Most customers will leave a review when asked, but are enough of your customers leaving you a review?
Let’s see what the average review submission rate is based on industry.
Why you need reviews
Reviews are essential for any business to build trust with potential customers.
The first thing most people do before signing up for a gym, buying a product, joining a course, or going to a therapist, is look up related reviews.
Depending on the industry, the type of review people are looking for to help them make a decision varies.
Why you need product reviews
When you are selling physical products online, photo and video reviews help shoppers make a decision.
Let’s say you are selling clothing online, photo reviews can help shoppers see
- the fit on different body types
- what the color looks like in real life
- how other people style the clothing
- …and more!
If you are selling beauty products video reviews can show the
- texture of the product
- how it is incorporated into a makeup routine
- color match on different shades of skin
- …and more!
There is only so much information you can provide on the product page, so having customer photo and video reviews for products helps fill in the gaps on your product page.
All of these reviews help potential customers understand if this is the right product for them!
Why you need reviews for your service business
Reviews for service-based businesses help potential customers understand the type of problem that gets solved with the business.
Not only that, but reviews from past customers are mini-marketing messages.
Typically reviews for service businesses will go something like this
“XYZ Photography helped me capture my most precious moments. I was so nervous about getting the perfect shots for my wedding day, but Daryll helped us create a pose list before our wedding day and we were able to get all the shots - stress-free! The photos turned out MUCH better than I ever imagined. I would recommend XYZ Photography to anyone"
Notice how the review mentions stress-free and capturing precious moments?
Those are the mini-marketing messages that people are looking for when choosing a service business.
Average review rate submission based on eCommerce industry
Now you know why reviews are so important, let’s go through the average review rate based on industry.
The average review submission rate means that if you send out 100 review requests and get 17 reviews from customers, your review rate submission would be 17%!
Here are the average review submission rates based on industry!
- Services and Consulting: 32%
- Food and Drink: 18%
- Jewelry: 18%
- Home and Furniture: 16%
- Plants and Garden: 15%
- Sports and Recreation: 13%
- Fashion and Apparel: 12%
- Gifts and Collectibles: 11%
- Electronics and Gadgets: 11%
- Beauty and Cosmetics: 10%
- Automotive: 10%
- Pets and Animals: 9%
- Health Care: 7%
- Toys and Games: 6%
- Art and Photography: 5%
- Stationary and Office: 4%
A few notes:
- All this information is based on a sample of ~2 million review requests sent by Fera users.
- Percentages were rounded up or down. For example: 4.2% for Stationery and Office was rounded down to 4% and 11.6% for Fashion and Apparel was rounded up to 12%.
- This data assumes the merchant is using Fera with "average" settings. Fera's "average" settings are the recommended, out-of-the-box settings, optimized for maximum content submission from customers.
- If you are using another review app or manually requesting reviews, you can expect much lower numbers.
What you can do to get more reviews
Now that you know the statistics on reviews, let’s talk about how you can get more reviews for your site.
10 ways to increase your customer reviews
- Make it easy to leave product reviews
- Ask for product reviews at the right time
- Send personalized product review requests
- Offer incentives for reviews
- Show that you value customers’ opinions
- Encourage customers to leave reviews on social media
- Display reviews on your store
- Leverage your customer service team
- Send giveaways and samples
- Use an awesome product reviews app - like Fera!
For more in-depth information on how to do this, check out our post on 10 ways to get more reviews for your store.
Conclusion
Now you have all the information you need to see where you stack up against other companies in your industry when it comes to receiving reviews.
If you are getting above-average submission rates - great - keep up the good work.
However, if you are below industry average, take a look at improving your overall customer experience or investing in a great reviews app like Fera.
Remember, you can try Fera for Free!
