Loox Academy

"We don’t live in a five-star world" - Matt McGee

Running an e-commerce business is hard. When you pour your heart and soul into your Shopify store, negative customer feedback can feel particularly painful. But there is often gold in negative reviews that may benefit your business tremendously. Here’s how.

Negative reviews drive conversions

While having a few less-than-perfect reviews decreases a product’s average star rating, it has actually been shown to grow conversions. 

In fact, the 5-star rating is not the most trusted by consumers. Multiple studies found that consumers are more likely to purchase a product when its rating is somewhere between 4.2 to 4.5 stars. 

Negative reviews signal transparency

Nothing is perfect. Your customers know that some negative opinions about a product, service, or online store are inevitable. If a visitor sees nothing but 5-star reviews, they might get suspicious.

In fact, a study conducted by Power Reviews found that 82% of consumers actively seek out negative reviews. 

Providing a balanced mix of good and bad reviews on your product pages builds trust. It shows your customers that you have nothing to hide and signals that the reviews displayed on your website are not fake, edited, or filtered.

Negative reviews help customers estimate the risks

We are all scared of the unknown. Shoppers treat negative reviews as windows into what could potentially go wrong with the purchase, and determine if it applies to them.

Understanding the worst-case scenario they can plausibly expect, and how the business will handle negative experiences provides shoppers with security and peace of mind to make the purchase.

How to handle negative reviews: Checklist for Shopify entrepreneurs

While including a mix of star ratings is important, too many negative reviews can damage your sales. So what do you do when you have an unhappy customer who publicly complains about your brand?

Here are 6 proven steps for dealing with negative reviews to help grow conversions in your Shopify store.

Step 1: Don’t panic

Don’t be too hard on yourself for getting a negative review every once in a while. You can’t please everybody, and not everyone is going to love every aspect of their experience with your business. Sometimes your product is just not a good fit for a specific customer. And that’s ok!

Treat each negative review as an opportunity for growth and understanding your customers better.

Step 2: Publish negative reviews

Negative reviews should be considered an opportunity for the business to do better and to demonstrate superior customer service if things DO go wrong. And it is inevitable that at some point they will.

Did you know that 30% of consumers assume online reviews are fake if there are no negative reviews?

Publishing negative reviews and responding publicly is done not only for the sake customer who left the review, but perhaps more importantly, for everyone else reading the reviews thereafter (e.g. potential customers!).

Step 3: Look for the root cause

If negative reviews are a norm rather than an exception, more drastic measures might be needed. If there is an issue with your product or service, acknowledge the problem and then seriously consider going the extra mile to make things right. 

If your product is the problem, see if you can switch suppliers. If delivery times are too long, see if you can improve this or communicate to customers very clearly when they can expect the delivery before they make a purchase. Figure out what bothers your customers and fix it ASAP.

Step 4: Respond quickly 

When the experience is negative, you have to respond quickly. Customers who go to the trouble of writing a review expect an answer, and they expect it to be fast – over 40 percent want an answer within an hour.

The key here is to monitor your reviews by setting up notifications that alert you to negative reviews so that you can address them fast. 

Use apps like Klayvio or Shopify Flow to set up an automated response to 1 or 2-star reviews, letting customers know you’ve seen the review and will follow up with them to get to the bottom of it. Don’t leave them hanging. 

Step 5: Public + private responses go a long way

We’ve found the best way to handle negative reviews is to respond both publicly and privately. 

Public responses give you the chance to demonstrate your customer service skills to a wide audience. Potential customers can see the response and this can serve as a factor in their decision to buy your product or engage with your company. 

In your public response, we recommend mentioning that you’ve reached out in private as well, to make it clear you take their concerns seriously and that you won't make customers chase you down to get answers to their specific concerns. 

Then, you can follow up privately with the customer and address their particular issue in a more personal manner. 

Step 6: Look for common themes

While customer feedback is beneficial, taking each and every review too seriously can actually harm your store. Analyze your negative reviews and identify common themes or repeated complaints. Once you’ve identified the patterns, figure out what product or aspect of your service is causing an issue with your customers and do something about it!

For example, if there are lots of complaints that it takes too long for your product to arrive, you can try pushing back your review request timing.

To recap:

1. Don’t panic. Negative reviews are inevitable for any business that has actual customers.
2. Publish negative reviews on your store. It’s all about the balance.
3. If negative reviews are the norm rather than the exception, be prepared to take drastic measures to improve your business.
4. Respond quickly, don’t let your customers stew in dissatisfaction.
5. Reply publicly and privately. 
6. Do figure out what bothers off your customers and fix it by discovering common themes in negative reviews

Be transparent, honest, and authentic with your customers, respond to negative reviews quickly but carefully, and show the world how much you care about your customers. In the end, it’s how you handle negative reviews that make all the difference.

If you need a little help generating customer feedback, automate the process with Loox.

Product reviews from real customers are key to building trust in your brand and products. While text-based reviews have long been the norm, the power of visual user-generated content (UGC) like photo reviews and especially video reviews has been proven to boost credibility and increase conversions. 

80% of people state that product videos give them more confidence when purchasing a product.

Bottom line, video reviews are a valuable, cost-effective way to build trust in your store and your products - and drive more sales. 

So, how do you encourage customers to submit more video reviews? 

1. Incentivize your customers
2. Make sure they know about the incentive
3. Make it easy to add videos
4. Display your video reviews front and center

Offer different discounts for photo and video reviews

Videos take slightly more effort from your customers but bring endless benefits to the business. 

This is why you want to make it worth their while.

With Loox, you can set different discounts for photo and video reviews. To encourage customers to take that extra step and submit a video with their review, we recommend offering a higher discount on their next purchase if they submit a video review. 

Discounts are easy to set up, and more importantly, easy to adjust at any point; Whether you want to test your discount amounts, or run special promotions - you name it! With one click, you can change your incentive offers at any time.

Tip: We’ve found that offering a higher discount for video reviews can increase video review submissions by up to 500%!

Make sure your customers are aware of the discount

Once you’ve set your discount, it’s crucial that your customers know about it! 

With Loox’s customizable emails, you can highlight the discount in the body of your review request email. This will catch your customers’ attention, take them into the review form, and give them a reason to to make the effort to create a video review.

Make it easy to submit video reviews

It should be straightforward and simple for your customers to add a video to their text review. The easier it is to submit a video, the more likely it is that your customers will actually follow through. To increase submission rates, creating an easy-to-use form for your customers is critical.

With Loox’s simple, automated review form, it only takes a few clicks for your customers to submit a video review. 

Display video reviews front and center

Once you've gathered a collection of video reviews, it's crucial to feature them prominently on your store. Video user-generated content (UGC) is incredibly effective in building trust and driving purchases, so these reviews should be easily accessible to your customers.

Consider integrating the sleek, mobile-first Video Slider Widget. This carousel presents your video reviews in an elegant, customizable layout.

Pro tip: Place the Video Slider Widget on your homepage. This immediately establishes trust with visitors upon arrival, offering compelling social proof without requiring them to search.

Wrapping up

Video reviews are a powerful asset for your e-commerce business. You can collect up to 5x more video reviews by following these 4 steps:

1. Offer a higher discount for video reviews
2. Make sure your customers know about the discount
3. Make it easy for customers to submit video reviews  
4. Display your video reviews front and center

E-commerce brands that want to optimize for conversions need product reviews. Studies show that: 

• Customers spend 31% more when a business has positive reviews
• When a product gets five reviews, the likelihood of purchase increases by 270%.

So don’t leave your customers in the dark. Collect as many product reviews on your store as possible. 

And how do you do that? With a really good review request email. 

Customizing your review request email is easy with Loox.

We've laid out 7 tips for writing a winning review request email that customers will actually respond to. And, you'll find free email templates to help you take your review request emails up a notch.

7 Tips for Writing a Winning Review Request Email

1. Keep it Short and Sweet

Make sure that your review email is short and to the point. No time for fluff. Here’s the default Loox review request email template. It’s short, sweet, and easy to read.

2. Focus on Conversions

Focus on what matters - getting your customers to leave a review. Don't try to make customers sign up for your newsletter or read your blog.

That's why our default review request email is focused 100% on optimizing response rates. Featuring only one button, it directs your customers' attention solely towards submitting a review.

3. Match Your Brand’s Voice And Tone

The key to making an effective review request is using the right words. Use your brand’s voice and tone consistently throughout the buyer journey, from your store homepage to the emails you send to your customers. Your customers should be able to recognize that the email came from you.

For example, if you have a light and playful tone on your website, continue that language in the review request form.

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4. Make it Attractive to Leave a Review

Offer a discount on the next purchase in return for a review that includes photos or videos. By offering a discount, you’ll not only increase the chances of getting visual reviews but also increase customer lifetime value.

And by offering a different discount for photo and video reviews, you can increase the amount of video reviews you receive by 500%.

Don’t forget to mention the discount in your email, either in the banner or the body of the post. 

Tip: Don’t mention the discount in the subject line. Your customers’ email providers may identify the email as promotional or spam.

5. Make it Personal

While it’s important to keep your tone professional, it’s also vital to show that you care about the customer. Speaking directly to them is one way to achieve that.

6. Use your banner image wisely

Your email banner is valuable real estate. It has the power to capture your reader’s attention and get them to engage with your email. 

Spice up your email banner by showing reviews other customers have left for your store. Or take the opportunity to introduce some humor (if your brand and product allow this). 

7. Don’t forget about the subject line

For customers to leave a review, you have to make sure they actually open your email. Your subject line should be short, to the point, and engaging. 

We found that mentioning the order number in the subject line leads to a high open rate. It makes the email appear as a transactional email rather than a marketing email. On average, we see open rates of 50% with the order number included.

Review Request Email Templates

Here are some templates to help you spice up your subject lines and email copy:

Subject Line Ideas:

How was it, Order #[ ]?

Order #[ ], spare a moment to share your experience

Order #[ ], what did you think?

Review Request Email Templates:

Dear [Name],

We hope you're enjoying your recent purchase from [Your Brand]. We'd love to hear about your experience. Your feedback helps us improve.

As a token of appreciation, here's a 10% discount for your next purchase. Click below to leave your review!

Best regards,

[Your Brand]

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Hey [Customer Name],

We hope you’re happy with your new [Product Name] from [Your Brand]!

Mind sharing your thoughts? Your feedback means a lot. Plus, we're tossing in a [Discount Amount] discount on your next order for your time. Click below to leave your review!

Cheers,

[Your Brand]

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Hey [Customer Name],

Hope you're enjoying the [Product Name] you got from us! Your opinion rocks, seriously! Share your thoughts, and here's a surprise - 20% off on your next purchase! Can't wait to hear from you!

Cheers,

[Your Brand]

Need more inspiration?

Want to see how other brands have customized their review request emails to align with their brand and optimize response rates? Visit our Review Request Email Inspiration page.

Shoppers decide within seconds if they trust you enough to make a purchase. You don’t have much time to convince them. That’s why it’s crucial for your success to help them make an educated decision about the trustworthiness of your brand.

Customer reviews are a powerful tool for building trust. But for some extra busy shoppers, it takes too much time to read through them all. They want a summary of your social proof so they can quickly and easily assess your brand’s credibility.

So, how do you secure instant trust with store visitors? By putting your visual social proof front and center with the Loox Trust Badge. 

What is a Trust Badge?

The Trust Badge widget provides a snapshot of how many reviews your store has collected as well as your average star rating, in one visually compelling widget. 

Trust Badges reassure customers that they can trust your brand at the most critical time - as soon as they land on your site. Think of this widget as a certified stamp of social proof.

How can I add a Trust Badge to my store?

You can place a Trust Badge anywhere on your site, from your homepage to product pages. 

We recommend showcasing a Trust Badge on your homepage to secure instant credibility. This will encourage visitors to spend more time on your site and explore your product pages.

For instructions on how to add a Trust Badge to your homepage, check out this article.

Just like a physical store, the homepage of your online store should attract and invite visitors to explore it.

It's all about making a great first impression by showcasing your brand, highlighting key products or promotions, and providing an overview of what your store has to offer.

Here are a few Loox Widgets we recommend adding to your homepage so that you capture your visitors' attention, drive them to view more of your product pages, and become paying customers - the ultimate goal.

Carousel Widgets

From Gallery to Testimational to Cards, there’s a Carousel Widget for you.

Select your favorite reviews  - the ones that will help make the best first impression on your visitors - and the design that fits best your brand identity and homepage layout. 

<link-to-button> Explore Carousel Widgets <link-to-button>

‍Trust Badge

The Trust Badge Widget is your verified badge of social proof.

Adding a trust badge above the fold on your homepage gives visitors a glimpse of your body of social proof. It’s the perfect way to show off all of those reviews you’ve collected. Instantly boost your credibility before visitors even make it to your product pages and give them a reason to stay on your store. 

<link-to-button> Build instant trust <link-to-button>

Reviews Sidebar Widget

Allow easy access to all of your reviews, anywhere on your store. And what better place to highlight all of your social proof than on your homepage, the first place many of your potential customers land? 

With the Review Sidebar Widget, you’ll add a subtle (and fully customizable) tab to the side of the screen, where visitors can click and open a floating widget with all of your product reviews. 

<link-to-button> Learn more <link-to-button>

Don’t make visitors work to trust you. Strive to make trust the default state of mind. 

How?

With a wall of love, a.k.a. a Happy Customers Page. 

Take Shopify Plus brands Replica Surfaces and Blendjet. They foster this sense of trust with their visitors by showcasing all of the positive reviews they’ve earned over the years in one place. And, each review is linked to the purchased product. It's a sales magnet.

What is a Happy Customers Page?

You’ve collected a goldmine of powerful reviews from your happy customers. Great job! 

These reviews live in different widgets across your product pages and homepage. Now, take the power of your social proof one step further by creating a dedicated Happy Customers Page.   

A Happy Customers Page is a standalone page on your store that showcases all your hard-earned social proof in one place. Aka, your wall of love. 

How do I build a Happy Customer Page? 

Create a happy customer’s page by following the instructions in this article. 

Place this page in your store’s navigation bar so store visitors can easily access all of your reviews when they arrive at your store. You can also send the link to potential customers in your marketing efforts. It’s an easy way to gain your visitors’ trust and increase conversions by exposing them to the experiences of all of your happy customers. 

In this video, we'll explore the Loox review request email and review form, which have been tested and optimized to engage your happy customers and increase the response rate. You can easily customize and automate these important elements of the review collection process with Loox so those reviews will pour in.

For more information on review form customizations, check out Loox Review Form.

For instructions on customizing your review request emails, visit Customizing Your Review Request Emails.

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Online shoppers are 4 times more likely to buy a product when referred by a friend. Talk about strong social proof!

Referrals incentivize your existing customers to bring new buyers to your brand and increase customer retention. Unlike most tools, Loox Referrals are effective because they’re easy for you to set up, and take no more than a single click for your customers to participate. 

We spoke to some of the most successful brands that rely on Loox Referrals to help them grow. Below are their 5 top tips for success:

1. Reward new and existing customers

Give your customers a reason to refer your brand to their family and friends by setting up a two-sided discount that will incentivize both parties (the referrer and the referred customer). This creates a win-win situation that encourages participation.

To set up a two-sided referral discount: 

• Go to the Referrals “Offer” settings page and select “Two-sided incentive”.

• Set the discount amount, advocate reward, and minimum purchase amount. 

2. Encourage referrals at every touchpoint

Opportunities for referrals exist at various stages of the customer journey. The more touch points, the more chances of success, so it’s important to make your referral program prominent and accessible. 

Loox enables you to display your program on your homepage, post-purchase, post-reviews, and even on a dedicated referrals page. 

Go to the Referral Widgets Menu to activate and customize any (or all) of these referral widgets. 

3. Make it yours

Brand consistency is key to being recognizable, establishing trust, and communicating personality. Loox Referrals enables you to customize every element of your referrals - from branding to messaging. 

• Customize your branding and elements of your email appearance from the Branding Settings section in your Loox Admin.
• Customize the content and messaging in your referral offer from the Referral Widgets Menu.

4. Spread the word

Maximize your chances of success by promoting your referral program outside of your online store. Easily set up a dedicated referral page on your site in the Shopify theme editor. For instructions, check out this article. 

Then, link to it from your social, email newsletters, and other customer marketing channels. 

5. Monitor your program

Keep track of your referral program’s performance and analyze the results regularly. This will help you identify areas for improvement and make any necessary adjustments. Loox displays all your referral performance data in your Dashboard.

In this 4-minute walkthrough of Loox, you'll learn how Loox can help you build trust and drive sales to your Shopify store, through customer reviews, photos, videos, referrals, and social proof upsells.

November is peak e-commerce season. “Cyber Week” (from Thanksgiving - Cyber Monday) delivered $35.3 billion in revenue in 2022. 

Needless to say, you’ll want to do some extra planning and preparation to get your store ready for the holiday season. Check out these 3 tips to help you prepare your business for the holiday rush with Loox:

1. Create post-purchase upsell offers with social proof

Consumers are in purchase mode this time of year. Take advantage of this high-intent time and capitalize on purchase excitement by encouraging customers to add more to their carts post-purchase.  

With Loox Post-Purchase Upsell, you’ll combine one-click upsell offers and compelling visual social proof to drive more conversions and increase average order values. 

Make sure Loox is set as your Post-purchase upsell app by following the instructions in this article.

2. Put your social proof front and center 

You're going to have a lot of visitors to your online store over the next couple of months. Put your social proof front and center to grab your visitors’ attention and encourage them to engage with your store. 

Add the trust badge or one of our other beautiful product review widgets to your homepage to secure instant trust.

3. Set up your referral marketing program in 1 minute 

With so many visitors to your store, it’s the perfect opportunity to prioritize your word-of-mouth marketing efforts. Make sure your customers are talking about you to your friends and family with Loox Referrals.

We recommend enabling the onsite sidebar widget so that your referral program is easily accessible to any site visitor. You can also set up a dedicated referrals page so you can share your referral program in all of your holiday marketing efforts.

Reviews play a crucial role in boosting sales. Don't let your best ones get lost at the bottom of your product pages.

Put the reviews you are most proud of at the heart of your product pages to effortlessly secure more sales.

With the Snippets Widget, you can display your most valuable product reviews at the top of your product pages, to build instant trust, and encourage visitors to click 'add to cart'. 

It ensures your hard-earned social proof is always visible to visitors, who might spend as little as a few seconds on product pages.

See how some of our merchants leverage their positive reviews

LUMI Beauty uses yellow, one of their brand colors, as background to make their product reviews pop below the Rating Widget.

Husk & Seed Skincare displays their product reviews above the product description with a beautiful on-brand pink border and white background to blend effortlessly on their product pages.

PuppyAll have their puppies experience shine with a customized widget using a “offset light” shadow type.

Cafe Tarco keeps the widget borderless to seamlessly blend into their product description, allowing the review to feel a part of the purchase experience. 

Lou & Mark Presents highlights some of their best product reviews using a grey background to stand out above the 'Add to cart' button.

Planteia shares their customers' love beautifully by customizing the widget with rounded corners, matching their description blocks and buttons.

Hawaiian South Shore places the widget at the top of their product pages to put their social proof front and center, making sure no visitor misses it. 

Ocular Sounds stretches their widget with a large width setting, to fit their product pages and create an eye-catching block. 

Looking for more inspiration? Visit the Snippets Widget Inspiration page.

How can I add the Snippets Widget to my store?

You can place the Snippets widget on any of your product pages - with just a few clicks. 

We recommend displaying it right at the top of your product pages, so no matter how long a visitor spends on the page, they are immediately exposed to your customers’ experiences and more likely to click “add-to-cart”.

For instructions on how to add the Snippets Widget to your product pages, check out this article.

‍Visual Social Proof Upsells

Once a customer has completed their checkout, you can capitalize on the fact that you still have their complete attention, and prompt them to add more items to their cart. With Loox Upsell, they’ll see the product that you’ve chosen to promote right alongside that item’s ratings and reviews.

By showing product ratings, your customers can see that people have already purchased this product and loved it. And of course, by showing reviews with photos, they can actually visualize the product and see it in action. Remember, trust is key to successful e-commerce.

Activate Loox as your Post-purchase Upsell App

Loox Post-purchase Upsells is available on all Loox plans. To start activating and leveraging your visual reviews to increase sales, you first need to pick Loox as your post-purchase upsell app.

To do this, open your Shopify Admin, navigate to your settings, select “Checkout and accounts” and choose Loox as your post-purchase app:

Crafting the perfect upsell strategy

The user-friendly Loox admin makes it easy to effortlessly create an upsell offer that resonates with your audience: 

1. Select the product that will trigger the offer.
2. Define the product you’d like to promote.
3. Select the discount you’d like to offer for this product post-purchase.
4. Choose your favorite reviews to show or simply let Loox display the most recent ones. 
5. Set the duration of time the offer will appear available - this adds a sense of urgency and excitement.

Create multiple, customizable upsell offers

Create multiple upsell offers that are more targeted to your customers' cart, displaying the most relevant offers. This will provide a more tailored shopping experience, while maximizing your chances of conversion, helping you increase average order values.

For example:

Customer A purchases shoes -> Upsell them with socks.
Customer B purchases swimwear -> Upsell them with a beach towel.

Repeat the steps above to create additional upsell offers. Make sure to name your upsell offers so that you can identify individual offers. 

Once you have multiple offers, you can drag and drop the offers to order them by priority. This way, if multiple upsell offers share the same trigger, the offer with the higher priority will be displayed.

Not only will the personalized offer help improve conversions, but the social proof displayed alongside it will seal the deal and secure the trust needed to motivate them to add the product to their cart.

Did you know that when new shoppers are referred by someone they know, they are 4 times more likely to purchase?

This makes referrals one of the most effective strategies for brands looking to grow.

With Loox Referrals, you can incentivize your customers to refer their friends and family to your online store, growing your reach and encouraging your customers to come back and purchase again.

In this video, you'll see how easy it is to set up and share your referral marketing program with Loox.

For more information on configuring your referral program, check out Loox Referrals.

Product ratings are the first thing shoppers look for to decide how reliable your product is. They are key to a trustworthy e-commerce product page that converts. 

With the Loox Star Rating Widget, you can customize the rating icon and color to match your brand and make your product pages stand out.

Check out how some of our merchants customized the Star Rating Widget to reflect their brand

SheRadiance uses the single star rating icon layout in their branded purple to match their clean and playful store aesthetic.

Legendary Aviation Coffee Company uses a bright red coffee bean icon to stand out against the dark background of their store.

Growoya displays a green plant icon to highlight the garden accessories they sell. 

Fabulous Planning utilizes pink hearts to give their Star Rating Widget a fun and playful look.

Lastu selected the leaf icon to echo their brand logo, and uses their brand color to tie it all together.

Kenum showcases their ratings using the mug icon in a pastel color, making the Star Rating Widget look native to their store.

The Happiness Project takes the classic star rating to the next level with rounded corners and purple, one of their brand colors.

How can I customize the StarRating Widget?

Ready to customize your Star Rating Widget? Check out this article for instructions on how to change the icon, color, and more.

Smart Upsell analyzes what your customers have bought before and automatically selects the product with the best chance of being added to each customer's cart.

In this video, you'll learn how to set up Smart Upsell and start increasing your post-purchase conversions in just a few clicks.

To learn more, visit Loox Smart Upsell.

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Displaying your well-earned reviews is crucial to building trust and increasing your chances of converting your store visitors into customers.

In this video, we explore Loox's collection of beautiful, customizable product review widgets. You'll find real-life examples of each of these widgets and walk through how to add these widgets to your store through the Loox Admin.

For more detailed instructions on adding each of these widgets to your Shopify store, check out our Help Center.

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With Shopify merchants racking up a remarkable $9.3B in sales during BFCM 2023—a 24% increase from the previous year—for most merchants, the holiday season brings a significant boost in traffic.

While focusing on strategizing discounts and promotions to minimize CAC and increase AOV, many overlook basic conversion optimization best practices that can drive just as much value with less effort.

Here are 4 tips for using Loox to turn your BFCM traffic into customers and your customers into advocates, maintaining momentum after the holiday season.

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1. Expose photo and video reviews at multiple touchpoints

A recent NWU study revealed that stores showcasing social proof can see conversion rates soar by up to 270%. Not only that, but over 85% of consumers surveyed said brand authenticity matters and 62% said they’re more likely to purchase if they can view real customer photos or videos.

Our product team continuously tests new ways to help you boost sales through social proof. Our findings show that exposing shoppers to photo and video reviews at various touchpoints across the buyer journey builds trust and drives higher conversion. Here’s what we’ve found works best.

Video is king! And photos aren't far behind

Place social proof front and center on your homepage to grab new visitors’ attention. Authentic visuals—whether customer photos or videos—help reduce bounce rates and keep visitors engaged.

Videos drive the highest engagement, and with good reason. Customers want to see products in real-life situations, and videos offer an unmatched level of authenticity. Use customer videos prominently across your store to build trust and drive conversions.

Less is not more

Giving customers the sense that you have lots of visual social proof increases trust. A good way to do this is by subtly exposing reviews in multiple touchpoints and various formats along the user journey. We see a clear correlation between exposure and conversion.

Subtly display a variety of your top visual reviews to convey a sense of abundance that increases trust. Our Pop-up Widget will help you do so with minimal usage of store real estate.

The right place at the right time

Showing the right review at the right time can make all the difference. We’ve seen cases where showing a photo review next to the add-to-cart button increased click rate by more than 40%! From our experience, paid campaigns leading to product pages including visual social proof outperform pages that don’t.

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2. Build trust in your shoppers’ language

With global shipping now easier than ever, more stores are expanding internationally to reach new audiences and grow sales.

Building trust is key to getting shoppers to buy online. The best way to do this is by sharing genuine reviews from real, happy customers. But when you’re selling internationally, language barriers can make reviews seem less genuine, which can hurt trust and impact conversions.

Loox’s auto-translated reviews, let you display your customer reviews in your shoppers’ language, breaking down language barriers, and helping you increase conversion anywhere you ship. It’s a one-click activation and has zero impact on store speed, so be sure not to miss out on more global sales. 

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3. Keep the holiday momentum going: turn holiday shoppers into advocates

In most cases, a spike in traffic will translate into more sales. Especially if you followed tips 1 and 2 :) To keep the momentum going after the holiday season ends, encourage your happy customers to refer others and attract new audiences.

Tap into the enthusiasm of happy customers right after they purchase or leave a positive review, incentivizing them to refer others. Our numbers show that 28% of reviewers will refer a friend - If you ask.

Ideal for driving powerful word-of-mouth, Loox’s Post-Review Referrals is designed to seamlessly tap into this moment, helping you generate more referrals with minimal effort. Each sale and review sparks a cycle of advocacy that keeps bringing in new customers and builds ongoing trust for your brand.

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4. Leverage the surge in sales to collect more photo and video reviews

Leverage increased holiday sales to generate more photo and video reviews. It’s a simple set-and-forget setup made of 3 main elements.

Review request

Email marketing is the most effective channel for collecting social proof. A critical aspect of the request is its timing. Optimal timing varies based on business and product type. If your product delivers value quickly, time requests close to delivery. If it takes a bit longer, set it for a few days after—experiment with what works best. ‍

Review submission form

Make sure that your form is short, simple, and intuitive. Keep in mind that any unnecessary steps increase the chances of a drop. Customize the look and feel to make the form more appealing. Ask specific questions to collect reviews that highlight your selling points and help you tap into valuable customer insights. 

Incentive

The best way to get visual social proof is by offering a next-purchase discount. This will also encourage customers to come back. Offer a higher discount for videos to collect as many as possible before the holiday session.

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Wrapping Up

Ready to boost conversions this BFCM? Put these strategies to work, break language barriers, and build the trust that keeps customers coming back long after the holiday season.

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Learn how to set up multiple social proof upsell offers that are targeted to your customer's cart to drive post-purchase conversions and increase average order values.

Welcome to Loox 🎉

This guide will walk you through collecting and displaying your product reviews, offering discounts for photo and video reviews, customizing your Loox widgets, and more. You’ll be ready to start leveraging the power of social proof to increase your conversions and boost your sales in no time.

Set up your review request email timing

The first step to building strong social proof throughout your store is collecting reviews from your happy customers. Encouraging your customers to share their thoughts on your products is crucial, and automating the review collection process makes it easy for you to get valuable feedback without manually reaching out to and following up with your customers. 

So let’s start by setting up your review request email timing. Sending review request emails at the right time is essential to increase the response rate of your customers and collect impactful reviews. If you send them too soon, your customers may not have had a chance to try your product yet. And if you wait too long, you might miss out on the initial excitement of a new product.

To set your review request email's timing, follow the steps below:

1. Inside the "Collect reviews" settings section, go to "Review request timing."
2. Select your email's timing from the dropdown:

You can set the timing between 1 to 70 days after:

• The customer's Purchase
• Fulfillment of the customer's order
• Delivery of the order

For tips on the best time to send review request emails for your business, check out our blog. 

Offer a discount for photo/video reviews

Visual reviews build trust and credibility, and let your customers see your products in action (to name only a few benefits of visual reviews). Encourage your customers to share photos and videos of their experiences with your products by offering a discount for visual reviews so you can build a library of user-generated content (UGC) for your brand.

To offer your customers a discount for photo or video reviews:

1. Inside the “Collect Reviews settings section”, go to "Discount for photo/video reviews".
2. Toggle on “Enable discount for photo/video”:
3. Select whether you’d like to offer a single discount or different discounts for photo and video reviews.
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   Tip: Offering a higher discount for video reviews has been proven to increase video review submission by 500%!  

Display your product reviews

To display your customer reviews on your product pages using a Loox widget, add a widget block in the Shopify Theme Editor using our built-in integration with every store page on Shopify’s Online Store 2.0 themes.

To add a Loox widget to your store's page, follow the steps below:

1. Inside the Shopify Themes menu, click "Customize" to access the Theme Editor:
2. Click "Add section" and select the Loox widget you'd like to display on your page:

3. Drag the widget's app block and drop it where you would like it to appear:

4. Click "Save".

To learn more about our collection of widgets available or how to add any specific widget to your store's page, see the articles listed below:

• All Store Widgets
• Integrating Loox with Your Theme

Customize your Branding

Your Loox widgets and emails can be customized to fit seamlessly with your brand inside the "Branding" settings section. Customization options are available directly from the Loox admin and do not require any coding.

Customize your general appearance, including logo, corner radius, rating icon, and widget fonts. 

You can also customize your email appearance, including email banners and colors.

Next Steps

Now that you’ve gone through the basics, you can deep dive into optimizing your social proof strategy.

• For more information on setting up and automating your review collection process, check out this video.
• For an overview of available review widgets, along with real-life examples and customization options, check out this video.

Custom questions help you answer potential customers' questions about your store or products, boosting their confidence and improving their buying experience.

In this guide, we'll explore how to effectively use custom questions to showcase your product's unique selling points, gather valuable feedback, and ultimately drive more conversions.

What are custom questions? 

Custom questions can be added to your Product Review form to highlight your selling points and unlock deeper customer insights. You can format custom questions in 3 ways: Rating scale, Multi-select, and Single-select. Display your customers’ answers publicly on their reviews, or keep the answers for internal feedback.

When to display answers publicly vs. keep them as internal feedback

• Publicly: Highlight specific selling points of your product to drive potential customers to purchase more confidently. Use custom questions to gather and display information from previous customers to address common concerns and emphasize key features.
  
  
• Privately:Collect valuable feedback on your products and services to better understand your customers’ experiences. Use this information to refine your product and marketing strategy. 

How to use custom questions

1. Identify your product's selling points 

‍Start by pinpointing what makes your product unique and appealing. This could include:

• ‍Common questions: For example, buying clothing online can be difficult because sizing varies. Shoppers often want to know if a product is true to size or runs bigger or smaller than average. If you sell skincare products, customers want to understand how the product affects their specific skin type to decide if it’s suitable for them.‍‍
• ‍Differentiators from similar products: Highlight qualities that set your product apart, such as faster delivery times or superior quality compared to competitors. 
  Tip: If you’re unsure about your product’s selling points, use custom questions to uncover them. Ask your customers targeted questions and keep the answers for internal use to gain insights into what they value most about your product.

2. Craft questions addressing specific selling points or gaining customer insights

‍Once you've identified your product selling points, you can create targeted questions.

• For example, to gather fit information, you might ask, 'Is this product true to size?' or 'How does it fit?'
• For skin type information, you could ask, 'What is your skin type?'

3. Choose the right question format

Rating scale: This format is ideal for questions where the response falls within a range. For instance, you might ask, "Is this shirt true to size?" with answers ranging from "Runs small" to "Runs big," with a few options in between. Another example is, "How comfortable are your running shoes?" with answers ranging from "Very uncomfortable" to "Very comfortable."‍

Multi select: This format is perfect for questions where you’d like customers to select multiple options. For example, you could ask, "What are your favorite things about X brand?" with answers such as "Quality of products," "Customer service," and so on. Another question could be, "How is the sound quality of your headphones?" with options like "Clear" "Balanced" "Bass-heavy" and "Poor."

Single select: Best suited for questions requiring a single answer. Examples include, "What is your skin type?" or "How did you hear about us?"

Tip: Don't overload the customer with too many questions; we recommend adding a maximum of three.

4. Add a label

A label determines how a question will be presented when displayed on your store. For example, if a custom question in the review form asks customers, "What is your skin type?" the label could be "Skin Type." This label will then appear on their review, showcasing the customer's answer below it. This clear presentation helps potential customers quickly find relevant information.

5. Apply to relevant product collection

Now that you’ve set up your custom question, its time to make sure its linked to the right product. By applying questions to relevant product collections, you’ll gather more meaningful feedback and insights tailored to each product type.

For example, if you sell both clothing and skincare products, apply questions about fit to your clothing collection and skin type questions to your skincare products. This way, you’ll get the most relevant feedback for each product type.

6. Add these questions to your review form and analyze the answers

‍Once you've added custom questions to your Product Review form and started receiving responses, make sure to regularly monitor and review them. This is where you’ll find valuable insights from your customers. Look for trends in the reviews, both in the responses you display and the ones you keep for internal feedback. Identifying these trends is a great way to pinpoint your product’s selling points or understand what needs improvement to enhance the customer experience.

Wrapping up:

Adding custom questions is a great way to highlight your selling points to potential customers and increase conversions. They’re a great tool to gain targeted feedback from your customers - at scale. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to hear more from your customers, because their experience and satisfaction drives your business at the end of the day.

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