The last time you decided to buy something online, how did you go about it? Regardless of whether you searched on Google or found a product through a paid ad, did customer testimonials help make your final decision?
I bet they played a factor.
The truth is that reviews are critical for any online store. Not only do they provide social proof that consumers are actually purchasing from you, but they establish trust and encourage new purchases. In fact, Nearly nine out of ten (89%) consumers worldwide read reviews before buying a product.
While almost all eCommerce platforms offer basic reviews out-of-box, there are a variety of third party review tools that can be used to enhance your review collection, management and publishing.
Why Should You Use a Review Tool?
Reviews can help build social proof for your online store, encouraging other consumers to purchase your products, therefore increasing your store’s conversion rate. With any basic review functionality (even those offered out-of-box) a customer can offer unbiased opinions of your product and become advocates for your store.
But a third-party review tool can also provide advanced features like:
- Automated review requests
- The capability to showcase photo and video reviews
- Google SEO rich snippets
- Support for multiple languages
- Multiple publishing options on-site and off-site
Not only does this simplify the process of collecting and managing reviews, but stores can integrate with a variety of email marketing and loyalty programs that increase brand affinity and even help retain existing customers.
These tools can also help improve your search rankings and overall SEO efforts. While many apps offer rich snippets to display star counts on Google organically, other apps offer the feature to showcase these reviews throughout Google's paid channels as well. And as MOZ reported in 2018, reviews are the third most important factor in determining search engine rankings.
How to Choose The Right Review App for Your Store
Whichever review tool you decide to go with, it must easily capture and display your best customer reviews (and aggregated star count) on the product detail page, category page, and homepage above all else.
Other factors you might want to consider before investing in a review app are:
What Type of Reviews Do I Want to Display?
Although text reviews are common practice, many tools also offer photo and video review requests. This can be particularly useful for clothing, skincare or lifestyle brands for collecting user-generated content that can be shared on-site and off-site (such as in paid ads). Photo and video reviews can also offer visual proof, so that customers know exactly what they’re purchasing.
If you are advertising across different platforms (Google AdWords, Google Shopping and Google Retargeting Ads) you should also consider opting for a tool that showcases your reviews across them to potentially increase your click through rates while decreasing your ad spend.
How Do I Want to Collect Reviews?
Every review tool offers review requests through email, but would you like to ask for reviews on SMS, Messenger or push notifications? Expanding your reach for review requests can drastically improve social proof and increase on-site conversion.
Which leads us to our next question...
What Integrations Are Available?
Each review tool offers a number of integrations specifically with email, customer service, SMS and loyalty programs. Determining whether you’d like to opt into a standalone review tool or a tool that integrates with a variety of other apps is a key starting point.
It’s important to look at your tech stack, strategy and resources to determine the best review app for your store.
The Best Review Apps for eCommerce
While there are several different review tools within the eCommerce space, I suggest opting for apps that provide these core features:
- Collection of reviews by email
- Text, photo review requests
- Custom review forms
- Localization with different languages
- Display reviews on home, collection and product pages
- Google SEO Rich Snippets
- Integrations with leading apps
We’re taking a look at eight tools that will not only save you time in collecting reviews, but offer a variety of options for publishing while improving search ranking:
- Stamped.io
- Loox
- Wiremo
- Growave
- HelpfulCrowd
- Junip
- Okendo
- Reviews.io
- Yotpo
Stamped.io
eCommerce Review and Loyalty Platform
Built originally for Shopify, Stamped.io is a versatile tool that focuses on collecting and showcasing user-generated content such as product, photo and video, and checkout reviews. The app also allows stores to display Instagram shoppable galleries, questions and answers, Net Promoter Score and much more.
For stores looking to integrate their reviews with a loyalty program, Stamped.io now provides a Points & Reward system, VIP Program and Referral Program functionality.
Stamped.io is fully responsive and offers an array of features that can be used by both small to large sized stores on Shopify. The app currently integrates with several eCommerce platforms including Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, and Neto.
Features
- Collect reviews by Email, Messenger, SMS
- Custom review forms
- Localization with 20+ languages
- Display reviews on home, collection, product pages
- Display reviews in side drawer widget and dedicated review page
- Google SEO Rich Snippets
- Showcase reviews on Google, Bing Ads and in Rich Snippets
- Create ads or push reviews to social media
- Actionable insights and reviews
- Product review incentives
- Integrates with leading apps like Klaviyo, Drip, Instagram, Facebook, Shoelace and more
Pricing
Stamped.io offers a “Basic” plan of $19 USD per month for stores up to 200 orders. For stores with 1,500 orders, a “Business” plan is offered for $99 USD per month and includes community Q&A, video reviews, Google Shopping integrations, 10 app integrations and more. For established stores, Stamped.io suggests contacting them for custom pricing.
Loox
Photo Reviews Shopify App
Loox specifically focuses on collecting photos from customers to help stores deliver strong social proof and increase their sales. The app works on autopilot by scheduling reviews automatically and displaying them on different pages such as home, product, and review pages. The app also displays reviews in popups or sidebars.
Loox was designed exclusively for Shopify and offers stores a one-click setup that fits with any Shopify theme.
Features
- Collect reviews by email, web push notifications, Facebook and Messenger
- Localization with 15+ languages
- Custom review forms
- Google SEO Rich Snippets
- Showcase reviews on Google Shopping and in Rich Snippets
- Share reviews on social media
- Product review incentives
- Integrations with Facebook, Klaviyo, Smile.io, PushOwl and more
Pricing
Loox starts at $10 USD per month for stores wanting to send up to 100 review requests. For stores wanting to send up to 1,500 review requests per month, Loox offers a “Pro” plan at $60 per month with all advanced features, full customization and branding, all Loox integrations and Google Shopping.
Wiremo
Review Engagement App
Wiremo automatically gathers, manages and displays your store’s best reviews, while allowing you to engage with your customer’s feedback on-site. Not only does this offer you the opportunity to respond and rectify negative reviews, but it can help you build even more trust.
The tool also allows stores to offer additional questions within customized review requests such as recommendation questions, experience reviews and more.
Wiremo can be integrated with a variety of eCommerce platforms including Shopify, Squarespace, WooCommerce and WordPress.
Features
- Collect text and photo reviews by email with customized forms
- Localization with 15 languages
- Offer feedback on published reviews
- Sort reviews by keywords and review sentiment
- Display reviews on carousel anywhere on site
- Questions & Answers
- Google SEO Rich Snippets
- Product review incentives
- Real-time analytics
Pricing
For small stores, Wiremo offers a basic plan that begins at $20 USD per month. For stores looking to send up to 10k emails per month and collect and display Q&A, the app offers a “Professional” plan at $50 USD per month or a “Premium” plan at $200 per month. All plans start with a 14-day free trial.
Growave
Omnichannel Review and Loyalty Platform
Growave is an all-in-one platform that allows small and mid-sized Shopify stores to collect text and photo reviews on autopilot and feature them across several channels including on-site, social media, Google Search and Google Shopping.
Growave offers customized forms providing detailed feedback including product insights of characteristics (design, quality, etc) to help build social proof and increase sales.
Features
- Collect reviews by email, web push notifications, Facebook and Messenger
- Custom review forms
- Questions & Answers with customized questions
- Referral and VIP programs
- Showcase reviews on all pages including a dedicated reviews page
- Product review incentives
- Integrations with Facebook, Klaviyo, PushOwl, Omnisend, Gorgias and more
Pricing
For small stores, Growave offers a “Starter” plan that begins at $30 USD per month. For stores looking to combine a loyalty program and reviews, the app offers a “Growth” plan at $70 USD per month or an “Enterprise” plan at $300 per month for all features including advanced solutions. All plans offer a 30-day free trial.
HelpfulCrowd
Video Reviews and Q&A App
HelpfulCrowd is a customer review and marketing platform that offers stores the ability to collect product reviews with video. The app allows for up to 5 videos or photos for each review and can even remind customers to submit a video or photo if they did not initially.
The app also offers Re-review™, a feature that allows stores to request updated reviews from their customers in order to recover critical reviews and turn them into positive reviews.
HelpfulCrowd integrates with eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace and Ecwid. The app also focuses on local businesses by providing features that help harness ratings and user-generated content to boost SEO rankings.
Features
- Text, photo and video reviews, product Q&A
- Collection ratings, media gallery, review sidebar, full review page carousels and product page reviews
- Localization with 28+ languages
- Review Jump-start™ to request reviews from past orders of up to 6 months
- Re-review™ to request updates on past submitted reviews
- ContentGuard™ profanity filter
- Google SEO rich snippets
- Google Shopping product review feeds
- Social media push with Facebook and Twitter integrations (Instagram coming soon)
- Integrations with Aftership and Weglot
Pricing
For small stores looking to collect 100 review requests including text, photo and video, HelpfulCrowd offers a “Scoopful” plan of $10 per month. For stores that require 6,000 review requests, the app offers a “Growthful” plan of $25 USD per month that includes all advanced features as well as Google and Facebook integration. All plans offer 2 months free and 50% off when paid annually.
Junip
Scalable Review Platform
Junip allows Shopify stores to collect an unlimited amount of text, photo and video review requests. The app is simple to set up and can be customized on-site and within review request forms to reflect any store’s branding.
Junip integrates with Google Shopping as well as many marketing apps like Klaviyo, Drip, Postscript, and Omnisend.
Features
- Text, photo and video reviews, product Q+A
- Dedicated reviews page, on-site review widgets to display product and site reviews
- Product traits and grouping
- Custom questions, featured reviews
- Product review incentives
- Winback campaigns to engage past customers
- API access
- Google review snippets
- Integrations with Google, Klaviyo, Omnisend, Postscript, and Drip
Pricing
All Junip plans include unlimited requests. For small stores that require basic review requests and features, Junip offers an “Essentials” plan of $19 USD per month. For stores who require Google and marketing integrations and would like to offer custom questions, feature reviews, as well as product traits and grouping, Junip offers a “Standard” plan for $74 USD per month.
Okendo
Mobile-First Review App
For stores looking for a mobile-first approach in review collection and publishing, Okendo provides an advanced platform focused on showcasing reviews, collecting user-generated content and pushing to organic marketing channels. The app has a direct integration with Klaviyo to send review requests, display social proof, and create advanced flows.
Okendo currently integrates with Shopify and Shopify Plus stores exclusively.
Features
- Product reviews, collection reviews, reviews carousel, and media galleries
- Automated review requests with customized forms
- Text, photo and video reviews, product Q&A
- Product review incentives
- Collect product attributes and display attribute ratings
- Collection customer demographic, lifestyle, and behavioral data
- Google Rich Snippets and Google Shopping integration
- Share reviews on social media and create Facebook or Instagram ads
- Integrations with Google, Facebook, Klaviyo, Gorgias, Limespot, Four-Sixty, and much more
- Advanced reporting
Pricing
For stores looking for review requests, incentives and Google Rich Snippets, Okendo offers an “Essential” plan for $29USD per month. For larger stores looking to integrate directly with Klaviyo, as well as displaying attribute filters and media galleries, the app offers a “Power” plan of $299USD per month. Every plan offers a 14-day free trial.
Reviews.io
Google Licensed Review App
As a Google licensed review partner, Reviews.io offers stores the capability for Google Seller Ratings and review stars in PPC Ads, Organic Search, Shopping and Maps. This allows stores to feature on-site reviews while also making their organic and paid search results more effective.
Reviews.io supports both eCommerce stores and retailers by providing on-site, in-store and local reviews. The app also features text, photo and video review requests, and can easily pull user-generated content with its Instagram integration.
The app integrates with multiple eCommerce platforms including Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Volusion, Opencart, Neto, Salesforce and much more.
Features
- Dedicated reviews page, on-site review widgets to display product and site reviews
- Collect reviews from Facebook, Google, Better Business Bureau and more
- Collect reviews by email, SMS, Facebook and Messenger
- In-store review app
- API access
- Social Proof Banners
- Google Rich Snippets and Google Seller, Bing and Yahoo reviews
- Google Shopping Reviews and Google Retargeting Ads
- Integrations with Google, Klaviyo, Gorgias, Smile.io, LoyaltyLion, and Zendesk
Pricing
For stores with up to 400 review requests per month, Reviews.io offers a “Small Business” plan of $89 USD per month. For stores or retailers specifically looking for Google Shopping Reviews, Google Retargeting Ads, and Competitor Analysis, the app also offers a “Growing Business” plan of $159 USD per month.
Yotpo
Enterprise Review and Loyalty Platform
Built originally as a review app, Yotpo now offers multiple features for user-generated content, loyalty rewards and SMS marketing. The app uses artificial intelligence to collect reviews efficiently and display them on-site, as well as with Google and Facebook.
Yotpo currently integrates with leading eCommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, WooCommerce, Volusion and more.
Features
- Collect reviews by email, web push notifications, Facebook and Messenger
- Custom review forms
- Community Q+A, custom questions,
- Showcase reviews on home, collection, product and checkout pages
- Integrate with Google Shopping, Google Adwords and in Rich Snippets
- Product review incentives
- Share reviews on social media and create Facebook ads
- Integrations with Facebook, Instagram, Klaviyo, AdRoll, Bold Commerce, Gorgias and more
Pricing
Yotpo offers a free plan for stores that generate up to 50 orders per month. For 50+ orders, stores must request a demo for pricing.
Next Steps
If you haven’t already downloaded a review tool, I suggest you leverage this channel today. While some apps can take some time for setup, most tools offer development assistance to get you going.
If you’re looking to migrate from one review tool to another, I suggest focusing on the apps that will increase customer retention and brand affinity through loyalty program offerings and integrations. I also suggest leaning towards tools that offer social integrations to push reviews to your social channels, as well as those that offer further functionality with Google (specifically for paid ads).
