Review Aggregators
You’ve probably heard a lot about the importance of reviews lately – especially in this post-pandemic marketing world, people are relying on reviews more than ever to help them decide whether to go with your business or not. Let’s make a distinction about what we’re talking about here – first party reviews are ones you’ve gathered yourself and may have published on your website or shared on social media. Otherwise known as testimonials, they are lovely. But how trust-worthy? 🥺
What’s a review aggregator?
It’s a site that displays third party reviews that are submitted by consumers. Think Yelp or TripAdvisor. Generally they have a rating system of 1 to 5 stars, plus some text.
While review aggregators can be intimidating for ecommerce owners, because they give customers an opportunity to write whatever they want, if you have an ecommerce business or you operate in a particularly competitive sector, being listed on an independent review site such as Trustpilot, or Yotpo or any of the ones we review below, can strengthen your brand perception, increase trust, and help you in your quest to build legions of loyal customers who always shop with you. Research shows that third party ratings can boost conversion rate by up to 3%.
Note that the only SEO benefit of being listed on a review aggregator is the link from their highly ranked site to yours. Contrary to what they say, being listed does not help your SEO, despite their claims.
Why You Can’t Ignore Third Party Review Sites
According to research by Deloitte Ireland, third party review sites are important because:
- In the last year, more consumers read online reviews than spoke to in-store staff.
- Two-thirds of consumers like to visit a retailer’s website before they make a purchase. A trusted third-party review site with business listings is likely to come up on a Google search before your own website, so it’s a sneaky way to show up in search results.
- Consumers under the age of 35 put most trust in anonymous online customer reviews when researching a product or service.
- Two-thirds of consumers said that their purchasing decisions are influenced by reading reviews from other customers, and the same proportion said that would themselves leave reviews on third-party review sites, regardless of an experience being positive or negative.
Which Review Aggregator?
There are a lot of third party review sites out there, including the major platforms and the smaller, industry specific ones. We review four third party review sites below.
4 Review Sites Reviewed!
1. Trustpilot
TrustPilot is a third party review site where consumers can look up businesses anywhere in the world and leave them a review. It’s more geared to company reviews and if you dig a little, you will find it’s not really well loved by its users. Check out the Trustpilot listing for Trustpilot!
How Does It Work?
Consumers must create a free account to leave a review, and businesses must create a free account to respond. You don’t need an account to view a company’s ratings and reviews though.
Anyone can leave a review on Trustpilot, but there are guidelines to protect businesses from unfair or defamatory reviews.
How Much Does It Cost?
There is a free plan, and a paid plan for businesses. It’s expensive and they try to lock you into annual contracts, but try asking them for one of their “secret” month-to-month plans!
Free Plan
- Claim profile page
- Invite customer reviews
- Receive support
- See basic performance reports
- Use 2 TrustBox widgets
- Drive Google Seller Ratings
Paid Plan – from $199 per month, paid annually
- Upgrade your profile page
- Invite more customer reviews
- Access to Customer Success team
- Learn from detailed analysis
- Use 8 review TrustBox widgets
- Drive Google Seller Ratings
- Gain access to marketing assets
- Access add-on modules
The Verdict
Trustpilot is expensive, but it is well known and trusted, so can confer a certain cachet on your brand. Use with care would be our recommendation.
2. Loox
Loox is a platform that allows Shopify merchants to gather reviews and valuable user-generated content from their customers. Shopify users love how easy it is to connect Loox. See what Shopify users have to say about using Loox!
How Does It Work?
Connect Loox to your Shopify with ease. Set up automatic review request emails to send your customers after they receive their purchase. Customise the timing of the emails to make sure the review requests are sent once products are delivered to customers. Add reviews to your product pages and create a dedicated page for all of your reviews. A Loox widget can be added as a sidebar popup and reviews can also be added as popups throughout your website.
How Much Does It Cost?
See if Loox is the right option for you with a 14 day free trial. After that, choose one of their plans that best suits your customer review needs.
The Verdict
Loox has many options for displaying your reviews. The price is very affordable considering all of its easy to use features. It is a superb tool for Shopify users!
3. Yotpo
Whether you are a small, medium or enterprise business, Yotpo makes it easy to receive feedback from your loyal customers. Yotpo is used by a lot of successful enterprise businesses. Check out some case studies on how Yotpo helps these businesses succeed!
How Does It Work?
Begin by connecting Yotpo within your eCommerce platform. Yotpo requires for you to install it’s Javascript into your eCommerce platform. This will allow for customisation and optimise receiving customer feedback. Once everything it installed, you can begin using Yotpo to send review request emails to your customers. You can also add review on-site widgets to get the most out of your customer feedback.
How Much Does It Cost?
Yotpo offers a free plan, but if you need more upgrade to their Premium plan. The pricing of the Premium plan is based on your needs. Chat with a a helpful Yotpo expert to learn more about what your Premium plan would look like and try out a demo!
Free
- 50 monthly orders
- Review request emails
- On-site widgets
- Basic customisation
- Content management
Premium
- Custom monthly orders
- Google & Facebook integration
- Advanced content management
- Widgets & email customisation
The Verdict
Yotpo is a great tool if you don’t want to spend too much time learning how to set up a review aggregator. Get all of the feedback you need for free or try the Premium plan tailored to all of your business needs!
4. Feefo
This UK based review aggregator is determined to enhance your brand business by building relationships with your customers. Each plan is customised based on your needs, including price. Learn more about the success Feefo has provided businesses here!
How Does It Work?
First, you connect with a member of Feefo’s on-boarding team to get started. They will walk you through all of the steps to connect Feefo to you eCommerce platform. You will learn the ins and outs of all the tools apart of tailored your plan. Feefo allows for you to send your sales data manually or automatically. The more customer data sent to Feefo, the more you will learn about how to attract customers and skyrocket your business!
How Much Does It Cost?
Feefo offers 3 different pricing plans with core features. Your Feefo expert will tailor your plan and pricing based on your eCommerce needs!
The Verdict
You are able to connect and learn from a Feefo expert. This is great if you aren’t quite sure how to get started with a third party review tool. Feefo personalises your business needs to build relationships with your customers.
How to Get the (Good!) Reviews Rolling In
- Ensure that your business profile is fully up to date on any third party review sites that you’re listed on.
- Be proactive in asking happy customers to write reviews – if you don’t ask, you don’t get!
- Check your reviews regularly and reply to the negative reviews. When responding to negative reviews it’s important to keep your cool – this blog post details our top tips for managing negative reviews.
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