Whether you’re a frequent online shopper or an e-retailer, you know the importance of having reviews on your business. Reviews and star ratings can impact the organic search rankings of your company by up to 10%, and increase sales by an average of 18%! What you may not know, however, ...

Whether you’re a frequent online shopper or an e-retailer, you know the importance of having reviews on your business. Reviews and star ratings can impact the organic search rankings of your company by up to 10%, and increase sales by an average of 18%! What you may not know, however, is that these statistics are about Google Seller Ratings and Reviews. If you aren’t collecting product reviews as well, you’re missing out on another huge competitive edge.

What Are Product Reviews?

Product reviews are reviews collected about a product or service that you provided. They tend to be more in-depth and encompass not only the quality and functionality of your product but the delivery process as well.

While Seller Ratings tend to be collected directly after purchase, product reviews are collected a few days after the delivery of a product so that consumers have the chance to try it out before leaving feedback. When product review surveys are sent out, a star rating, as well as comments, are collected.

How Will Product Reviews Increase Sales?

Have you checked out Google Shopping? Amazon? Most products on these sites have a star rating and reviews for consumers to read. Star rating is the number 1 factor consumers use to make a buying decision, so displaying star ratings on your products in these marketplaces puts you in front of consumers, and gives you a competitive edge over many of them.

Products with more than 50 reviews can mean a 46% increase in conversion rates. Google requires at least 30 reviews with comments per product for stars to be displayed in PLAs (what are PLAs? We’ll get to that!), but there’s no minimum to display star ratings and reviews on your website.

By evaluating these reviews, a company can improve its product based on common suggestions or complaints by its consumers. Business processes can also be evaluated since the timeliness of delivery and interactions with the company can be included in this survey.

Product Listing Ads (PLA’s)

If you are advertising a product on Google, PLA’s are the product ads displayed when a consumer makes a relevant search. Google allows product reviews to display syndicated star ratings and comments that are collected by the merchant or a trusted 3^rd party (like Shopper Approved!).

PLA’s feature a product image, prices, and the name of a product.

Because Google is the most-used search engine, and Google Shopping is commonly used when shoppers go online, displaying products with reviews gives merchants a great competitive edge over the thousands of other similar products displayed in a single search done by a consumer. It’ll increase your rankings in searches, and give consumers a great first impression of a product. Star ratings are heavily considered when customers make purchase decisions.

For PLAs to have stars displayed next to them, Google requires at least 3 reviews for a product. Google may not always display them either if they deem them irrelevant to the shopper.

While Seller Ratings are absolutely critical to remaining competitive online, product ratings give a unique competitive edge.