Online shopping for the holiday season

I den här rapporten har vi sammanställt en lista över sju saker att tänka på inför den julhandeln 2021. 

Under förra årets julhandel rådde stor ekonomisk osäkerhet, samtidigt som de fysiska butikerna var tvungna att anpassa sig efter nedstängningar och tillhörande riktlinjer. Plötsligt var julhandeln inte längre särskilt enkel att förutspå – snarare tvärtom.

Tyvärr råder stor osäkerhet även inför årets julhandel. Kommer e-handeln fortsätta att öka om de fysiska butikerna kan hålla öppet som vanligt, utan restriktioner? Hur kommer försäljningen att påverkas om läget skulle komma att förvärras igen?

Vi har sammanställt en lista över sju saker att tänka på inför den stundande julhandeln. Vi har också ställt frågor till experter och Trustpilot-kunder – allt för att du ska kunna förbereda dig på bästa sätt.

## 7 saker att tänka på inför julhandeln 2021

### 1. Förbered dig för ökad e-handel och hybridformer för försäljning

[Konsumentbeteendet](https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/retail/our%20insights/how%20covid%2019%20is%20changing%20consumer%20behavior%20now%20and%20forever/how-covid-19-is-changing-consumer-behaviornow-and-forever.pdf) kom att förändras i och med pandemin, och företag var tvungna att anpassa sig efter detta. Detta återspeglas i statistiken för e-handeln, som förra året upplevde [den kraftigaste ökningen på tretton år](https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2021/01/online-retail-sales-growth-hit-13-year-high-in-2020/).

När de flesta restriktioner nu har tagits bort, kan vi räkna med att fler konsumenter söker sig till fysiska butiker jämfört med föregående år. En undersökning visar emellertid att [38 % av konsumenterna](https://hbr.org/2021/05/how-e-commerce-fits-into-retails-post-pandemic-future) planerar att göra sina inköp på nätet, och endast besöker butiker som levererar en upplevelse utöver det vanliga.

”I och med pandemin har e-handelns kundbas ökat kraftigt. Utmaningen med att öppna fysiska butiker igen ligger i att kunna erbjuda samma typ av mervärde och förtroende som företag kan göra online”, säger Gary A. som är VD för FragranceBuy Canada.

För återförsäljare med fysiska butiker gäller det att fokusera på upplevelsen i butik för en framgångsrik julhandel, medan företag som säljer både i butik och på nätet har ett bättre utgångsläge för att förbättra sin konvertering.

Vi bad Melissa Dixon, Director of Content Marketing för BigCommerce, att dela med sig av sina tankar inför årets julhandel:

”Under Black Week 2020 kunde BigCommerce konstatera att [bruttoförsäljningen ökade med 74 % på årsbasis](https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/cyber-week). Även om vi kontinuerligt kunnat se hur Black Week har ökat på årsbasis, påverkade pandemin konsumentvanorna kraftigt – vilket gör det svårt att förutsäga huruvida tillväxten kommer att vara lika kraftig i år.

Vad vi däremot vet genom en [undersökning som BigCommerce nyligen genomfört tillsammans med PayPal](https://www.bigcommerce.com/resources/guides/consumer-spending-trends-cdl-report/), är att 62,5 % av konsumenterna sedan början av pandemin har spenderat mer på onlineshopping än shopping i fysiska butiker. 

Det bästa rådet för handlare är att se över sin logistikkedja och anpassa lagret för försäljning både online och i butik. Se också till att dra nytta av nya shoppingvanor såsom [upphämtning i butik](https://www.bigcommerce.com/articles/offline-to-online/bopis/), som verkligen ökat i popularitet under de senaste ett och ett halvt åren:” 

Oavsett ifall konsumenterna väljer att handla på nätet, i butik eller väljer att hämta upp sina varor i eller [utanför butik](https://blogs.oracle.com/marketingcloud/post/improving-all-5-steps-of-a-curbside-pickup), är det troligt att många konsumenter väljer att påbörja sina inköp tidigare än vanligt för att undvika försenade leveranser – som ofta var fallet förra året. 

Jordan Brannon, VD och operativ chef för Coalition Technologies, förklarar:

“Under det fjärde kvartalet 2021 kommer decentraliseringstrenden bland konsumenternas shoppingvanor att fortsätta. Precis som under 2020, samt 2019, kommer konsumenterna att inleda sin shopping tidigare än föregående år.

Handlare bör satsa på att få sina kunder att genomföra sina inköp tidigt i november, eller kanske till och med framåt slutet av oktober. De behöver också säkerställa att de har strategier för att väcka intresset hos konsumenter som kanske har överösts med erbjudanden i flera månader. För att nå framgång i sådana här svåra förutsättningnar gäller det att marknadsföringen kombinerar olika sorters erbjudanden som kommuniceras tydligt, och att försäljningen inom produktkategorier med stor konkurrens sker tidigt under säsongen.” 

Här är tre tips för försäljningen – både online och i fysisk butik.

3 tips inför årets julhandel

### 2. Omnikanalupplevelser tar över

Dagens omnikanalupplevelser bör fokusera på kundservice, marknadsföring och kundupplevelser på ett enhetligt och sammakopplat sätt – oavsett var eller när kundkontakten äger rum. 

Med andra ord gäller det att koppla ihop flera olika kommunikationskanaler, verktyg och plattformar för att skapa en sömlös shoppingupplevelse. 

Nyligen har det blivit tydligt att multikanalstrategier inte längre kan matcha konsumenternas behov, då dessa strategier resulterar i separata ekosystem snarare än en enhetlig upplevelse.

Att erbjuda en sömlös upplevelse mellan butik och webbplatser (både desktop- och mobilanpassade versioner) ökar chanserna att förvandla besökare till kunder under årets julhandel, eftersom allt fler konsumenter använder sig av olika kanaler inför ett köp. 


Freshworks

Att använda sig av nya kanaler och skapa en enhetlig kundupplevelse mellan kanalerna är en nyckel till framgång under årets julhandel. 

[I sin rapport från 2020](https://www.pwc.com/us/en/retail-consumer/publications/assets/pwc-retailing-2020.pdf) konstaterar PWC att antalet företaget som investerar i omnikanalupplevelser har ökat från 20 % till över 80 % på bara ett år. Och med tanke på att det här årets mobila försäljning kan stå för [72 % av den totala försäljningen i år](https://www.statista.com/chart/13139/estimated-worldwide-mobile-e-commerce-sales/), kan det vara kostsamt att inte ha en omnikanalstrategi på plats. 

“Ett av de viktigaste tipsen vi kan ge inför helgerna är att utöka din räckvidd via ytterligare kanaler och marknadsplatser. Det senaste året har BigCommerce lanserat nya integrationer, inklusive [Instagram Checkout](https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/instagram-checkout-tips/) och [Walmart Marketplace](https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/selling-on-walmart-marketplace/), och många av våra handlare använder sig av dessa kanaler för att boosta försäljningen.”

Det här visar också på utvecklingen vad gäller hur konsumenter upptäcker produkter. Ett exempel på detta är vår [konsumentenkät](https://www.bigcommerce.com/resources/guides/consumer-spending-trends-cdl-report/) från i år, där 54,8 % av de tillfrågade konsumenterna uppger att de använder sig av sociala medier för att upptäcka nya produkter.

Vårt råd är att ta reda på vilka kanaler dina kunder använder, och implementera försäljning i dessa. Om du är osäker eller inte har data för detta, kan du experimentera dig fram genom att lista några av dina produkter på t.ex. Amazon eller Instagram”, säger Melissa Dixon.

3 steg för en framgångsrik omnikanalstrategi

Omnikanalstrategi

### 3. Gränsöverskridande försäljning 

Gränsöverskridande försäljning har blivit ett av de mest effektiva sätten för företag att expandera sin verksamhet och förbättra resultatet. Om du erbjuder en bra produkt eller tjänst – varför då begränsa din marknadsandel?

“En annan trend vi ser är ökningen av gränsöverskridande försäljning – under förra årets julhandel såg vi beställningar skjuta i höjden under november och december”, säger Melissa Dixon. 


BigCommerce

Men gränsöverskridande försäljning kan också  medföra en del utmaningar som det är viktigt att överväga för att kunna dra nytta av möjligheten, och undvika negativa kundupplevelser. 

“Vi har skrivit ett blogginlägg om hur man framgångsrik kan sälja över gränserna, och några av de bästa tipsen handlar om att översätta innehåll, sälja på marknadsplatser såsom Mercado Libre, erbjuda lokala betalningsmetoder och planera för frakt”, säger Melissa Dixon.

Här är fyra tips för dig som vill investera i gränsöverskridande försäljning under årets julhandel. 

image

4 tips

### 4. Leveransalternativ och smidiga returer har betydelse

I takt med att en allt större del av shoppingen äger rum online, börjar en bra leveransupplevelse gå från en uppskattad bonus till ett krav. 

90 % av konsumenterna uppger nämligen att kostnadsfri leverans är det [främsta incitamentet för att fortsätta handla på nätet](https://martech.org/e-commerce-report-9-10-consumers-say-free-shipping-no-1-incentive-shop-online/). Eftersom konsumenter inte kan känna på en produkt inför ett onlineköp, kommer en del produkter alltid att returneras. Konsumenter efterfrågar kostnadsfria och smidiga returer, och företag som inte tillgodoser detta behov kan förlora kunder. 

Paketspårning och leveransgarantier är två nyare leveransmöjligheter som kan ge konkurrensfördelar. 

“Mellan den växande e-handeln och ökningen av borttappade eller stulna paket, har vi sett hur allt fler av våra handlare prioriterar spårning och fraktförsäkning med appar såsom Route. Och eftersom julledigheterna är den tid på året när paketstölder ökar, kan handlare förbättra kundupplevelsen genom att erbjuda dessa alternativ”, säger Melissa Dixon. 

Att erbjuda detta ger mervärde till ditt varumärke, ökar kundnöjdheten och ger dig konkurrensfördelar. 


3 konkurrensfördelar

### 5. Använd omdömen för att skapa förtroende och leverera bra upplevelser

Idag uppger [91 % av konsumenterna](https://www.vieodesign.com/blog/new-data-why-people-hate-ads) att annonser är mer påträngande än för tre år sedan. En av de mest effektiva och förtroendeingivande marknadsföringsmetoderna som företag kan ägna sig åt är sociala bevis och [tredjepartsvalidering](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/what-is-social-proof-and-why-is-it-important-for-marketing), eftersom konsumenterna helt enkelt har större förtroende för vad andra konsumenter tycker och tänker. 

“Det är viktigt att se till att dina kunder har förtroende för dig vid onlineköp, särskilt vid den här tiden på året. Det bästa sättet att göra detta är att ha ärliga och äkta omdömen på din webbplats. Dagens konsumenter är kunniga – de letar efter företag som har en blandning av positiva och mindre positiva omdömen för att kontrollera hur företaget reagerar på, och förbättrar, eventuella upplevelser. Att erbjuda kunderna en bra upplevelse och service samt uppmuntra alla kunder att lämna ett omdöme, hjälper dig att bygga upp det förtroende som behövs för att sälja online denna säsong”, berättar Jan Jivmark, Trustpilots Head of Global Marketing.


eyeglasses.com

Konsumenter uppskattar att jämföra företag på nätet för att försäkra sig om att de gör rätt val, inte minst under shoppingens högsäsong. Företag behöver därför anstränga sig för att särskilja sig från konkurrensen – och i detta kan en bra kundservice och bra kundupplevelser vara det som gör hela skillnaden.

“I denna konkurrenskraftiga miljö har övergången till digitala leveransmodeller lyckats hålla både konsumenter och kundservicemedarbetare nöjda. Integreringen av AI-botar har resulterat i minskad belastning på ärendevolymer och gjort möjliggjort för medarbetare att de kan fokusera på att leverera kontextuell och empatisk service . Meddelandeprogram som WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat eller Facebook Messenger, dit kunderna ofta söker sig, har omdefinierat vad som är bekvämlighet för konsumenterna. De varumärken som kommer att fortsätta att nå framgång har listat ut hur de kan tillfredsställa kunder med en digital kundtjänst som är enkel, snabb och intuitiv ”, säger Freshworks Director of Growth Marketing, Abhishek GP.

Men en bra kundservice handlar också om att förstå dina kunders och din målgrupps behov samt önskemål. Omdömen kan hjälpa dig att samla aktuella konsumentinsikter och lyfta fram utvecklingsområden, samt identifiera förbättringsmöjligheter för din nuvarande kundupplevelse och kundservice – samt öka förtroendet för ditt varumärke.
Rhiannon Williams, Partner Marketing Manager för American Eagle, förklarar:

”Att leverera en upplevelse utöver det vanliga kan förvandla en besökare till kund under ledigheterna. Kundservice är en central aspekt av kundupplevelsen i dess helhet – du kan inte erbjuda en bra kundupplevelse utan en bra kundservice. Perioden innebär ett överflöd av försäljning före Thanksgiving, Black Friday och Cyber Monday. Trafiken förväntas öka och därför är det direkt nödvändigt att erbjuda bra upplevelser på nätet.”


Checklista


### 6. Etiska och hållbara företag vinner i längden 

På sistone har värderingsdrivna varumärken och etisk konsumtion diskuterats flitigt, och utvecklingen ser knappast ut att avta. 

Mark Agnew, VD och grundare av eyeglasses.com, förklarar: “Trenden kring mer etiska inköp kommer att fortsätta växa, trots andra ekonomiska faktorer. Konsumenter mår bra när de hjälper andra och planeten."

Varumärken kan vara en del av denna utveckling på många olika sätt, oavsett bransch. 

Ett sådant sätt är exempelvis att samarbeta med ideella föreningar eller välgörenhetsorganisationer, och ge en procentandel av intäkterna till organisationen eller föreningen. Lokalt förankrade företag kan ta detta ett steg längre genom att samarbeta med organisationer i närheten, och därmed bidra lokalt.

Alan Duncan, Trustpilots VP of Brand and Consumer Marketing, berättar: 

“Klimatkonferensen COP26 äger rum i början av november och klimatet kommer att toppa nyhetsrubrikerna samtidigt som julhandeln når sin peak. När du ger en present berättar du också någonting om dig själv, så smarta marknadsförare vid varumärken med miljövänlig agenda borde kunna dra nytta av att konsumentbeteendet blir mer etiskt.”

Agerar ditt varumärke etiskt och hållbart? Om så är fallet kan det vara värt att trycka på detta – inte minst under shoppingens högsäsong. Klimatfrågan väcker engagemang och för många människor är en etisk och hållbar present någonting som uppskattas, då det speglar engagemanget.


3 sätt att bidra

### 7. Räkna med ökad konsumtion

Ekonomin har börjat att [återhämta](https://www.wsj.com/articles/turbocharged-u-s-economy-attracts-foreign-investors-11624263520) sig, och för många människor kan tillvaron så smått återgå till det normala. Och det är inte bara konsumenter som kan [investera mer igen](https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-economy-grows-by-48-in-second-quarter-as-post-lockdown-reopening-drives-spending-spree-12379320).

"Med tanke på att konsumenternas förtroende ökar och varumärkenas annonsutgifter får ett kraftigt uppsving igen, tror jag att lyxvarumärken kommer att gå bra under den kommande säsongen. Människor kommer satsa på ett välbehövligt firande med familj och vänner i år, vilket kommer att återspeglas i presenterna. En stark kategori kommer sannolikt att vara erfarenhetsbaserade gåvor. En deltagare i en ny fokusgrupp berättade att den dagliga Amazon-leveransen i stort sett var allt hans familj hade att se fram emot under nedstängningarna, och som många andra är huset fullt av prylar. Att ge de verkliga upplevelser som de drömde om under de svåra tiderna kan nu vara en prioritet”, säger Alan Duncan.

Annonsutgifter mäts och planeras noggrant, och stora varumärken hade knappast satsat på annonsering om det inte vore lönsamt.

Dessa faktorer pekar på att såväl försäljning som utgifter kommer att öka under årets julhandel, och det är därför viktigt att ha en bra kundservice på plats. När produkterna börjar ta slut och det uppstår leveransförseningar samtidigt som konsumenterna börjar bli trötta på alla inköp, det är då som kundupplevelsen kan göra som störst skillnad. 


3 viktiga trender

## Hög tid för kundupplevelser utöver det vanliga

Under de senaste månaderna har e-handeln ökat, vilket inneburit att kundservice och kundupplevelser kommit att bli direkt nödvändiga inslag för företag som vill sticka ur från mängden. 

Oavsett om du satsar på e-handel eller fysiska butiker, gäller det att leverera en sömlösa upplevelser under shoppingens högsäsong. 

Men med tanke på risken för att läget förvärras igen, gäller det också att kunna anpassa sig efter eventuella förändringar de kommande månaderna. 

“Många varumärken har lärt sig att blixtsnabbt anpassa sina företag under de senaste arton månaderna. Under de kommande månaderna är det viktigt att kunna vara lika anpassningsbar. Vi hoppas att pandemin sakta men säkert avtar, men konsumentbeteendet kommer sannolikt att bli ännu mindre förutsägbart när nya vanor möter gamla efter pandemin”, säger säger Alan Duncan. 

När vi nu står inför en ovanlig julhandel är det viktigare än någonsin att ha kundperspektiv och skapa förtroende hos din målgrupp. Att investera i en omdömesstrategi kan hjälpa dig med detta, i kombination med ovanstående sju tips. 

Prova på Trustpilot

Rapport från Trustpilot: 7 saker att tänka på inför årets julhandel

View Trustpilot's latest reports as we share industry data, whitepapers and research papers from verticals including automotive, finance, ecommerce and more.

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Guides and Reports

The complete guide to marketing with customer reviews: 2021 update

Trustpilot's complete guide to reviews

Marketing with customer reviews is a surefire way to build trust in your brand, and turn that into measurable ROI through increased web traffic and sales. In this practical guide, we'll show you 15 ways you can improve your marketing strategy with reviews.

I rely on reviews. You rely on reviews. 

We all rely on reviews. 

In fact, [consumer behavior](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/consumer-behavior-in-the-age-of-coronavirus-global-review-trends-by-industry) has evolved such that shoppers the world over are relying on reviews from their fellow customers to find the most up-to-date and accurate information about businesses in their local communities and beyond. 

So, if you’re wondering whether you could be doing more with customer reviews, know this: reviews can provide your business with so much more than feedback on your products and services. 

They're also a powerful marketing engine in their own right. Customer reviews are a way to build trust in your brand, and turn that brand trust into measurable ROI through increased web traffic, sales, and revenue. 

In this practical guide, we’ll show you exactly how to turn your customer reviews into better business results by putting them to work throughout your entire marketing strategy. 

And on the off chance you’re totally new to the world of reviews, we’ll start with a quick overview of their many benefits, and how they work together to propel business growth. 

## Why every business needs customer reviews and testimonials

We’ll keep this brief — the virtuous cycle of collecting reviews goes something like this: 

### 1. Build trust in your brand by collecting and responding to reviews.

Reviews are an opportunity for anyone familiar with your brand to publicly share what they love about your products, services, and [customer experience](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/5-reasons-why-customer-experience-is-the-pulse-of-every-business). So, having reviews publicly available conveys to potential customers that you’re safe to do business with.

Once you have some reviews about your business, you can:

### 2. Attract new customers by using reviews, ratings, and testimonials throughout your marketing strategy. 

Showing off your customer reviews is how you turn your hard-earned brand trust into measurable ROI. 

Whether you dream of becoming the search result they actually click, driving more traffic with your emails and ad creative, or converting more browsers into buyers on your site — [social proof](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/why-and-how-social-proof-influences-consumers) like reviews, star ratings, and testimonials can help with that. 

To meet the expectations of all the new customers you’ll attract from showing off your reviews, you’ll need to: 

### 3. Tap into the goldmine of fresh consumer insights within your reviews.    

You’ve built a trusted brand. You’ve attracted more customers than ever before by exuding trustworthiness in all of your marketing. Now you need to understand what all of your new customers thought about their experience with your brand. 

Reviews act like a window into the minds of your customers, allowing you to discover exactly what they want — and deliver it — so you can build customer loyalty, get even more customer feedback, and continue using that feedback to attract new customers.

Sounds good, right? It all begins with [getting reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/get-reviews) for your business so you can start showing off the trust in your brand. 

This is especially easy for businesses built on major eCommerce platforms to get up and running thanks to Trustpilot’s native integrations for [Shopify](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/shopify-plus), [BigCommerce](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/bigcommerce), [WooCommerce](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/woocommerce), [Magento](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/magento-commerce), [PrestaShop](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/prestashop), [Shopware](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/shopware), and [OpenCart](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/opencart). 


complete-guide-to-reviews-img1

Trustpilot reviews displayed on a phone

## 15 Ways to use customer reviews in your marketing strategy

Once you’ve collected some reviews about your business, you can start showcasing the voice of the customer throughout your marketing strategy to increase organic traffic, dial up your paid digital campaign performance, and ultimately win more customers. 

## Improving organic SEO with customer reviews

With [91.5% of organic traffic](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101/seo-statistics/) going to sites listed on the first page of search engine results, we can’t overstate how important your organic search ranking is when it comes to attracting new customers. 

__With that in mind, here are five ways you can use customer reviews to improve your organic search rankings.__

### 1. Build strong off-page SEO by collecting reviews on a third-party platform. 

Off-page SEO describes any actions you take to build up a digital footprint outside of your actual website — whether it’s building credible backlinks to your pages, staying active on social media platforms, or even creating a profile on a [third-party review platform](https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2018/02/26/can-independent-review-platforms-make-google-love-site/) like Trustpilot. 


Off page SEO

off-page SEO diagram

Even though search engine algorithms are always evolving, the experts at [Moz](https://moz.com/learn/seo/off-site-seo) suspect that off-page SEO considerations like relevance, trustworthiness, and authority carry more than 50% of the ranking factor weight. 

Fortunately, building up your online presence with third-party reviews can help your business tick all three of those boxes. 

### 2. Drive more referral traffic from your Trustpilot business profile. 

On top of the off-page SEO benefits for your actual website, creating a profile on Trustpilot can also lead to a huge spike in referral traffic. 

That’s because when someone searches for reviews of a brand, they’re likely to find that brand’s Trustpilot [business profile page](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013930439-Introduction-to-your-company-profile-page) at the top of the search results. Why, you ask? 

We don’t mean to brag, but Trustpilot’s [domain authority](https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority) is strong. So, the more reviews you collect — and the more you [enrich the content](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/202616716-Customize-your-company-profile) on your business profile page — the easier it will be for search engines to associate your brand with ours, and show your presence on Trustpilot right at the top of search results.

This could be your competitive advantage since referral traffic is so often overlooked — even though it’s a free source of qualified leads, and can even [improve your organic search performance](https://moz.com/blog/organic-traffic-without-ranking). 


Learn how TaxSlayer used their enriched business profile page to generate a 500% increase in referral traffic to their site.

### 3. Get more organic traffic by displaying customer reviews on your website.

Featuring customer reviews on key landing pages is easy to pull off with review widgets, and this small addition to your website can improve how often your pages show up in organic search results. 

That’s because reviews are a form of user-generated content, and UGC is SEO gold:

- __Reviews increase the amount of text on each page.__ This extra text makes your page more valuable in the eyes of Google because you’re offering them more context for what the page is really about — and whether it should surface for the user’s search query. 
- __The ratings associated with your reviews help Google understand the quality of your products and services.__ At the end of the day, Google wants to show the most reputable search results in hopes of delivering the best experience to their users. 
- __Review text adds fresh content to pages that might not otherwise get frequent updates.__ This tells Google that the information about your business is recent and up-to-date, and is therefore worth surfacing for the user’s search query.  

These elements work together to [help Google understand your website](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/why-does-google-care-if-your-business-has-online-reviews-in-2019). Over time this can lead search engines to show your pages in search results more frequently, and drive larger volumes of high quality traffic to your site.


reviews are great for SEO because they provide fresh content and long tail keywords, both of which Google loves

complete-guide-to-reviews-img4

Google search on a laptop

### 4. Earn review snippets in organic search with product reviews. 

When marketers think about star ratings in search results, paid listings usually come to mind — and we’ll get there in the next section. But most marketers don’t realize they can also earn star ratings on their organic search listings and appeal to those savvy shoppers who might be [less inclined to click-through an ad](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/can-online-reviews-revive-consumer-trust-in-advertising). 

As it turns out, collecting [Product Reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/product-reviews) can help you qualify for [review snippets](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/rich-snippets-stars-for-product-reviews-can-boost-seo) in organic search.  

And those shiny gold stars on your listings can help attract more attention to your product pages, and even improve your click-through rates by up to 35% in organic search. 

Not bad!

It’s not hard to do — our range of [eCommerce integrations](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/type/apps) allow you to make your Product Review data discoverable to search engines in just a few clicks that add some simple code (aka schema markup) to your product pages. This allows search engines to easily get a sense of your products’ overall ratings, and determine whether you meet their requirements for displaying review snippets. 

If your review stats meet [Google’s requirements](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/review-snippet), your product pages could appear with performance-enhancing review snippets in the SERPs. 


According to Conversion XL, review stars in search engine results can improve CTR by as much as 35%.

complete-guide-to-reviews-img5

According to ConversionXL, review snippets can improve click-through rate by as much as 35% in organic search

### 5. Rank for long tail search queries with product reviews.

Collecting product reviews can also amp up the SEO power on each of your product pages, and help you rank for a broader range of relevant keywords. 

It’s pretty straightforward. Allowing customers to leave reviews about your individual products — and putting them front and center on your product pages — can improve your site’s visibility for [long tail search queries](https://yoast.com/focus-on-long-tail-keywords/#:~:text=Focusing%20on%20long%2Dtail%20keywords,as%20they%20are%20more%20specific.), with no copywriting effort on your part.

Try as you might, thinking of every possible descriptor, use case, or problem your product solves can be difficult to say the least. Thankfully, product reviews let your customers become the copywriters, enabling them to share their own unique experiences with your products. 

The icing on the cake is that all this happens automatically — no extra copywriting or content creation for you.

## Enhancing paid digital campaign performance with customer reviews

Today’s consumers have seen it all — and many of them don’t want to see ads or slick marketing messages anymore. In fact, more than [75% of consumers](https://deloitte.wsj.com/cmo/2018/04/03/are-consumers-adlergic-a-look-at-ad-blocking-habits/) regularly use an adblocker.

To make matters even more challenging for digital marketers, research shows [fewer than 3 in 10 consumers](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/learn-from-customers/trustworthiness-in-advertising-what-consumers-have-to-say) report a solid level of trust towards digital advertising channels.  

__Fortunately, customer reviews and star ratings can enhance your digital campaign performance on the channels that have the [biggest influence](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/can-online-reviews-revive-consumer-trust-in-advertising) on consumer’s purchasing decisions.__

### 6. Qualify for Google Seller Ratings to improve Google Ads performance.

A close relative of review snippets in organic search, [Google Seller Ratings](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/how-to-land-great-reviews-and-boost-your-google-seller-rating) are a one-stop-shop for:

- Adding a healthy dose of social proof to your paid search listings.
- Making your business stand out from the competition.
- And increasing click-through rate on your Google Ads campaigns.

A higher click-through rate often leads to increased sales, and will usually improve your [Quality Score](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/140351?hl=en) — meaning you’ll get traffic at a lower cost per click. This in turn gives you a lower cost per acquisition, and frees up more budget for the rest of your business.

Just keep in mind that whether Google Seller Ratings display on your paid search listings is up to Google’s discretion in line with their [latest guidelines](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375474?hl=en) — which tend to stipulate that a business must have a certain number of reviews and a certain aggregate rating before those shiny gold stars will appear below your [Google Ads](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/why-wont-my-google-seller-ratings-show-up-and-4-other-gsr-questions).

Once you do earn them though, your [Google Seller Ratings](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/how-to-land-great-reviews-and-boost-your-google-seller-rating) will appear in Google search results, Google Shopping listings, and even on Google search partners’ listings. 

So if you ask us, it’s worth setting yourself up to qualify for them.

### 7. Enhance your retargeting campaigns with customer testimonials, reviews, and ratings.

[Retargeting campaigns](https://blog.alexa.com/retargeting-vs-remarketing/) can straddle a range of platforms using paid ads to re-engage potential customers who have visited your website or social media profiles. 

No matter which platform you’re using to run a retargeting campaign, you can see a [performance improvement](https://business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/finance-insurance/why-taxslayer-chose-trustpilot-to-leverage-customer-feedback) if you include your reviews and ratings in the ad creative. This can look like:

- Quoting an individual customer review.
- Using your overall rating in your ad creative.
- Showing off how many customers have rated you highly.

The best part? Highlighting your reviews in ad creative can be done without design skills (or even an in-house designer) with some help from Trustpilot’s social media [Image Generator](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/social-media-tools).

With retargeting, you’re putting ads in front of people who have some existing relationship with your business. The extra social proof you add to your retargeting creative might be the deciding factor that nudges customers to purchase from you.


Learn more about Trustpilot's social media tools. 

## Getting more from your email marketing with the voice of the customer 

Though it’s a tough number to pin down, email marketing experts estimate that the average person sends and receives [126 business emails per day](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/knowledge-base/how-many-emails-does-the-average-person-receive-per-day/). That’s a whole lot of emails.

It’s easy to see why the average open rate for emails is about [22%](https://mailchimp.com/resources/email-marketing-benchmarks/) — and why it can be so challenging to cut through the noise with email marketing.

__Here are four ways you can let the voice of the customer do it for you.__

### 8. Boost email click-through rates by adding customer reviews and testimonials.

Every improvement in email click-through rate is going to drive more qualified traffic to your website and increase the odds of a conversion. So you might be interested to know that customer reviews can improve the click-through rate in all of your [marketing emails](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/4-email-marketing-strategies-to-unlock-black-friday-sales-volume-throughout).

Unlike channels with strict word counts and requirements for visual creative, with email you’re free to be creative with how you show off your reviews. You can even use them as the entire basis for different types of email content and CTAs. 

Whether you’re drafting a monthly newsletter, a seasonal product promotion, or a dynamic remarketing campaign – [highlighting a customer review](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/inside-trustpilot/social-proof-in-email-marketing-is-easier-than-ever-with-trustpilots-klaviyo) that’s directly related to your offer puts the social proof your customers crave right on a silver platter, and [increases the odds](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2019/06/improve-your-ctr-using-social-proof/#:~:text=4.,a%2037.5%25%20increase%20in%20conversions.) that they’ll click-through to your landing page, and ultimately convert. 

And with [82% of shoppers](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/why-and-how-social-proof-influences-consumers) reporting that ratings and reviews in email marketing can make them more likely to purchase, that’s pretty promising.  

### 9. Let customer reviews do the talking in your welcome campaigns.

Welcome campaigns are your first opportunity to build a direct relationship with a future customer. Most of your email signups probably haven’t made a purchase yet, and they could even be brand new to your business.

This is your opportunity to convince them you’re a brand they can feel comfortable buying from — and it’s the perfect time to let your satisfied customers do the talking. 

Think of your reviews as a dynamic database of nuanced marketing content to make your campaigns as compelling as possible to your email audience segment. 

When you’re in the early stages of building a relationship with your future customers, it’s a good idea to: 

- Include a relevant customer review in each email, whether it’s about a specific product or your customer experience in general. 
- Feature your top-rated products and services based on your reviews. 
- Show off your brand’s personality by curating some surprising or funny customer reviews. 

This is just a sampling of the creative ways you can make a first impression through your customer reviews and generate warm responses to your email campaigns. 

### 10. Show off your trustworthiness in the email header, footer, and subject line.

Every email you send should include some proof of your trustworthiness. One easy way to achieve this is by including your star rating to your email template’s header, or adding a customer testimonial in the footer. 

With email [open rates](https://mailchimp.com/help/about-open-and-click-rates/) hovering around a modest 22%, it’s also in your best interest to lead with social proof right in the subject line. Here are some sample ideas to get you started:

*- "Our top reviewed products this month."*
*- "Thank you for making us a 5 star company."*
*- "5 ways we’ve used your reviews to improve our customer service."*
*- "Meet Sue, our top customer service rep."*
*- “We thought our teapots were great, your feedback has made them even better!”*
*- “The products you love.”*


Complete Guide to Reviews Quote Jillian Lore

Trustpilot logo Round Star BlueBG 420x420

Digital Marketing Specialist, Rush49

### 11. Abandoned cart emails are more effective with customer reviews.

No matter how watertight your online shopping journey is, abandoned carts are bound to happen. 

According to the experts at [Klaviyo](https://www.klaviyo.com/blog/whats-is-abandoned-shopping-cart-email), the average cart abandonment rate is about 70% on desktop and a whopping 85% on mobile — so it’s not surprising that abandoned cart email flows have become so popular. 

Many retailers rely on special offers and promotions in these email campaigns to lure would-be customers back to their website, but adding a testimonial, review, or rating can be more than enough to bring them back without compromising your precious margins.  

So if you’re putting together an abandoned cart email flow, consider including a few reviews about your customer experience or best-selling products to reassure any hesitant shoppers out there that your business is not only safe to buy from — but that there’s plenty to love about your brand.

No matter what type of email campaign you’re running, it’s easy to feature Trustpilot reviews with our integrations for major email providers like [Klaviyo](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/klaviyo), [Fresh Relevance](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/fresh-relevance), and [Movable Ink](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/movable-ink). 


Adding reviews to your cart abandonment email campaigns can boost CTR by up to 220%

complete-guide-to-reviews-img7

NewYorkDress saw a 220% increase in CTR after adding reviews to their cart abandonment emails

## Improving website conversion rates by putting customer reviews front and center

Today, [89%](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/4-things-every-business-owner-should-know-about-the-state-of-reviews) of consumers check online reviews throughout the online shopping journey. So, by the time a potential customer lands on your website, chances are they’ve already formed a first impression about your brand. 

If you want to make sure that first impression leads to a conversion, it’s a good idea to provide all the reassurance they need to click “BUY” right on your website. 

__Here are four ways to [improve your conversion rate](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/what-is-conversion-rate-optimisation) with customer reviews on your website.__

### 12. Use reviews to make a stellar first impression on your homepage. 

When you improve the trustworthiness of your marketing campaigns, you’re likely to drive a lot more qualified traffic to your website. If your goal is turning more site browsers into buyers, your website should be just as trustworthy as the marketing materials that led them there. 

When it comes to website optimization, the homepage is often overlooked in favor of product pages and the checkout page — and that’s a missed opportunity.

Even if the majority of your site visitors arrive via a specific landing page, there’s a good chance they’ll still want to check out your homepage, especially if they’re unfamiliar with your brand. 

With this in mind, try to highlight customer reviews as much as possible on your homepage. You could:

- Showcase the quality and quantity of your reviews — for example, *“We received 2,365 reviews this year, and 95% of customers gave us a 5/5”.*
- Feature 3-5 recent reviews to show off what your others love about your customer experience.
- Round up your most reviewed or highly rated products and services — for example, *“Here are some products our customers gave 5 stars”.*

Remember, your homepage is where site visitors turn to find [trust signals and other social proof](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/what-is-social-proof-and-why-is-it-important-for-marketing) for your brand — so don’t miss this opportunity to easily build trust with curious customers by showing off a highlight reel or some summary statistics about your customer reviews. 


complete-guide-to-reviews-img9

ThirftBooks have embedded customer reviews throughout the customer journey

### 13. Add review widgets to product pages to make the buying decision easy.

We’ve already established that product reviews are an SEO secret weapon — but they can also make [conversions skyrocket on your product pages](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/get-seen-in-search/ann-summers-uses-product-reviews-to-increase-sales-up-to-230). 

According to the experts at [Shopify](https://www.shopify.com/blog/15359677-why-online-store-owners-should-embrace-online-reviews), 79% of online shoppers trust information shared in product reviews as much as a personal recommendation. And other studies have revealed that [product reviews are 12x more trusted](https://econsultancy.com/ecommerce-consumer-reviews-why-you-need-them-and-how-to-use-them/) than manufacturer or product descriptions. 

In short, [showing relevant reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/trustbox-widgets) on product pages makes the buying decision easier for hesitant shoppers. 

That said, not all reviews carry the same weight. 

Research shows that shoppers want to see real product images from other customers (aka [user-generated content](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/product-reviews)) when they look at product reviews:

- Millennials trust user-generated content [50% more](https://www.iab.com/insights/user-generated-content-for-marketing-and-advertising-purposes/) than traditional media and think it’s 20% more influential on their purchasing decisions.
- Consumers are [3x more likely](https://www.iab.com/insights/user-generated-content-for-marketing-and-advertising-purposes/) to perceive user-generated content as authentic compared to content created by a brand.

So if your goal is to increase conversions on your product pages, make sure your product review provider gives customers an opportunity to share their own photos.

If you display these on your product pages, your conversion rate is sure to thank you. 

### 14. Add star ratings to the site header and footer to make every single page more trustworthy. 

Depending on what they searched to find your business, customers can land on almost any page on your site from the SERPs. With this in mind, every page is an opportunity to convince them to make the critical decision to purchase.

The easiest way to make sure your trustworthiness comes across loud and clear — no matter where visitors land on your site — is to add your star rating to your header or footer.

It’s a small change that can make a big difference.

### 15.  Reduce your exit rate by highlighting reviews and ratings on exit pages. 

Every journey has a start point and an end point — and if that end point isn’t the order confirmation page, you should take every opportunity to increase your conversion rate.

First, identify any pages with high exit rates by checking out your [exit page performance](https://www.paperstreet.com/blog/how-to-use-google-analytics-to-identify-exit-pages-and-improve-them/) in Google Analytics and noting which ones have high traffic and a high exit percentage. 

With exit pages, it’s worth taking the time to look at the actual page and see if you can spot a problem:

- Are there enough calls to action on those pages to keep people on the website?
- Is the page a dead end on the website?
- And of course, are there any customer review sentiments that might help keep people on this page?

Once you’ve ruled out other potential issues, it’s worth exploring any opportunity to show off relevant reviews on your exit pages — and Trustpilot’s [Review Tagging](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-tagging) feature makes this easy.

Here’s an example.

If your Delivery and Returns page has a high exit rate, you might start tagging reviews that mention delivery or returns so you can easily filter reviews by those keywords. This should make it easy to find a testimonial or two that sings your praises about delivery and returns — so you can feature them on your Delivery and Returns page. 

This tiny consideration could lead to a meaningful drop in your exit rate, and more conversions down the line. 

## Grow your business by amplifying the voice of the customer

If you made it this far, it should be clear that there’s an infinite number of creative ways you can integrate reviews into your marketing strategy to attract more customers — and make sure they actually convert. 

As we laid out at the beginning of this guide — customer reviews are all you need to kickstart a sustainable cycle of business growth. 

1. __Build trust in your brand__ by collecting and responding to reviews.
2. __Attract new customers__ by adding reviews to your marketing campaigns and across your website’s shopping journey. 
3. __Tap into the goldmine of fresh consumer insights__ within your steady stream of new customer reviews.

And then the cycle repeats, all because you put your customers at the heart of your marketing strategy. 

And if you really want to make the most of your customer reviews in your marketing strategy, focus on growing your [review collection](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-invitations) until your [social proof reaches critical mass](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/3-reasons-why-you-really-need-to-get-more-reviews). This makes it easier to highlight your reviews across your marketing channels, and eventually tailor your review curation to campaigns and product promotions.

So, the next time you approach a marketing campaign or a business challenge — whether it’s online or [offline](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/ratings-and-reviews-in-above-the-line-advertising) — ask yourself if customer reviews could be used to boost performance results.

You heard it here first: the answer is yes. 


Speak to one of our review experts today. 

7 Tried and Tested Conversion Strategies

According to research, in 2020, the average global conversion rate is [4%.31](https://www.invespcro.com/blog/the-average-website-conversion-rate-by-industry/). But in today's competitive landscape, it's getting harder for businesses to keep visitors engaged. So how can brands keep customers hooked and ensure their business generates more revenue?

In this guide, you’ll learn how to:
• Easily turn browsers into buyers
• Leverage your social proof to increase sales
• Use customer feedback to shape a great customer experience and encourage customer loyalty.

key cart abandonment statistics

## 1. Create an efficient checkout process

Needing as few steps as possible to actually complete the purchase process is a surefire way to increase conversions. Here are some of our top tips.

__Avoid complex clicks and unnecessary steps__

Make sure your checkout experience is completely linear - no confusing steps within steps. Never make objects clickable during the checkout phase so visitors get distracted and leave, abandoning their basket. You want the sole focus of the checkout page to be the checkout!

According to [VWO](https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/12/22/seven-fascinating-stats-on-ecommerce-and-cart-abandonment/), a confusing checkout is among the top five reasons for cart abandonment.

__Don’t push customers to register__

Make it optional to create an account. Some customers just want to buy their goods and be gone, and that’s fine. Have an express route for these shoppers. Baymard claims that [35%](https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate) of shoppers leave a purchase if they’re forced to create an account.

__Create a compelling checkout page__

We all like something to function and look good at the same time.

Think about the colours on your checkout page, the data fields you require, and even the calls-to-action you use. Don’t forget to add credibility to your checkout too by informing the customer what payment methods are accepted, or how secure their data actually is by adding security icons to your website.

Don't forget be clear about your final pricing so customers can see where their money is going.

__Reduce the amount of manual work__

A shipping address that is also the billing address by default can save the customer a lot of time in their purchase. You should also inform customers as early as possible if an item is unavailable or will be subject to delayed delivery, rather  than notifying them after they’ve gone through several steps.

Provide customers with a back button that leads to the previous page, so the customer doesn’t need to fill in their details again. Providing users with real-time support can also be a crucial tool to keep them on the path to completion.


## 2. Optimise your site for common web browsers

Different browsers – and even different versions of the same browser – see your site differently. When you’re designing your website, try to avoid to rely on browser-specific behaviour, and test its appearance and functionality on multiple browsers to make sure that all your visitors are getting the experience you’ve worked hard to create.

Once your site is up and running, be sure to retest at regular intervals and adapt where necessary. A site that is not regularly upgraded will not keep pace with new browsers or new versions of browsers affecting how the site is displayed. 

Don’t forget to consider your site’s overall accessibility. Not all users may have JavaScript enabled in their browsers and technologies such as Flash and ActiveX may not render well (or at all) in every browser. 

According to real-time web stats analysts [StatCounter](https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share), as of April 2020, the top five browsers by market share are:

- Chrome - 64%
- Safari - 13.6%
- Firefox - 4.21%
- Samsung Internet - 3.4%
- Edge Legagy - 2.23%


## 3. Optimise your site for mobiles and tablets

It’s no secret that mobile ownership and usage [has surpassed desktop](http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/). 

Mobile marketing is arguably the closest you can get to the consumer, as there is no other device that is as personal or portable. 

If your website doesn’t automatically resize to fit the screen that it’s being viewed on, you are running the risk of losing a lot of business. More than this, Google might not consider your website as much if you avoid mobile adaptability, thanks to a 2015 update to their algorithms (popularly dubbed ‘Mobilegeddon’). Without a mobile-optimised site, your mobile discoverability will suffer.


## 4. Display online reviews to boost trust

There’s no better way to build consumer trust than by showcasing the experience of your customers with your company. 

Canvas8 research found that, in 2020, [89%](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/4-things-every-business-owner-should-know-about-the-state-of-reviews) of global consumers check online reviews as part of their online buying journey, and 49% of global consumers consider positive reviews one of their top 3 purchase influences.

Having customer feedback on display on your site gives customers the encouragement they need to complete a purchase. More than that, customer reviews give you unparalleled insight into customer trends. 

You might notice the same kind of feedback appearing again and again in reviews. If so, this tells you you’re either doing something great, or there’s something that requires attention. 

Make sure you’re encouraging customers to leave reviews - and quickly respond to all of them, whether they’re positive or negative. It shows that you are listening and that you care. No matter how great your product is, if people don’t trust you, they won’t want to engage with you. 

## 5. Use social media to drive online sales

Savvy ecommerce managers are now exploring social media as a tool to directly boost sales. Over a quarter of individuals say brands that are active on social media are more “human”, meaning they appear more approachable and helpful by having real conversations with customers online.

Don’t forget, there are customers and prospects out there ready to connect with you on social media. Here are some tips to transform your social media success. 

__Develop a content strategy for your social media channels__

Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin have become great vehicles for content, meaning brands are paying attention and making the space more competitive than ever. Make sure you have a well-thought out strategy around your messaging, what you want to promote, and how you’ll differentiate yourself.

__Use YouTube playlists to showcase your own products__

Cisco predicts that online video will account for [82%](https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-much-ip-traffic-will-be-video-by-2021-2017-6) of all web traffic by 2022. YouTube playlists allow channel owners to select which videos will play sequentially, so a company’s use of this tool enables it to present viewers with additional products they may be interested in, increasing potential sales. 

__Manage and monitor social media and customer feedback in one place__ 

To find succeed in social media, you need to effectively monitor it. Save time and energy by monitoring your online reviews and social media activity from one console. If you use Hootsuite, Trustpilot has just the [Hootsuite app for you](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/hootsuite).

__Share your customer reviews on social media__

Today, [90%](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-stats/) of people follow at least one business on Instagram. Instagram has become known as an ideal fit for eCommerce marketing. 

The social platform is often used as the discovery portion of the sales funnel. [83%](https://www.facebook.com/business/news/insights/how-instagram-boosts-brands-and-drives-sales) of Instagram users say they discover new products and services on the platform. That's why encourage businesses to share their customers' feedback on social channels too. 

It’s a great way to showcase great stories from your customers and convert prospective customers. If you're not sure where to start, check out Trustpilot's guide to [social media reputation management here](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/trustpilot-guide-to-social-media-reputation-management).

## 6. Dedicate staff to web design

If your company has separate departments or suppliers for marketing and web design, the responsibility for turning website visits into sales tend to fall between two camps. This can be bad news for any business hoping to turn their online investments into real profitability. 

A web designer is a technical expert who can dedicate their time to testing and retesting website variations to further optimise your website’s buying process. However, a marketer should have a unique understanding of the needs and wants of your customers, and therefore a valuable insight into what will convert visitors into clients or customers, and what won’t. 

Ideally, the staff dedicated to website conversions should have a background in both areas. Including financial incentives for reaching performance goals will also correlate in getting your conversion rates closer to where you’d like them to be.

If you’re working within a smaller budget, consider investing in a professional developer, or try Shopify, the leading e-commerce website building tool. With [Trustpilot’s online review app for Shopify](https://business.trustpilot.com/partners/shopify-plus), so you can design a sleek site that displays customer feedback in no time at all. 

## 7. Consider a retargeting strategy

Retargeting can help reduce shoppers’ concerns and turn hesitant visitors into happy customers.

Start by determining which shoppers have added something to their cart, but haven’t completed their purchase. Once you have identified your audience, it’s important to decide how long you want to target cart abandoners. 

Reaching consumers as soon as they abandon is a must, but the length of time you target them should be determined by the products your business sells. Bigger purchases such as furniture, holidays, or electronics can have a longer consideration cycle, whereas other products like clothes or cosmetics don’t usually have a very long decision-making cycle.

__SMS retargeting__

According to Search Engine Watch, SMS messages are more effective than emails. Consider sending a reminder to cart abandoners. Typically, [90%](https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/12/22/seven-fascinating-stats-on-ecommerce-and-cart-abandonment/) of all SMS messages are opened, and 90% are read within 3 minutes.

It’s a great way to convert those hesitant shoppers, but if you’d rather use display retargeting, here are some of our top tips.

__Display retargeting done right__

- Test the kinds of displays to show cart abandoners - personalised, or static? 
- Use a promotional offer like free shipping to increase conversions 
- Offer a discount on future products to encourage a repeat purchase.


## Key Takeaways

By now, you should have a long to-do list to ensure you’re optimising your eCommerce business for conversions and efficient checkouts. But if you need a cheat sheet, here’s a quick list of key points. 

Turn your ecommerce conversion rates around by: 

- Making sure your checkout process is optimally designed  
- Optimising your site for mobiles and tablets 
- Using social media to drive online sales 
- Making sure your site is optimised for your visitors’ browsers 
- Using online reviews widgets to boost trust 
- Assigning responsibility for online performance and conversion goals to a dedicated member of staff.

If you'd like to learn more about Trustpilot and how reviews can help you amplify your marketing efforts, request a free demo below.

7 Tried and tested conversion strategies

Skift travel report with Trustpilot

From the time travelers start planning a trip, to the moment they complete their booking, reviews help impact multiple stages of the purchase decision, allowing travel brands to gain visibility with potential buyers, establish their credibility, and help influence the ultimate purchase decision.

In 2019, Trustpilot and Skift launched an online consumer survey to investigate the role reviews play in travel purchase decisions. An overwhelming 88 percent of survey respondents said reviews played an
important role in influencing their purchase. And other sources back this up: [Data from So Connect](https://soconnect.com/blog/why-online-reviews-matter/) found that 49 percent of bookers would not book a hotel that has no reviews, and 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.

Though reviews are an essential component of the travel buying experience, many companies are missing an opportunity to use them more strategically. To do this, they need to take a step back from managing individual reviews and instead focus on the bigger picture: the hidden patterns and unexpected insights currently locked away inside of their review data. The travel industry now has tools to access these review insights, unlocking a wealth of opportunities to supercharge companies of all sizes.

### How important are other customers’ reviews in your decision about whether or not to buy a travel product?

Figure 1

It’s not just about having a five-star rating on the website,” said Glenn Manoff, senior vice president, Communications & Brand at Trustpilot. “It’s about everything from brand reputation to product development. Reviews offer businesses the opportunity to improve their services through continuous feedback, engage in an honest dialogue with customers, and use positive sentiment to drive further business.

This new approach has significant benefits. First, it allows travel brands to spend more time amplifying the positive feedback they already receive from satisfied customers. This builds credibility with potential buyers and reinforces the fact that they are open and transparent with customers. In addition, this approach can help brands better prioritize which reviews are likely to have the biggest impact on their reputation and then share them to the right teams to quickly handle resolution. Last but not least, it creates opportunities to uncover a treasure trove of customer insights that can help improve the personalization of marketing campaigns, inform product development efforts, and even provide new metrics to help evaluate company success.

What review strategies are travel brands already using to gain these benefits? Which companies are ahead of the curve in deploying these strategies to boost their success? Finally, what review-focused technologies can they use to make these strategies possible? We’ll investigate these questions and more in “Five Unique Review Strategies to Grow Your Travel Business,” offering those in the industry new opportunities to boost customer satisfaction, streamline operations, and increase profitability in the process.

## Strategy 1: Gaining customer insights and improving personalisation

In the current travel eCommerce environment, it’s essential to understand what customers want and need. Yet many travel companies struggle to use customer data to personalize their advertising, products, and services. According to the results of Skift and Adobe’s 2018 Digital Transformation Report, one-third of travel executives rated their companies’ personalization efforts as four points or higher on a five-point scale.

But now, travel companies have the tools to apply what they know about customers to generate actionable insights. This is possible thanks to the analytical capabilities embedded in today’s review management platforms.

As we’ll explain below, these capabilities provide travel marketers with a more holistic view of their customers’ wants, needs, and behaviors. With this information in hand, they can build more detailed customer profiles, develop more relevant offers, and cultivate ongoing relationships with travelers.

### How travel brands use review data to connect the dots

One way travel brands now use review data to improve personalization is within targeted customer email campaigns. Luxury travel company Butterfield & Robinson (B&R) utilizes review data to improve its email marketing messages for various trip products. “You can actually put in specific reviews that are related to the email content, which we found to be quite effective,” said Michael Bertrand, acquisition marketing manager for B&R. “When we’re sending an email on a specific trip, and we have a very powerful review on that trip, we’re going to feature that in the email.”

Another organization using reviews to support guest personalization is the French hospitality group, Accor. The company collects all guest reviews in a central database. This data is then available to employees, who use it to provide a more consistent experience to guests regardless of which Accor hotel they visit. “It gives our frontline employees the necessary information that they need in order to personalize the guest experience,” said Alison Broussy, vice president of customer experience and reputation guest services for the brand. 

This review-powered process has another benefit: It’s helping Accor cultivate an ongoing relationship with their guests by connecting the dots across properties, service lines, and transactions. “It’s all about building that complete experience rather than just the in-hotel experience,” said Broussy.

### Review tools help identify insights at scale

How do B&R and Accor identify the right insights to inform their personalization efforts? While it’s true that some companies do it manually by analyzing individual reviews, this can be a time-consuming process. Instead, more brands are now relying on insight analysis tools built into review platforms, which help them identify hidden patterns within the data. 

One example is Trustpilot’s Review Insights technology. The tool uses machine learning technology to uncover hidden patterns in customer sentiment and topics surfacing across multiple reviews. These patterns can then be used to deliver more precise marketing messages when it’s time to reengage existing and potential customers. 

Trustpilot’s Review Tagging dashboard can also help marketers organize the various insights scattered among different customer reviews. Tagging can attach a phrase or keyword to a review, marking that information so it can be easily tracked. In the context of personalization, a travel brand might use the feature to tag reviews related to specific demographic groups that value the brand differently, or by destination, which can help marketers get a sense of which trips had the best or worst reviews.

“If the brand knows the type of content that the person commented on in the review, there’s a couple of ways to help analyze that,” said Brandon Till, senior director of product marketing for Trustpilot. “You might segment it based on either your customers … whether it’s a man or a woman, or if it’s a family trip. Or maybe this is a romantic vacation? Tagging can inform the different types of packages they might offer.”

And for those travel brands using third-party business intelligence tools, Till says it’s easy to then export tags for further analysis. “The company
could download and analyze it using their own business intelligence tool. We also have dashboards where people can compare the different tags to one another to see what’s overperforming.” 

## Strategy 2: Monitoring and delivering customer service in real time

In today’s fast-paced consumer environment, travelers expect real-time responses when they make complaints or have a problem. One recent study from Hubspot found that 82 percent of consumers [expected an immediate answer](https://smallbiztrends.com/2018/07/real-time-response-to-customers.html) to their queries and suggestions. And additional 2016 research from Trustpilot found that 81 percent of travel consumers will not buy a vacation from a company known to have poor customer service.

In order to quickly address problems, travel marketers need better strategies to monitor reviews, designate the right team to handle the issue, and provide quick resolution. When problems are handled quickly and appropriately, consumers are quick to forgive. Fifty-seven percent of respondents in Skift and Trustpilot’s survey said they were less likely to leave a bad review if the company tried to fix the problem during their trip.

### Imagine you have a problem with a travel company during a trip. How likely are you to still leave a bad review if the company tries to fix the problem during your trip?

Figure 2

### Building a system to provide real-time support

UK-based travel company Trailfinders has recognized the importance of rapid response and has designated a specific team to provide timely support if customers have a problem while on their trip. “We have a specialist team here that handle client issues that have been raised while they’re away,” said Lee Holden, digital marketing manager for Trailfinders.

Marketers also need to follow up with the reviewer to confirm that the issue has been addressed. “We will often say to clients, ‘Are you happy that your
issue has been resolved?,’” said Trailfinders’ Holden. “That generally leads to a conversation where, if it has now been resolved and they’re happy, then they’ll take a fresh look at their review.”

Among the marketing agencies that work with travel industry clients, some say that it’s important to follow-up with customers who offer feedback whenever possible to gather additional details. “If you’re seeing one-off comments, that’s one thing. But act if you’re seeing people complaining over
and over that ‘The beds are uncomfortable,’” said Jennifer Baum, of marketing agency Bullfrog + Baum. “Reach out. If you can get people to talk more and give you more details offline...then you can create a strategy.”

### How review tools can streamline the response process

In order to streamline the response and monitoring process, many review platforms provide marketers with tools to gather feedback throughout the customer journey. This includes features such as:

- Automatic email invites sent to customers during key moments in their trip
- Embedded review forms that live on company websites
- Customer data APIs to help synchronize review data with customer data found in email programs and CRM software. 

By providing more ways to collect reviews, travel brands can make it more likely that travelers will share their input when it’s most convenient for them.

And as the number of reviews grows, it’s equally important to consider software-based monitoring solutions, which help summarize feedback and notify the right team. “A successful business may get 1,000 reviews a day, right? So, it’s going to be very hard to understand which ones it has to pay
attention to,” said Ramin Vatanparast, Trustpilot’s chief product officer. “As soon as reviews come in, the system automatically analyzes them, groups them together, and informs the person in that department.”

Furthermore, integrations with customer service tools like Zendesk make it easier to flag and share notable reviews with the appropriate support personnel. “We can route these reviews into different help desk systems in real time, so that customers who are out traveling or at an airport can get
responses from companies quickly,” said Trustpilot’s Brandon Till.

Once the issue has been fixed, travel companies should also ask the customer to update his or her review. Consumers that post on review platforms like Trustpilot “own” their reviews, making it easier to modify their original rating, or add additional information. This is a great way to turn a previously negative review into a positive recovery.

## Strategy 3: Informing product research and evolution

Many in the travel industry recognize the potential of innovation to help grow their business and satisfy customer needs. But testing new innovations can also be expensive and risky. That’s why review data is the perfect way to investigate the viability of new innovations before they are released to the general public. 

Reviews already have a strong connection to the innovation process. According to the [2018 Global Innovation 1000](http://usblogs.pwc.com/industrialinsights/2018/11/28/what-makes-an-industrial-company-stand-above-its-peers/) study conducted by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, successful innovator companies “base innovation on direct insights from end users.” And in Skift and Trustpilot’s consumer
survey, 73 percent of respondents said they were more likely to leave honest feedback if they knew travel brands planned to act on the suggestions.

### How likely are you to leave honest feedback in a review if you know a travel brand will act upon your suggestions?

Figure 3

Furthermore, providing feedback is a key motivator for customers to share feedback in the first place. Close to 25 percent of respondents in the Skift and Trustpilot study said the reason they posted reviews was “to help the company improve its products."

### What are your primary reasons for writing reviews to travel brands?

Figure 4

### How travel brands turn reviews into product ideas

Trailfinders is one travel company that draws inspiration from reviews for future product development. The company’s travel packages frequently require collaboration with local supplier partners in each destination. The Trailfinders “watch team” monitors review data and periodically feeds it to the product team and any relevant suppliers who can take action on the insights.

“It’s largely a matter of us making sure that anything relevant gets moved on to the decision makers in the company,” said Trailfinders’ Holden.

And at Accor, consumer reviews help reinforce company decision making about everything from guest recommendations to content marketing programs, allowing them to improve the activities, itinerary suggestions, and marketing materials they then provide to future guests. 

“We can push a little further to get more feedback from our customers on what they actually did while they were in town while they were on property,” said Accor’s Broussy. “It can be used as content for generating revenue and more information on the destination than the actual property itself.”

Yet another example is Booking.com. The online travel agency gathers detailed hotel review data from guests, who are asked to review specific aspects of hotel properties. Room cleanliness, quality of hotel facilities, and the in-room amenities are just a few of the metrics that are investigated. This information is then shared with hotel owners, who are encouraged to take action to address the findings.

### Finding product improvements by identifying patterns

It’s possible that a marketer might stumble upon a single review that leads to a brilliant product idea. But rather than relying on luck to find these
insights, more companies in the travel industry now find these insights by using machine learning software, which can pick up on patterns and common phrases used across multiple reviews.

“You can analyze your reviews and try to get those signals,” said Trustpilot’s Vatanparast. One way this might work is if a hotel discovered a repeated pattern of guest reviews which had negative comments about the bed. “If everybody is complaining about the small beds, or uncomfortable beds, that’s a sign that I have to do something about my beds,” said Vatanparast. “Maybe make them bigger, if that’s the sentiment around it. Or, make them more comfortable.”

## Strategy 4: Proactively managing online reputation

A travel brand’s reputation plays a critical role in establishing credibility and trust with potential customers. But in recent years, trust in brands has been declining. According to the [Edelman Trust Barometer](https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2018-10/2018_Edelman_Trust_Barometer_Global_Report_FEB.pdf) study, less than half (48 percent) of the public said they trusted businesses, a number which declined from 58 percent the year prior. Another [study by Moz](https://moz.com/blog/new-data-reveals-67-of-consumers-are-influenced-by-online-reviews) found that businesses lose as many as 22 percent of customers after just one negative article is found online. In this environment, it’s essential for travel brands to promote review content in ways that reinforce consumer trust and help boost their reputations. 

### Amplifying positive reviews to improve discovery

The biggest opportunity for travel brands looking to burnish their reputation is to share positive reviews more widely. Tour operator Trailfinders uses its reviews on Trustpilot as an easily scalable marketing
asset. “We’re lucky enough to be rated number one for travel by Trustpilot, so we use that as a tagline, and depending on the advertisement, we might use excerpts and quotes from happy clients,” said Trailfinders’ Holden.

Trailfinders has integrated this five-star customer rating into a number of marketing channels. The company includes the endorsement in national newspaper ad campaigns, as well as within paid search campaigns on Google. Holden notes his team saw an increase in ad click-through rates after incorporating reviews into their display advertisements. The Trailfinders’ rating also shows up in the form of a carousel TrustBox “widget” that makes it possible to showcase customer reviews on the company’s website. 

Promoting this positive reputation is beneficial not just for existing customers, but for potential customers as well. “It’s putting us in front of new clients,” said Holden. “We were already engaged with our clients and trying to do the best we could in terms of responding to them as quickly as we could. What Trustpilot has given us is the opportunity to talk about that in the public arena in a way that the public trusts.”

Many travel brands also find that social media and paid search offer a powerful opportunity to put their positive customer ratings in front of consumers when they’re looking for company information. “If people are already looking to validate how good a company is, they’re going to search for reviews, and they’ll find them naturally on Facebook and Google,” said B&R’s Bertrand.

Bertrand says the company has found success integrating its positive feedback into Google Ads campaigns. As he notes, Trustpilot is one of a select group of trustworthy review partners Google allows to be featured in such efforts. “One of the big selling points was, I want to take advantage of seller ratings in Google Ads. To do that, you actually have to use a third-party,” he said.

### Using review tools to reinforce authenticity and transparency

Managing online reputation isn’t just about promoting good feedback. As more travel brands recognize, it’s also important to focus on review platforms that emphasize transparency and don’t allow them to hide negative reviews.

By focusing on these so-called “open” platforms, companies can signal that they have nothing to hide, helping to boost buyer trust and increasing their overall reputations. This stands in contrast to more “closed-loop” platforms, which hypothetically provide more control over which reviews are highlighted, but have hidden costs in the form of increased consumer skepticism. “If they are working with closed-loop platforms, then they have to manage online reputation by themselves,” said Trustpilot’s Vatanparast. “But, if they’re working with us, it’s much easier because we’re building all of our services and functionality around that transparency and trust.” 

One example of a product Trustpilot offers to reinforce trust is a tool called [Transparent Flagging](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/inside-trustpilot/creating-a-culture-of-transparency-and-trustworthiness-with-trustpilots-new). The feature adds data to the company profile page of any brand on Trustpilot, indicating the number of reviews the company has “flagged” (for violating platform guidelines), how many of those contested reviews were ultimately posted to the profile page versus deleted, and an indication about whether the contested reviews were found to be in breach of the guidelines.

“Providing this level of transparency helps businesses grow brand trust where needed and incentivizes good behavior,” said Stine Mangor Tornmark, senior vice president legal & compliance at Trustpilot. “We continue our commitment to combat any attempts to game the system and our fight for a reviews industry where businesses should not be allowed to censor what people can see and share.”

## Strategy 5: Redefine success metrics to include customer satisfaction scores

Travel brands already analyze their performance using metrics such as profit margin, occupancy rate, or revenue. But these measurements don’t always provide a comprehensive snapshot of the value the company creates for customers.

Consider the findings of a 2012 Harvard Business Review article titled, “The True Measures of Success,” in which author Michael J. Maubossin argued that companies “...need to assess nonfinancial measures such as customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and product quality, and determine if they can be directly linked to the financial measures that ultimately deliver value.”

With this in mind, more travel brands are starting to incorporate metrics related to customer satisfaction and reviews into how they measure performance.

### How travel brands use reviews to measure company success

Accor is one example of a hospitality brand that uses review scores as a yardstick to understand the company’s progress toward key business goals. As company executives note, they keep track of a company-wide online reputation metric that is available to stakeholders across the organization.

“We have one major e-reputation score, used across our network, which enables us to manage the performance of our hotels at an individual level,” said Accor’s Broussy. “It’s part of our customer-centric approach. Even the support staff in our head offices is motivated by the overall experience that our customers are having with our products in the hotels.”

Even more important, Accor believes these positive guest satisfaction scores are closely correlated with online conversion rates for its hotels. “It’s a clear driver for web conversion,” said Broussy. “We closely follow the conversion rates for how customers that have consulted reviews for a particular hotel convert versus those that don’t.”

### Picking the right customer satisfaction metrics

As travel brands reevaluate how they measure success, they will increasingly need to consider how they can expand the range of indicators they use. For instance, indicators like the [Net Promoter Score](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Promoter), which gauges customer loyalty, offer one potential option.

There’s also Trustpilot’s own “TrustScore” metric, which calculates customer satisfaction levels using an algorithm which blends both a company’s star rating and recency of reviews. Each individual indicator offers a specific view of success, and the best results can be achieved by combining various
views to create a holistic approach to brand success.

Another opportunity involves tracking changes in consumer sentiment over time. “You can choose 10 sentiments and follow the trend of those sentiments,” said Trustpilot’s Vatanparast. “Then you receive a report automatically, by email, on a weekly basis, which tells you what sentiments were positive or negative, and what are the areas of improvement. This means you don’t necessarily need to go through all the reviews. Trustpilot is doing the heavy lifting.”

## Conclusion

Reviews play a critical role in how travel brands boost their reputations and drive online business success. But even as more companies in the travel
industry internalize this message, many are still missing the larger opportunity. Reviews are not just something to monitor and manage. In order
to succeed and thrive in today’s highly competitive online travel ecosystem, travel brands need to think more strategically about the role review data
can play in helping achieve their business goals.

Today, a new review strategy is emerging. Thanks to powerful pattern analysis software and filtering tools, travel marketers can use review data to uncover unexpected insights into their customers’ habits and desires. This can help them unearth new product ideas or even to better personalize
the products and services they sell. It will allow them to quickly identify customer issues and respond before the complaint becomes a bigger problem for their brand. They will be able to easily promote positive reviews to potential customers, helping their company get discovered in customer searches. They can even use the data to capture a more accurate picture of their business success.

But in order to reap these benefits, those in the travel industry need to adopt a new mindset. Travel consumers are going to leave reviews, whether
those in the industry like it or not. The question those executives need to ask themselves is if they’ve put in place the proper tools and systems to listen, understand, and then act on what’s been said. “People are taking the time to post a review,” Baum said. “They often just want to be heard.”

__About Skift__

Skift is the largest intelligence platform in travel, providing media, insights, marketing to key sectors of the industry. Through daily news, research, podcasts, and Skift Global Forum conferences, Skift deciphers and defines the trends that matter to the marketers, strategists, and technologists shaping the industry. SkiftX is Skift’s in-house content marketing studio, working collaboratively with partners like Adobe, Airbnb, Hyatt, Lyft, Mastercard, and many more on custom projects to engage the world’s largest audience of travel influencers and decision makers.

5 Unique review strategies to grow your travel business

Omdömen är bland den bästa sortens sociala bevis för ditt företag. Om de används på rätt sätt kan dina omdömen förbättra samtliga områden i din marknadsföring.

[Konsumentbeteendet](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/foeraendrade-konsumentbeteenden-under-coronapandemin-sa-paverkas-olika) har förändrats. För dagens konsumenter är omdömen en central del av köpprocessen, som ger aktuell och relevant information om företag och produkter. Det här ger ditt företag möjlighet att samla in värdefull kundfeedback – som dessutom kan användas i din marknadsföring.

Utöver att ge ditt företag värdefull feedback, kan omdömen nämligen implementeras i din marknadsföring och öka såväl trafik som försäljning. I den här guiden visar vi hur.

För dig som inte är bekant med omdömen sedan tidigare, eller bara vill friska upp ditt minne, inleder vi denna guide med en kortare översikt över fördelarna med att samla in omdömen.

## Värdet av kundomdömen och sociala bevis

### 1. Öka förtroendet för ditt varumärke genom att samla in och svara på omdömen
Omdömen är en möjlighet för för dina kunder att dela med sig om allt de uppskattar med dina produkter, tjänster och din kundupplevelse. Det här är någonting som leder till ett ökat förtroende, som du kan använda för att stärka ditt varumärke övertyga nya kunder. 

### 2. Nå och övertyga nya kunder genom att implementera dina omdömen, betyg och sociala bevis i din marknadsföringsstrategi
Genom att framhäva dina förtroendeingivande omdömen kan du optimera din ROI. 
Sociala bevis såsom omdömen och stjärnbetyg kan hjälpa dig att förbättra klickfrekvensen i sökresultat, öka trafiken från dina utskick och annonser och omvandla fler besökare till kunder. 
Detta leder också till fler omdömen, som du kan dra nytta av för att leva upp till kundernas högt ställda förväntningar. 

### 3. Utvecklas med hjälp av kundfeedback
Det gäller att ta till vara på din kundfeedback, för att på så sätt behålla alla nya kunder och förtroendet för ditt varumärke.
Omdömen ger dig möjlighet att bättre förstå dina kunders behov och önskemål. Det här är någonting som hjälper dig att anpassa och utveckla ditt företag, så att du kan skapa kundlojalitet samtidigt som du lockar fler kunder.
För att du ska kunna visa upp förtroendet för ditt företag gäller det att först samla in omdömen. För företag som är baserade på någon av de större e-handelsplattformarna är detta enklare än någonsin, tack vare Trustpilots integrationer för [Shopify](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/partners/shopify-plus), [BigCommerce](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/partners/bigcommerce), [WooCommerce](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/partners/woocommerce), [Magento](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/partners/magento-commerce), [PrestaShop](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/partners/prestashop), [Shopware](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/partners/shopware) och [OpenCart](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/partners/opencart).


## 15 sätt att använda kundomdömen i din marknadsföring

När du börjat samla in omdömen om ditt företag är det dags att visa upp dem och göra dem till en del av din marknadsföring. Genom att implementera omdömen i din marknadsföringsstrategi kan du öka din organiska trafik, optimera dina digitala kampanjer och locka fler kunder.

### Förbättra din organiska SEO med kundomdömen

Din organiska rankning i sökresultatet är direkt avgörande – faktum är att 91,5 % av all organisk trafik går till webbsidor som syns på sökresultatens förstasidor.

__Med detta i åtanke har vi sammanställt fem tips på hur du kan förbättra din ranking med hjälp av omdömen.__

### 1. Off page-optimera genom att samla in omdömen på en tredjepartsplattform

Off page-optimering handlar om signalerna utanför din webbsida som ökar din synlighet – oavsett om det gäller länkar, sociala medier eller att skapa en profil på en tredjepartsplattform såsom Trustpilot.


off page seo

Även om sökmotorernas algoritmer hela tiden utvecklas, menar SEO-experterna på [Moz](https://moz.com/learn/seo/off-site-seo) att off page-element såsom relevans och trovärdighet står för mer än 50 % av en webbsidas ranking. Omdömen från en tredjepartsplattform hjälper dig med dessa element.

### 2. Öka hänvisningstrafiken från din företagsprofil på Trustpilot

Att skapa en företagsprofil på Trustpilot kan öka din hänvisningstrafik kraftigt. 

[Företagsprofiler](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/sv/articles/360013930439-Introduction-to-your-company-profile-page) på Trustpilot brukar nämligen hamna i toppen av sökresultaten i samband med sökningar efter omdömen om ett varumärke. 

Detta beror på Trustpilots starka [domänauktoritet](https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority). Ju fler omdömen du samlar in, och ju mer innehåll du fyller din profilsida med, desto enklare blir det för sökmotorer att associera ditt företag till Trustpilot –  och därmed placera din profilsida högt upp.

Hänvisningstrafiken tenderar tyvärr att glömmas bort, men genom att ta till vara på den kan du öka synligheten i [organiska sökresultat](https://moz.com/blog/organic-traffic-without-ranking).

Om du vill se ett inspirerande exempel på detta, kan du kolla in hur [TaxSlayer ökade sin hänvisnigstrafik med 500 %](https://business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/finance-insurance/why-taxslayer-chose-trustpilot-to-leverage-customer-feedback).

### 3. Visa upp omdömen på din webbsida och öka din organiska trafik

Att framhäva kundomdömen på centrala målsidor är enkelt med widgets för omdömen, och ett säkert sätt att öka synligheten. Detta då omdömen är en form av användargenererat innehåll som kan förbättra din SEO.

__Omdömen ökar textmängden på dina sidor.__ Innehållet hjälper Google att kontextualisera din webbsida och lyfta fram relevansen.

__Dina betyg hjälper Google att avgöra kvaliteten på dina produkter och tjänster.__ Till syvende och sist vill Google erbjuda sina användare sökresultaten med bäst rykte för att optimera upplevelsen, och det här är någonting som du kan dra nytta av.

__Omdömen ser till att ditt innehåll håller sig uppdaterat.__ Ditt uppdaterade innehåll berättar för Google att informationen om ditt företag är aktuellt, vilket ökar relevansen.

Det här är faktorer som hjälper [Google att förstå din webbsida](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/why-does-google-care-if-your-business-has-online-reviews-in-2019), vilket kan leda till att sökmotorer börjar prioritera din webbsida mer – som i sin tur leder till ökad trafik till din webbsida,


### 4. Visa upp dina stjärnbetyg i organiska sökresultat med produktomdömen

Visste du att du kan få dina stjärnbetyg att synas i  organiska sökresultat, och därmed öka din klickfrekvens? 
Produktomdömen kan nämligen hjälpa dig att så att uppnå Review Snippet-stjärnor i organiska sökresultat.

Det här är någonting kan locka fler potentiella kunder till dina produktsidor, och öka din klickfrekvens med upp till 35 % i organiska sökresultat. 

Och det inte särskilt svårt. Med vårt utbud av [e-handelsintegrationer](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/partners/type/apps) kan du enkelt låta sökmotorerar schemauppmärka dina produktomdömen, så att sökmotorerna kan ta del av dina produkters betyg och avgöra ifall de kvalificerar sig för Review Snippets. 

Om du når upp till [Googles kriterier](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/review-snippet) kan dina produktsidor sedan få Review Snippets på sökresultatsidorna.


### 5. Matcha fler sökningar med produktomdömen

Produktomdömen hjälper din webbsida att matcha fler sökord, så att din synlighet kan öka i samband med så kallade [Long Tail](https://yoast.com/focus-on-long-tail-keywords/#:~:text=Focusing%20on%20long%2Dtail%20keywords,as%20they%20are%20more%20specific.)-sökningar.

Allt du behöver göra är att låta dina kunder lämna omdömen om dina individuella produkter, och sedan visa dessa omdömen på dina produktsidor.
Det kan vara svårt att själv identifiera alla användningsområden för dina produkter – men dina kunder kan hjälpa dig med detta genom att dela sina upplevelser i form av produktomdömen. På så sätt blir dina kunder dina copywriters.

### Boosta dina digitala kampanjer med kundomdömen

Dagens konsumenter har sett det mesta – och många är inte längre intresserade av annonser. Faktum är att över [75 %](https://deloitte.wsj.com/cmo/2018/04/03/are-consumers-adlergic-a-look-at-ad-blocking-habits/) av konsumenterna använder sig av någon form av annonsblockerare.

Som om det inte vore svårt nog för den digitala marknadsföringen, visar forskning att färre än [3 av 10](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/learn-from-customers/trustworthiness-in-advertising-what-consumers-have-to-say) konsumenter har tillräckligt förtroende för digitala annonser.

Som tur är kan kundomdömen och stjärnbetyg förbättra dina digitala kampanjer i de kanaler som idag har störst på verkan på konsumenternas köpbeslut.

### 6. Förbättra dina Google Ads med Google Seller Ratings

[Google Seller Ratings](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/how-to-land-great-reviews-and-boost-your-google-seller-rating), eller säljaromdömen, kan hjälpa dig att: 

- Lägga till sociala bevis i dina annonser 
- Få ditt företag att sticka ut i konkurrensen
- Öka klickfrekvensen för dina Google Ads-kampanjer 

En ökad klickfrekvens kommer sannolikt att öka din försäljning, vilket oftast förbättrar ditt [kvalitetsresultat](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/140351?hl=sv) så att du får mer trafik till en lägre CPC (kostnad per klick). Detta leder i sin tur till en lägre CPA (kostnad per förvärv) och frigör en större andel av din budget till andra initiativ.

Tänk bara på att det är upp till Google att i enlighet med deras senaste [riktlinjer](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375474?hl=sv)  avgöra huruvida Google Seller Ratings visas eller inte, och att detta tenderar att bygga på antalet omdömen och sammanlagt betyg.

När du väl är berättigad [visas stjärnorna i dina annonser](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/how-to-land-great-reviews-and-boost-your-google-seller-rating) i Google-sökningar och i Googles sökpartners listor. De visas också i säljaromdömen både på Google Shopping och Google Ads. Med andra ord kan det helt klart vara värt besväret.

### 7. Optimera din remarketing-strategi

[Remarketing-kampanjer](https://blog.alexa.com/retargeting-vs-remarketing/) handlar om att nå potentiella kunder som har någon form av tidigare relation till ditt företag, efter att exempelvis ha besökt din webbsida eller dina profilsidor i sociala medier. 

Oavsett vilken plattform du använder kan du förbättra dina resultat genom att lägga till dina omdömen i annonserna. Du kan t.ex.: 

- Citera ett specifikt kundomdöme
- Visa ditt betyg i bilderna
- Visa hur många kunder som har gett dig ett högt betyg.

Det bästa av allt är att du kan framhäva dina omdömen i dina annonser utan några som helst designkunskaper och utan att behöva anställa en designer, med hjälp av Trustpilots [Bildgenerator](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/features/social-media-tools) för sociala medier.

Genom att förstärka dina retargeting-kampanjer med sociala bevis kan du övertyga fler potentiella kunder. 

[Läs mer om Trustpilots verktyg för sociala medier.](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/features/social-media-tools) 

## Lyft din marknadsföring via e-mail med hjälp av dina kunder

Experter inom marknadsföring via e-mail uppskattar att vi i genomsnitt skickar och tar emot hela [126](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/knowledge-base/how-many-emails-does-the-average-person-receive-per-day/) email i arbetet varje dag. 

Med tanke på detta är det inte kanske inte så konstigt att det endast omkring [22 %](https://mailchimp.com/help/about-open-and-click-rates/) av dessa mail öppnas, och att det är svårt att lyckas med marknadsföring via e-mail.

Här nedan följer fyra tips på hur dina kunder kan hjälpa dig att lyckas att nå ut med dina e-mail:

### 8. Förbättra klickfrekvensen med kundomdömen

Ju fler besökare, desto fler kunder. Omdömen kan hjälpa dig att öka klickfrekvensen på dina e-mail, vilket i sin tur hjälper till att [öka din konverteringsgrad](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/4-email-marketing-strategies-to-unlock-black-friday-sales-volume-throughout).

E-mailformatet tillåter dessutom att du använder dina omdömen på ett kreativt sätt och de kan utgöra basen för flera olika typer av innehåll och CTA:er.

Oavsett om du tar fram ett nyhetsbrev eller e-mailkampanjer för dina produkter eller remarketing, kan du med fördel framhäva ett  [kundomdöme](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/inside-trustpilot/social-proof-in-email-marketing-is-easier-than-ever-with-trustpilots-klaviyo) för att öka din klickfrekvens och i förlängningen din konvertering. Faktum är att [82 %](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/why-and-how-social-proof-influences-consumers) av konsumenterna uppger att omdömen och betyg i ett e-mail kan motivera köp.

### 9. Framhäv dina kundomdömen i dina välkomstkampanjer

Välkomstkampanjer är en chans att lägga grunden för relationer med framtida kunder. Majoriteten av alla som har registrerat sina mailadresser hos ditt företag har ännu inte genomfört något köp och ditt företag är helt nytt för dem.
Detta är din chans att övertyga dem om att välja just ditt företag. Här följer några enkla element som du kan inkludera i dina välkomstkampanjer för att öka svarsfrekvensen:

- Inkludera ett relevant kundomdöme i varje e-mail, oavsett om det handlar om en specifik produkt eller om kundupplevelsen i allmänhet. 
- Framhäv dina högst betygsatta produkter. 
- Visa upp ditt varumärkes personlighet genom att välja ut några intresseväckande omdömen.

Det finns många fler sätt för dig att göra ett gott första intryck med hjälp av dina kundomdömen – var kreativ! 

### 10.  Gör alla delar av dina e-mail mer förtroendeingivande

Varje e-mail du skickar bör innehålla någon form av vittnesmål om förtroendet för ditt företag. Lägg till ditt betyg i sidhuvudet eller ett kundcitat i sidfoten.

Det är viktigt med sociala bevis redan i ämnesraden, med tanke på att endast omkring [22 %](https://mailchimp.com/help/about-open-and-click-rates/) av alla e-mail  öppnas. 

Här är några idéer på e-mailkampanjer som kanske kan inspirera dig:

*-Månadens högst betygsatta produkter*
*- Tack för att du gör oss till ett 5-stjärnigt företag!*
*-5 exempel på hur vi har använt era omdömen till att förbättra vår kundservice*
*-Låt oss presentera Sara – vår bästa kundservicemedarbetare!*
*-Vi tyckte att våra tekannor var bra, men er feedback har gjort dem ännu bättre!*
*-Produkterna du älskar*

Jillian Lore

### 11. Uppmuntra dina kunder att återuppta sina övergivna kundvagnar med hjälp av omdömen

Du kommer alltid att ha några kunder som överger sina kundvagnar, så det är viktigt med e-mailpåminnelser som uppmuntrar kunder till att återvända.

Många företag förlitar sig på erbjudanden och kampanjer för att få respons på sina påminnelser om övergivna kundvagnar, men med hjälp av omdömen kan du generera en tillräckligt hög svarsfrekvens utan att behöva sänka priserna.

Lägg till några kundomdömen i dina påminnelse-e-mail, så kommer kunderna att påminnas om hur bra din service och dina produkter är och på så sätt uppmuntras till att återvända och slutföra sina köp.


Complete Guide to Reviews img 7

## Öka din webbsidas konvertering genom att visa upp dina kundomdömen

Idag tar hela [89 %](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/4-things-every-business-owner-should-know-about-the-state-of-reviews) av konsumenterna del av kundomdömen längs kundresan. När en potentiell kund hamnar på din webbplats är det därför sannolikt att de redan har fått ett första intryck av ditt varumärke.

Om du vill att det där första intrycket ska leda till ett köp, gäller det att använda alla konverteringsmöjligheter. Här nedan följer fyra tips för en ökad [konverteringsgrad](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/what-is-conversion-rate-optimisation):

### 12. Gör ett gott första intryck med omdömen på din startsida

Förtroendeingivande marknadsföringskampanjer leder ofta till ökad trafik. Om ditt mål är att omvandla fler besökare till kunder, gäller det att din webbsida är lika förtroendeingivande som ditt marknadsföringsmaterial.

När det kommer till webbsideoptimering glöms startsidan ofta bort till förmån för sidor längre fram i utcheckningsprocessen som till exempel kundvagns-, utchecknings- och produktsidorna. Det är en bortkastad möjlighet!

Startsidan är den mest besökta sidan på nästan alla webbplatser och dessutom ofta den primära målsidan. Det är här kunden får sitt första intryck av ditt företag, och det är även en sida som många återkommer till.

Det är med andra ord ett ställe där det är viktigt att visa prov på din fantastiska kundservice och kundomtanke. Det vill säga: sätt fokus på dina omdömen!

__Här följer några tips på hur du kan använda omdömen på startsidan för att lämna ett gott första intryck:__

__Framhäv både kvaliteten och kvantiteten på dina omdömen.__ Exempel: "Vi har fått 2 365 omdömen i år, varav 95 % med betyget 5 av 5."
__Visa dina 3-5 senaste kundomdömen.__ Detta sätter fokus på dina bästa funktioner och produkter.
__Framhäv dina produkter med högst betyg.__ Exempel: "Dessa produkter har fått 5 stjärnor av våra kunder."

Dessa metoder fungerar även på andra centrala målsidor. Med detta sagt, är det en bra idé att prioritera sidor som har hög trafik.

Startsidan är en plats för förtroende. Det är här som besökare söker efter [trovärdiga signaler och sociala bevis](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/what-is-social-proof-and-why-is-it-important-for-marketing), så se till att skapa förtroende genom att exempelvis visa upp höjdpunkter eller statistik från dina omdömen.

Complete Guide to Reviews img 9

### 13. Underlätta köpbeslut med widgets på dina produktsidor

Produktomdömen är ett hemligt vapen för SEO – men de kan även skjuta dina konverteringar i höjden och hjälpa dig att förvandla dina besökare till kunder.

Enligt experter på [Shopify](https://www.shopify.com/blog/15359677-why-online-store-owners-should-embrace-online-reviews) litar 79 % av onlineshoppare på produktomdömen lika mycket som på en personlig rekommendation. Och andra undersökningar har visat att människor litar [12 gånger mer på produktomdömen än på tillverkare eller produktbeskrivningar](https://econsultancy.com/ecommerce-consumer-reviews-why-you-need-them-and-how-to-use-them/).

[Produktomdömen är fantastiska i sig, men det finns några viktiga anledningar till varför du bör välja en omdömesplattform som kan erbjuda dig produktomdömen med användargenererade bilder och innehåll.](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/features/product-reviews)

- Millenniegenerationen litar 50 % mer på användargenererat innehåll än på traditionell media och anser att användargenererat innehåll är 20 % mer inflytelserikt och 35 % mer minnesvärt än andra typer av media.
- Det är tre gånger så sannolikt att konsumenter  tolkar användargenererat innehåll som genuint, jämfört med innehåll som har producerats av företaget i fråga.

Så om ditt företag säljer fysiska produkter bör du inte missa chansen att använda dig av användargenererat innehåll på dina produktsidor.


### 14. Sidhuvudet och sidfoten: ett bortglömt sätt att förbättra varenda sida på din webbsajt

Beroende på vad konsumenter söker på för att hitta ditt företag, kan de hamna på vilken av dina sidor som helst. Det betyder att mer eller mindre varje sida kan användas till att övertyga dina besökare till att ta ett köpbeslut.

Det enklaste sättet att se till att ditt förtroendeingivande budskap når fram, oavsett var på din webbsajt kunden landar, är att visa ditt stjärnbetyg i antingen sidhuvudet eller sidfoten.

Det här är en liten förändring som kan göra en enorm skillnad!

### 15. Behåll besökarna på din webbsida med betyg och omdömen på utgångssidor

Varje kundresa har en början och ett slut och om inte slutet är "Tack för din beställning"-sidan så måste du öka din konverteringsgrad. 

Börja med att identifiera sidorna med de högsta utgångsfrekvenserna. Dessa hittar du genom att gå till rapporten "Utgångssidor" i Google Analytics och leta efter sidorna med en stor mängd trafik och en hög utgångsprocent.

När det kommer till utgångssidor kan det vara en bra idé att ta en närmare titt på sidan och se om du hittar något problem:

Finns det tillräckligt med CTA:s för att hålla kvar folk på webbplatsen?
Finns det någon återvändsgränd på sidan?
Samt, förstås: finns det några särskilda omdömen som verkligen skulle vara denna sida till gagn?

Efter att ha identifierat problemsidorna kan du placera dina omdömen där för att minska utgångsfrekvensen.

Med Trustpilots funktion för omdömestaggning kan du enkelt visa upp de rätta omdömena på dina utvalda sidor.Till exempel så är leverans- och retursidan en vanlig utgångssida, så om du har några omdömen där dina kunder berömmer dina leverans- och returtjänster är det en bra idé att placera dem här.

## Implementera dina omdömen i din marknadsföring

Förhoppningsvis ser du nu de oändliga sätten som du kan integrera omdömen i din marknadsföringsstrategi, för att i förlängningen förbättra din konvertering och försäljning.

Som vi nämnde inledningsvis är kundomdömen det du behöver för skapa en förtroenderesa som ger resultat: 

__1. Ökat förtroendet för ditt varumärke genom att samla in och svara på omdömen
__2. Nå och övertyga nya kunder genom att implementera dina omdömen, betyg och sociala bevis i din __marknadsföringsstrategi
__3. Utvecklas med hjälp av kundfeedback____

Och om du vill få ut ännu mer av dina omdömen, ska du fokusera på att utöka din [omdömesinsamling](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/features/review-invitations) tills du har så mycket [sociala bevis](https://se.business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/3-reasons-why-you-really-need-to-get-more-reviews) att ingen kan missa det. Detta kommer att göra det ännu enklare att framhäva dina omdömen i all din marknadsföring och anpassa dem efter kampanjer och erbjudanden.

Dina kundomdömen kan som sagt ge resultat, så se till att ta vara på dem – även i din marknadsföring.


Den kompletta guiden till marknadsföring med omdömen (uppdatering, 2021)

Truspilot 5 trends that will define the future of fashion

Trustpilot 5 trends that will define the future of fashion

En undersökning från London Research och Trustpilot visar hur en ökad medvetenhet hos modekonsumenter ställer krav på varumärken och företag.

Trustpilot har tillsammans med [London Research](https://www.londonresearch.com/) genomfört en undersökning som visar på en ökad medvetenhet hos modekonsumenterna, som i allt större utsträckning söker sig till förtroendeingivande varumärken som tar sitt ansvar vad gäller både arbetsförhållanden och hållbarhet.

För att kunna nå dagens och framtidens medvetna konsumenter krävs insikt i vilka frågor som anses viktigast – och utifrån resultaten av vår undersökning har vi sammanställt en rapport som kan ge denna insikt.

### Fem trender som är avgörande för modebranschen

__1. Fyra av fem konsumenter prioriterar etik och hållbarhet__

För varumärken och företag inom modebranschen gäller det att anpassa sig efter rådande trender, och dagens konsumenter är tydliga med vad som är moderiktigt. Det handlar inte om passform, utan om att under goda arbetsförhållanden producera kläder med så begränsad miljöpåverkan som möjligt. 

Fler än fyra av fem konsumenter (82 %) uppger att de definitivt (31 %) eller troligtvis (51 %) skulle sluta handla produkter från ett varumärke om det skulle visa sig att varumärket i fråga saknar etiska principer.

__2. Konsumenterna spenderar försiktigt__

Människors köpvanor påverkas naturligtvis av den globala pandemi och lågkonjunktur vi nu befinner oss i. Närmare tre fjärdedelar av konsumenterna (72 %) lägger mindre pengar på kläder och mode än vad de gjorde innan pandemin. 

I en tid då många arbetar hemifrån kan vi konstatera att de klädkategorier vars försäljning har ökat mest är fritidskläder och bekväma plagg att bära hemma (21 %). Jämfört med formella kläder och lyxprodukter är denna ökning nästan dubbelt så stor. 

__3. Modekonsumenter har förtroende för omdömen och varandra__

Hur kan då dagens konsumenter hitta varumärken och företag som faktiskt lever upp till förväntningarna? 

Det finns många potentiella informationskällor, men störst förtroende har konsumenterna för varandra – följt av betyg och omdömen. 89 % av konsumenterna har ett väldigt högt eller medelhögt förtroende för muntliga rekommendationer. Motsvarande siffra för betyg och omdömen är 85 %. 

Förtroendet för muntliga rekommendationer och omdömen är två till tre gånger så stort som förtroendet för andra informationskällor såsom magasin, annonsering och varumärkens webbsidor. Jämfört med kända influencers på sociala medier är det tre gånger så sannolikt att en konsument har ett väldigt högt förtroende för betyg.

__4. Etik och hållbarhet påverkar konsumentens köpbeslut__

Undersökningen visar att varumärken inte har råd att skjuta etik och hållbarhet på framtiden – konsumenternas köpbeslut påverkas redan idag av dessa frågor. Drygt hälften av (54 %) konsumenterna uppger att rapportering kring arbetsförhållanden och hållbarhetsfrågor har påverkat deras köpbeslutnär det kommer till mode.  

Nästan lika många (41 %) har påverkats av rapportering kring mångfald och inkludering. Ungefär en tredjedel (33 %) har påverkats av varumärken som inte lever upp till sina etiska värderingar.

Med tanke på att konsumenter har två till tre gånger högre förtroende för muntliga rekommendationer respektive konsumentbetyg än för media, är det hög tid för varumärken att inse vad den medvetna konsumenten faktiskt efterfrågar vad gäller etik och hållbarhet – och visa att man tar ansvar i dessa frågor. Det är helt enkelt förtroendeingivande, och kan resultera i rekommendationer. 

__5. Varumärken kan dra nytta av vad som är viktigt för konsumenterna__

Konsumenterna är tydliga med vad de faktiskt vill se från varumärken och företag inom modebranschen. På delad första plats (46 %) hamnar goda arbetsförhållanden genom hela logistikkedjan, respektive klimatsmart paketering. Det här är tätt följt av återvinningstjänster (41 %), som hamnar på tredje plats.  

Låt oss nu analysera konsumentbeteendet i detalj. 

## Inledning: Varumärkens värderingar värderas högst

Konsumentbeteendet befinner sig i en förändring när det kommer till att handla kläder, och det här är någonting som kan komma att förändra hela modebranschen.

Den globala pandemin har påskyndat en utveckling där etiska och hållbara produkter premieras. En ökad medvetenhet återspeglar sig i konsumentbeteendet, vilket ställer krav på varumärken. Konsumenter vill helt enkelt välja varumärken som lever upp till de värderingar som anses vara viktiga. 

Mot denna bakgrund har London Research, i samarbete med Trustpilot, genomfört en konsumentundersökning som visar på vikten av etik och hållbarhet. Konsumenter från Storbritannien, USA, Frankrike, Nederländerna, Italien och Sverige har fått svara på frågor kring vad de vill se mer av från varumärken och företag inom modebranschen. 

Hur ser konsumenternas förväntningar ut? Och hur kan varumärken få deras förtroende?

### Hållbarhet är viktigare än reor

[En undersökning från McKinsey](https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/survey-consumer-sentiment-on-sustainability-in-fashion) har redan visat hur nedstängningar förändrat modekonsumenternas prioriteringar, och nu anses arbetsförhållanden och hållbarhet vara långt viktigare än realisationer och rabatter. 

Enligt modeskribenten Olivia Pinnock är detta en viktig förändring. Pinnock är initiativtagare till [The Fashion Debates](http://www.thefashiondebates.com/), där modebranschen kan samlas för att diskutera hur man kan gå en mer hållbar framtid till mötes.  

“Under 80- och 90-talet uppmärksammades skandaler med ‘sweatshops’, men problemet tycks ha sopats under mattan”, säger Pinnock. 

“Idag finns däremot en generation som inser att det inte är etiskt försvarbart att handla en t-shirt för 50 kronor, när så många människor är en del av tillverkningen och logistikkedjan. Det finns också många chefer som aktivt driver förändring, eftersom de inte vill vara en del av branschens förflutna.”

Pinnock tror på arbetet för förändring och en förändrad inställning bland konsumenterna. I detta identifierar hon dock två stora utmaningar. “Lågpriskedjorna värnar inte arbetarnas rättigheter, och billiga kläder har blivit en konvention”, förklarar hon.

“Det här har gett oss en skev uppfattning kring vad det kostar att producera kläder. Det är också en tillgänglighetsfråga. Den stora majoriteten av kläder, frånsett under en pandemi, inhandlas i butiker och det är de stora lågpriskedjorna som har råd att öppna flertalet butiker i varje stad.” 

### Försiktiga konsumenter

Det är knappast förvånande att det mitt under en global pandemi läggs mindre pengar på kläder och mode. Konsumenterna uppger antingen att de ligger på liknande nivåer som tidigare, eller att de minskar sina utgifter.

I genomsnitt är det 28 % av de tillfrågade som uppger att de spenderar mer. En fjärdedel (25 %) spenderar lika mycket som förut, medan närmare hälften (47 %) uppger att de spenderar mindre. 

Figur 1

Som framgår av figur 2 är fritidskläder och bekväma kläder att bära hemma de kategorier som ökat mest – dubbelt så mycket som kategorin lyxprodukter och klart mer än dressade kläder.

Nedstängningar och social distansering har helt enkelt resulterat i att kläder som används hemma prioriteras framför mer formella kläder till kontoret, eller för den delen lyxprodukter till utekvällen.


Figur 2

- Bland länderna som ingår i undersökningen är det konsumenter i USA som är mer sannolika att spendera mer på bekväma kläder (28 %), skor (20 %), dressade kläder (20 %) och lyxprodukter (15 %).
- Storbritannien befinner sig i en djup lågkonjunktur, vilket kanske kan förklara att brittiska konsumenter är mest försiktiga. En dryg femtedel (22 %) uppger här att de dragit ner på modekostnaderna med mer än hälften.

### Elefanten i rummet

Det är tydligt att konsumenterna blivit mer försiktiga när det kommer till att köpa kläder. I takt med att globala lågkonjunkturen vänder kommer det också gå att se huruvida denna förändring handlar om ekonomi, miljö eller både och.

Att minska konsumtionen är enligt Olivia Pinnock “elefanten i rummet”. 

Utöver att hålla utkik efter fairtrade-märkning och engagemang för rättigheter och hållbarhet, tror Pinnock att konsumenter snart kommer inse vikten av att köpa färre kläder. 

Laurel Wolfe, marknadsansvarig vid [Klarna](https://www.klarna.com/) är inne på samma spår.

“Pandemin har fått oss alla att reflektera över hur, var och varför vi handlar – både online och i butik, eller med mindre, lokala varumärken”, säger Wolfe.

“Vi försöker hjälpa konsumenter bli mer medvetna, så att de handlar produkter som de verkligen kommer använda och uppskatta. Tillsammans med influencers har vi lanserat kampanjer där vi uppmanar konsumenter att tänka efter både två och tre gånger, i linje med råden vi ger på vår sajt. Det handlar om att fråga sig själv ifall man kommer uppskatta och använda produkten, och om den är värd priset.”  

Budskapet belyser övergången från “fast fashion” till ett mer medvetet mode, som premierar arbetsförhållanden och hållbarhet. 

## Konsumenter har förtroende för betyg, omdömen och varandra

Med en minskad budget ökar behovet av att göra rätt val. För konsumenterna är detta inte längre bara en fråga om passform eller pris. 

Vår undersökning visar att konsumenter dras till varumärken som visar att de tar ansvar för både arbetsförhållanden och hållbarhet. Men hur kan konsumenterna få förtroende för företag i dessa frågor, som kan spela en avgörande roll i ett köpbeslut? 

Undersökningen ger tydligt svar på denna fråga: konsumenter litar på varandra. Muntliga rekommendationer från familj och vänner är den mest förtroendeingivande informationskällan. 44 % av de tillfrågade har ett högt förtroende för dessa rekommendationer, tätt följt av betyg och omdömen från konsumenter (36 %) (Figur 3).


Figur 3

89 % av konsumenterna har ett högt eller medelhögt förtroende för muntliga rekommendationer, och motsvarande siffra för betyg och omdömen är 85 %.

Dessa två kategorier är två till tre gånger mer förtroendeingivande än andra informationskällor såsom magasin, annonser och sociala medier.

Modebranschen är fylld till bredden med kända designers, modeller och kändisar vars klädval dagligen uppmärksammas. Vår undersökning visar emellertid att kända influencers som informationskälla har lågt förtroende hos närmare två tredjedelar av konsumenterna (63 %).

Modekonsumenter vill helt enkelt kunna fatta medvetna köpbeslut, och till sin hjälp tar de helst muntliga rekommendationer eller omdömen och betyg.


The Savile Row Company visar upp sitt Trustpilot-betyg på sin webbsida. Undersökningen visar att betyg och omdömen, tillsammans med muntliga rekommendationer, är de mest förtroendeingivande informationskällorna.

p10-image1

- Konsumenter i USA och Italien har högst förtroende för omdömen (43 %).
- Konsumenter i Sverige och Nederländerna  har högst förtroende för muntliga rekommendationer (49% respektive 48%).

## Etik, hållbarhet och kundlojalitet

Idag vill konsumenter inte bara att kläderna ska passa deras stil och budget, utan även deras värderingar. De vill helt enkelt kunna lita på att företaget i fråga står upp för det som anses vara viktigt. Allt fler vill se att företag är etiska och hållbara.

Fler än fyra av fem konsumenter (82 %) skulle “definitivt” (31 %) eller “troligtvis” (51 %) sluta handla från ett företag med bristande etik (Figur 4).


Figur 4

Med andra ord är det viktigt för varumärken att göra etiska frågor till kärnfrågor för sin varumärkesstrategi. Medan närmare en tredjedel definitivt skulle överge ett varumärke som agerar oetiskt, skulle närmare hälften åtminstone överväga det.  
Det här är inte en fråga att skjuta på framtiden. Marknaden har redan nått en punkt där negativ publicitet kring ett varumärkes etik innebär förlorade kunder. 

Över hälften av konsumenterna (54 %) uppger att rapportering kring arbetsförhållanden och hållbarhet har påverkat från vilka varumärken de handlar eller inte handlar modeprodukter (figur 5). Nästan lika stor andel har påverkats av ett modeföretags ställningstaganden vad gäller mångfald och inkludering (41 %), och 33 % har påverkats av ett varumärke som inte lever upp till sina värderingar (så kallad “slacktivism”).


Figur 5

Sophie Slater, medgrundare till det etiska och hållbara modevarumärket [Birdsong](https://birdsong.london/) är inte förvånad över resultaten. Företagets anställda i London får en så kallad London Living Wage (levnadslön i London) för att producera kläder tillverkade av ekologisk bomull, vilka förpackas av en välgörenhetsorganisation som stöder vuxna med inlärningssvårigheter. För att skydda sin personal mot covid-19 har man stängt ner produktionen, vilket möjliggjorts av medvetna kunder som har förståelse för förseningar.

“Under några år nu har modeföretag pratat om hållbarhet, men under det senaste året har allt fler börjat prata även om etik”, säger Slater. 

“Människor har fått se hur arbetare behandlas i sweatshops i Leicester (i Storbritannien) av välkända varumärken… ‘fast fashion’ har fått mycket negativ publicitet. Genom positiv publicitet och sociala medier kan vi få ut vårt budskap till de som motiveras av inkludering och etiskt agerande – och dessa personer är beredda att betala lite mer för kläder som de vet är producerade av människor som får en levnadslön i London.” 

- Konsumenterna i Italien är de som påverkas mest av mediarapportering. Mer än tre fjärdedelar har påverkats av rapportering om ett varumärkes etik (79 %) och arbetsförhållanden (77 %). Kanske är detta ett resultat av att Italien är det land i EU som producerar mest kläder, varför dessa frågor ligger italienska konsumenter nära. 

## Goda arbetsförhållanden och miljömedvetenhet är förtroendeingivande

En positiv utveckling för modebranschen som helhet är att över 28 % av konsumenterna uppvisar antingen ett “väldigt” (9 %) eller “ganska” (19 %) högt förtroende för modevarumärkens etiska principer.

Samtidigt uppger tyvärr av 26 % av konsumenterna att de antingen har ett “väldigt” (7 %) eller “ganska” (19 %)  lågt förtroende. 

Figur 6

En fjärdedel av marknaden har förtroenden för branschen, samtidigt som en fjärdedel inte har det. Detta innebär att närmare hälften av konsumenterna befinner sig någonstans i mitten, med ett medelhögt förtroende för branschen.

Med tanke på att fyra av fem av de tillfrågade också är beredda att välja bort ett varumärke som inte agerar etiskt och hållbart, är det framgent viktigt för varumärken att fokusera på övertyga de som i nuläget är neutrala.

Det ekologiska modevarumärket
 [SANVT](https://sanvt.com/) utgör ett exempel på hur man kan arbeta mer hållbart. Medgrundaren och marknadschefen Benjamin Heyd förklarar hur företaget använder sig av ekologisk bomull och undviker skadliga kemikalier i färgningen av sina kläder. För företaget är det också viktigt med transparens. 

“Vi påverkar miljön så lite som möjligt och säkerställer goda arbetsförhållanden genom att använda en fabrik i Portugal”, säger Heyd.

“Genom en digital guidning i fabriken kan konsumenterna se själva att vi håller en hög standard. Vi har inte reakampanjer, utan satsar istället på att klimatkompensera genom att erbjuda ökad trädplantering när kunderna köper nedsatta produkter. Jag tror inte att hållbarhet är den viktigaste frågan när konsumenter ska välja varumärken ännu, jämfört med passform och design. Men långsiktigt är jag övertygad om att det kommer bli den viktigaste frågan, och att varumärken kommer behöva visa konsumenter att de arbetar etiskt och hållbart.”

- Sverige och Nederländerna uppvisar lägst förtroende för varumärken och företag inom mode. Endast 4 % av konsumenterna på dessa marknader uppger ett väldigt högt förtroende. För Frankrike är motsvarande siffra 5 %.
- USA står för den största andelen med väldigt högt förtroende för varumärken och företag inom mode. 14 % av konsumenterna uppger här ett väldigt högt förtroende, och 20 % uppger ett ganska högt förtroende.
- Totalt sett är det Italien som visar högst förtroende för varumärken och företag inom mode. Över en tredjedel (39 %) av konsumenterna på denna marknad har ett väldigt (8 %) eller ganska  (31 %) högt förtroende.

## Konsumenter söker sig till medvetna modevarumärken

Idag väljer konsumenter bort de varumärken som inte agerar etiskt och hållbart. Man förväntar sig också att varumärken ska värna mångfald och inkludering. 

Vad innebär då detta i praktiken för varumärken och företag inom modebranschen? Vilka strategier, engagemang och tjänster vill medvetna konsumenter se mer av i framtiden? 

Upp emot hälften av de tillfrågade konsumenterna (46 %) vill se bättre arbetsförhållanden och mer miljövänlig paketering. 40 % vill se fler återvinningstjänster, och 36 % vill se initiativ för att minska koldioxidavtrycket (se figur 7).

De tillfrågade konsumenterna kunde här välja upp till tre alternativ.

Figur 7

För varumärket [The Savile Row Company](https://savilerowco.com/) är det ingen nyhet att mijövänliga förpackningar toppar listan tillsammans med goda arbetsförhållanden.

Marknadsansvariga Lee-Anne Harris förklarar att företag har ersatt plastpåsar med biologiskt nedbrytbara påsar, samtidigt som man använder sig av klädklämmor av papper istället för plast.

“Våra Trustpilot-omdömen visar att kunder uppskattar återvinningsbara förpackningar och biologiskt nedbrytbara påsar”, säger Harris. 

“För oss var det en självklarhet att agera i enlighet med våra värderingar, och vi var övertygade om att våra kunder skulle dela dessa värderingar.”


The Savile Row Company har ersatt plastförpackning (till vänster) med återvinningsbar pappersförpackning (till höger).

The Savile Row Company har ersatt plastförpackning (till vänster) med återvinningsbar pappersförpackning (till höger).)

Enligt Harris är återvinningsbara förpackningar fortfarande ett uppskattat inslag, snarare än en branschstandard. Men hon tror också att det bara är en tidsfråga innan kunderna “kräver att modeföretagen tar sitt ansvar vad gäller plastanvändning.” För varumärken är det hög tid att förbereda sig för denna framtid. 

- De amerikanska konsumenterna vill i framtiden se mer välgörenhet (35 %), mer inkluderande produktutbud (27 %), mångfald i marknadsföringen (26 %) och ställningstaganden i sociala frågor (24 %).
- Sannolikt är detta ett resultat av de sociala orättvisor som uppmärksammats av Black Lives Matter-rörelsen. Stödet för varumärken som tar ställning i sociala frågor är mer än dubbelt så högt i USA än i de andra länderna som ingår i undersökningen, bortsett från Italien. 

## Fyra förtroendeingivande faktorer

Vad är det konsumenter letar efter för att få förtroende för ett modevarumärke? Faktum är att det inte någon enskild egenskap som här är avgörande. Över hälften av konsumenterna (58 %) söker efter sammanlagt fyra förtroendeingivande faktorer. (figur 8).

Dessa faktorer är öppenhet kring värderingar och policyer, fairtrade-märkningar, omdömen och betyg på både företagets webbplats och oberoende plattformar.


Figur 8

Dessa förtroendeingivande faktorer är någonting som återförsäljaren av lyxprodukter [FARFETCH](https://www.farfetch.com/) har koll på. Thomas Berry, som ansvarar för företagets arbete med hållbarhet, berättar att man inte bara hjälper sina kunder att göra mer medvetna köp, utan att man också försöker förlänga produkternas livslängd i form av återförsäljning

“Som en del av vår hållbarhetsstrategi ‘Positively FARFETCH’ har vi ett brett utbud hållbara produkter som kunderna kan hitta antingen med våra filter eller våra redaktionella urval, och på så sätt att försäkra sig om att de kan handla bevisat hållbara produkter”, säger Berry. 

“Vi har även två tjänster som hjälper våra kunder att förlänga livslängden för oanvända produkter. ‘FARFETCH Second Life’ är en tjänst som kunderna kan få en prisuppgift på en handväska, varpå vi ordnar en upphämtningsplats, verifierar produkten och därefter lägger till motsvarande kredit på deras FARFETCH-konto. ‘FARFETCH Donate’ fungerar på samma sätt, men där pengarna till välgörande ändamål som kunden själv väljer, samtidigt som kunden får en tredjedel av beloppet insatt på sitt FARFETCH-konto. Både tjänsterna förlänger produkternas livslängd och bidrar till minskad miljöpåverkan.”

En tydlig indikation på vikten av hållharbet är att FARFETCHS hållbara produktlinje “Consicous” är det segment vars försäljning ökar överlägset snabbast bland företagets samlade produktutbud. Vad gäller modebranschen som helhet uppskattar Berry att nya kläder kommer ha en tillväxt på 3 %, medan han uppskattar motsvarande siffra för vidareförsäljning att landa på 15-30 %. 

## Slutsatser

Inom kläder och mode kommer design, passform och pris fortsätta vara viktiga faktorer även i framtiden. Med detta sagt kan vi konstatera en ökad medvetenhet bland konsumenter vad gäller etik och hållbarhet, vilket påverkar valet av varumärken.

Den globala pandemin har påskyndat denna utveckling. I samband med att konsumenterna tvingats prioritera vad de anser vara viktigast, har man värdesatt varumärken som tar ansvar för både arbetsförhållanden och hållbarhet.

En undersökning från Cardiff University visar att andelen britter som anser att klimatfrågan är akut  ökade från 62 % till 74 % mellan augusti 2019 och augusti 2020. Vidare lovar närmare hälften av Storbritanniens invånare (47 %) att flyga mindre än vad man gjorde innan pandemin, när restriktionerna släpps. I USA rapporterar media att färre bilresor till jobb kan ha resulterat i att utsläppen av luftföroreningar minskat med hela 30 %. 

Att det här är viktiga frågor även för modebranschen råder det inga tvivel kring, då 
fyra av fem konsumenter uppger att de skulle sluta handla produkter från ett varumärke om det skulle framkomma att varumärket inte agerar etiskt eller hållbart. Hälften av konsumenterna uppger att de redan har undvikit modeföretag som fått negativ publicitet till följd av bristande etik och hållbarhet. Med andra ord är det här frågor som varumärken inte har råd att skjuta på framtiden.

__Konsumenterna är tydliga med sina önskemål. De vill att varumärken och företag inom mode ska:__

- Behandla alla inblandade i logistikkedjan rättvist
- Producera kläder med så lite miljöpåverkan som möjligt
- Använda sig av återvinningsbara förpackningar
- Förlänga klädernas livslängd genom återvinning
- Arbeta aktivt med koldioxidminskning
- Kommunicera sina värderingar och leva upp till dessa

Genom att anpassa sig efter detta kan varumärken och företag vinna ökat förtroende hos den majoritet som idag har medelhögt förtroende för modebranschen.

Vad gäller förtroende är det viktigt att komma ihåg att konsumenter litar på varandras råd och omdömen två till tre gånger så mycket som modemagasin, sociala medier och annonser. Kända influencers är i sammanhanget den informationskälla som modekonsumenterna litar minst på, vilket man som marknadsförare bör ha i åtanke.

Sammanfattningsvis vill konsumenterna se ett mer etiskt korrekt och hållbart mode, och de är beredda att välja de varumärken som enligt muntliga rekommendationer och omdömen lever upp till dessa värderingar. 

### Metod

På uppdrag av Trustpilot genomförde London Research i september 2020 en undersökning med 2800 konsumenter fördelade mellan Storbritannien (1000), USA (1000), Frankrike (200), Nederländerna (200), Italien (200) och Sverige (200). 

Undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av en undersökningssida från Toluna. London Research genomförde också ett antal intervjuer för denna undersökning.

### Tack

London Research och Trustpilot vill rikta ett särskilt tack till följande personer för deras bidrag till denna rapport: 

- Thomas Berry, Global Director of Sustainable Business, FARFETCH
- Lee-Anne Harris, Marketing Director, The Savile Row Company
- Benjamin Heyd, Head of Marketing and Co-Founder, SANVT
- Olivia Pinnock, Fashion Writer and Creator of The Fashion Debates
- Sophie Slater, Co-Founder, Birdsong
- Laurel Wolfe, VP Marketing, Klarna

Varför är etiska och hållbara varumärken modebranschens framtid?

cover-1880x1057

Local research report cover

I denna forskningsrapport kan du läsa om vilka informationskällor svenskarna litar mest på, vilka faktorer som är högst prioriterade vid ett onlineköp och vilken roll omdömen spelar i informationsinsamlingen. 

I vår [forskningsrapport](https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/2749863/CEU%20Demand%20Generation/CEU%20HERO%20AND%20LOCAL%20CONTENT/Local%20content%20/SE-Consumer-research-Report.pdf) kan du läsa mer om vilka informationskällor svenskarna litar mest på, vilka faktorer som är högst prioriterade vid ett onlineköp och vilken roll omdömen spelar i informationsinsamlingen. 

Några intressanta resultat från undersökningen:

- 40 % av svenska konsumenter anser att onlineomdömen är bland de tre viktigaste faktorerna vid ett onlineköp.

-  Endast 1 % av svenska konsumenter under 50 år läser aldrig omdömen.

-  Svenska konsumenter litar mer på omdömen på omdömesplattformar såsom Trustpilot eller TripAdvisor (27 %) än på omdömen på företagets egna webbsajt (14 %).

-  Nästan var fjärde svensk (24 %) anger att de “inte alls” litar på reklam för produkten eller företaget.

Rapporten är tillgänglig i [PDF-format](https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/2749863/CEU%20Demand%20Generation/CEU%20HERO%20AND%20LOCAL%20CONTENT/Local%20content%20/SE-Consumer-research-Report.pdf).

Trevlig läsning!

Local research report thumbnail

Omdömen i tillitens Sverige: resultat från en oberoende kundundersökning på den svenska marknaden

the new face of seo is aeo

Users are seeking a solution to a problem or the answer to a question. That has always been the case. Search engines have provided a list of options from which to choose but they have struggled to provide one single solution or answer. That’s starting to change.

- Both Google and Bing are increasingly capable of offering the correct answer.
- The devices that provide the answer are becoming increasingly ubiquitous (mobile phones, voice assistants, watches, in-car assistants...).
- As Google and Bing improve, their users are increasingly comfortable accepting the unique solution they propose. 

These changes present new challenges - but also offer phenomenal opportunities for companies.

### Converting Google and Bing’s users into your clients

Your aim, as a company, is to make sure that Google and Bing understand when you can offer the correct answer for a user for a given need at a given time and that they consider your answer to be the best. If you can do that, search engines will send their users to your site and those users can become your clients.

__How can you ensure the interactions between users and search engines turn out positively for you?__

### Optimising for Answer Engines - The Two Pillar Strategy

__Google is looking for:__

- Understanding
- Credibility

__So you need to:__

- Communicate
- Convince

You need to communicate to Google that you have the solution or answer for a given problem or question and prove that your solution or answer is better than your competitors.

This guide will provide an 8-point checklist on how to communicate and convince answer engines through understanding and credibility.

## Communicate to create Understanding

Communication provides understanding to Google and Bing so they know who you are and what you do. If you can communicate that, and provide sufficient corroborated information, these search engines will give you a place in their knowledge graphs and the opportunity to be provided as a definitive answer. There are four steps in communication to ensure your company is ready for the answer engines of tomorrow.

### 1. Leverage structured data

[Schema.org](http://schema.org) markup provides a way to present the information in your webpages to Google and Bing in a format they can easily and reliably understand. Use
basic information such as Corporation, Product, Offer, and more to explain who you are and what you do, then expand on this by giving details about you and your offers using attributes such as address, brand, price, etc. You can explain pretty much anything in this manner, and we recommend that you use schema.org markup extensively. 

### 2. Use semantic HTML5

Semantic HTML5 is an additional way to present information to Google and Bing in an easily digestible manner. By using semantic HTML5 tags such as article and navigation, you can identify parts of the page so Google can better understand and concentrate on the content that is central to the message your page is providing to the user. 

You can also give the content of the page structure using HTML tables and special HTML5 tags. Find out more [here](https://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_intro.asp).

### 3. Maintain owned and third-party channels

Multiple sources corroborating and confirming the information you provided in steps 1 and 2 will reinforce Google and Bing’s understanding. Owned and
semi-controlled channels are easy to manage and include your company’s website, EV SSL certificates, your social accounts, review sites like Trustpilot, and other relevant third-party channels that you can affect. Sources you have no control over send stronger signals and include
news sites, Wikipedia, and government sites. The more signals you can generate through various pertinent and trusted channels, the better. This is very much an ongoing task as new channels emerge and existing ones
shift in value.

### 4. Keep your company’s identity consistent

Ensure that all the information about you, wherever it appears, is accurate and up to date. The better you can manage to be consistent across the web, the more confidence Google and Bing will have in the veracity of the information you provided in steps 1, 2, and 3. Start with your social accounts, business accounts, government sites build a qualitative and quantitative review platform portfolio, and then move onto asking third party sites to update information about you (they often oblige). This is another ongoing undertaking, but is absolutely essential.

## Convince using Credibility

Your aim is to convince Google that you are the most credible available
solution. If you provide more powerful positive credibility signals than your competition, these search engines will consider you to be the best solution in your market and offer you as the best (objective) answer. This is the second pillar necessary for the answer engines of tomorrow - and consists of four steps.

### 1. Get reviews and ratings

Customer feedback, and therefore reviews, are an incredibly strong credibility signal. Reach out to happy customers post-sale by email or SMS and make it easy for them to give you a review on a third party platform.

Reviews you collect yourself have little value for AEO. Choose 3 or 4 platforms to begin with. There are two main questions to think about when choosing the right review platforms:

- Which review platforms do your prospects use and trust?
- Is the review platform credible?

The credibility of the platform that publishes a customer review carries significant weight in Google’s measure of that review’s importance. Everyone gets negative reviews. For brands with over 80% positive feedback, it is sheer quantity that makes the difference. 

__Google will prefer a brand that has 10,000 reviews giving an average of 80% over a brand that has 100 reviews with an average of 85%.__

### 2. Engage in and encourage social feedback

Get positive social buzz and chatter to generate a very strong credibility signal. To generate buzz, keep a constant flow of content on social channels:

- Engage with your clients
- Reach out to prospects
- Get your content out there
- Share other people’s great content

The sheer quantity of social chatter makes it impossible for Google to crawl and index everything in this field. Some estimates suggest that it manages to crawl 35% of Facebook. If that is true, social chatter needs to be three times more voluminous than any review or press activity in order to have the same effect. So, although much of it goes unseen, a constant low-level buzz is vital for this channel. Should your brand go viral, you will become a focal point that Google will remember.

### 3. Obtain quality third-party mentions via press and thought leaders

Links remain important, but an intelligent machine understands, and gives credit to, brand mentions (so-called linkless links). So, reach out and get quality mentions from relevant thought leaders. Although we often think of thought leaders as individuals, brands and sites can be considered thought leaders.

Mentions and (better still) reviews from thought leaders are very powerful. Getting a thought leader, whether it’s a brand, site, or person, to talk about your brand in a relevant, positive context will send an incredibly powerful credibility signal to Google - well worth pursuing.

### 4. Optimise user experience

Identifying a user’s “moment of satisfaction” is the most difficult to pin down, but potentially the most important. Google is looking to identify the moment when its user has found the solution to their problem or the answer to their question. Google is not there yet, but is rapidly developing the capacity to identify this moment and base its results accordingly. 

You need to make sure that user behaviour on your site reflects the fact that you have provided that user with the correct solution or answer at the right time. 

Make landing pages fast, attractive, pertinent, and intuitive. Use the same vocabulary as your users and make sure you address their problem or question and clearly indicate that you have the answer for them.

To see how well you are doing, track such metrics as: page load speed, bounce rate, dwell time, visit depth and conversion rate. To help improve user experience on your landing pages, you can use one of the many A/B testing and user session analysis solutions.

__Understanding and credibility are the two deciding factors in a future where Google and Bing deliver definitive answers to their users with increasing accuracy. If you want to be leading the field in the years to come, you must seek to communicate and convince. Starting today.__

__If you'd like to learn how reviews can help you improve your AEO, request a free demo below.__

The new face of SEO: Answer Engine Optimisation 

The beginner's guide to site speed for SEO 

Site speed is one of the factors Google considers in their ranking algorithm. So if your site has slow loading times, it could affect your SEO.

[53% of mobile users](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/data-measurement/mobile-page-speed-new-industry-benchmarks/) won’t wait more than 3 seconds for a site to load and every second that shoppers have to wait after the 3 second loading mark costs them 7% in conversion. 

And this problem can start before visitors even have a chance to reach conversion or your website. Site speed is one of the factors Google considers in their ranking algorithm. So if your site has slow loading times, fewer people will even reach your website. Potential customers coming from search could end up visiting one of your competitors instead and it may just be the competitor who decided to pay attention to site speed. 

Never forget — the average mobile site takes [15 seconds to load](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/data-measurement/mobile-page-speed-new-industry-benchmarks/). So, chances are, your site speed has probably already been negatively affecting your business in terms of SEO and conversion. 

To help you clean this up, we’ve rounded up some factors to consider that can help you improve your site speed.

## Diagnosing your site speed

First things first. If you aren’t sure of your current speed, [Page Speed Insights](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-pagespeed-insights/edbkhhpodjkbgenodomhfoldapghpddk?hl=en) by Google is a great way to test your site speed and see where you are currently. Once you do this, you can figure out where to make changes to get that load time even shorter. 

In short, it’s a Google Chrome extension that will quickly give you your PageSpeed score. You’ll also be directed to some insights with further stats to help you understand the score.

## How can you improve your site speed?

### Minimize and simplify redirects

Redirects on your website are a great thing if you’ve ever had to de-index pages on your site. They help you guide your visitors where you need them to be, to find the information they want. 

But if you have too many redirects, this can [significantly impact your site speed](https://moz.com/learn/seo/page-speed). Look into your redirects and make the number of steps to the correct URL as short as you can, while still guiding your visitor where they need to be. 

### Resize your images

Are your images compressed for the web? Size and format can both affect site speed so make sure they are as small as they can be. If you have .png images you may be able to switch them to compressed .jpg images to help speed up your site. 

Image sprites in CSS may also be able to help. If you have a lot of different image files on your site (and each need to load individually) it may be easier to use a sprite to send them all to your site as a single image. There are quite a few [free tools](https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/resize-images-for-web) to help you easily do this. 

### Look into using Content Delivery Networks, also known as CDNs

[Content delivery networks (CDNs)](https://mashable.com/roundup/best-content-delivery-networks/) make data load faster because they use a group of servers that are located in different geographical locations. Wherever a user is, their pages will load from the server that is physically closest to where they are. This helps your load times decrease significantly. If your load times are higher than you want them to be and the other fixes aren’t working for you, this might be worth exploring for your site. 

### Make sure your third party apps aren't slowing you down

There are a large number of eCommerce technologies that you can use on your site to make the experience easier, and more efficient for your customers. The problem is that these sites often need to fetch a lot of data, which can significantly decrease your site speed. 

This isn’t dependent on your eCommerce platform, either. If a third party has a negative impact on site speed, it will do so regardless of which platform you’re on. 

That’s why it’s important to look into which third parties you’re working with and check how they’re ranked on site speed performance. [Yottaa](https://www.yottaa.com/), an optimization tool for eCommerce sites, puts together [this report](https://www.yottaa.com/resources/2019-ecommerce-3rd-party-index/) each year, which lets you look at the top players in eCommerce and see how working with them will affect your site. 

It’s great to have handy when you’re looking for a new eCommerce solution and you want to check their speed performance. 

## Do reviews affect site speed? 

Because customer reviews tend to be part of such a large scale database, they can be pretty bad offenders in terms of slowing down site speed. As you can see, most of the review platforms available have either an inconsistent negative performance impact (yellow) or a consistent negative impact on performance (red). 

Third Party Review Software Site Speed Competitive Analysis

Fortunately, collecting and [displaying reviews with Trustpilot](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/trustbox-widgets-the-truth-about-website-performance-and-loading-speed) has little to no negative impact on your site speed. 

In fact, this year we were the only customer review platform ranked as having little or no performance impact (green) on your site speed in Yottaa’s roundup.

Trustpilot reviews do not affect site speed

## When you improve your site speed, your SEO is sure to thank you

Let’s flashback to that stat from the beginning for a second: Every second that site visitors have to wait after the 3 second loading mark can cost you 7% in conversions. This means that, chances are, your current load time is high enough that it’s causing you to lose out on would-be customers. 

The bright side is that some of these changes are really easy to implement on your site. 

Go ahead and look into your site speed today so you can start seeing the benefits of higher conversion rates on your site. And while you’re at it, if you’re looking to [increase conversions](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/get-seen-in-search/what-is-conversion-rate-optimisation) on your site, displaying Trustpilot reviews is a great way to boost conversions without dinging your site speed. 

So if you aren’t already collecting reviews with us, why not start today? 

To learn more about everything you can do with reviews, get your free copy of The Complete Guide to Reviews below. 

The beginner’s guide to site speed for SEO

A guide to SEO and reputation

In this guide, we give you four advanced eCommerce SEO strategies that you can use to crowd the search results in your niche and for your branded queries to build your brand and traffic so that you can accomplish your goal of building your business.

If you’re an eCommerce business, then digital marketing is paramount to your business’s success. You need the right products and the right platform, of course, but without great marketing, your products won’t get seen and you won’t make any sales.

Fortunately, there are many tried and true ways to grow your audience that you can leverage such as SEO, Facebook/Instagram advertising, content marketing, display advertising, sponsorships, influencer marketing, and many more.

The challenge lies in the fact that there are so many different channels and if you’re not a marketing expert, then it‘s hard, if not impossible, to know where to start or how to take your marketing to the next level.

If you’ve done the SEO basics on your site and are investing in content marketing and a link strategy with the goal of ranking better, there are ways that you can expedite that process to see results even quicker.

Today, I want to share with you four advanced eCommerce SEO strategies that you can use to crowd the search results in your niche and for your branded queries to build your brand and traffic so that you can accomplish your goal of building your business.

These four strategies are:

- Branded profiles;
- Barnacle SEO;
- Autosuggest and the information net;
- Content funnels (NBED)

### How to use branded profiles for SEO and conversions

If you’re an eCommerce business, you should absolutely own your own platform and brand. Without your own website, you will forever be paying other platforms a percentage of your sales in exchange for their audience, and eventually, you may reach a ceiling on growth because their business doesn’t completely mesh with yours.

But I’m also not arguing that you should only sell your products on your own site! Platforms like eBay and Amazon do well for a reason, mostly because they have huge capital resources and have created a place where others can easily sell their own products. So, as is usually the case, a balanced approach is needed.

If you perform a search for a brand like GoPro, you’ll see that they have crowded their branded search results with profiles on other websites such as:

- Twitter
- YouTube
- Amazon
- Instagram
- Facebook

If you are a small store, then you can leverage profiles just like these to lend your site more credibility when someone searches for your brand. You can even do this as a person:

Screenshot+2017-11-15+14.09.57

Example 1

This is also known as reputation management when an undesired article or site appears in your branded search results as a few have done for GoPro, but it can be a very strong way to show those searching for your brand that you are a legitimate business.

Of course, if you’re trying to rank 10 profiles for your branded terms, it takes dedicated effort to pull this off effectively.

When you’re trying to crowd your own branded search results, you need to:

- Vary the sites and profiles that you link to with branded anchor text when guest posting or listing your site in directories.
- Link to your important profiles from your main website to pass them link equity.
- Prioritize strong websites (use Moz’s MozBar to see their Domain Authority, an indicator of strength) and make sure your profiles there are complete and robust with unique content and whatever else you are able to have (video, etc).

The final strategy here, of course, is to find websites that allow you to also have reviews posted so that searchers trust you because of independent, positive ratings.

Screenshot+2017-11-15+14.24.22

Example 2

### Barnacle SEO for e-commerce websites

Every niche has a few main players that have most of the market share. These businesses, though, are not always the most well-loved so people often search for competitors or alternatives. One great strategy to capitalize on this, is to have your site listed when a potential customer is disenchanted with your large competitors and searches for their brand name with a “competitors” or “alternatives” modifier.

For example, let’s say that you run a tree seed eCommerce site. You sell seeds for a tree that is often seen as an alternative to maple trees, because some people don’t like maple trees.

You type "maple tree alternatives" into Google and see the following results.

Screenshot+2017-11-15+14.31.59

Example 3

There are at least five sites there that you can reach out to in order to either get them to add in another type of tree (and link to you) or add your link as a resource for their site visitors.

This strategy is similar to using Google’s autosuggest to find new keywords to target.

### Autosuggest and the information net

When thinking about SEO for your eCommerce website, you should consider the wider group of questions and modifiers that people search while they are conducting research before they ultimately make a purchase (and hopefully from you!).

Ecommerce businesses can’t just worry about your product and category page rankings. Yes, these are your most important keywords to rank for of course, as they directly drive traffic to you that you know will convert. And if they convert, then they’re great for ranking as well as for driving paid traffic to via SEO, Google Ads, and Facebook/Instagram.

But they are only a piece, albeit a large piece, of the larger SEO puzzle for your eCommerce site. Further up the conversion funnel, your potential customers are doing research before they buy.

This is where a bit of research on your end can pay big dividends by creating the content that answers your potential customer’s questions so that they learn about your brand and are more likely to buy from you in the future. If you build your strategy well, you can also use this to gather email addresses so that you can continue to market to them with a well-optimized email marketing strategy.

Here’s how the autosuggest SEO strategy works so that you can expand your net of keywords.

First, use any or all of the following tools to understand the autosuggested search terms from Google and which ones could drive traffic to your site:

- Soovle
- UberSuggest
- Longtail Pro
- Keywords Everywhere

When I use UberSuggest to search “nike vs” combined with Keywords Everywhere, I get a list of the brands that people are comparing Nike to. If you run a shoes ecommerce site, then this can be a great way to educate your users as well as funnel them to buy from you:

Screenshot+2017-11-16+10.37.13

Example 4

Imagine if you could get your eCommerce website ranking among these publishers. The competition is small and the traffic is high. What more could you want?

The goal is to identify all of these buckets of keyword phrases that your potential customers use when they are in the discovery phase of their search so that when they are ready to buy, they know and recognize your brand and are more likely to buy from you.

### Leveraging reviews on other sites to grow your own organic traffic

Finally, what post on Trustpilot would be complete without talking about reviews?

As an eCommerce site, you need reviews not only of your company but also of your products. If you are a product manufacturer as well as a seller, then you’re probably using other platforms to sell your products.

Let’s take the outdoors industry as an example. The North Face is not only a seller, but they actually manufacture the products as well.

Perform a search for a product of theirs, such as their Thermoball hooded jacket. My query is "the north face men’s thermoball" and I come up with the following sites:

- TheNorthFace.com
- Amazon
- Moosejaw
- Dicks Sporting Good
- REI
- Backcountry.com
- Youtube
- SteepAndCheap.com

All of these results except for Moosejaw have star results showing in the search results. Here's a screenshot of the first four results.

Notice what The North Face has done.

Screenshot+2017-11-16+15.53.39

Example 5

They have built their own property to allow it to have reviews that are then shown in the search results. So they own their own platform, which is absolutely necessary for the longevity of the brand.

They also, however, sell through all of the major providers and both rely on them to get reviews as well as probably actively solicit reviews on those platforms. If everyone rates the jacket well, as is the case with the Thermoball, they are building trust with their potential customers that the product is quality and people are happy.

So what’s the takeaway here?

If you are selling your own product, you should also be using the platforms available to you to tap into their audience and sell more of your products. Own your own platform and optimize your website properly, but this can be another great way to grow your business if the economics make sense.

The same works for your brand since customers might buy a product, but they ultimately buy from a brand. In today’s social media and values driven world, the work you do on your brand influences your customers, builds loyalty with them, and gains repeat buyers. Investing your brand by getting feedback from your customers is one of the best ways to improve your business, regardless of your search rankings. And the best part is that reviews also help your search rankings and clickthrough rates when review stars show in the search results.

__What about you?__

What strategies have you used to build your brand through SEO that don’t involve your own website?

How to use SEO to build your eCommerce reputation — a quick guide

Consumer Insights from the pandemic and what this means for businesses

This year, we took a deep dive into global consumer review data on our platform to uncover some of the trends and challenges from 2020, look at some of the most impacted industries and imagine what the future could look like.

The period of self-isolation we all went through [changed the way consumers now search and shop](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/consumer-behavior-in-the-age-of-coronavirus-global-review-trends-by-industry), while businesses have had to continuously adapt and innovate to survive.

While some industries saw unprecedented sales during the peak of the pandemic, many brands out there have had to face some of the toughest challenges ever in the last few months.

And while many of these changes are temporary, some of them could last in the post-pandemic world.

This year, we took a deep dive into global consumer review data on our platform to uncover some of the trends and challenges from 2020, look at some of the most impacted industries and imagine what the future could look like. In this report, we’ll explore our data and deliver some actionable tips to survive and recover from times of crisis.

## 1. A look back at consumer behavior in 2020: trends & challenges

We started in January 2021 and looked into [consumer activity](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/consumer-behaviors-that-changed-in-2020-and-what-businesses-can-expect-in-2021) on Trustpilot.com to get a better understanding of the 2020 shift in consumer behavior. The data we analyzed showed that the Shopping & Fashion sector was the most researched industry for customer reviews, even throughout the pandemic. It’s highly possible that people started purchasing more athleisure while being stuck at home or were, perhaps, stocking up on outfits for a post-pandemic world. 


The most researched businesses on Trustpilot.com in the second half of 2020

Interestingly, some of the most reviewed industries of 2020 were B2B businesses, Shopping & Fashion, and Home & Garden. While the B2B industry comes as a bit of a surprise, it’s only natural to see that the Home & Garden industry was doing so well in 2020, as most people started investing more time and money into their daily environment during the early lockdown.

### Conscientious shoppers set a new bar for customer expectations

However, data shows that while [consumers shifted to online shopping](https://www.statista.com/topics/871/online-shopping/#dossierSummary), people also started favouring local and purpose-driven businesses as the world started facing even more racial injustice, economic instability, and political uncertainty. A Deloitte Digital study found that, in the UK, [3 in 5 consumers purposely chose local businesses](https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/press-releases/articles/three-in-five-consumers-have-used-more-local-stores-and-services-to-support-them-during-lockdown.html) to help out. In the US, [a Zeno group survey](https://www.zenogroup.com/insights/2020-zeno-strength-purpose) showed that consumers are now 4 to 6 times more likely to support purpose-driven businesses as they were before the pandemic.

Our review data also highlighted that two of the most mentioned keywords in 5-star reviews throughout 2020 were “delivery” and “customer service”. This proves that customer expectations are just as high in times of crisis, and that customer service is still one of the best assets a business can have to build trust and combat uncertainty.

Overall, businesses have really had to adapt to a new reality in 2020; and as consumer purchasing behaviors changed, brands were left with the challenge of constantly trying to keep their head above water. 

In this section, we discussed some of the behavioral changes that we witnessed in 2020. We also identified the most researched and reviewed industries on Trustpilot.com – but what about other industries? Industries who may have been greatly impacted by Coronavirus? In the next section, we’ll review the Health & Wellness sector, as well as the Travel & Tourism industry.

## 2. The industries most impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak

In an effort to better understand the true impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, our team also looked at consumer trends around mental Health & Wellness. With the pandemic hitting and many people losing their jobs and feeling isolated, we wanted to get an understanding of just how much Coronavirus was impacting this industry. 

### The Health & Wellness industry saw significant growth during the pandemic

Perhaps unsurprisingly, consumer demand for mental health and wellness services skyrocketed in 2020:

- Ginger, a teletherapy and mental healthcare app, [saw utilization rates reach their highest ever](https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/demand-for-virtual-mental-health-soaring-here-are-notable-trends-who-using-it-and-why) last September, right in the middle of the pandemic. __Usage of their text-based mental health coaching was up 159%__ compared to their pre-covid averages, and __usage of virtual therapy and psychiatry were up 309%__ compared to their pre-covid averages.
- Doctor On Demand [saw massive increases in new patients](https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/demand-for-virtual-mental-health-soaring-here-are-notable-trends-who-using-it-and-why) seeking teletherapy up over 50% throughout October and even higher than the initial spikes when the pandemic hit last spring.

We also looked into our review data to identify trends on our own platform, and uncovered  how often reviews included the phrases *mental health*, *wellness*, and *well-being* on Trustpilot.com.

Number of reviews with keywords mental health, wellness, and well-being on Trustpilot.com from  February to August 2020, and August to February 2021.

Number of reviews with keywords mental health, wellness, and well-being on Trustpilot.com from 
February to August 2020, and August to February 2021.

Number of reviews with keywords mental health, wellness, and well-being on Trustpilot.com from  August to November 2020, and November to February 2021.

Number of reviews with keywords mental health, wellness, and well-being on Trustpilot.com from 
August to November 2020, and November to February 2021.

Number of reviews with keywords mental health, wellness, and well-being on Trustpilot.com from  February 2019 to February 2020, and February 2020 to February 2021.

Number of reviews with keywords mental health, wellness, and well-being on Trustpilot.com from 
February 2019 to February 2020, and February 2020 to February 2021.

When you look at the data trends for these phrases in the first year of the pandemic compared with the year prior, mental health and wellness terms are being mentioned quite a bit more, which isn’t too surprising. 

What’s more interesting is that when you look at more recent periods such as the 6 month and 3 month comparisons, the numbers are still jumping pretty significantly — even though you might assume that things would have been their worst around when the pandemic hit and so much of our lives was up in the air. 

This suggests that although the pandemic has certainly quickened the growth trends for mental health, these stats aren’t solely because of that. The focus on mental health and wellness for consumers will only keep growing after the pandemic, and companies should keep this in mind. 

We also looked into how all companies – regardless of their industry – can help look after the mental health of both their customers and employees and stay relevant with these trends, so make sure you [check out the full report](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/consumer-behaviors-around-mental-health-and-wellness). 

Overall, there’s no doubt that the growth of the Health & Wellness industry was accelerated by the rise of COVID-19. And although this industry is continuing to trend today, other sectors have been brought to a complete standstill. The Travel & Tourism industry is one of them. 

### The Travel & Tourism industry stagnated during lockdown

The Coronavirus crisis has been one of the biggest challenges the Travel & Tourism industry has had to face so far. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) found that popular travel destinations welcomed [900 million fewer international tourists](https://www.unwto.org/taxonomy/term/347) between January and October 2020, compared with the same period of 2019. During the same period of time, international arrivals also dropped by over 74%.

In March of 2021, we looked at [global travel consumer activity on our platform](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/consumer-insights-how-covid-19-hit-the-travel-industry) to comprehend just how much the tourism sector was hit by the virus.

Sadly, it came as no surprise when we found that the average number of travel service reviews collected during the pandemic was 39.7% lower than the year before. Similarly, the average number of global travel product reviews left during the pandemic was 81.8% lower than in 2019.


Travel service reviews on Trustpilot.com from January 1st 2019 to February 29th 2020.

Travel service reviews on Trustpilot.com from March 1st 2020 to March 1st 2021.

This data indicates that while service reviews were still being left from customer service interactions (travel refunds, travel vouchers, etc.) at the beginning of the pandemic, product reviews were hit a lot harder as people weren’t experiencing any new travel products  (i.e. activities, food, or accommodation).

Our data also showed that travel reviews dipped as soon as travel restrictions started appearing across the world, and spiked again when some countries started easing lockdown. This could suggest that most people stopped traveling because of government measures and restrictions, rather than fear of the virus – an encouraging sign for the future of travel.

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly had a large impact on the global travel industry, and even if we hope recovery will be strong, it is possible that travel will not look the same for the foreseeable future. 

We anticipate some worldwide shifts with people traveling more responsibly and seeking quality over quantity travel. There’s also talk of a global vaccination passport, which could push consumers to travel to familiar destinations or opt for staycations instead.

And given the ongoing worldwide uncertainty, it’s safe to say that traveling smarter will play a huge role in the future of tourism. 

The Health & Wellness industry as well as the Travel sector have both been greatly impacted by Coronavirus, each in their own way. Our data suggests that the Health & Wellness industry will continue to grow fast in the coming months, and that there is hope for the future of tourism. In the next section, we’ll imagine what a post-pandemic world could look like, and discuss the importance of trust in times of uncertainty, as well as in times of recovery.

## 3. Looking to the future, post pandemic

Some industries were given a boost thanks to shifts in consumer behaviors due to COVID-19, while others were badly affected by the global economic crisis. 

eCommerce [experienced record breaking surges](https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2021/02/15/ecommerce-during-coronavirus-pandemic-in-charts/) when everyone was forced to stay home, and eCommerce’s dominance is likely here to stay. Demand for travel agents – previously in decline – is [now seeing customers return](https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/advice/2021/04/09/summer-travel-how-2021-will-be-different-this-year/7121963002/) due to confusion around travel and regulations. And companies that promote any sort of activity from home – working or learning remotely, working out at home, etc. – have now been able to get their products into more households than ever before. 

But for many brands, this is not the case. Although we’re well over a year into the pandemic, with vaccination rates so different from country to country, it’s still difficult to know when things will settle back to normal – or what that normal will even look like. This puts most companies in a challenging position. How can you plan your brand’s future effectively when there’s so much uncertainty around what the future will look like? 

### Adapting your business to delight customers with higher expectations

One thing that’s for certain is that – now more than ever – consumers [need to be able to trust in the brands they shop with](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/the-importance-of-trust-in-uncertain-times). They want to know that whatever they’re purchasing is going to arrive as expected, function as expected, and fill whatever need they have. You can minimize the uncertainty in your customers’ lives by collecting reviews from all of your customers and making them as easy to find as possible. 

Another way to help your business recover is to treat online reviews as a way to have a meaningful engagement with your customers. Today’s consumers want to shop with brands that genuinely care. If you’re getting negative feedback, [always respond and try to make good](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/learn-from-customers/bad-reviews-why-people-write-them-and-what-they-expect) with that customer. And know that other shoppers are seeing how you handle those complaints and making their purchasing decisions accordingly. 

Are you ready to build a more trustworthy brand? Collecting reviews on Trustpilot will show your customers that you have nothing to hide and help start an open dialogue with them for a better experience for both of you. 

This can help you prepare for a post-pandemic world. And although consumer trends will always change, and the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic is far from over, the stronger your brand reputation is, the better prepared you’ll be for any crisis – large or small. 

[Download our free executive summary 2-pager](https://marketing.trustpilot.com/hubfs/Consumer%20Insights%20June%202021%20Report%201-Pager%20Summary.pdf) to share with your team or colleagues, and request a free Trustpilot demo below.

Understanding COVID-19’s impact on business + imagining a post-pandemic world

How Covid-19 is Impacting Banking and Payments 

The world has been through a tumultuous year as consumers have faced a global pandemic and economic turmoil. The shift away from in-branch banking towards digital banking, contactless payments and mobile wallets has accelerated due to social distancing

Drawing on the findings of a survey across six countries and interviews with relevant brands, this research explores evolving consumer attitudes to debit- and credit-related products and services offered by banks. It looks at how both incumbent and ‘challenger’ brands are evolving their services, marketing activities and messaging to build confidence and win trust.

Below are five of the key takeaways from this research. 

__1. Contactless on the rise __

One of the biggest changes in consumer spending behavior in the last year has been the increased use of contactless and demise of cash.

Across the six markets covered by this research six in ten (61%) consumers say they are more likely to use contactless for payments since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, more than half (54%) of respondents say they are less likely to use cash.

__2. Rise of the challenger bank__

While just under three-quarters (72%) of consumers still rely exclusively on their established or traditional bank, nearly a quarter (24%) of those surveyed say they are now using a more digitally-focused challenger bank, either on its own (6%) or as a supplementary bank (18%).

__3. The appeal of challenger brands__

The most significant driver of business for challenger banks is their low-fee or no-fee service, cited as a major attraction by two-thirds (66%) of consumers. The next most popular selling points are their reputation for customer service (59%), better digital experience (50%) and speed of account set-up (49%).

__4. Shifting consumer concerns__

The pandemic and accompanying recession have made consumers more concerned about the cost of their bank accounts and debit or credit card services. This was true for 38% of consumers overall, rising to 56% of respondents in the US. Across all the markets surveyed, 34% of consumers reported they are now more conscious of security.

__5. Trust comes primarily from ratings and word of mouth__

Consumers are selecting banks and card service providers based on their needs relating to cost, customer service and improved digital experience. Decisions are being made at a time of heightened concerns around cost and security in particular. 

The research findings are very clear on how consumers are making important financial services decisions. They trust one another far more than they do advertising campaigns and social media. In fact, 86% of consumers report high or medium trust levels for word of mouth and reviews whereas social media and advertising score relatively poorly for trust.

## 1. Consumers double down on contactless 

With the well-documented danger of coronavirus spreading via surfaces as well as through airborne transmission, it is not surprising to find that cash use plummeted in 2020. Consumers across the US and Europe have increasingly switched to contactless payments, according to our consumer survey.  

Although contactless technology predates Covid-19, the pandemic has helped to drive its adoption as people seek to avoid the hassle and potential danger of carrying cash. Whether in-store or paying for coffee or a meal, people all over the world typically prefer to use payment cards and digital wallets which are increasingly linked to devices such as phones or even watches. 

More than half of consumers across the six markets covered by our research said their use of contactless payment has increased since the start of the Covid-19 crisis (Figure 1), including two-thirds of those surveyed in the UK (66%) and France (67%). Overall, only 8% of consumers say they are making less use of contactless, presumably mainly those who aren’t leaving their homes. 

It is only in Sweden, where social restrictions have been less severe than in other countries, that a majority (57%) say contactless usage has stayed the same. Averaged out across all countries surveyed, more than half of consumers (54%) report that they are less likely to use cash for in-person transactions since the start of the pandemic (Figure 3).

figure1

This move to contactless is helping to fuel the use of mobile wallets offered by contactless payment providers, particularly in the United States (Figure 2). More than a third of US consumers are using Google Pay (35%) and Apple Pay (also 35%), while more than a fifth (22%) are using Venmo from PayPal. 

The figures are echoed by separate research from Mastercard that found that nearly a third of US consumers (and up to 43% for those aged under 35) have swapped from physical to contactless payments during the pandemic. 

Figure 2 also shows that consumers in France are the least likely to be using any of the contactless payment providers listed. 


Of course, contactless is not available everywhere and is generally limited to lower-value purchases. Hence, some of the gap left by diminished cash usage is being filled by increased usage of debit and credit cards (Figure 3). 

Another obvious factor explaining decreased cash usage is the surge in online shopping prompted by the closure of stores. Consumers are around three times more likely to say their use of debit and credit cards is increasing rather than decreasing. 

Fiona Anderson, UK Head of Everyday Banking at HSBC, points out that the shift towards contactless, mobile and online payments was already well under way before the onset of coronavirus. However, Covid-19 has been a powerful catalyst for the adoption of digital and mobile banking services.

*“Covid-19 has accelerated the shift in customer behavior towards digital and this trend is expected to continue,”* she said. 

*“There has been very significant year-on-year growth in mobile app users, mobile app log-ons and the number of mobile payments. We have also seen a trend in personal customers making more card payments and less cash usage. Contactless payments now make up a quarter of all commercial card transactions, compared to one fifth (19%) at the same time last year.”*


## 2. Traditional and challenger banks 

Consumer needs are evolving quickly as our lives become more digital, with an accompanying rise in contactless and mobile payment technology. Rather than a place to fill in forms, withdraw cash or pay in checks in person, banks now need to provide seamless digital experiences as well as providing faultless customer service remotely.  

Traditional banks such as Capital One and Wells Fargo in the US and Barclays and Lloyds in the UK, are still the first port of call for banking needs because this is where a salary is most likely to be paid in with payments set up for regular bills. However, challenger banks played an increasingly significant role in 2020 and this growth is set to continue throughout 2021 and beyond with continued investment in fintech.

Sometimes referred to as ‘neo banks’, challenger banks are typically online-only brands that have been available to consumers across the US and Europe for several years. Examples of challenger banks include Axos, Atom Bank, Chime and Monzo.

Individual brands have differing propositions, but for the most part they seek to stand out with free banking and advanced digital features, sometimes offering customizable cards and free international payments. 

In the US, nearly two-thirds (63%) rely on their traditional bank, while just 7% use a challenger bank on its own. However, there are now 17% who use both a traditional and challenger bank (Figure 4). 

Across all the markets surveyed, nearly three-quarters of consumers (72%) still rely on a traditional bank. While only 6% bank with a challenger brand exclusively, nearly a fifth (18%) use both a traditional and a challenger bank. 


An interesting aspect to this rise of digital banking and payment services is that it is no longer the preserve of millennials. According to payment spreading service Klarna, it has seen significant uptake in older users during 2020.

Samantha McCarthy, Marketing Manager, said: *“For Klarna, the profile of the shopper has changed during the last months. Our fastest-growing demographic was 50+ years old. The largest group of online aficionados has traditionally been mobile-centric and digitally-native millennials so the pandemic has forced new habits and behaviors in shopping alongside most aspects of life.”*

These new behaviors were particularly evident on Black Friday where the appeal of spreading the cost of purchases meant Klarna saw as much business in one day of Black Friday week in 2020 as it did across the entire week in 2018. 

The survey showed that usage of challenger banks is significant across all age groups, though more among younger than older people, as Figure 5 below shows. Those aged 18-34 are almost twice as likely as those aged 55 or over to be using a challenger bank either exclusively or in conjunction with a traditional bank (30% vs. 16%).


figure5

Figure 5

## 3. Most appealing banking services and features  

Our research shows that today’s consumers are significantly more likely to be using a challenger bank in conjunction with an established brand rather than instead of one, though this could change as newcomer brands gain more traction and persuade consumers they are the only provider they need. 

Clearly, there is inertia in switching from a traditional bank, but there is a desire to check out what challengers have to offer which is prompting a quarter of the market to sign up with a challenger bank either as a main account or, more usually, as a secondary account (Figure 6).  

Perhaps even more tellingly, consumers using a challenger bank are three and a half times more likely to say they have used its services more in the last year than they are to report decreased usage (44% vs. 13%).

Figure 7 shows that lower costs are the biggest draw of a challenger bank, regarded as a ‘major attraction’ by two thirds of consumers (66%), ahead of customer service reputation (59%), better digital experience (50%) and speed of account set-up (49%). Consumers are loving cheap or free banking with good support and a way of seamlessly organizing their money when they are online, whether on PCs, laptops, tablets or phones. 

Just as interestingly, the services many challenger banks advertise prominently are not as appealing. Travel offers are a major attraction to less than half the market (43%), and better card design has major appeal for just 23% of consumers. Nearly half of consumers (46%) claim that better-looking cards are ‘not an attraction’ though there is clearly enough interest to make it a worthwhile unique selling point (USP) for some brands.


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