95% of shoppers consult reviews before buying a product online. Generally, the more expensive a product is, the higher the likelihood that a customer will spend a considerable chunk of time looking at reviews. While a 10-dollar set of salt and pepper shakers might be added to the cart without a second thought, a 600-dollar blender is going to receive some pretty close scrutiny. 

Customers will want to check every aspect of the product and that includes spending quite a lot of time in the review section. Sadly, not all reviews are made equal. This is part of a five star review for a 600-dollar blender on Amazon: 

“The vitamix blows me away. It has so much power it grinds ice cubes into slush with no problem (a task that my Breville did, but labored to do). The base of the blender is built like a tank. I also really like the automated “modes” which work really well. Here’s one gotcha… don’t buy the “extended” warranty because the manufacturer’s warranty is so long that even the longest “extended” warranty choice doesn’t actually extend it! (read the fine print!).”

 

This is another five star review: “Great blender.”

As you can see, the first review provides more value to the customer by focusing on specific details and even warns the customer against buying the extended warranty because it doesn’t come close to extending the already long manufacturer’s warranty. Review one is actually a lot longer but that single paragraph of it still communicates far more information about the product than the second review.

Because of this, you should always let your customers vote on the helpfulness of reviews and prominently feature the most helpful reviews at the top of the product page. The standard way to do this is by asking customers whether the review was helpful and having them click either “Yes” or “No.” You can also have the thumbs up and thumbs down icons.

Examples