Leverage customer reviews for market research and customer engagement on marketplaces

Written by Naomi Botting | Mar 15, 2021, 11:00:00 PM

Manage ratings, reviews, and Q&A to better understand the market and communicate directly with customers. Online reviews are increasingly important for shoppers, and therefore should be equally important for companies. A remarkable 88% of consumers read reviews before a purchase, to determine what and where to buy. Not to mention that algorithms take reviews into account. Today's consumers spend more time shopping online than visiting brick-and-mortar stores. Online reviews have replaced conversations about products and services in the ‘real’ world. Consumers trust reviews from other shoppers, making reviews a key means for companies to build trust.

Professional marketplace review management

Ratings and reviews open up opportunities for consumers, but also for manufacturers, brands, and retailers alike. Positive reviews increase the likelihood of future sales; less positive reviews make the overall rating seem more realistic. Reviews can ultimately determine the success or failure of a product or service. A number of studies have proven this point. For example, as aforementioned, one report found that 88% of consumers read reviews before a purchase . A Podium report states that 3.4 is the average star rating required for a customer to consider engaging with your business. And 56% of consumers say that a business’s responses to reviews changed their perspective on the brand. Any company with client interaction—in other words, all B2C companies—should manage reviews on a professional level. Marketplace r eview management s hould focus on the following aspects:

Analysis of existing product ratings, reviews, and questions,
Response to product reviews and questions.

Turn review insights into action

Companies should exploit the already widely existing consumer feedback to generate an authentic picture of the product for new potential customers. This provides a huge advantage for companies, since it is actually comparable to market research but without the cost. Like they say, "data is the new oil". Review analysis can help answer these important questions:

What do customers like? What don’t they like?
What strengths and weaknesses does a product or service offer?
In which respect are competitors better?
Why does the customer choose my product or that of a competitor?

These questions and more can be addressed via customer feedback. Advanced review analytics through AI enables companies to complement if not replace traditional market research. All brands and retailers should use these insights to improve their products and services. The information reviews provide has the potential to really change a company’s approach.

Companies can mine online reviews for product-development gold. User-generated content contains valuable consumer insights. You just need the right technique to uncover them.
KellogInsight — The Marketing Leader’s Guide to Analytics and Artificial Intelligence

Engage with customers by responding to reviews and questions

Answering product questions and commenting on reviews can be a rather powerful tool for companies to communicate with users on online marketplaces such as Amazon. For brands and manufacturers in particular, it is often the first occasion to interact directly with customers. Depending on the platform, it is possible to have one-to-one communication via responses to questions and comments on existing reviews. This provides brands and retailers real insights to improve products while connecting with customers. This type of customer engagement should be used to professionally answering requests and managing reviews. It will improve the company's reputation and ideally lead to actual improvements regarding product quality.

*(Power Ratings & Reviews, Territory Influence (Bertelsmann), 2020)

94% of consumers expect a brand to answer their questions and respond to negative comments*.

Relevant marketplaces

In order to manage reviews professionally, it is necessary for companies to focus on the platforms that are major players and/or most relevant for their industry like Amazon. It is also important to focus on key players nationally or within an industry, such as Argos and Walmart in the UK and US, Otto in Germany, and Cdiscount and La Redoute in France. On all these platforms reviews are an important feature. Products are reviewed by buyers and receive a star rating. Managing them professionally gives companies the opportunity to learn and interact by improving negative reviews and influencing the content. As the largest online marketplace in the Western world and the number one product search engine, product reviews on Amazon have an enormous impact on consumer behavior and are therefore significant to all brands, manufacturers and retailers. This is also true for the relevant marketplaces and platforms to your market. Reviews not only influence online shopping but also brick-and-mortar shopping since nowadays most consumers also research online before they buy offline. Therefore, brand manufacturers, in particular, should analyze customer feedback in the form of reviews to improve products. Commenting on (negative) reviews and answering product questions is particularly important for high-priced products and those that require some form of explanation. Learn more about professional review management with gominga Review Manager. Image: Pixabay

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