This is part one of a three-part series on best practices for retailers looking to drive more traffic and sales during the 2015 holiday season.
If you’re like most retailers, you’re always on the hunt for ways to get ahead of the competition. This is especially true during the holidays, when consumers have nearly limitless shopping options. The good news is, effectively leveraging ratings and reviews can be instrumental in driving even more traffic and sales during the upcoming holiday season.
In this blog, I’ll focus on 3 ways you can make your reviews — and your review generation process — more mobile friendly, which is key as more and more consumers are expected to use their mobile devices to browse and buy this holiday season. By adopting these best practices, you can generate more reviews…which will help you drive more traffic and sales during the upcoming holiday season and beyond.
Make Your Reviews Mobile Friendly
More and more shoppers are using their mobile devices to browse and purchase products. According to a survey from retail research agency Conlumino, nearly 45% of consumers plan to use a mobile device to shop for holiday gifts this year.
That’s why it’s key to make sure you have mobile-friendly reviews available on mobile apps and on your website. If you don’t, you risk losing shoppers…and not just those who are shopping online. Research from PowerReviews found that 70% of US shoppers want to be able to access product ratings and reviews while in store. Consider this situation: Kate is in a store shopping for a sweater for her son. She narrows her selection to two sweaters, but wants to see what other people have to say about them. So, she navigates to the retailer’s website on her mobile phone to find reviews for the two styles. She hunts around for a couple minutes, but then gives up. She leaves the store frustrated and decides to buy a sweater elsewhere.
Implement a Mobile-Friendly Post Purchase Email
Up to 70% of reviews originate from post purchase emails. And more than half of emails are read on a mobile device. If you haven’t already, now is the time to implement a mobile-friendly post purchase email to maximize the number of reviews you generate — giving holiday shoppers that extra boost of confidence to make a purchase.
To ensure your post purchase emails look great on all devices and generates a high number of reviews , you’ll want to:
- Keep the design of the email clean and simple, with the important elements in the upper portion of the email whenever possible
- Make the call to action prominent and obvious
- Avoid marketing content or other distractions that’ll cause readers to click away from the email
- Use a single column layout so the email scales down nicely on mobile
- Use a 16 or 18 point font size to make it easy to read on all devices
- Keep content short and simple
- Limit subject lines to 55 characters or less
Simple changes can make a big difference. evo, an online outdoor and fashion apparel retailer, implemented a mobile-friendly post purchase email to solicit reviews and saw a 204% increase in reviews written on mobile.
Use a Mobile-Friendly Write a Review Form
Let’s say a customer receives your post purchase email on her phone, clicks to write a review, and is taken to a write a review form that requires her to pinch, scroll, and zoom in order to write a review. Chances are, she won’t do it. Shoppers expect a seamless shopping journey, regardless of the device they use. Make the review process as easy as possible for your shoppers by switching to a mobile-friendly write a review form.
Looking for more best practices for using ratings and reviews to drive traffic and sales during the holiday season and beyond? Download our free 2015 Holiday Best Practices Guide.
