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3 Ways to Leverage Ratings and Reviews to Influence the Mobile Impulse Buy

By Matt Parsons, Chief Customer Officer at PowerReviews.
One-click payments, mobile wallets and data-driven purchase suggestions are a few of many examples illustrating how emerging e-commerce technology is making mobile browsing and shopping easier and better than ever before. Sales from mobile devices jumped 56% to $49.2 billion in 2015, more than doubling the previous year’s growth. And a significant portion of these sales can be attributed to impulse purchases.

Yet while the rate of impulse purchases is increasing, consumers still want to be well-informed about products before they pull the trigger on a purchase. Because of this, online ratings and reviews have become an important element of convenience that leads to confident impulse purchases. In fact, almost all shoppers (96%) consult product reviews and more than 86% say reviews are an essential resource when making a purchase decision.

Here are a few tips to influence the mobile impulse buy through ratings and reviews.

Optimize your review display for mobile

While many brands and retailers create branded apps to attract mobile shoppers, recent PowerReviews data shows about 54% of consumers prefer to visit a store’s website with their mobile phone, compared to 17% who would rather download and visit a retailer’s app. To encourage mobile impulse buys, your mobile site needs to be easy to navigate and quick to load. But creating a superior mobile customer experience goes far beyond making the design and layout of your website mobile-optimized.

Incorporate convenient features for mobile users, such as stored passwords and credit card information and one-click payments for returning customers. Additionally, make sure your ratings and reviews are easy for customers to find and read via a mobile device. In doing so, you can give shoppers the confidence they need to convert from browsers to buyers.

Drive visual reviews

Shoppers value the star rating and content of product reviews, but visuals can take reviews and conversion rates to the next level. For the apparel industry specifically, nearly one-third of customers would be more likely to buy clothing online if ratings and reviews featured photos of real customers wearing the product. Allow your customers to submit photos or videos of themselves wearing or using your products. This will add an extra level of authenticity to reviews and in turn, can increase future shoppers’ likelihood to buy your products.

According to recent data from PowerReviews, approximately 55 percent of consumers need some encouragement to post a rating or review. This number is often even higher when you ask customers to take the added step of including a photo or visual. With consumers constantly posting to social networks such as Instagram and Facebook, incentivize them to post visual content by “liking” and commenting on their posts and offering loyalty points and discounts in exchange for feedback.

Make it easy for consumers to write reviews from any device

In order to generate a steady stream of reviews, it’s key to have a strong strategy in place to encourage shoppers to write them — whether they’re using a laptop computer, mobile phone, or tablet. Make sure the entire process for writing a review, from the post purchase email to the write a review form, is mobile-friendly.

Switching to a mobile-friendly post purchase email and write a review form can have a big impact on the number of reviews you generate. evo, an outdoor gear and fashion apparel online retailer, updated their post purchase email to be mobile friendly, and as a result, the company experienced a 203% increase in reviews written on mobile devices and a 23% increase in reviews written on all devices.

In addition, make it easy for shoppers to review all products they’ve purchased within a single page, rather than requiring them to navigate to individual pages to write each review. This will allow you to increase overall product coverage and generate a higher volume of content.

Written by Matt Parsons, the Chief Customer Officer of PowerReviews, a leading provider of customer review technology to more than 1,000 brands and retailers.


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