Practical advices for e-commerce gathered from decade of experience in online sales


Don't be afraid of negative reviews that customers may leave on your e-commerce

Digital word of mouth: a right of life or death on an e-commerce site?

The “User Generated Content” is the ultimate recommendation that we are looking for in E-commerce.


It reinforces the reputation of a merchant if it is positive - especially among the smallest,

as it can be the major purchase barrier for the Internet user who will only have come across unfavorable opinions.

Electronic word of mouth is identified as a strong conversion lever. As a result, e-commerce managers scrutinize each small comment to try to derive marketing value from it, and know that these opinions / ratings / comments have a direct impact on their turnover. And they are right!

It only takes a little common sense to understand the power of customer reviews. In "real life", we all trust brands that are recommended to us more.

And think about your own experience: like everyone else, you take customer reviews into account before buying a new book on Amazon, and if some of them are negative, you hesitate to take the plunge... That's it too the Web.

So if a merchant decides to play the game, he must accept all the rules. And in particular the one that dissatisfied people will “obviously” use customer reviews to dissuade your customers from doing business with you.

Negative opinions exist in E-commerce, but are they representative of your core target?

In theory, customer feedback is very positive because, good or bad, it allows a brand to improve. Yes, but now, theory is not always compatible with practice. In reality, it is difficult to assess each time the level of "legitimacy" of opinions, and therefore to imagine the "right answers" to be given.

We sometimes see that merchants are the target of very negative opinions - especially on their pricing policies - even though they have long learned to satisfy their customers, who normally love their products & services. But it's hard not to feel "directly concerned" when you get a comment you would have preferred to avoid.

So, can we always draw a “representative” conclusion from negative reviews for all of our customers? No.

Opinions have the merit of raising individual issues, which effectively allow the company to consider its action from another angle, which can sometimes prove to be better.

But you will often realize that some contributors have little in common with your core target. We can even sometimes say that some are downright off target ("marketally speaking" of course). As a result, they have totally different habits & expectations from those you usually serve.



You may also like to read:

Amazon DSP ServicesE-commerce trainig: how to train in online salesDomain name: tips for choosing the right one