Ratings and Reviews is not something that is new and evident only in eCommerce businesses. It has always been one of the most trusted means for Consumers, for making purchase decisions. A Mother will always ask other Mothers while choosing the best and healthy baby food for her baby.  This is noticeable in social media pages of popular baby food brands of UK like Cow and Gate or Hipp Organic. On those social media pages, I have seen Mothers asking about the best cereal based baby food, ready-made fruits and vegetable purees and the best formula milk to feed their babies. They feel safe to feed their babies with only those food that other Mothers have fed to their babies. 

This word of mouth means to learn about a product can be evidenced among Consumers, for purchasing anything ranging from a kitchen appliance like a baking oven or a refrigerator to automobiles - Four Wheelers and Two Wheelers. So, this clearly states that ratings and reviews and this word of mouth means for making purchase decisions is definitely what Consumers largely rely on. 

In offline physical shopping, say in a store in a mall, people often tend to get influenced by a sales person, who is directly persuading them to buy the product. But, when it comes to eCommerce and online shopping, it is the Customer ratings and reviews that people trust. Only a product with good ratings and reviews can influence anybody to buy the product. So now, let's look at some of the benefits of having Ratings and Reviews in Online Store or eCommerce for the business owners. 

Free Advertising: We all know offline advertising modes cost an arm and a leg, be it bill board ads, live demonstrations or Print or TV ads. Online advertising like Google Ad words or Facebook or LinkedIn advertisements are comparatively much cheaper than offline advertising means. 

But, this Ratings and Reviews is something that doesn't cost anything to the eCommerce Owner. The Consumers, who purchase the products, themselves become the Brand Advocates for the best quality products. You don't have to pay them anything to speak good about the product. The Customer, who used the product, liked it, and they tell others about it.  

Most trusted means: These are some of the important statistics that reveals that online reviews are the most trusted means for Customers, while making a purchasing decision.

• 97% of people read reviews for local businesses. (BIA/Kelsey)

• 90% of respondents who recalled reading online reviews claimed that positive online reviews influenced buying decisions, while 86 percent said buying decisions were influenced by negative online reviews. (Dimensional Research)

• 91% of 18-34 year olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. (BrightLocal)

• 93% of consumers say online reviews impact their purchasing decisions. (Podium)

• 89% of consumers read businesses' responses to reviews. (BrightLocal)

• 93% of people who use mobile to research go on to complete a purchase of a product or service. Most purchases happen in physical stores. (Google/Nielson)

• 3.3 is the minimum star rating of a business consumers would engage with. (Podium)

• 68% of consumers will leave a review if asked. (BrightLocal)

Increased Sales: Customers usually prefer to purchase from an eCommerce portal that displays Customer reviews. Displaying product reviews on your portal gives your Visitors more confidence in purchasing the product, by reducing their doubts. This way, ratings and reviews can bring higher conversion rate. It can also help enhance your brand’s credibility. Thus, Customer reviews is definitely worth having on the eCommerce portal, to increase sales and boost revenue from your Online Store. 

Increases SEO positioning for eCommerce Store: You might think how ratings and reviews help for better SEO ranking. It is simple. The more the text you have published on your online store, the more scope your eCommerce store has, to get crawled on Google, through keywords that appear in other Users' search results. Having more keywords distributed all across the portal can generate visits, thus improving the positioning of your eCommerce portal on search engines. 

Wrapping Up:

In Spurtcommerce, our NodeJS and Angular eCommerce Solution, we have 'Ratings and Reviews' feature implemented, in both Single Vendor as well as our Multi-Vendor Solution. Watch this video to learn how Ratings and Reviews feature works in Spurtcommerce. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o200wVrV64&t=10s