Reviews and Ratings Sell More Wine Online

77% of online shoppers use reviews and ratings and 63% are more likely to purchase from a site if it has wine reviews and ratings.

It seems that wineries are hesitant to use reviews and ratings on their websites because they fear the bad or negative reviews that their wine might get. Research from BazaarVoice, a leading ratings and review marketing specialist, indicates that negative reviews can increase the product conversion rate. People realize products are not perfect and that everyone has a different pallet.

User Reviews vs. Critic Reviews

Who would you trust more when buying wine, a wine critic’s review or user generated reviews? The results from marketing surveys done by Market Sherpa are totally one-sided. 86.9% of respondents said they would trust a friends’ recommendation over a review by a critic, and 83.8% said they would trust a user review over a critics review.

So here is what to think about when you’re putting your review section up on your site:

• Placement (above the fold)
• Size
• Stars or other graphics
• Ease of reading
• Sorting
• Rate Distribution
• Use across the site
• Rate wine attributes or individual wines.

Rating and reviews are a great way to increase your visitor’s activity on your site and you can offer incentives for them to come back and write reviews and rate your wine. Send out an email 10 days after their purchase asking them if they liked it. You could offer free shipping on their next purchase once they write a review.