Increasing conversions online is the most important consideration for online sellers, whether they are working from their own platform, from a major online retailer or in one of the hundreds of new collaborative consumption websites. Turning window-shoppers into buyers is about more than making sure signs are polished and windows are clean: It’s about conveying trust.
UK-based WebRetailer has confirmed once again: Online sellers and businesses convert better the more they are trusted by buyers. The top sellers on Amazon as ranked by Internet Retailing all have feedback which is over 90% positive. Additionally, they’ve also got a track record of hundreds of thousands of reviews. Online sales are like a snowball – the more ball rolls the bigger it gets. So how does trust help to get the ball rolling?
It’s the cozy feeling that separates you from the pack. Unless you’re selling homemade products on Etsy or Hbzy, your products and services are likely very similar to your competitors. Whilst marketing and branding are important, reputation is what differentiates merchants as it’s the one thing they earn through responsible practices and good behaviour. Unlike product pictures or prices – reputation is free, but something that can’t be adjusted by you.
It’s the elephant in the room. You’re doing everything else well. Your tag lines are effective, you’re at or near the top of search results and your photos are dead gorgeous. However, 98.5% of all your visitors are bouncing before they bag your products. The problem is likely that you have one too many bad reviews, not enough reviews or not enough positive reviews. It’s proven. By increasing the number of reviews, you can increase your conversions far easier and more cheaply than by spending more on branding or marketing. Reputation management product users with an enhanced reputation are converting up to twofold better than those relying solely on one reputation. Indeed, by importing reputation data from their other identities, new marketplace sellers are getting their first transaction at least three times as quickly through using eRated.
So how can you do this? Reputation management products allow users to import all of their ratings and reviews from all of their online identities and platforms they operate in. If you are a seller in Amazon and want to increase your conversions in eBay, get a reputation management plugin for free and take your reputation from Amazon over to eBay. Recent case studies have shown that sellers using reputation management tools increase their sales by up to 30%. After price, the second most important consideration for any buyer is trust.
Reputation Management in e-commerce isn’t just about SEO optimization and getting seen through expensive branding and marketing campaigns, it’s about getting the most out of what you already own: Your reputation. So who provides these products? Check out eRated, Traity and Trusttribe.
Users are only now beginning to understand that they can actually use their reputation to their benefit. This is a ripe opportunity for savvy online entrepreneurs to get ahead of the pack and start using a reputation management tool to optimize their conversions through increasing trust with buyers.