Negative reviews help conversions

Product reviews, whether on an ecommerce site or in social media, are proving to be an effective online sales tool. Peer reviews seem to have far greater credibility than normal reviews such as those found in industry magazines, manufacturers websites etc.

However, while many ecommerce store owners are afraid of enabling comments on blogs or enabling customer product reviews for fear of negative comments, I read an interesting article today on Biz Report that quoted research that seemed to indicate that negative reviews could actually help to improve sales conversions. The premise is that everyone knows that most if not all products have problems from time to time, and unrelenting glowing reviews are considered to be most likely censored and presenting a false view of the real situation, whereas reviews or comments that provide negative feedback add to the overall credibilty of the company and products.

Some of the differences in conversion rates were staggering, 67% increase in conversion rates when negative reviews were included.

So if you're wondering if you should add product reviews to your site, the answer seems to be a resounding yes!