When was the last time you purchased a product without having a look at its rating or reading the reviews? For me, it’s been over a decade. Most consumers almost never purchase an item without looking at the ratings first and a survey by Power Reviews finds that 99.9% of consumers read reviews when they shop online at least sometimes. The same survey also found that 98% of consumers feel reviews are an essential resource for making purchase decisions.
For businesses, manually monitoring every individual review every product receives is an impossible task. That’s where the concept of Retail Reviews Analysis unfolds usually in the form of a ratings and reviews analyzer. The function is in the name, it’s a tool running on AI and machine learning models that identify and analyze reviews online for businesses to then act upon.
Today’s shoppers, like you and me, are bombarded with options and spoilt for choice. For every product type, for example, a set of headphones or a pair of shoes, or even to choose breakfast cereal, the variety is endless. Every brand looks better than the other with its own special attributes and unique benefits that can cripple decision-making.
Reviews and ratings – a crutch or a boon depending on whom you ask – can aid consumers to make a choice that they feel happy and confident about. We’ll explore why a ratings and Retail Reviews Analysis can be beneficial for your e-commerce business in this article. Read on.
Why Should Your Business Bother with Retail Reviews Analysis?
Imagine being the owner of an e-commerce brand that’s rapidly growing but struggling to compete with established players in the industry. Despite having a strong marketing strategy and a talented team, your native website is difficult to find organically due to SEO issues and high competition in the market. However, to overcome this challenge, you have expanded your brand’s presence to leading shopping platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart, making your product easily accessible to potential customers.
While recent allegations of biased promotion by Amazon have been concerning, one way your products can still stand out is by maintaining excellent ratings and reviews. Building an online presence takes time, but as your brand works on increasing organic visibility, customers browsing e-commerce platforms can discover and purchase your products. Though you can’t control customer ratings and reviews, understanding their feedback creates valuable input for improvements. That insight into how customers feel about your brand can be used to enhance your offerings and create a better, high-quality product.
Retail Reviews Analysis via a ratings and reviews analyzer can act as a bridge between your brand and its customers. By systematically sifting through the feedback that your product receives digitally, it can provide actionable insights that drive merit and advancement.
The Benefits of Voice of Customer Analysis
Ratings and reviews analyzer tools, a part of the Voice of Customer Analysis (VoC) segment, are becoming increasingly popular for e-commerce businesses of all sizes. They allow brands to understand customer perception and their feelings about the product. While such insights provide tremendous value, here are a few benefits of the tool.
Identifying trends in customer sentiment
Most e-commerce insights tools, such as 42Signals for example, incorporate in their offerings, a ratings and reviews analyzer to provide a wholesome outlook on any product. This functionality helps businesses identify trends in customer sentiment by analyzing large volumes of feedback data.
An individual assessment may not yield many results, but once data is analyzed as a set, patterns, and trends become visible. This can inform product development teams and shape marketing strategies to weed out potential issues and even spark new ideas for innovation.
By analyzing the latest customer reviews for the Redmi Note 12 Pro+, we get a clear picture of what features customers like and dislike about the phone. While it has an overall rating of 3.9 stars, customers seem to be unhappy with the battery life, charger, and product pricing. This data is valuable for any company that wants to improve its products and services, and Redmi can use this feedback to make the necessary improvements in its upcoming models.
Gaining insights into customer needs and preferences
Knowing what the customer wants is the crux of any business. Some get it right, but equally few get it wrong. For example, through review analysis, if customers consistently mention a specific feature that is not performing well or does not exist in the current model. Data can be used to develop a roadmap that ensures it’s modified or developed in the next version.
Monitoring and responding to customer feedback in real-time
One of the primary benefits of ratings and Retail Reviews Analysis is the ability to monitor and respond to customer feedback in real time. This allows businesses to address customer concerns and issues quickly, which can help prevent negative reviews and improve customer satisfaction. Take for example this incident with Chobani wherein a customer was unhappy with the taste of their yogurt. Chobani was quick to address the negative review and provided the opportunity to set this right for the customer which builds brand loyalty and trust.
Improving product development and marketing strategies
As previously mentioned, having an open and continuous feedback loop can ascertain what’s functioning well and what needs to be improved. With access to a database of customer opinions, brands can derive actionable steps to improve the customer experience, product specifications and tailor marketing strategies. This can help them differentiate from competitors by making the customer feel heard and providing a superior well-performing product. Precisely why, voice of customer analysis is crucial for businesses to achieve success.
Enhancing brand reputation and customer loyalty
All the above points finally lead to the enhancement of brand reputation and building customer loyalty. Things don’t always go as planned and mistakes happen, but transparent communication and taking responsibility for the situation, go a long way. Companies that communicate effectively and respond to customer feedback in a timely and professional manner can convert a disgruntled client back into a happy one. This builds stronger relationships and makes the same customer a brand advocate. Needless to say, it also helps with customer retention.
Conclusion
Today’s customers have a lot more expectations from the brands they interact with than ever before. With intense competition in almost every segment, businesses are vying for their audience’s attention. Consumers are spoiling for choice and will naturally opt for companies providing a seamless experience and a better product.
This is exactly why old practices need to stay in the past and brands must adapt to provide satisfactory customer service. The customer journey begins from the moment they become aware of the brand and continues until they use the product or service.
Using an e-commerce insights tool, like 42Signals, that provides insights into product performance and customer sentiment will allow businesses to enhance their brand reputation, drive business growth, and build stronger relationships with their customers.
