Loox Academy

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 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 Rating Widget to reflect their brand

SheRadiance uses the single 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 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 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 Rating Widget?

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

"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.

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.
   ‍
   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.

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 video, we'll explore the Loox review request email and review form, which has 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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]

‍

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]

‍

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.

‍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.

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>

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'll explore Loox's beautiful product review widgets.

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.