Category: Best Practices

You know you need to ask for reviews. You also have ideas for how to ask for reviews.

There’s only one piece of the puzzle left for you to figure out: when to ask for reviews.

Congratulations — this is actually the easiest part, especially since we’ve already done the research for you. We’ve analyzed the data from hundreds of thousands of review requests and post-purchase emails from PowerReviews clients to determine the optimal time for asking reviews. 

What we found may surprise you. Certain days of the week perform better for review collection. Ultimately, however, the best time to ask for reviews depends on the types of products you sell, as well as the demographic makeup of your audience.

Let’s dig in.

The Best Day(s) of the Week to Ask for Reviews

In general, we’ve found that Wednesdays and Saturdays have the highest conversion rate for review request emails. Maybe people are looking for a way to break up hump day, or they have more time on the weekend.

Whatever the reason, emails sent on these days tend to lead to more reviews. This is not to say requests aren’t effective on other days (we’ve seen plenty of evidence to suggest this is the case). But scheduling your post-purchase emails on a Wednesday or Saturday seems to give it the best possible chance of generating a review.

What Time Should You Email Your Review Request?

The best time to send your review request emails depends on your customer base, and their past interactions with your email campaigns. Review your email analytics. Based on that data, you can determine when your customers will be most likely to open and engage with your review request emails. 

If you’re starting fresh with a review collection email program and looking for some general best practices, however, the best time slot is between 10am and 2pm. This timeframe captures people on their lunch break, when they have a little extra down time to leave a review. 6pm can be another peak time, when people have finished their workday.

When to Ask for Reviews, Depending on What You Sell 

Now you’ve got two days of the week you can dedicate to sending your post-purchase emails. But how many Wednesdays, or Saturdays, should you wait before sending your review request? 

You don’t want to send your email too early. You could come off as too eager, but worse, the person may not have even had a chance to try out the product yet.

The vast majority of people prefer to leave a review after they’ve used a product at least once or twice, and 34% of people would like to use it even more before writing their review.

Younger generations, in particular, prefer to be able to vet a product a bit longer before leaving their review. While 40% of Boomers are happy to write a review after using a product once, only 27% of Gen Zers are.

At the same time, you don’t want to wait too long either. People prefer to leave reviews while the product is still top of mind. 77% of people will write a review within a week of receiving or using the product, and 8% will write a review the same day.

There’s also a risk that if you wait too long, your email will get lost among all the other review request emails they’re getting. People order a lot of things online these days, and that shopping behavior has only increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. 1 in 5 people buy something at least once a week. For 6% of Amazon Prime members, they purchase something every single day. 

Getting the timing just right is key to maximizing your review submissions. You want to give people enough time to be able to leave a detailed review (customers rate longer reviews as more helpful), without waiting so long that they lose interest.

How long should you wait before sending your review request? Between 7 to 21 days, depending on the type of product the customer purchased. 

Hard Goods – 21 Days

When we talk about hard goods, we’re referring to products that last a long time, such as refrigerators, washing machines, and computers.

We recommend waiting 21 days before sending your review request for these products. Why so long? With products like these, the person is expecting to use them for a long time. They want to make sure it works as expected, and they need time to confirm that.

Send your review request too early, and they may have only used the product a few times. With some of these products, like a new computer, they may have not even had a chance to set them up yet! 

Soft Goods – 14 Days

Soft goods describe items that are used immediately and only last a few years, such as apparel, cosmetics, and personal care items.

We recommend waiting 14 days before asking for a review on these products. That’s a perfect amount of time for a person to have received the product and used it at least once or twice. With the purchase still top of mind, they’ll be in a good place to write a thoughtful review.

Perishable Goods – 14 Days

Perishable goods are used immediately and have a short lifespan. These may include food and beverage items, as well as flowers and plants.

Like soft goods, we recommend waiting 14 days before sending your review request email. Perishable goods are used quickly, and you want to ask for a review before the person has already forgotten about how much they enjoyed it! 

Seasonal Goods – 7 Days

Seasonal items include holiday and seasonal products. They could be perishable, like holiday-themed foods and beverages. Or they could be a soft good, like apparel or decor. Regardless, many of these items are put to use as soon as they’re out of the box. 

As a result, you don’t want to delay your review request longer than a week. 7 days is the ideal time for sending a post-purchase email on seasonal goods. The person has probably already used the product, if not multiple times, and you want to make sure you ask for a review before the holiday is over.

There’s another reason why you don’t want to wait too long to ask for reviews on seasonal products.

Reviews increase conversions by 115%, and there’s only a short window of time your seasonal products will be available. You have to make the most of that window to boost your review count — and your sales.

When to Send a Review Follow Up Email

If a customer doesn’t respond to your initial review request, how long should you wait before sending them a follow up? A good rule of thumb is 1 additional week, or 7 days. The product will still be fresh in their mind, but you’ve given their email inbox a little breathing room.

Do you really need to send a followup email? Yes, not everyone will leave a review the first time you ask them. In fact, only 68% of customers will. An additional 28% leave a review the second time you ask them. But 4% of people, you’ll need to nudge them a third time before they write a review. That’s why we recommend sending at least two emails as a best practice. 

How many requests you’ll ultimately need to send can depend on the demographic makeup of your customer base, however. Our research shows that older generations are significantly more likely to leave a review after the first request. 74% of Boomers will write a review the first time you ask them, as will 70% of Gen Xers. For Gen Zers and Millennials, however, that percentage drops to around 60%.

The takeaway: If your customer base skews younger, always send at least two emails asking for reviews, if not three. Learn more about what drives customers to leave reviews. 

Worried about being a pest? Don’t be. Our data shows that up to 80% of all reviews come from post-purchase emails. Asking for reviews over email can work wonders for your review collection, especially if you ask more than once.

Just take a look at the chart below. These are the review collection numbers for one of our clients, before and after they started sending post purchase emails. Can you guess what month they started asking for reviews?

That’s right. Simply starting a post-purchase email campaign skyrocketed this client’s review collection numbers to the tune of 900%.

It’s Always the Right Time to Ask for Reviews

Do what you can to get more reviews, by asking at the right time, and asking more than once. It’s worth it! Why? 97% of consumers typically read reviews before making a purchase and 81% of online purchases take place on pages with ratings and reviews content.
Timing your ask is just one part of a successful review collection strategy. From collecting and displaying reviews, to managing and responding to negative ones, there’s always more you can do to squeeze more value out of your customer reviews. Learn more in our Complete Guide to Ratings & Reviews for 2021.

They say all you need to do to collect reviews is ask. It’s simple advice, and it works. But, it also feels easier said than done. How, exactly, are you supposed to go about asking for reviews? Should you email your customers, tweet them on social media, or host a contest?

All of the above — and more. The truth is, the more creative you are with asking, the more reviews you’ll receive. Customers respond to different requests for reviews, so the more ways you can ask for reviews, the more successful you’ll be.

Today, we’re sharing 18 proven strategies for collecting more product reviews, with real-world inspiration from our own clients at PowerReviews. Let’s dig in.

1. Ask for reviews in your post-purchase emails

This one’s an essential best practice. Our research has found that nearly 80% of all reviews content is generated from email requests. Personalize your post-purchase emails with the customer’s name and the products they purchased, with direct links to write a review.

Not convinced an email can really make that much of a difference? Take a look at the chart below. The blue bars represent how many reviews one of our clients collected each month. In December 2020, they started emailing customers asking for reviews. As a result, their review numbers skyrocketed by around 600%. When we say asking for reviews works, we mean it!

2. Collect reviews from the email itself

Want to wow customers with your review collection technology? Let them complete their review directly within the email. 

3. Collect multiple reviews at once

60% of orders include more than 1 product. That’s a lot of reviews to write. Make the process quick and painless by letting customers review multiple products in one click. One of our clients saw their review collection rates increase by 54% in just 30 days after implementing this approach.

4. Add a review request form to your product pages

Add review forms to your product pages, so customers have a place to leave a review no matter if they purchased your products from your site, another retailer, or in-store. 

Pro Tip: Encourage longer reviews by gamifying the process! Add a Review Meter link that shows a progress bar and cheers customers on to keep writing.

5. Create a landing page for reviews

Maybe you don’t sell your products through your website. Good news: you can still collect reviews. Create a page on your website that’s just for reviews. Feature each product with a link to write a review. This gives you a handy URL you can share on social media, email newsletters, and other marketing communications.

6. Ask for reviews on receipts and invoices

Post-purchase emails are great, but you need a customer’s email in order to send them. For in-store purchases, you can add a call-to-action on your receipts and invoices asking shoppers to write a review. Take every opportunity you can to remind shoppers that their feedback is valuable and you’re always looking for reviews. 

7. Include review requests in your email newsletters

Do you send a marketing email newsletter to your customers and subscribers? That’s another great spot to ask them to write a review. Remind customers of the value of reviews in a short and sweet callout, or feature some of your products along with links that take people right to the review form. One PowerReviews client collected 175 days in just 2 days with this review collection campaign; another collected over 1,000 in just 5 days!

8. Ask for reviews via text message

For younger generations, email feels so old school. Stay hip and connected by asking them to leave reviews via text message. You can send them links to your review form after their purchase.

9. Host a sweepstakes or giveaway

Among shoppers who don’t write reviews, 55% said they need an incentive or reward to do so. So, give the people what they want! Throw a review sweepstakes, where each review counts as an entry. One of our apparel clients saw a 290% increase in review collection in just 45 days thanks to this strategy!

Pro Tip: Promote your review contest far and wide, including on your website, email newsletters, and social media channels.

10. Include your review request on the product packaging

It’s common to include rave reviews on product packaging. Why not also ask for reviews while your customers are in a positive frame of mind, and excited to start using your product? Print a QR form on product packaging. Once the customer scans it from their smartphone, they’re taken directly to your review form.

11. Collect more reviews via QR codes

Speaking of QR codes, they’re a review collector’s best friend. As long as they’re linked to your review form, you can use QR codes in a variety of places to collect more reviews. Do you attend trade shows? Print a QR code on a business card with instructions on how to write a review and hand it out at your booth. Do you ship products directly to your customers? Include a product insert with a QR code and instructions to write a review.

12. Award loyalty points for writing a review

If you offer a customer loyalty program, make writing a review one of your point-earning activities. Allow customers to earn points each time they leave a review for one of your products.

13. Share product samples to drum up new reviews

Are you launching a new product, or reintroducing a seasonal product line? Generate new reviews fast by offering product samples. You can share physical products, or distribute physical or digital coupons for specific items. Tell customers that you are looking for their feedback. Because you’ve already given them a free product, they’ll be more likely to return the favor with a review. We’ve found that review submission from a sampling campaign can range from 60% to 90%. Not too shabby!

Pro Tip: Supercharge your product sampling campaign by partnering up with influencers. Talk to your notable influencers or register with a micro-influencer platform to expand your reach.

14. Reward reviews with a product discount

Keep the positive momentum going. After a customer writes a review, thank them with a discount. It can be a percentage-off discount or something as simple as free shipping. Offering a discount not only encourages the customer to make another purchase, but to keep writing reviews to score more discounts.

15. Ask for reviews on your Order History page

Customers often review their Order History to reorder their favorite products. That’s an excellent time to remind them to write a review. Include a CTA to write a review next to each product in their order history.

16. Ask for reviews on social media

Your most loyal customers are following you on social media. These are folks who love your products and want to see you succeed. Activate your social media army and tell them they can help by writing you reviews. Ask for reviews on Facebook and Twitter, and include swipe-up links in your Instagram Stories. 

Pro Tip: Prevent writer’s block and inspire your followers by retweeting, reposting, and resharing positive reviews from other social media users.

17. Follow up on Facebook comments

Are customers raving about your products on social media? Join the conversation. Respond to positive Facebook comments with your appreciation and a link to leave a review. Social media is a perfect place to collect review content when you don’t have customer emails — sometimes you just need to do a little digging!  

18. Include review requests on product warranties and registrations

After customers complete their product registration or warranty, ask for a review. These folks care enough about their product to want to keep it protected, so they probably have some pretty good things to say. This is an excellent way for non-ecommerce brands to collect reviews.

Bonus: Syndicate reviews to other retail partners

We’ll include this last tip as a bonus. If you sell through retail partners in addition to your own website, you need to be thinking about how to collect reviews not just for yourself, but for those other partners, too. One easy way to accomplish this is to share reviews from your website out to your retail partners through review syndication. By boosting your review counts on other retailers, you can increase sales there as well. 

As you can see, you’ve got lots of options for collecting reviews. All it takes is a little creativity. Get started by putting these tips into practice today. Collecting reviews is the foundation of any UGC strategy, but there is so much more you can do. Learn more in our Complete Guide to Ratings & Reviews for 2021.

Reviews provide important feedback for brands, helping them shape and improve their products. Having review content on your website is also good for SEO, providing fresh content to Google and lifting organic traffic by 20% on average. Most importantly, customers who interact with reviews are 115% more likely to convert.

The ROI of UGC is clear. 

But for non-ecommerce brands without checkout data, the path to collecting reviews isn’t. 

If you don’t collect orders like a traditional ecommerce site, there’s no automatic way of sending a follow up email with your customers to solicit reviews. 

The challenge of review collection affects a large number of non-ecommerce companies, from B2B brands who primarily sell to contractors to those who sell primarily through large retailers. You may be a food and beverage brand, a home supply company, or a personal care brand. 

If your website showcases your products with a button that says “Find a Store” instead of “Checkout Now,” we’ve got good news. 

You don’t need a transactional website to collect reviews. There are plenty of success stories from non-ecommerce brands who collect real, positive reviews from their customers, brand advocates, and fans. You just have to get a little creative.

8 Creative Ways Non-Ecommerce Brands Can Collect More Review Content

What’s the #1 thing non-ecommerce brands can do when it comes to collecting reviews? Make sure your customers know that you have a website (we know, it seems obvious), that your website offers the ability for them to write reviews, and that you want their feedback. 

Are you ready to collect reviews for your non-ecommerce brand? Get started with these eight proven strategies.

1. Leverage Your Email Marketing

Again, one of our biggest tips is simply to let your customers know that you want reviews. What better place to do that than in your email communications?

Ask for reviews in your email marketing newsletters. A campaign from sports drink brand BodyArmor collected over 1,000 reviews in just five days!

Ready-made cocktail brand BuzzBallz took a similar approach, offering free merch to the first 50 people to leave a review.

To ensure authentic reviews, send these emails to verified customers in your CRM. Offer an incentive for writing a review, or just let people know their feedback can help others. Then, include a link that takes them straight to your review form.

2. Create a Landing Page Just for Reviews

Don’t know which customers bought which products? Take a cue from Skippy Peanut Butter. They put all four types of peanut butter they sold on one landing page and added a “Write a Review” link beneath each one. 

This approach is really effective because you can send customers straight to this page and they don’t have to navigate. There’s just one call to action for them, and one link for you to include in your emails. 

3. Use QR Codes to Gather Reviews

When it comes to getting reviews, QR codes are a brand’s best friend. Use promotional labels with QR codes to drive customers to your site to leave a review. 

For example, you can attach a promotional card insert or tag to your product that has a QR code on it, or print the QR code on the product packaging itself. When customers scan it, they’re taken directly to your review form. 

You can also print QR codes on cards you hand out at different events with a note like “Let us know what you think.” Get inspired with these business-sized cards from gluten-free bread brand Canyon Bakehouse.

QR codes make it easy for your customers to leave feedback. They don’t have to type anything in; they can just scan the code and leave their feedback right there on the spot. 

4. Exchange Coupons for Reviews

Coupons are a great way to get people to try your products. They’re also a great way to get people to review your products. 68% of shoppers who receive a digital coupon are likely to leave a review. That number goes up to 76% for shoppers who receive a physical coupon. 

Many non-ecommerce brands use this strategy to drum up reviews for new products. For example, organic dairy company Horizon Organic invited customers to sign up to leave a review. Once they signed up, they received a coupon to use on their purchase of cheese sticks, a new product that needed reviews. 

This approach builds loyalty, as customers feel like they’re part of the process of helping you towards a successful launch. When customers know you need their feedback, they’re often happy to give it. 

5. Pair Product Sampling with Review Requests

If you thought our statistics on coupons were impressive, wait until you hear about our research on product sampling. Brands who send customers a physical product see an 85% average review submission rate.

So, share product samples with your brand advocates and customers. Add a QR code on the product packaging or as a product insert and ask for feedback in that way. The key is letting  customers know about the ability to write a review on your site. This will drive traffic and prompt them to share their feedback.  

For example, Hormel sent five packs of their Compleats entrees to customers with clear, two-step instructions. Try them all, and then leave a review!

Like with coupons, asking for reviews with your product samples invites customers to be a part of your success. This earns reviews, builds loyalty, and drives more purchases!

6. Follow Up on Product Registrations and Warranties

One challenge non-ecommerce brands face in collecting reviews is knowing whether a customer has actually purchased the product. 

If this sounds familiar, consider asking for reviews on printed receipts, emailed receipts, and even your product warranties and registrations. For example, Simonton, a non-ecommerce brand that sells windows and doors, follows up with each customer who registers their product and asks them to leave a review.

7. Run a Sweepstakes or Giveaway

55% of customers who don’t write reviews say they need an incentive to leave a review. Enter sweepstakes and giveaways to save the day. Target specific products for a review generation campaign, and then promote your contest via email and social media communication. 

Offering an incentive is always a surefire way to get people to write reviews. Here are a few examples from The North Face and Duraflame.

After one PowerReviews client implemented a sweepstakes, they saw a 290% increase in collection rates — in just 45 days! They now run sweepstakes sporadically throughout the year and have more than doubled the amount of reviews they collect than they did previously.

8. Ask for Reviews on Social Media

When people rave about your products on social media, it’s the perfect time to ask them to leave a review. These customers were already excited enough to write a positive comment, so they obviously love the product. They may just need an extra push to write a review. That’s where you come in. 

If you respond and say thank you and ask them to leave a review (with a link that takes them directly there), they’re probably going to because you engaged with them and they love your product. 

Proactively reaching out to customers can quickly increase your review count. Make this a part of your customer service routine on social media, like men’s care brand Just for Men does.

You can also include swipe up links in your Instagram Stories to your Write a Review form, asking customers to engage. Explain the value of reviews, and people may just respond. 

Start Collecting Reviews Now

Since they purchase your products elsewhere, a lot of customers don’t even know that non-ecommerce brands collect reviews. Letting them know that you do collect feedback, and that you want theirs, can be a powerful first step in generating positive reviews.

Don’t wait. Try one (or all) of the strategies above and start collecting reviews for your brand.

User-generated content (UGC) — including reviews, Q&A, photos and videos — is proven to drive sales growth for brands and retailers. Our own data tells us that once a product starts displaying reviews, the conversion rate for that product increases by 65%, on average. The same goes for imagery: on average, a product experiences a 69% increase in conversion when just one customer-generated image is added to the product page.

While sales growth is certainly an important benefit of UGC, it’s far from the only one. In fact, there’s another huge plus of collecting this content. And it’s one that’s often overlooked by even most progressive brands and retailers.

UGC is full of rich data that — when leveraged — can drive positive change throughout your entire organization.

Of course, you probably use other tools — including surveys —  to capture feedback from your customers that you can then take action on. But the beauty of UGC is that you can easily map feedback to specific products. And that makes it a whole lot easier to take meaningful action on the data. 

Why eCommerce Managers Should Analyze UGC Data

Constant analysis of UGC data is key to uncovering impactful ways to improve the ROI of your UGC program. 

For starters, this data gives you a very clear picture of what types of content is driving sales. For example, you might discover that website visitors who engage with reviews convert at a much higher rate than those who don’t. Based on this data, you determine it’s important to have plenty of reviews for plenty of your products — including any offerings you’re launching in the future. So you decide to execute a series of pre-launch product sampling campaigns to generate reviews before your new products hit the shelves. 

Data can also help you understand how shoppers are interacting with the different components of your content display — and how it’s impacting sales. You can then use this information to optimize your display  — and drive even better results.

For example, our friends at Clinique might notice that a lot of shoppers filter reviews to see only the one-star content. Surprisingly, though, these folks go on to convert at a higher level than those that don’t. 

There might be an opportunity here for Clinique to make this filtering functionality even more prominent. That way, shoppers can easily identify the “worst case” scenario and determine if it’s something they can live with.

5 Other Teams that can Leverage UGC to Drive Positive Change 

So the data from your user-generated content can help you optimize your overall program. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

UGC is full of actionable insights that can drive meaningful change throughout your company. 

But data without action is pointless. The key is to get the right data into the right hands to put the data into action.

Who can benefit from the insights in UGC? Let’s take a closer look at how five of the likely key teams at your company can leverage the data from UGC to make impactful improvements — and boost your company’s bottom line. 

The Product Innovation Team

Innovation teams are constantly looking for opportunities to develop new products — or even entire product lines. The data from UGC is a great resource to uncover these. 

For example, let’s say there’s a CPG company that sells protein drinks. The company’s product innovation team is always on the hunt for new ideas. The team analyzes their UGC for existing products and discovers that shoppers frequently suggest a pumpkin pie flavored product. They also notice that a competitor offers a pumpkin spice protein drink, and it seems to perform well with shoppers. So the team starts putting together a proof of concept (POC).

The R&D Team

Coming up with a great product idea isn’t enough. Instead, it’s critical to iterate and improve on that product to ensure it’s in line with market demand. The data from UGC can help your research and development (R&D) team do that. In fact, UGC is full of actionable insights you can use to discover and fix problems with your products — or identify and implement ways to take your product to the next level.

Let’s take a look at an example of these insights in action.

Clif Bar & Company, a food and beverage brand, recently developed a new product formula. Before officially launching, the company conducted a sampling campaign. They found that the average rating on the new bar was 2, and sentiment around the word “taste” was particularly negative. After digging into the content, they found that one of the ingredients wasn’t mixing well with the others. They made a quick change to the formula and ran another product sampling campaign prior to launch. The result? The average star rating jumped to over 4. And the company launched a product they knew would resonate with their customers. 

The Merchandising Team

Merchandising teams are responsible for ensuring a retailer sells the right mix of products that meet the needs of its customers. Typically, a merchandise manager oversees buying for a specific category or set of categories. But in order to make informed buying decisions, they’ve got to understand why a product did (or didn’t) sell.

Your merchandising teams can analyze the UGC from your own eCommerce site — and benchmark this against your competitors — to uncover great insights. The result: better purchase decisions. For example, merchandisers might leverage data from UGC to eliminate products, add new offerings, negotiate better deals, and even work with merchants to improve products.

Let’s take a look at a couple real-life examples. 

Room&Board had a lounge chair that sold well but had the occasional poor review. Looking at those reviews as a whole, a criticism that kept coming up was that the fade-resistant chairs weren’t living up to those claims. After identifying the issue as a material defect and making exchanges for those customers, the merchandising team used this data to negotiate a major price break on a large new order they were placing.

Gardener’s Supply Company is another PowerReviews customer whose merchandising team depends on the data from UGC. Recently, this retailer found that one of their top-selling watering cans had several reviews that noted leaking. The merchandising team was able to share specific data with the merchant to make improvements to the watering can.

The Customer Insights Team

Customer Insights teams are focused on better understanding current and prospective customers. UGC can be a powerful source of data to enhance their analysis, and it can even lead to improvements of the overall customer experience.

For example, Discount Tires is a PowerReviews customer that collects ratings and reviews not only for products — but also for store experiences. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the company implemented some store-specific policy changes, including mask requirements and the option to self park in order to allow for social distancing. When analyzing the store reviews, Discount Tires determined these safety measures were well received by customers. Based on this data, they made the decision to make these company-wide policies. 

The Marketing Team

Marketing teams are tasked with developing messaging and campaigns that attract the right shoppers. The data from UGC can make their initiatives even more effective.

In fact, there are countless ways marketing teams can leverage the data from UGC to better position, differentiate and promote a product. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.

One way marketers can leverage the insights from UGC is to get a better understanding of what matters to shoppers who have purchased a specific product. For example, a skincare company can determine whether shoppers care about an item being fragrance-free. If it’s a feature that’s frequently mentioned in reviews, the team may want to make this a more prominent message on the website and other marketing initiatives. 

Analyzing your UGC (and that of your competitors) is also a great way for your marketing team to understand what words your shoppers are actually using when describing products. Your marketing team can then use this information to improve campaign performance. For example, New Balance, a PowerReviews customer, analyzes UGC to understand how their customers are talking about their products. Then, they use the words and phrases they uncover to power SEO and paid search ads. 

Maximize the Impact of Your UGC

User-generated content — including reviews, Q&A, photos and videos — is full of powerful insights that can position your business to better serve its customers. But all too often, this rich data source isn’t used to its full potential. And its impact can stretch way beyond your ecommerce team alone.

Ensure you fully explore all the different insights it generates and make an active effort to get these into the hands of the different teams around your business which can take action on them. In doing so, you make yourself a hugely valuable resource. Why? Because doing so enables meaningful, data-driven changes to products and experiences — which can have a significant and measurable impact on your company’s bottom line.

Last month, we published a blog that was essentially a beginner’s guide to Google Seller’s Ratings. Check that out if you want to learn more about how to get set up. Here we look in-depth at the most recent changes Google made to its Seller Ratings and explain how to know if you qualify.

Why are Google Seller Ratings so important?

With the continued explosion of ecommerce due to the pandemic, your company’s presence on Google has never been more important.

To recap – for any brand or retailer which purchases Ads on Google, Seller Ratings are a key way to add social proof to your ads. 

If you’ve ever typed into Google’s search bar, you’ve seen Google Seller Ratings in action. In essence, it’s a star rating that displays underneath the URL on your Google Adwords ads. While most often associated with eCommerce companies, any company with a digital presence can take advantage of Google Seller Ratings.

These are important because the seller ratings extension benefits both searchers and businesses, as it increases click-through rate by 10% on average which can lead to a higher quality score.

The 4.9 rating in the below screenshot is a Google Seller Rating.

But, as we mentioned, Google recently made updates to their Seller Rating requirements. We wanted to quickly outline what these are to ensure you’re fully compliant so you can continue to reap the rewards of this key acquisition channel.

What are the new requirements? 

These updated Google Seller Ratings requirements apply to reviews collected beginning July 2020. They are primarily focused on enhancing transparency and authenticity.

• Businesses are not allowed to offer their customers financial incentives of any kind to write Google Seller Ratings. This includes anything of monetary value including free samples, gift cards, discounts on future purchases.
  • What this means: You need to focus on generating reviews by creating an exceptional brand and excellent overall experiences.
• Customers must complete their review within 90 days of receiving an invitation
  • What this means: Make sure you send follow-ups to ensure you comply with this requirement.
• Only reviews directly collected by a review provider should be sent through the Google feed or displayed and factored into ratings on a review provider’s merchant page. Scraped reviews are not allowed, and reviews collected on a merchant’s site must be directly collected by the review provider. 
  • What this means: Ensure you are using an independent review provider who has been approved by Google (PowerReviews is one such review provider).  
• Each business must have a page that is public, visible, and discoverable via search engines with all reviews shown for Seller Ratings to be displayed. For example, the merchant pages should be included in the sitemap shared with search engines.
  • What this means: Transparency for consumers. This is standard for product reviews (as they are a key conversion generator). You can use PowerReviews display capabilities for this purpose.
• Business Seller Rating pages and corresponding reviews should never be deleted after a business stops collecting reviews with a given review provider and the previous reviews should continue to be included in feeds to Google, except where reviews are deleted for content guideline violations or at a user’s request. For example, if a merchant switches review providers, the original reviews provider should maintain a page with the reviews previously collected for that merchant and continue to submit those reviews in their feed to Google.
  • What this means: Fairly self-explanatory. You need to build dedicated pages to highlight your Google Seller Ratings. If you do ever change vendor, you will need to combine the reviews collected from both new and old vendors or create separate pages displaying this content.
• Businesses are not able to remove or moderate their reviews. Ensure your review provider has shared their moderation requirements with Google and are approved to continue sending content (PowerReviews has been approved)
  • What this means: As we’ve always advocated, the content of your reviews cannot be adjusted in any way, shape, or form. This ensures authenticity.

How do know if I qualify for Seller Ratings? 

Aside from these new requirements, there are some baseline standards you need to meet to ensure compliance:

• There must be at least 100 verified site reviews per country from a review platform 
• Those reviews have been within the last 12 months 
• The reviews have an average star rating of at least 3.5 stars
• Up to six weeks have passed since the feed was first submitted (it may take less time)

Conclusion

Google Seller Ratings are a key tool for promoting and marketing your business. A good rating drives traffic to your site and gets more eyeballs on your products – which can only lead to more sales. But Google recently changed its requirements for its Seller Ratings, placing more of a focus on transparency and authenticity.

Complying with these rules should be fairly straightforward if you typically follow standard best practices. Our technology certainly ensures you meet all these new requirements. But if you are a PowerReviews customer and need support, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.