When it comes to making purchasing decisions, customers rely on online reviews as a valuable source of product information. Customers are unable to touch and investigate products online in the same way that they would if they were purchasing in person. Reading customer reviews can be a great way to help customers understand how a product works in real life before making a purchase. Customers, on the other hand, may struggle to find reviews that address their concerns if the reviews are not presented in a way that they expect. They may not be able to determine whether the product meets their requirements and, as a result, abandon the purchase. More customers are reading online reviews than ever before. Based on a 2021 study, more than 99.9% of shoppers say they read reviews when shopping online, at least sometimes. In 2018, this number was 97%. Another study from 2020 notes a 120.3% lift in conversion when a shopper engages with ratings and reviews on a product page.

After reviewing a number of e-commerce sites, I’ve compiled 10 UX tips for featuring customer reviews to increase conversion rates and customer satisfaction. These tips also include examples of well-executed customer reviews in contrast to poorly executed ones.

E-commerce sites reviewed:
Amazon, Anthropologie, Ann Taylor, Asos, Adidas, Best Buy, Costco, eBay, Home Depot, Kohl’s, Karmaloop, H&M, Ikea, L.L.Bean, Macy’s, Nike, Overstock, Sephora, Target, Vitacost, Walmart

1. Make it easy to find the top-rated products

Sorting controls are powerful, user-friendly tools that provide multiple entry points into a product list while always returning some search results. Sorting or filtering by best-rated and popular products can aid customers’ purchase decisions, helping them evaluate products with similar features based on what most users think are the best products.

Many of the websites I’ve reviewed allow customers to sort products by Highest Rated, Average Rating, or star rating. However, almost all the websites reviewed don’t order the results in a meaningful way. Lower-rated five-star reviews with no negative feedback are typically prioritized over higher-rated ones with a mix of positive and negative feedback. Instead, the sorting logic should take into account the rating average as well as the total number of ratings. This prevents sites from displaying many single five-star ratings above more reviewed products by customers.

Good: Kohl’s allows filtering products by highest rated reviews or by star rating. These options allow customers to prioritize products with high ratings as a starting point for their shopping.

Poor: Target allows customers to sort by average ratings, which displays products with a high number of single five-star reviews at the top of the page. Products with more reviews with the same star rating are listed in an arbitrary order, which may cause customers to miss more popular, trustworthy products.

2. Include a rating inside the product listing

Many buyers rely on ratings as a measure to find high-quality items when they are unable to make that assessment themselves. A rating summary should be included directly in the product list items, especially if the customer base is unfamiliar with the type of products being sold on the site. Almost all reviewed websites include customer ratings inside the product listing. When an item doesn’t have any reviews, it typically doesn’t show up in the product list or specify the review as zero. eBay, for example, includes customer ratings inside the product listing when they’re available.

Good: eBayincludes customer ratings inside the product listing when they’re available. Undecided customers or those unfamiliar with the product domain can benefit from customer ratings.

Poor: H&Mdoesn’t include ratings inside the product listings. The reviews are buried below the product details, which is hard to notice unless the customer scrolls to the bottom of the product detail page.

3. Pair star rating with the review count

When the ratings between products are close (all have 4.5 star ratings), seeing the review count can help customers decide which product is perceived to be better. Even the same product with different color or flavor variations may be perceived to be more or less popular than others. Combining the star rating with the number of reviews can improve the user experience by allowing customers to distinguish between otherwise very similar products. Vitacost, for example, combines star ratings and review counts to help the customer determine a product’s popularity.

Good: Vitacost combines star ratings and review counts to help the customer determine a product’s popularity. The example screenshot shows two products with the same average rating, but customers can tell which one is more popular by looking at the number of reviews.

Poor: Ann Taylor doesn’t combine star ratings and review counts, making it difficult to determine which product has more reviews than others.

4. Move ratings closer to the price

On product pages, the product name, rating, pricing, and action buttons are typically placed above the fold to make them easily visible to customers. On most e-commerce websites, the ratings can be found near the price information. It’s usually right above the price and just below the product name. Reviews and other more detailed information, such as user-submitted photos, can be found further down the page. Customers can become interested in the product right away and then learn more later. Walmart includes customer ratings right above the price. On the other hand, Costco hides customer reviews behind a tab. This may prevent customers from discovering the reviews while making a purchasing decision.

Good: Walmart includes customer ratings right above the price.

Poor: Costco hides customer reviews behind a tab. This may prevent customers from discovering the reviews while making a purchasing decision.

5. Provide a shortcut to navigate to the review section

Make the total number of star ratings into a shortcut link that takes users to the review section to show more details. The number of reviews is underlined on most e-commerce websites to indicate that it is a link to the review section. I’ve seen two common UX patterns for navigating to user reviews: jumping to a section down the page or opening in a side panel. Either way, adding a shortcut to the star ratings text allows for an easier navigation experience and increases the discoverability of the review section.

Good: Overstock’s star ratings text is clickable, taking customers to the review section for easier navigation.

Poor: Karmaloop’sreview count text (Read 1 Reviews) is clickable, but instead of taking customers to the review section, it takes them to the Q&A section, which contradicts the CTA label.

6. Include a review snapshot

The review snapshot is a summary of all collected reviews, aggregating all pros, cons, and best uses. It’s typically found on the product detail page, above the customer reviews. Based on the websites I’ve visited, this section has been the most varied. Some websites only display the distribution of review scores. On the other hand, stores like Walmart display the most helpful and least helpful reviews based on their review algorithm. L.L. Bean includes what customers think about an item’s fit by displaying customer fit feedback directly below the review snapshot. All successful review snapshots summarize customer reviews concisely with clear labels and include links to allow users to explore further.

Good: Amazon includes a review snapshot for each product. The rating distribution is paired with labels for easier interpretation. Each rating acts as a clickable filter for showing related reviews on click. It also provides a review breakdown by features such as quality of material and easy to clean.

Good: L.L. Beanincludes what customers rate the fit of an item by showing customer fit feedback right below the review snapshot.

Poor: Macy’sincludes a summary view of the review scores for each product. While the rating distribution is paired with labels for easier interpretation, it doesn’t act as clickable filters for exploration.

7. Include search, filter, sort review options

Finding relevant information in product reviews can be difficult, especially when the features and aspects of the products vary greatly. Sephora makes it easy to find relevant reviews using keyword filters like skin type and tone for a foundation product. Adidas, on the other hand, features the most mentioned keywords in customer reviews in the form of a filter. This saves users time by allowing them to decide whether the product meets their needs without having to read through multiple reviews to find what they want to learn about.

Good: Sephora makes it easy to find relevant reviews by allowing filtering reviews by keywords like skin type tone for a foundation product.

Good: Adidas rating section includes the most mentioned keywords in customer reviews in the form of a filter. This saves users time by allowing them to decide whether the product meets their needs without having to read through multiple reviews to find what they want to learn about.

Poor: Asos makes it difficult to find relevant customer reviews because there is no way to sort, get more information by clicking into the product rating snapshot, or search for keywords to find relevant customer reviews.

8. Include customer-submitted photos and videos

Professionally created product photos show the best angles of the product in proper lighting. While they increase the product’s attractiveness, they do not show how a product would fit or how it would look in a typical setting. Customer-submitted photos and videos can inspire users by putting products in a real-world context. In the case of beauty and clothing, it allows customers to see how the product looks on others, as the models showcasing the product might not represent their body type, gender, or skin tone. The customer review section on Home Depot includes user-submitted photos to help customers get a better idea of how a product looks in real life. In addition to photos, Amazon allows past purchasers to upload a video review that shows how the product looks in action.

Good: Home Depot’s customer review section includes customer-submitted photos to help others get a better idea of how a product looks in the real world.

Good: Amazon allows customers to share their opinions with other customers by submitting a video review.

Poor: Ikea doesn’t include customer-submitted photos and videos of how a product would look in people’s homes. Most Ikea furniture requires a certain level of skill to assemble. By not allowing users to submit visual references, they are passing up an opportunity to allow purchasers to potentially record how they install the furniture for the purpose of guiding less handy customers.

9. Provide relevant details about reviewers

It can be difficult to find relevant information in product reviews, especially when the features and aspects of the products vary greatly. L.L. Bean includes relevant details about the reviewer, such as which product option they purchased, review date, purchase location, review ranking, and verified purchase.

Good: L.L. Bean includes relevant details about the reviewer such as which product option they purchased, review date, purchase location, review ranking, verified purchase.

Poor: Nike doesn’t include relevant details about the reviewer. Instead of a username, it includes illegible alphanumeric characters that don’t add value to the helpfulness of the review.

10. Allow voting for helpfulness and commenting under reviews

Voting and commenting on reviews by other customers or the seller can boost the credibility of the site’s reviews. When a review is rated as helpful, it allows customers to see trustworthy input from previous buyers when looking for information. In the case of negative reviews, Target, for example, allows sellers to comment under reviews. Sellers can help clarify potential confusion or demonstrate that they are engaged and offer a resolution when there is an issue.

Good: Target allows sellers to comment under reviews. Sellers can help clarify potential confusion or demonstrate that they are engaged and offer resolution when there is an issue.

Poor: Anthropologie doesn’t allow voting for helpfulness and there is no mechanism in place to respond to negative reviews.

Conclusion

Effectively featuring customer reviews can help other customers to make more informed decisions and feel encouraged by other reviews, which is proven to positively impact the bottom line. While these recommendations are based on some of the most popular e-commerce sites and my own observations, it’s important to note that they are not rigid rules and represent only a small part of what it takes to build a successful e-commerce site. In addition to these suggestions, designing the best customer review section should be based on user feedback, goals, and tasks, as each site has unique needs and problems to solve. Additionally, it’s important to continuously measure how customer reviews are included on the site to drive optimizations.

Please leave a comment if you have any additional ideas for creating a great customer review section.

References

https://baymard.com/blog/user-perception-of-product-ratings

https://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating.html

https://www.powerreviews.com/insights/power-of-reviews-survey-2021/

https://www.powerreviews.com/insights/2021-ugc-conversion-impact-analysis/