The 3 best review plugins for WooCommerce

We all know how important reviews are in driving online sales. Almost every digital store has this feature, and it’s fascinating to see how marketing and sales techniques have evolved around the power of customer feedback. It just goes to show that reviews can make or break a product.

Throughout this guide, we’ll explore the incredible influence of reviews and uncover some nifty strategies to increase these on your eCommerce store. Plus, we’ll delve into three must-have WordPress (and WooCommerce, naturally) review plugins that will introduce advanced promotion techniques.

Once you finish reading this article, you’ll have a clear picture of what reviews are and why they are crucial for boosting your store’s sales.

First, let’s analyze what reviews are and why they’re so important.

Why are reviews so powerful?

The term “review” can have different interpretations. However, when it comes to online shopping, reviews always refer to customers sharing their ratings and feedback on product pages. So, whenever you come across a review online, you know that it’s someone’s opinion and experience with a particular product.

Reviews initially worked as a way for customers to share their opinions and help others make informed purchasing decisions. However, they have since transformed and grown significantly over the years.

Let’s take a look at how reviews have evolved. Nowadays, you can find them not only on online stores but also on product landing pages (sometimes with fancy testimonials!) and they even get featured prominently in search engines like Google, where those popular “five stars” make products shine.

So, what’s the deal? Are there any studies that prove online reviews actually work?

When it comes to data and statistics, we have plenty of options. This marketing tool is so popular and widely used that many research organizations have focused on it. Let’s take a look at some of them:

According to research by GlobalNewswire, 95% of consumers go through reviews before completing their purchase, and over 50% of them are open to spending extra on products that have positive reviews.
In the B2B industry, the reality is no different. As per data presented by G2, an amazing 92% of customers place importance on product reviews before making a purchase. It is interesting to note that reviews are not as commonly found in the B2B sector compared to the B2C sector.
According to ReviewTrackers, 70% of customers choose to filter their product catalog by displaying only those items with an average review rating higher than four out of five stars.
According to Bizrate Insights, 55% of customers typically read a minimum of four reviews before making a purchase decision.

Of course, it is possible to find hundreds of other studies that offer similar statistics, but what can we tell from the ones we have included within this list?

First, it is essential to acknowledge the importance of reviews in influencing customer choices. Without reviews, customers are likely to explore alternative websites instead of risking a purchase without the validation of other users.

Additionally, we found that customer reviews have the potential to boost the average value of each purchase. This is because a significant portion of customers are willing to spend more money on their order if it includes products that have received positive reviews.

Finally, similar to a blog, reviews increase the quantity of written content that can be useful for indexing purposes.

With all this information, it becomes clear that you not only need to include a reviews section on your site but also make it more visible and invite your customers to leave their opinions as well.

Let’s see how.

How to get product reviews

Given the value of reviews, it’s natural to wonder how you can encourage more customers to share their opinions. While this is beneficial for sales, pushing customers could have a negative impact.

So what do we suggest? To start off, let’s define the three most common reasons why there’s a lack of reviews:

Customers forget about it – It cannot be assumed that users will remember to give feedback. Frequently, this only occurs if the experience with the product or service was negative, whereas for positive experiences it is less common. In such cases, simply reminding the customer to leave a review is often enough.
Customers did not see the reviews – If most of your customers do not provide feedback for your products, you might need to improve the visibility and functionality of the reviews section. If customers fail to notice it, not only will they not leave their own feedback but they will also lack motivation to purchase based on existing reviews.
Customers do not want to – Another important fact: the average user isn’t interested in spending time on something that doesn’t benefit them. In this case, you can achieve great results by offering a reward for the feedback, or by highlighting its significance to instill authority in customers and encourage them to share their opinions. And always be careful not to push customers who had a negative experience as their review could harm your product.

You can easily solve these three situations by using the right plugins. In fact, with WooCommerce you can integrate advanced functionalities into your store by simply using additional plugins.

Let’s see some of them.

What are the best WooCommerce reviews plugins

With the global use of WooCommerce as a platform for creating and managing websites, it comes as no surprise that there are many plugins available for reviews. In this article, we will explore three plugins that not only cater to the three categories of customers mentioned earlier but also seamlessly integrate with one another, allowing users to use all the tools together for optimal results.

That said, let’s start by talking about “forgetful” customers.

YITH WooCommerce Review Reminder

As previously mentioned, a significant proportion of the reviews that are missing after customers place orders can be attributed to forgetfulness. Multiple studies have been conducted in the past to find out how effective pushing customers to leave reviews is.

These studies, such as the one conducted by Harvard Business Review, showed a notable increase in the number of reviews. However, most of these reviews were considered “average” in terms of value. This is because customers who are either extremely satisfied or dissatisfied with a product are more likely to write a review on their own.

In any case, having more reviews is beneficial. It’s no coincidence that leading websites like Amazon frequently send emails to remind customers to submit reviews.

The WooCommerce Review Reminder plugin is the perfect way to replicate such functionality in WooCommerce.

How does the plugin work?

The plugin’s functionality is simple to understand. It allows you to configure automated emails that will be sent to customers at a specific interval, encouraging them to leave a review for their most recent order.

The plugin offers extensive customization options, allowing you to modify the email content and how it interacts with the review.

Main features

As previously stated, the plugin offers the ability to modify different aspects linked to its functionality. The plugin panel is divided into four sections.

The first section is “Email Settings”, and it’s where you can change the appearance and behavior of the email that will be sent to customers. You will be able to customize:

The subject of the email.
The body of the email, so the content.
The template to use.
The link to include in the email, you can set a link to the product page, to the WordPress reviews tabs, or a custom one.

In the second section, “Request Settings”, you can set the rules to send the email. In particular, you can choose:

The number of days after which the email will be sent to customers.
Whether to request a review for each product within the order or for specific ones.

If you decide to go with the second choice, there are many different options available for deciding which product will be selected in the email. You have the option to prioritize products that have fewer reviews, products that have more reviews, products with the lowest or highest value, or even based on the order in which they purchased the product.

This way you can create different strategies and apply them in your store.

In the third section, you will find a list of all the scheduled emails. You have the flexibility to delete any number of emails as needed. If you decide that it is not helpful to send an email regarding a particular order, you can choose not to do so.

If this happens to apply to a specific client, simply navigate to the fourth section. There, you will find the option to add that individual’s email address to an exclusion list.

Advantages of using the plugin

An email notification is often enough to convince many customers to share their feedback on your website. Therefore, it is a straightforward, automated, and fast approach to increase the number of reviews without investing a lot of money.

We highly recommend this plugin as a first step in a strategy focused on reviews, given the excellent results it can bring to your site. Its adaptability and customization options allow you to explore different approaches to achieve the best results.

YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews

This section of your website should stand out because it encourages customers to share their opinions and takes advantage of the impact of reviews on sales.

To do this, we’re going to use the WooCommerce Advanced Reviews plugin.