'Net Features : product reviews

Optimized Product Pages to Check Out

Allison Howen — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:55:00 GMT

Product pages are like treasure chests for serious online shoppers.

These data-rich Web pages contain valuable information consumers need to make purchasing decisions, such as images, pricing, descriptions and reviews. Even so, not all product pages are built with the consumer in mind. In fact, often times the most important product information is either missing or too difficult to find, which results in high abandonment rates and user frustration.

Companies with optimized product pages, however, experience favorable conversion metrics and better engagement from their site visitors. This includes increased time-on-site and interaction with product reviews. Learn from the best by checking out product page examples from some of the Net's top retailers, as featured in Website Magazine’s Web 100.

Nordstrom

Product Page Takeaway: Innovative Images

An online shopper’s first impression of an item is the product images. These are what entice the consumer to learn more about a product, so they can make an informed purchasing decision. In order to leave a good first impression, merchants should include alternate views of their products as well as zooming functionality, just as Nordstrom’s does on its product pages. These features allow consumers to view the details of an item without having to go to a brick-and-mortar location.

Wal-Mart

Product Page Takeaway: Robust Reviews

Product reviews are one of the most influential aspects of an e-commerce website, because these unfiltered opinions provide online shoppers with social evidence as to how a product works. Although Wal-Mart’s product pages follow many best practices (having multiple product views, detailed descriptions and site-to-store pickup options), the company really excels with its product review offerings, which includes key statistics and a filtering option.

Victoria’s Secret

Product Page Takeaways: Suggested Products, Sizing Tool

Suggested products are beneficial for both consumers and merchants. This handy element of a product page helps consumers find items that they weren’t originally searching for, as well as helps merchants increase their average order value. While Victoria’s Secret does a good job at suggesting items to its visitors who are browsing product pages, the retailer also deters returns with its “Size and Fit” link, which appears next to every relevant product. By clicking on this link, visitors can use the chart to determine the correct clothing sizes for their body.

Toys "R" Us

Product Page Takeaway: Up-Front Shipping Information

Shipping rates and times can greatly influence purchasing decisions, so why not be up front with this information? Often times, consumers have to wait until the checkout page to find out how much shipping will be or how long it will take. However, Toys "R" Us offers this information directly on its product pages. In fact, on this retailer’s product pages, consumers can see how much money needs to be spent in order to receive free shipping, if the product is available to be shipped internationally, how long it will take for the product to leave the warehouse and if store shipping options are available.

Ulta

Product Page Takeaway: Detailed Descriptions

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but is it worth its retail price? For online shoppers, the answer to this question is sometimes unknown because a product image doesn’t always provide the details one needs in order to make a purchasing decision. This makes description information useful. Ulta, for example, provides detailed explanations for all of its products, which also includes specifications and access to an ingredient list.

Consumers Decide: Love It or Don't Buy It

Allison Howen — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 21:30:00 GMT

Nowadays, many consumers are leveraging the World Wide Web to find product reviews before they make purchases.

In fact, one eMarketer study even notes that consumer reviews are 12 times more trusted than product information or descriptions that are provided by businesses. This means that in order to succeed on the web, retailers should be aware of the social sentiment that is buzzing around their products.

One way this can be done is with Decide.com, which is a shopping site that aims to help consumers make better purchasing decisions. The company recently launched a new feature called Decide Score, which analyzes ratings and reviews from across the Web, including 7,000 expert reviews and two million user reviews from sites like Amazon and Best Buy, in order to provide consumers with reliable product recommendations.

The Decide Score is displayed as a 1-100 rating, and enables consumers to easily identify the best and worst products available in each category. The beta version of the score currently appears on 22,000 consumer electronics and appliance products across 16 categories. The best part about the product scores is that it is very easy for consumers to tell what each score means, because the four categories of scores are pretty self explanatory – We Love It, We Like It, You Can Do Better and Don't Buy It. It is also important to note that if the product recommendation is "We Love It" or "We Like It," Decide provides consumers with confidence in purchasing the item. However, if the recommendation is "You Can Do Better" or "Don't Buy It," the company offers alternative suggestions of similarly priced products with a better score.

Decide also launched "Buy" and "Wait" price predictions in three new areas – Tools and Hardware, Lawn and Garden Products and Sports and Outdoor Equipment. This feature tells consumers when it is a good time to buy a product, based on potential price drops or increases.

"Decide leverages big data to make complex shopping decisions easy for consumers" says Mike Fridgen, CEO of Decide.com. "First we introduced when to buy predictions and today we take an important step towards becoming the next-generation consumer advocate by releasing data-driven what to buy recommendations."

It is always important to monitor your brand or business's reputation on the Web, so although this is a consumer-focused tool, it could definitely provide some merchants with valuable insights into how their products are being received by the general public.

The Socialization of Online Commerce

Linc Wonham — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:00:00 GMT

E-commerce platform provider ChannelAdvisor recently released its fourth annual Global Consumer Shopping Habits Survey, with perhaps the most significant revelation being that peer-based product reviews are among the most important factors in the buying decisions of online shoppers.

Ninety percent of shoppers around the world who answered the survey said they read product reviews from other shoppers before buying, with 83 percent saying the reviews affect whether they actually purchase an item. In the United States alone, almost half of the respondents (48 percent) said they have posted an online review.

More than half (53 percent) of the respondents said that product comments posted to retailers’ Facebook and Twitter pages play a role in their buying decisions. More than one-third of the respondents (34 percent) said they have become fans of retailers on Facebook, and that number is much higher in the United States (46 percent). In addition, 83 percent said they are likely to visit a retailer’s website if it’s been recommended by a Facebook friend.

Other findings from the survey include that Google continues to be the clear number-one choice among online shoppers as a starting point for product searches; purchases made via mobile phone have more than tripled in the past year (to 31 percent); thirty percent of shoppers worldwide say they are using barcode scanning applications as an element in their buying decisions, and half of all respondents in the United State say they use daily deals sites frequently.

Consumers: Product Reviews Are Essential

Linc Wonham — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:35:00 GMT

A lack of customer reviews was the second-highest response consumers gave for leaving a site when conducting product research, according to the 2010 Social Shopping Study released by the e-tailing group and PowerReviews. Nearly half (49%) of the more than 1,000 shoppers polled ranked it as the top reason they would continue their research elsewhere, placing it behind only poor product content (79%).

The study underscored the growing influence that product reviews have on consumers, and how they have become an essential part of online product research. User-generated reviews were revealed as the most important capability for retailers to have on their websites, beating out customer service information and buying guides/expert opinions.

Other findings from the study, a follow-up to the one conducted in 2007, include:
•    64 percent of shoppers take 10 minutes or more reading reviews before making a purchase (compared to 50% in 2007), and 33 percent take 30 minutes or more (compared to 18% in 2007)
•    50 percent say that not having enough reviews is the top factor that degrades trust in an online merchant; 39 percent cited doubt about the validity of the reviews’ origins as the top reason for degraded trust, and 38 percent cited the limited availability or lack of negative reviews as the top reason for degraded trust
•    57 percent of shoppers begin their online research with a search engine
•    Only 6 percent said that they conducted their product research on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter

Regardless of the source of the study, it's difficult for e-commerce merchants to ignore how much consumers have come to rely on user-generated product reviews. Particularly noteworthy should be the effects that a lack of reviews, including negative ones, and less-than-credible reviews have on shoppers.

New Google Product Reviews Program

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Google announced the release of a new program that is going to give users reviews and ratings more prominence. If you have not taken the whole user-generated content trend seriously the past few years, your attention will most definitely need to accelerate.

Google will begin featuring full-length product reviews and user ratings from participating retailers and manufacturers when Google deems that the information will be helpful to users with their shopping. These reviews will be included in Google search results and its advertising programs.

On Google Product Search for example, Google will feature logos of participating companies along with representative reviews from their site. As you might imagine, this brings a great deal more brand exposure and at an important part of the conversion process.

The question of course is how you as a merchant get involved. Google is kicking off the program by working with user review leader BazaarVoice but additional vendors may be added in the future as well as a self-submission model.

Existing clients of BazaarVoice interested in participating must simply submit their views to Google, making sure they have specified the appropriate canonical URLs for products in their Web stores.