6 Great Examples For eCommerce Thank You Pages

We all know it is good business etiquette and common politeness to say thank-you to customers after a purchase; but thank-you pages are for more than that. So why are thank-you pages more than just good manners? If used correctly, they can help build your brand, loyal customers, enable you to interact with a shopper beyond the sale, and upsell. Thank-you pages are what will leave your shoppers with a lasting impression and help build loyalty.
There is a variety of creative yet simple ways you can capitalize on your thank-you page and help you turn first-time shoppers into loyal customers. Here’s how.

1. Using Video to Showcase Your Brand

Your thank-you page is an extension of your brand and as we mentioned, a chance to stand out and leave that lasting impression. To do this effectively you want to be true to your brand in how it is designed, the copy you use and the unique spin you use. A prime example of this is online store Halloween Costumes’s use of a video on their thank-you page.









Not only is the use of video content a winner, because as we know video is content king, but the uniqueness is hard to forget and goes a long way to boosting customer experience.

2. Be Social

Someone who has just bought from you will be more encouraged to like your Facebook page or follow you on Twitter. So why not use your thank-you page to increase social followers by putting your social buttons front and center?









By adding social buttons to your thank-you page, you are encouraging excited shoppers who are already a captive audience to be ‘friends’ with your brand. And the best part is, it’s free!

3. Including a Referral Incentive

Thank-you pages can also be used to spread brand awareness by offering a referral incentive or loyalty program. It can be as simple as sharing with friends to get a discount on their next purchase or as elaborate as a full loyalty program like the example below.  









Not only do these referrals build awareness, but also trust. Aren’t you more likely to shop from an online store that a friend or family member recommended? ‘Word of mouth’ marketing can go a long way to increasing constant sales.

4. Include a VIP Reward

Adding a loyalty program is as easy as installing an app and by adding them to your thank-you page, you are pitching to buyers who trust you enough to have just made a purchase. Or why not just offer a reward to everyone by simply including a promo code on your thank-you page like the example below?









Bonus Tip: You could combine the first four tip suggestions to offer a limited-time discount to everyone who signs up for your newsletter.

5. Be Helpful With Links to Other Content  

Show off your blog and ensure you establish yourself as the authority in your niche by using your thank-you page to push blog content. Adding a list of recent posts, guides or resources like return policy pages will go a long way in getting more traffic to these pages as well, thus improving SEO as well.  







Alternatively, you can use this time and space to push related products to try and push for more sales. If your theme doesn’t offer customization, there are a bunch of apps out there to help you with this without much tech know-how needed – such as Thank You Page Customizer.

6. Keeping it Simple

The last but possibly the most important hack is to keep your thank-you page simple. Concentrate on only one or two elements mentioned above and test which type of hack gets the best results. Like with the rest of your site, clean ideas with a clear message are key to using your thank-you page as a brand-building tool. Too many deals, related products, offers and copy will not leave a lasting impression and may only confuse your shoppers.
This goes for your copy as well. You will want to continue in the tone of voice you have used throughout your site and keep the copy clear and simple like you can see in the example below.









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There you have it, just in time for the busy shopping days coming up: 6 simple hacks to capitalize on your eCommerce thank-you pages. Have something to add? Reach out in the comments below!
Happy selling!
















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How to Prepare Your Online Store for 2017 Holiday Season: Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas

Want in on billions of dollars of holiday online sales? Of course you do!
The fourth quarter is well under way, and time is a ticking. If you haven’t started prepping your store and planning your campaigns for the biggest eCommerce shopping days of the year, you’re almost out of time to ensure you get a piece of the holiday pie. And with eMarketer predicting that 2017 will see a further growth of 15% from last year’s $394.86 billion, the pie is pretty big.
You only have to look at Google Trends for searches on “Christmas gift ideas” in 2016 to see that searches start as soon as August.





But Christmas sales are not the only sales that deserve some extra marketing effort. According to Comcore, these were the top spending days in 2016:





Which means the biggest shopping days you should be getting ready for are:

• Thanksgiving  (23 November 2017).
• Black Friday (24 November 2017)
• Cyber Monday (27 November 2017)
• Green Monday (11 December 2017)
• Super Saturday (23 December 2017)

With just two months to go, in eCommerce terms, Cyber Monday is just around the corner. But don’t panic; we’ve got you. In this post we look at the three steps you need to take NOW to ensure your store is ready for the 2017 holiday shopping madness.

Step 1: Check Your Store Is Optimized for the Holiday

1. Check Your Fulfillment Integration

As you may know, fulfilment integration is how your cart links to your sales process. In other words, it’s what happens from the time a customer checks out to when they receive their purchase. Whether you have manual systems in place, are using fulfillment apps such as ShipStation or you’re dropshipping from a third party, the last thing an eCommerce store wants when they’re raking in orders is poor fulfillment integration.
If you’re using a new app, using a new dropshipper, or if this is your first holiday season, you will want to test your systems beforehand to make sure any issues are fixed before the peak hits.
Pro Tip: If you are not using automatic fulfillment integration for your online store, consider investing in it now before the shopping mania starts. Automatic fulfillment can reduce preparation time and get orders shipped quicker, cut costs on hiring temps and streamline your processes, which enables you to give better customer service.

2. Increase Lead Generation With the Right Tools

Email marketing is a huge part of your holiday marketing plan, so by now you need to be beefing up your email lists. Powerful remarketing can enable you to reach  people who are already familiar with your store, especially at a time when they are being bombarded by thousands of sales and messages a day. Collecting email addresses ahead of time is paramount as is ensuring good email marketing platform integration. Now is the time when you should be testing, looking at your subscription opt-in rates and other top email marketing metrics and installing apps like Coupon Pop to grow your email lists before November.  

3. Add and Test Customer Service Tools and Strategies

Another important pre-season must is to make sure you have a sufficient CRM system in place. Customer service is key to ensuring you can field questions and put out fires quickly to increase sales while building lifetime customers.  





It’s easy for things to fall through the cracks when you’re busy, so checking or adding to your CRM tools now will enable to give the best customer service. It is important to make sure you are able to handle email, online chat and ticketing with increased traffic, as well as to make your FAQ searchable and visible so customer questions can be answered quickly and efficiently. Tools such as Zendesk can take care of  all of the above from as little as $5 per month.

Or for smaller stores not wanting big CRM tool investments, you can add free Facebook Chat apps to ensure your customers can always get a hold of you. That’s a small price to pay for a smooth holiday season!

4. Do a Load Test

Load testing is a way of ensuring that certain areas of your site will handle sudden influx of excess store traffic. You will want to check your site speed, payment gateways, product pages and checkouts performs at their peak when traffic is pushed. This is particularly important for newer small businesses who are facing their first Christmas. Some tools you can use to check this include LoadImpact and Pingdom.
Bonus Content: Here are 12 questions you can ask yourself to ensure your site is optimized for sales ahead of the holiday season: The Online Store Feedback You’ve Been Waiting for. 

5. Plan Your Holiday Site Themes

A recent study found that UX/CX (customer experience) would overtake product and price by 2020 as the key differentiator between brands; your store interface is a big part of this. Decorating your store with themed banners will draw people’s attention and ensure they make the connection between the gifts and the products you sell.





Bonus Tip: Don’t forget to upgrade your email and landing page templates too!

6. Update Store Policies

You’ll want to review your shipping and return policies and update them if need be. Big holiday shopping days spell much more competition for online store owners, and it therefore may be worth making temporary adjustments to these policies to help you make more sales. By offering free shipping or broadening your payment option choices over the holiday season to include other gateways like PayPal or Bitcoin, can go a long way to boosting sales.

Step 2: Prepare Holiday Season Marketing Plan

1. Review the Stats

The first thing you need to do to build your holiday marketing plan is to review your stats from last year. Look at which promotions brought in the most sales, which ads brought the best ROIs and which device your shoppers were shopping on. Check for the better performing CTAs, and look back through your emails and reviews to see what customer issues were. Additionally, take a look at last year’s top traffic sources and converters as well as your sales to date to see which of your most popular products could be big this shopping holiday season. But don’t forget to keep an eye out for analytics lies such as Facebook Referral Traffic discrepancies and ghost spam.

2. Choose Your Key Holidays

Next, you’ll want to pick and choose your holidays. As a small business owner, it may not be worth the spend for you tackle the holidays that are not relevant to your product or niche. If you have a smaller marketing budget, choose the holidays more likely to bring you the most potential customers, and concentrate your marketing spending on those.

3. Put Together Your Promotions Calendar

You are now ready to start planning your promotional calendar which includes all the deals or specials you’ll be running and when so  you can plan launch dates for marketing campaigns, due dates for landing pages and/or banners and what store changes you need to make and their timing.  Here are some proven successful eCommerce promotion types you might consider:

Gift Cards

According to Gift Card Granny, gift cards have been the most requested holiday gift nine years in a row, and digital gift card sales are estimated to reach $15 billion by the end of this year. By offering and promoting gift cards this holiday season, you can cash in on a lot of last-minute shoppers. Woocommerce and Shopify both offer online store owners the ability to add gift cards to your store for free.

Bundles

Bundle promotions are an awesome way to upsell while offering enticing discounts. It is important when planning your holiday bundles that the products you choose make sense together and offer value, all while giving you the opportunity to increase profit margins.

Free Shipping

Did you know that 36% of customers will decide not to buy from you if your delivery fees are too high? Offering free shipping over the holiday season can boost sales in a big way.

Don’t forget to use a prominent banner or pop up so that visitors can see straight away that you are running a free shipping promotion.

ProTip: Upsell faster delivery in Checkout. A lot of shoppers are willing to pay more for faster delivery around the holidays, especially if they have left things until the last minute.

Discounts  

Your customers will expect discounts, and they should be part of your holiday promotion plan.

There is no firm rule on how much of a discount you should offer; this will depend on your margin as well as what your specific target audience will respond to. For Black Friday and Cyber Monday, discounts should be at least between 20% – 45% in order for you to compete.     

4. Plan Your Channels

The next step is to decide on which advertising and marketing channels/platforms and content marketing strategies you will be using for holiday promotions. You will want to base your choice on where you are more successful, where your potential customers are and of course where you did best in previous seasons.  Here are the top must-have marketing channels to include in your Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas marketing.  

Email Marketing

 

Email campaigns to highly segmented audiences are highly successful. They also have the best ROIs.

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For instance, you can target previous shoppers with holiday deals that are similar to what they have bought previously of those that are at the same price point  as they have spent before. You can also use it to target new shoppers with countdowns to sales and holiday product launches.

AdWords

Google AdWords can get you instantaneous traffic. Meaning if you haven’t run your campaigns yet, or if you want to rev up your traffic for the next big holiday spending day, you still have time. The two main reasons why you need AdWords this holiday season are:

• It’s the best traffic source for your spend
• It converts better, which means better ROIs

Plus with new apps like Traffic Booster automatic optimization will get you the traffic without all the hard work; freeing up time to deal with sales. Ultimately, AdWords is one of the best ways you can connect potential shoppers to the different holiday campaigns you are running.

Blog Posts

Adding holiday-related blog posts to your content plan will not only boost your SEO but attract traffic from social media while building trust. Holiday gift guides, like the example from Zappos below, are a popular content choice for eCommerce stores, as gift buying advice is a hot topic over the holidays.

Using your email and social marketing to push this content brings great traffic.

Facebook Advertising

Your second best traffic driver is Facebook. A holiday content plan or promotion marketing campaign wouldn’t be complete without some well-structured Facebook ads. The possibilities with Facebook is endless; check out our Sale Boosting Facebook Ad Features That Will Turn You Pro post to get you started.

Remember, video is king of engagement and reach, which means a perfect video ad could get you a lot of viral traffic.

Pro Tip: As we know, Facebook’s custom audiences allows for unprecedented targeting. From lookalikes to remarketing and dynamic ads, by setting up your holiday target audiences now, you can cut your work in half when November hits and things start to heat up.

Step 3: Holiday Season Store Prep

November and December can be a whirlwind, therefore doing as much pre-season prep as you can in October will ensure you have the time to handle more orders once you get busier, help you put out any fires and keep your customer service up to scratch.
Once you have your promotional plan and your marketing channels planned as described in Steps 1 and 2, it is time to put together as much of the artwork, email automation, design, images and text as you can. Here is an eCommerce preseason checklist to help you be ready for the traffic floods:

• Set your holidays goals
• Set your holiday marketing budget
• Double check your stock
• Prepare all promotional ads (text and pictures) so that they are ready for publishing.
• Create segmented holiday marketing target audiences for Facebook and email lists.
• Design festive banners, email templates and social headers ahead of time so you’re ready for easy replacement.
• Put together your holiday season content marketing plan, and write your posts two weeks before publish date.
• Hire peak season temps
• Plan your returns
• Double check website security and speed

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There you have it!  You’re now well on your way to being prepared for all those Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas sales. Let the busy times begin!










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23+ Online Design Tools to Create Perfect Visuals Without Design Know-How

I am sure that by now most eCommerce owners understand the importance of visuals for marketing. What do ‘Visuals’ include? They include images, animated GIFs, videos and the newer growing trend of cinemagraphs. Adweek predicts that by 2018, 84% of marketing will be visual, and by 2020 will account for 80% of web traffic. So why have visuals become so important? Because visual communication:

• Helps with better information retention
• Saves advertisers time in getting their message out
• Allows advertisers to connect with audiences emotionally  
• Provides clear messaging that distinguishes you from the competition

With the rise of visual usage comes the rise of visual tools designed to ensure you can provide content that delivers without the expense of hiring professional designers. Giving small to medium business the chance to create perfect visuals to are able to display difficult concepts in a clear, easy-to-understand way, emotionally connect you to potential shoppers and stand out from the crowd.
In this post we will look at 23+ affordable online design tools to help you create perfect visuals without design know-how.

1. Adobe Spark

Tool: Design App

Adobe Spark is a design app that enables you to create animated videos, web stories and social visuals in minutes. It gives users access to beautiful typography, fonts, icons and images, and professional themes. Their basic free plan lets you try your hand at designing video stories, graphics and video and is available on IOS, desktop and Android with the ability to sync between devices before upgrading to their premium plan. At only $9.99 p/m, paid-for Spark will give you full design control.
Price: From $0

2. BeFunky

Tool: Photo Collage Maker & Editor

BeFunky is a photo editing platform that will help you take your product images to the next level, create image collages and do basic designs from flyers to business cards. Photo editing is as easy as uploading the photo, making your adjustments and saving, right from your computer or phone. BeFunky basic has ads but you can upgrade from as little as $3 p/m.
Price: From $0

3. Bitmoji

Tool: Avatar Creator





100% free, the Bitmoji app enables you to make your own customized emojis (a.k.a. digital avatars) that you can use for the “meet the team” section of your site or to personalize your messaging when communicating with customers. Also a great way to add a little fun to your message selling in email and social private messaging, the Bitmoji chrome extension will get your Avatar on the web with ease.
Price: Free

Boomerang by Instagram

Tool: Video Maker App

This is one of my personal favorites…. If you’ve been active on Instagram, you have probably seen the Boomerang download option or those popular videos that run in a loop. This free video maker allows you to take mini videos or up to 10 photos and put them together to form a video loop – great for showcasing your products on social media. Plus, no signup is needed to take advantage of this online design tool!
Price: Free

4. Canva

Tool: Design Software

There is very little you cannot design with Canva, making it the leading online design platform. With the recent launch of their IOS app version they have grown into a considerable resource for online marketers and increasing their design capabilities continuously, which now includes even logo design. Super easy to use; I have personally used Canva on anything from social posts to business cards and often choose it over ‘fancier’ design programs I used to use. This platform offers free and cheap templates that can be adapted for almost any brand or niche.
Price: Free

5. Ease.ly

Tool: Infographic Maker





If you’re finally getting your content marketing strategy off the ground, infographics can be a great tool for Pinterest or blogs to show that you’re an authority in your niche. Enter Ease.ly, the tool that helps you easily create infographics without the need for a designer. With Ease.ly you can create your own or adapt one of thousands of templates.
Price: From $0
Bonus: Some other infographic tools you can try include: Piktochart, Venngage and Visme. 

6. Flixel

Tool: Cinemagraph Maker

Flixel is a cinemagraph maker you can use from your Mac or iPhone. Cinemagraphs are photos with moving elements and are becoming an increasingly popular tool for eCommerce products, and 2014’s Apple Design Award winner Fixel is leading the cinemagraph maker tool way. If you don’t use IOS you can also try the Android alternative: Fotodanz. 
Price: From $0

7. Free Logo Design

Tool: Logo Design Tool

As we know from our Online Store Feedback post, having a good logo is important for branding and trust-building. With Free Logo Design, you can now build your store’s logo for absolutely free. It is easy to navigate and offers 1,000s of free templates to get you branded in no time at all. If you do need your logo in a higher resolution the cost is $59, a very affordable alternative to contracting a designer.
Price: Free
Bonus: Other online logo makers to try: Tailorbrands, Logaster, Logo Garden, Logojoy, Logo Maker by Ucraft and Logotype Maker.  

8. Gifmaker.me

Tool: Slideshow, Animation & GIF Maker

With Giftmaker you can create animated avatars and icons, turn videos into GIFs and resize, edit and combine GIFs online. GIFs are a popular Messenger add-on and social media content that are shared and easy to engage with.
Price: Free

9. Giphy

Tool: GIF Maker and Library





Another free GIF maker you can use to up your visual game. What makes this online tool so great is the access to hundreds of thousands of ready-made GIFs you can use if you don’t want to make your own and/or want to keep up with GIF trends.
Price: Free

10. Gliffy

Tool: Diagram Maker

Become a chart and diagram expert with this handy online diagram maker tool. Gliffy is easy to use and lets you choose from templates or create your own to create diagrams in minutes. Design options include: overview, flow charts, network diagrams, floor plans, mind maps, Venn diagrams, SWOT analyses, wireframes, site maps, UML, business process models, technical drawings and organizational charts – all the behind-the-scenes a growing business needs. Their basic package lets you make unlimited amounts of diagrams, export your images and gives you 24/7 support.
Price: From $8 p/m

11. Google Photos

Tool: Photo Collage and Animation Maker & Storage
 

Another collage maker and animator, Google Photos is a great free tool. Plus, as it is part of your drive it will help you keep all your photos in one place, nice and organized. As any online seller will tell you, having organized product photos is a must for efficiently. From Google Photos you can edit and make collages and animations like the one above right from your storage that collates camera, laptop and phone photos.
Price: Free

12. Infogram

Tool: Infographic, Map & Graph Maker

Infogram is another infographic design tool that makes the list, but it isn’t just infographics you can produce. With Infogram you have over 35 interactive map prototypes, millions of images and icons, in-house expert editing, and graphs in GIF, PNG and PDF formats. They boast to be the easiest way to design and share interactive data visualizations, perfect for eCommerce wanting to show valuable information in a crisp, clear way.
Price: From $0

13. Jing

Tool: Screen Recorder

Jing is a video creation app for either Windows or Mac that lets you turn screenshots into video – you can download here. This is a great tool for digital eCommerce sellers who want to produce short how-to tutorials. With Jing, you can choose which segments of your desktop you would like to shoot and you can record for up to five minutes.
Price: From $0

14. Landscape by Sprout Social

Tool: Photo Resizing Tool

Sprout Social’s drag-and-drop photo editing tool Landscape is free and easy to use. This online tool lets you upload any image, choose which social networks you want them uploaded to and then lets you edit accordingly. The advantage of this tool is that when uploading social content, you won’t need to edit every photo manually when posting, which saves you a lot of time.
Price: Free

15. Makeagif

Tool: GIF Maker

If you want to get more out of your content, why not turn your YouTube videos into GIFs? Another leading online GIF creator is Makeagif, which will enable you to make a GIF from almost anything including YouTube videos and Facebook content. This free tool is easy to navigate and also includes a handy collection of ready-made GIFs you can download.
Price: Free
Bonus: Another free GIF and Meme Creator you can try is Memecenter. 

16. Pagemodo

Tool: Social Media Visual Maker

Pagemodo is a visual creation tool designed specifically around Facebook. It enables you to launch professional-looking Facebook pages and create Facebook ad visuals, but it is more than just a design tool. Along with designing cover images, contests, and post designs, Pagemodo will also help you collect leads on social media with custom tabs and contests and offer scheduling solutions.
Price: From $6.25 p/m

17. Photo Collage

Tool: Image Editor

PhotoCollage is a simplistic collage maker and photo resizer that is easy to use and doesn’t require any sign-in. It’s as easy as dragging the photos in, choosing from thousands of templates, adding your text and sharing the content.
Bonus Content: More free collage makers you can try include Photovisi, which also offers card design, and PicMonkey for collages and editing.
Price: Free

18. Picresize

Tool: Photo Editing

This is one of my favorite editing sites that I use for resizing images for this very blog. It is as easy as dragging the image or photo into the site and clicking ‘resize,’ after which you can crop, rotate, resize, add special effects, and limit file size to your online specifications. All this for absolutely free!
Price: Free
Bonus: Some more simple image resizers include: Simple Image Resizer and Timeline Slicer for cover images.

19. Power Banner

Tool: Banner Creator

If you’re looking to design banner ads or site banners for your next creation, then our Banner Creator is for you. With this design tool you can take advantage of ready-designed templates, professional fonts and buttons, simple one-click creation and easy adaptations for PC, social and site banner artwork.
Price: Free

20. Profile Picture Maker

Tool: Framed Profile Photos

Have you noticed the recent trend of people using temporary profile pics with a frame? They normally contain an event or a product/brand they like, and with Profile Picture Maker you can create and add a relevant frame or stickers to display on your business page when you have a specific promotion, etc.
Price: Free

21. Quotes Cover

Tool: Social Cover Designer

Similar to Profile Picture Maker, Quotes Cover is an online design tool that helps you create themed covers for your Facebook pages, events and group covers, Pinterest quote posts, or quoted Instagram images. As we all know, quotes have big engagement on social media and this is a way to easily add some to your content plan for free.  
Price: Free
Bonus: More quote creators you can try out include Quozio. 

22. Soapbox

Tool: Video Maker
Soapbox is a video creation tools that proves you don’t need to hire fancy videographers to make the perfect video ads. Created by Wistia, this Chrome extension tool doesn’t require any skill on the part of the user and lets you customize player colors and thumbnails, re-edit videos and include links at the ends of your videos – perfect for creating tutorials. Here’s a full tutorial on how you can use this tool:


Price: From $0

23. Stencil

Tool: Image Maker

Video Player

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Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

Stencil is a fast, lightweight, user-friendly image creation tool. With this tool you have access to 650+ templates, over 100k quotes, 2k Google Web Fonts, over 1 million background photos and over 800k icons and graphics to choose from.
Price: From $0
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Have a favorite online design tool you’re using that’s not on the list? Share them in the comments below!

How Private Label Sellers Can Get More Amazon Product Reviews (Legally)!

There are two types of reviews (feedback) on Amazon:

• Product reviews – These can be found on the product listings page. They should be solely focused on the product itself.
• Seller feedback – These can be found on the seller’s profile. This is where the buyer rates your seller performance (shipping, response time, etc.).

This blog will focus on product reviews but if you want to learn more about seller feedback, check out our previous post. 

Why are Product Reviews Important?

According to a study by BrightLocal in 2016, 79% of us trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations and 91% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses.
Imagine, you’re shopping for a new slow cooker on Amazon and you see two products priced similarly. Product A has 50 reviews while Product B has 500 reviews. Both products are rated 4.2 out of 5 stars.



Which are you more likely to purchase?
Answer: Product B.
This is why product reviews are so vital for private label sellers—they are a silent force that help drive sales and increase conversion rates. Positive product reviews provide social proof and build consumer trust—potential buyers can see that you’re selling a quality product which people are happy with. They’ll also help improve your product visibility, making it easier for buyers to find your products. To learn more about how to rank your products higher on Amazon, check out this article. 

How to Generate More Product Reviews

Firstly, as I’m sure many of you are aware, it is against Amazon’s terms of service to offer incentives for product reviews. Don’t do it, it’s not worth it. If you get caught, and you will, eventually, you’ll lose your selling privileges.
In Amazon’s words, “You may not intentionally manipulate your products’ rankings, including by offering an excessive number of free or discounted products, in exchange for a review.” Amazon encourages you to request reviews but any attempt to manipulate reviews is prohibited. This includes asking for a positive review or providing incentives for reviews.
Getting product reviews on Amazon can take a long time. For every 100 orders, a typical response rate is 1 or 2 product reviews.





However, by using the professional templates within FeedbackExpress, sellers are typically seeing a much higher level of engagement and ultimately more product reviews… Yay!
Here’s our four-step process for getting more product reviews on Amazon:

• Sell a high-quality product.
• Have an outstanding product detail page that clearly details what the product is.
• Provide a great customer experience.
• Use reputable automated product review software such as FeedbackExpress to increase engagement levels.

If you’ve achieved the first three steps, then all you need to do is ask for a review in the right way and at the right time, and make the review process simple.


Here’s a funny one for a t-shirt with three wolves on it.

When to Ask for Product Reviews

With reviews, timing is everything! Within FeedbackExpress, you can decide when you want to ask for a review. This includes: sending your review request X days after the item has been delivered or when a buyer has left seller feedback. Those buyers who do leave positive seller feedback are more likely to take the time to leave a product review as well— so ensure you follow up with these customers.
A popular strategy among FeedbackExpress users is to send a number of emails at different points that add value and build rapport with customers. You should make your emails as personal as you can.
For example, here’s a two-step process which can be easily automated within our software.

Email 1: Customer service – Product has been shipped.

“Thank you for your order. I just wanted to let you know your item has been shipped.

Here are some top tips on how to use your new product.”

This a good time to introduce your brand (always include your logo) and offer tips on using your product, if relevant. It’s also an opportunity to prevent negative feedback by including your customer service details so buyers can get in touch if they have any issues with their order, instead of getting frustrated and posting a negative review. This demonstrates that customer satisfaction is important to you. The added benefit of sending a customer service email first, besides improving brand awareness and reducing negative feedback, is that it increases your product review count. When you ask for a review at a later date, buyers already know about you, they remember that you offered them tips on how to use the product and they’re more receptive to posting a product review because of that.

Email 2: Product review request – One week after delivery.

“Have you had a chance to try out [product name]? If so, what do you think? Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.”

Inform sellers that you’re a small business that highly values customer satisfaction and feedback. If the buyer asks a question, answer it as soon as you can—even after the purchase. The timing of when to ask for a product review (after an order has been delivered) will largely depend on the product. This could range from a day or two for a phone charger to a few weeks for a health and beauty product that needs to be tested first. But, don’t ask for a review before you know the product has been delivered safely.
Also, don’t be shy about sending follow-up emails, but don’t bombard buyers. People are busy and for whatever reason, don’t open all their emails. A great feature in FeedbackExpress is the ability to resend a product review request if the buyer didn’t open the first email, typically 3-4 days after the initial one. This is, without question, one feature that helps to increase your product review count.

How to Ask for a Product Review

When you send an email, you should customize your content and add value. Here are seven tips to help you create a great product review request process.

• Personalize your emails and include a logo.
• Add value by giving tips on how to use the product.
• Always be polite and professional.
• Ask open-ended questions such as, “How did you find?”
• Don’t offer incentives!
• Include a link to the product review page to make it easier for buyers to comment directly. Don’t include links to external sites!
• Remind buyers that you’re happy to address any concerns they may have.

Need help? Check out this great free template for requesting Amazon product reviews.

How to Deal with Negative Product Reviews

Negative product reviews are the Achilles heel of every private label seller. Amazon will not remove a product review unless it is against their guidelines. For example, if the product review is seller feedback, and contains nothing about the product itself. Amazon will also consider removing a review that contains unsuitable content, abhorrent speech, violent content or promotes illegitimate conduct.
If you find a comment which you think may warrant removal, click on the “Report abuse” link, then enter the reason why you find the content inappropriate. You can also contact Seller Support for any reviews which infringe on Amazon’s guidelines.


If your request is successful, you’ll receive this message from Amazon:







If you receive a valid product review, respond to the customer as soon as you can and try to find out what happened. Show the customer that you value customer service. Amazon doesn’t edit reviews but buyers can change their product review at any time. However, sellers are not allowed to pressure buyers into removing reviews.
If there was a genuine issue with the product then you may want to consider sending a replacement or offering a partial or full refund. Alternatively, you could offer a coupon for a future purchase. If there was a misunderstanding about the product, this is a good opportunity for you to give your side of the story. When communicating with the customer, empathize and show that you are interested in helping to resolve their issue. In some cases you might want to respond publicly to the comment to demonstrate that you value customer service and product quality. However, when you’re responding, try not to come across as defensive.
When you communicate with customers – whether manually or using automated software – you should abide by Amazon’s guidelines. The two main mistakes sellers make are offering incentives and including links in their messaging. The only link you are permitted to include is a link for a customer to leave a review for a purchase.

Can bad reviews be good for your business?

Well, in a way they can, as long as the majority of reviews remain positive. For example, a bad review could help you improve your product or listings. If you receive a number of bad product reviews highlighting the same issue, then you should take action to eradicate that issue with your product, making it better for future buyers.
Also, a study undertaken by Reevoo revealed that 95% of customers suspect fake or censored reviews when bad scores aren’t present. So, a bad review could actually be beneficial by making your business appear more credible.

How to Avoid Negative Product Reviews on Amazon

Despite the positives that negative feedback can bring, it’s advisable to prevent it from happening if you can.
So, here are six quick tips to help you avoid negative product reviews.

• Provide accurate and detailed product descriptions.
• Include images of the product from different angles.
• Consider using images with a 360-degree view or video for higher value items.
• Evaluate the reasons for why negative product reviews are left.
• Check that the product matches the order before you ship.
• Try to give some context for the size of the product—many negative product reviews relate to the product being much smaller than anticipated.

This seller provides a customer service number to proactively prevent negative feedback:

Conclusion

For any seller who creates their own listings, whether it’s a one-off product, a bundle, or a private label product line, having a way to increase product reviews without breaking Amazon’s terms of service is critical to their business.
Product review software like FeedbackExpress makes the process of gathering reviews so much easier through automation and is fully compliant with Amazon’s terms of service. You can customize templates written by professional copywriters proven to increase customer engagement.









Many sellers are taking advantage of the Free 30-day trial and seeing the benefits it can bring to their Amazon business. After 30 days you can decide if the software is worth the investment.
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An automated feedback solution is a great way to generate more product reviews and prevent negative feedback. Use the code STOREYA10, and you can enjoy 30 days of Amazon feedback software for free (no credit card required), then get a 10% discount on your first month’s subscription.











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