There is a reason Amazon.com dedicates so much space and effort to user submitted reviews of products they sell. Reviews increase engagement and sales. They add to the unique content on your site, which is good for SEO. They bestow credibility. If there are legitimate reviews showcased on a product page, then the user is obviously not going to be the first to buy your product. The path has already been trod.
So allowing product reviews on your e-commerce site is a good best practice, especially if you have products that are unique and can't be purchased anywhere else. This is very easy to implement in Drupal Commerce, as we did with All Cart Parts.
But as with so much of the web, if you build it, there is no guarantee that will people will use it. If you have a bunch of products with zero reviews, that can actually do more harm to business.
How do you get more product reviews on your website?
Give Products Away to Niche Blog Owners
This is the easiest one, and also has the added benefit of getting you some backlinks, which are critical for SEO. Find a list of blogs that cover your industry, or have a readership that you think would benefit from your product. Contact the the blog owner or one of the authors, and ask if you can send a product in for them to review.
Hopefully, they will post an in-depth expose on their blog, which might lead directly to more customers. Regardless, ask them to send you a small review via email that you can use on your site. You now have a real review from a real person.
Alternative Tip: Offer your product as a prize for a contest giveaway. These can go viral, and get you lots of publicity. You can then directly contact the winner of the contest and personally ask for a review of the product.
Just Ask Your Customer
Sometimes, the simplest is the best. You should ask on the actual product page, especially if you know the user has purchased that item, with a basic "Write Review" link or button. But you should also pay more attention to your transactional emails regarding orders. Anytime you send something to a customer, that is an opportunity. Don't waste them.
On your order confirmation email, put links in the email that sends them directly to the review forms for the products they have ordered. They don't have the product yet (unless perhaps its digital), but it will put the idea in their minds. Likewise, when the product ships, ask them again, and you can also include a sheet in the actual package with instructions on how to leave a review. Ideally, you'll want to send them a final order email 1 to 2 weeks after they have recieved the order, and ask them a final time.
Alternative Tip: This is where a brick and mortar store can really give you an advantage. Asking someone face-to-face to drop write a quick review can often pay more dividends. Remember, most commerce is still done in stores, so if you have one, treat it as a valuable asset for your ecommerce channel.
Some people are nice, and will just do what you ask them, especially if they are really happy with the product. But simply asking might not be enough for most people, which leads into the next recommendation...
Give Customers Rewards for Leaving Reviews
Usually, this can come in the form of a coupon. "10% off your next order if you leave a review within 7 days." The time limit is important. If they think they have forever to leave the review, then they will take forever to leave the review.
Ideally, you would want to automate this process. You don't want to be constantly monitoring new reviews posted to your website, manually creating and emailing coupons.
If your site is powered by Drupal Commerce, doing something like this is easier than you might imagine, and you can even do it 100% through the user interface. You can do this through a rule that is triggered on someone submitting a product review. You create a coupon entity within the rule, then email the code to the user. You can also limit it with certain conditions, like the time since their last order was placed.
Viola!
Alternative Tip: Gamify your website and have leaderboards. The more they participate with reviews (and other activities) the more prominant they are, and the more rewards they can unlock. And believe it or not, Drupal can handle something like this with the Userpoints and/or Achievements modules.
How have you increased user engagement on your site?
