Are Online Product Reviews a Good Idea?

An article in today' AdWeek newsletter alerting readers to "The New Realities of a Low-Trust Marketing World", repeated something all marketers have been hearing a lot lately. Customers don't believe (or pay much attention to) advertising, putting more faith in recommendations of others who already own the product. No big news there. The buzz-worthy part is the Product Reviews functionality available at many online stores that can turn this into a powerful marketing tool. Instead of relying on the small circle of family & friends that a recommender might influence offline, online product reviews greatly extend the influence of personal recommendations.

Of course, Amazon is best known for this, but many online stores do this well. Zappos.com and Buy.com come to mind. These are all sites with high transaction volume, so they have a large pool of customers who are willing and able to contribute comments.

There are several reasons why most of the home furnishings retailers we talk to haven't done this:

• What if nobody comments? it's sad to have a robust product reviews feature on your site, only to see it collect dust when nobody uses it.
• Labor intensive--takes time to review and moderate comments to be sure you aren't getting spammed or offending prospects with offensive language.
• Risky--anyone who's allowed merchant ratings on their site knows that disgruntled customers are most likely to comment.

Despite these negatives, there are compelling reasons to look closely at this opportunity:

• It will help conversion to sale
• It can improve how people perceive your store (if your customers are generally happy with your service level)
• It will give you an early warning on products or manufacturers that have problems
• It will (if properly implemented) give you a little more presence in organic search engine listings

Customers believe other customers. If your customers like what you sell, they will become powerful advocates for your business.