feedback in the UGC you capture helps you understand how your brand and its products resonate with shoppers. You’ll get a very accurate picture of which products your shoppers love, and which ones fall flat. 

You can zoom in even further to understand which features people love about your products — and which could use some improvements.

Analyzing UGC is a great way to understand how your products compare to your competitors. For example, let’s say you’re a brand that makes sunscreen and Banana Boat is one of your largest competitors.

Because UGC is publicly available online, you can – with the right technology – compare sentiment at the product, product category and even brand level.

And by doing so, you can uncover some great ways to give your brand and your products a competitive edge.

You’ve probably seen plenty of stats about how UGC positively impacts key metrics like traffic and sales. But when you tap into your UGC, you can determine exactly how this content impacts your buyers’ journey. Namely, you can see how shoppers are interacting with content on your site, and what action they’re taking next.

For example, you might determine that those who interact with the Q&A on one of your product pages are more likely to make a purchase than those who don’t – and then adjust your content generation strategies accordingly.

User-generated content provides brands and retailers with some pretty powerful data. But how exactly do you access and analyze that data?

At many organizations, analyzing UGC is a manual, clunky and time-consuming process. A staff member might be assigned the duty of reading each and every review — on top of their other job duties. As you can imagine, this is not a methodology that sets you up for success. Great insights are often overlooked or missed, human bias creeps in and so on.

So – if you really want to maximize the incredible potential of this data – you will need to leverage some form of technology. At a very basic level, you’ll need some form of text analytics that surfaces the key trends and helps you quantify their impact. In an ideal world, the technology would have been trained on UGC for optimal effectiveness.

When you tap into your UGC, you’re going to uncover some amazing insights that’ll help your company better meet the needs of its customers. But if the data doesn’t drive any action, it’s pointless.

Be sure to share the insights you uncover with the teams that can take action on them. For example, let’s say you notice a lot of shoppers are complaining about a broken zipper on a pair of jeans. Share that information with your merchandising or product team. Or maybe several negative reviews for a bed mention an inaccurate product description. Pass along that feedback to your web team to take action.

User-generated content is a rich source of data that can help you uncover insights you can’t find elsewhere. But what actions – and actual tangible change – can it generate? 

The possibilities are endless.

Here are eight ways leading brands and retailers are using data from their user-generated content to improve products and experiences — and, of course, optimize sales performance.

In some cases, a negative review brings up an isolated problem. For example, Room&Board received the occassional return or negative review on their fade-resistant lounge chairs. These are unfortunate, but expected as a normal part of business. In one instance however, a negative review sheds light on a larger (but fixable) issue.

This one-star review, which included photos, mentioned that their dissatisfaction was specifically with the lack of promised fade-resistance. Room&Board offered to replace the chair, and upon further investigation, they identified several negative reviews for the lounge chair that specifically mention the color.

You might think that you have a good idea of who uses your products (and how they use them). 

But digging into your UGC data can help you identify audiences and use cases for your products that you wouldn’t have known about otherwise. And that can open up new opportunities for sales.

Take, for example, this inflatable baby pool that has more than 11,000 reviews. Sure, a lot of the reviews discuss how the pool did (or didn’t) work well for a child. But there are also a decent number of reviews that mention the product being used for a dog, rather than a child.

If the use cases are prevalent enough (and in line with your brand), consider updating your messaging to reflect them.

For example, the brand that sells the children’s pool could add a bullet point to the product description that mentions that many shoppers use the product for their pets. And by doing so, the product is more likely to show up when a shopper is searching for a pool for their dog.

Determining the right price for a product is key. If you price it too high, you’ll lose shoppers to a more affordable competitor. But if you price it too low, you won’t make much of a profit. Of course, you work hard to price your products right from the start. But analyzing your UGC can help you determine if and when those prices need to be refined.

The first place to start is average rating. Price considerations may not exclusively drive a low rating. But if your pricing strategy is off, it’ll certainly show up here. Beyond that, look at the aggregated sentiment of the review content. For example, this one star review for a toddler toy indicates the item is “a little pricey.” The shopper seems to like the product otherwise; the price seems to be the sole reason for the one-star review.

If cost is a common theme of this particular product’s reviews, it may be time to adjust the item’s price.

Additionally, you might notice that one of your competitor’s products has a lot of reviews that mention the item being a great value.

You sell a very similar item, but at a significantly higher price point. And sales haven’t been great. There’s an opportunity here to modify the price of your product to generate more sales.

Accurate, thorough product descriptions help shoppers make informed purchase decisions.

Your UGC can help you identify ways to make these descriptions even better. By analyzing your UGC, you’ll get a better idea of what product features your shoppers love. These are things you’ll want to be sure to showcase in your product descriptions.

For example, let’s say you’re a health and beauty company that sells shampoo. When analyzing your UGC, you notice several positive reviews mention the great smell of your product. This isn’t a feature that’s mentioned in your existing product description.

So you add some text to your product page to describe the fragrance (or even callouts from real-life reviews).

Insights from negative reviews can help you improve your product messaging, too. For example, let’s say you sell this duvet cover.

You notice an influx of negative reviews for this product. Many of them mention that there was no duvet insert like in the product photo.

So you update the product description to make it clear what is (and isn’t) included. That way, your shoppers know exactly what to expect.

Your marketing team works hard to develop campaigns to attract shoppers. But the data from UGC can make these campaigns even more effective.

In fact, there are nearly endless ways your marketing team can leverage UGC to be more effective. For example, think about pay-per-click ads. When creating PPC campaigns, you want to include keywords your shoppers are likely to use when conducting a search.

By analyzing your UGC (and that of your competitors), you get a clear picture of the words your shoppers are actually using when describing products. So use this intelligence to uncover new keywords and phrases you can start using to improve the performance of your PPC ads. You can also share the new use cases and audiences you uncovered in tip #3 with your marketing team. Then, they can put together targeted campaigns to reach these audiences. 

Remember when we discovered that the inflatable children’s pool is also commonly used for dogs? This information should be shared with the marketing team, as there may be opportunities to create marketing campaigns targeted at pet owners. For example, they could run display ads for the pool on websites focused on pet ownership topics.

When you examine the impact of UGC on your site, you get a very accurate picture of what types of content are driving sales.

You can then use that information to invest in generating the types of content that’ll drive the biggest return on investment.

Let’s say you notice visitors to your website are more likely to make a purchase after interacting with user-generated photos and videos.

That means you should make it a priority to collect more of this content. You can do so by sending post purchase emails to your shoppers, specifically asking them to submit photos and videos.

Of course, it’s important to determine which types of content are most likely to drive sales for your brand. But it’s also key to understand how shoppers are interacting with different types of content. This is a key part of analyzing UGC.

For example, you might notice a large percentage of your shoppers filter reviews to display only the one-star rated content. With this information, Skechers optimized the UGC displayed to their customers. If there’s a particular component that’s boosting conversion, make it more prominent. For example, the “review faceoff” feature (highlighted in our review display chapter) allows shoppers to easily compare the most helpful positive review with the most helpful negative review. 

This integrates the behavior of checking negative reviews, while also promoting detailed, higher quality reviews. The positive review describes specific assets, and the negative review provides criticism that’s relevant to other shoppers (“the padding isn’t as durable as comparable shoes” as opposed to “not how I imagined them”).

This guide is intended to provide you with all the direction you need to run a successful, productive and – most importantly – revenue-generating ratings and reviews program in 2021.

There is a lot of information to digest: there are a ton of elements involved in ratings and reviews after all.

But here are four key areas you should absolutely be focusing on this year: