Usability Review: Customer Reviews
One of the more popular features with customers on many ecommerce Web sites is “customer reviews.” They allow insight into products and help consumers feel more comfortable making purchases. There are several ways online customer reviews are implemented on ecommerce Web sites, some better than others. In this post we look at how different retailers implement reviews.
The best example of reviews is, surprise, Amazon.com. This site is the ultimate in user reviews. It is easy to find the user ratings, and the system is easy to understand. Not only can you rate products, but you can also rate others’ ratings. You can rank reviews so that those deemed most helpful are listed first, meaning that you can avoid the time-wasting fluff. Also cool? The rollover feature. Of course, you do have to be logged in to write your own review.
Dell also offers a rollover option. Additionally, it is possible (once you log in) to rate different aspects of the product, from features to quality. Dell also allows you to indicate whether or not the review was helpful.
Another company that allows users to rate individual aspects is Lowe’s. And, unlike many other ecommerce Web sites, you do not have to be logged in if you want to submit your own review.
Another site that didn’t require a login to write a review was FYE. However, the reviews are located below the fold, and therefore somewhat hard to find.
One of the more frustrating ecommerce Web sites was the Audible site. Even though it was easy to find the reviews, I had a hard time figuring out where I could write a review. It isn’t clearly marked even after you log in.
Here are more examples of the different ways ecommerce Web sites handle customer reviews. Let us know in the comments which elements of reviews you think are most helpful to driving sales.
Tags: customer reviews, eCommerce, ecommerce Web sites, online shoppers, product reviews, user ratings
Posted by Miranda | February 15, 2008
FredCavazza.net » Amazon US, la Rolls de la ‘Customer Reviews’ ? February 17th, 2008
[…] Je parlais la semaine dernière des moyens de motiver les consommateurs à donner leur avis (cf. Comment motiver vos clients à donner leur avis) et voilà que le très bon blog de Varien publie un article sur l’utilisabilité des systèmes de collecte d’avis : Usability Review, Customer Reviews. […]
Adam Creare February 18th, 2008
I believe only registered users with high ratings should be able to review some items. It is not uncommon on Amazon for users to review products 5 stars before something is even released just because they are fans of a brand name.
Amazon are definitely in the lead in terms of review functionality. I like the graph which displays how many people have rated it 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 etc as it gives shows how accurate the product’s overall rating is.
By Adam Moss
Navtej Kohli February 18th, 2008
Getting reviews for any product is very necessary. I agree to what you said about different ecommerce websites and how difficult it is to get real reviews. I also have a IT Blog under the name Navtej Kohli Blog for IT.
Tevfik Bülent Öngün February 20th, 2008
maybe its much better to integrate reviews with epinions.com like sites.
Miranda February 20th, 2008
Adam makes a good point. It is nice to be able to know that you can trust a review. One of the biggest problems (especially on travel Web sites) is that people are being paid to go around writing positive reviews. Limiting who can rate to those who make useful and valid comments may be worth looking into.
I do like Tevfik’s idea of integrating with opinion sites. But it would take some doing, I think. But maybe setting up some sort of system similar to social bookmarking could do it…