Why product reviews belong on the product page

Strong relationships between brands and shoppers are built on one thing: trust. Becoming a trustworthy brand, however, has gotten considerably more difficult: modern consumers trust each other more than the brands they are buying from.

Back in the day, traditional advertising built that trust, but these days are long gone. Over 80% of millenials do not trust traditional advertising. The average consumer takes iun more than 3,000 brand messages in a single day.

The result? Shoppers are inured to branded outreach, and instead look to their peers (read: normal people) to help form purchasing decisions. They want the best thing for their needs and trust reviews and commentary from other customers to guide them in the right direction.

The most accessible peer-sourced information comes in the form of product reviews. Reviews are everywhere – even right on product pages – and are changing the way businesses market today. Smart businesses know that these reviews are what build credibility around a product, and they build these reviews right into their digital experience.

Placement

On sites that offer reviews, the first thing a customer looks at is the product rating. In the above example, the product ratings are the 4.5/5 stars at the top of the product details page (PDP).

Notice the location: right belopw the name and right above the price. Placed front and center, the user will see the product ratings and then be able to acces product reviews.

Positive Negatives

Now, if reviews build up products and establish trust and connections to shoppers, wouldn’t a negative review then be a terrifying prospect for any merchant? Surprisingly, the answer is no.

Having some negative reviews can actually be rather helpful. For one, the user sees potential “worst case scenarios” on what they can expect, and this builds credibility and authenticity. Having all positive reviews can even tarnish the customers trust in the product, since not all products are perfect.

On the flipside, negative reviews give brands great engagement and customer service opportunities. Negative reviews can clue merchants in to what their customers want to see optimized in the future, and addressing the negative reviews in a public, visible way shows shoppers that the brand is human, engaged, and willing to go the extra mile to ensure every experience is a positive one.

Best-of-Breed: Casper

Casper is a great example of how important customer reviews can be. Casper sells mattresses online and allows the customer to try it out for several months and return it for a full refund. Not only is their brand trendy and well-advertised, but their product is well-designed and of great quality. Reviews are very important to a company that mainly sells online and their product is a mattress. The first thing a customer wants to see while looking for a mattress is real customer ratings and reviews to get them the answers they are looking for before spending their money on it.

Casper’s commerce site has a great way to filter through reviews by selecting what topic you want to read about. This not only helps the user quickly find what review they are looking for, but it makes a great experience that entices the user to look through each of these categories. The way that each review is on a card-like design, makes it easy to read at a glance.

Overall, reviews are important for both the customer and the seller. As you can see above, Casper prides themselves on the amount of reviews and ratings that they receive on their products. Having a clear and easy way for the user to navigate to the reviews helps provides a great experience for the user to read and essentially buy the product.

Screenshots from: https://casper.com/