E-commerce in Rwanda is quickly growing as the access of the internet is improving (national 4G LTE network and fiber optic lines). Nowadays e-commerce in Rwanda is mostly in parts like hospitality, bank services, e-government portals, cash transactions and online ordering. Citizens and businesses around Rwanda are using these modern ways.
Customer reviews in Rwanda continue to evolve as e-commerce and other online marketplaces improve. Unlike the offline purchases, customers cannot touch or feel the product online, so to define their purchasing decision they consult the online reviews in terms of comments and ratings. Actually, the ratings and comments define the credibility and trust worthy of your product, most people would go for a 4 star rated Hotel than for a 2 star rated, the same for the materials.
Online reviews also benefit the business because it gets to know the reaction of their customers on their product, services and marketing. By allowing customers a way to share their thoughts, you can even gain innovation ideas.
In fact 91% of people read reviews and 84% trust them as much as they would for a personal recommendation. Positive comments tend to attract consumers and contrary negative comments reduce the emotional trust of the consumers and strongly affect their intentions on buying the product or consuming services. The more reviews the better! Consumers want to see more reviews as they can to justify the trust and few reviews are still better than having no reviews.
Customers’ reviews and opinions on the web and e-commerce have been referred to as e-WOM (electronic Word of Mouth) word of mouth refers to informal means of communication directed towards consumers adopting internet-based technology, which comprehends various websites and media forms, including online customer reviews (Gottschalk and Mafael, 2017).
The consumer doesn’t trust an online product based on the style of review writing, they just want to know the experience of others who tried the product so as to increase their confidence during the online purchasing, moreover they focus on ratings, quality, quantity, price and credibility.
Online reviews are beneficial for Rwandan e-commerce:
1. It build trust
Without touching or really seeing the product it is difficult to trust it, besides putting more effort in advertisement focus on the online reviews of the product, invest a lot in creating good reputation of the product in the comments and increasing the ratings, By allowing customers a way to share their thoughts, you can improve your brand reputation and start to build trust, according to different researchers customers are 63% more likely to trust and buy from a company with reviews.
2. Drives the confidence of consumers
Psychologically people judge and make decisions based on the actions of others. Reading positive reviews from other people who made similar purchases, it drives confidence of the consumer that ‘buying a well-reviewed item is a good choice he/she can make.’ And generally, people search for proof from other collective consumers to ensure that a product is of quality, reviews are the best to convince the consumer.
3. Provides supporting information
Purchasing online is a difficult risk, the online reviews provide the reference information to make the decision of purchasing, Reviews are key to the decision-making process, give the detailed information about the product for instance size and shape. Therefore the customer spends time comparing that information and then comes up with the decision.
4. Increases the SEO effort
Building a good SEO takes a lot of time and effort but by online reviews the business can instantly rank higher on google, the more consumers use the name of the product in their reviews it is more likely for the name to appear when someone searches for words related to that product.
5. Increase sales
Instead of spending more effort and money in advertising, the reviews can do it; more consumers will be willing to purchase your product when you have good reviews about how other consumers enjoyed your product.
How to get the online reviews?
Ask for them! Simple as that, Whenever you introduce a new product or post on your page you can simply get reviews by just asking for them, ask your customer to comment or rate the product. And try all the best to make it easier, provide a space for ratings and comments which is not confusing.
Engage in the feedback, consumers can give out a comment in terms of questions, answer them! Or hire the PR agency to respond professionally, especially to those bad comments. Customers like to be heard, cared for and being responded to their matters.
Persuade the customers to give the review, it can be in the form of small gifts, interesting contents that encourage them, promotion or discount in exchange of their reviews.
Conclusion:Online reviews is a channel of getting the information of the product while making purchase decisions, it doesn’t only help consumers to identify information about a product but also it allows the engagement of the customers in the business. Online reviews increase the confidence of the customer during online purchases. To handle the consumer’s review professionally, the business should hire a PR agency. So Instead of being afraid of customer reviews, your business should embrace them to increase sales and identify ways to improve your business.
