With hundreds, sometimes thousands of products to choose from, Amazon star ratings and reviews are one of the most common and reliable ways for consumers to make buying decisions and feel confident in their choices. In a 2016 study, 71% of consumers reported feeling more comfortable purchasing a product based on its reviews. As shopping digitally becomes increasingly common and convenient, that number will only go up.
High star ratings = good. Low star ratings = bad. It isn’t rocket science. But in the hustle of trying to get your product out the door and on time, it’s all too easy for quality and usability issues to fall through the cracks and drag your ratings down despite your best efforts.
Read on to learn the true impact of issues on your product’s overall star rating and what you can do to ensure you’re releasing a crowd-pleasing, 5-star product.
Just How Important Are Star Ratings?
In analyzing the final star ratings of nearly 100 beta tests run on Centercode, we found that users who encountered an issue during the course of the test rated those products half a star lower on average.
When you consider that brands could see a $1 million decrease in their annual Amazon sales by losing .1 star across four products, it highlights just how much quality impacts star ratings.
The True Impact of Negative Stars
While a few negative reviews are inevitable (you can’t please everyone, after all), it’s all too easy for one minor bug or usability issue to cast a shadow over your entire product — especially just after release.
Consider, for example, that reviews influence the buying decisions of about nine out of ten consumers. Consumers are 21% more likely to leave a review after a negative experience than a positive one. In addition to this, negative reviews drag down star ratings faster than positive reviews increase them. If the first rating your product received is a 1-star review, it would take three 5-star reviews to bring its rating up to 4-stars.
Given the facts, preventing any and all issues from getting out the door is the most effective way to ensure your product gets the high ratings it deserves.
Safeguarding High Star Ratings
It’s often said that “prevention is the best medicine.” The same is true for your products’ star ratings — testing your product with customers out in the real world before release is the best way to prevent bugs and other star-stealing issues from falling through the cracks.
In the same way that negative reviews tend to build on each other and drag your product down, positive reviews and high star ratings compound its success. Products with high star ratings get more reviews and more purchases than those with lower ratings. In fact, 4-star products enjoy 10% higher sales conversions than products with even 3.9 stars.
Pre-release product testing helps you achieve the quality, usability, and product satisfaction that leads to higher star ratings, more traction in the marketplace, better SEO, and a bigger bottom line. Putting your products in the hands of your customers before release surfaces the bugs that diminish your customers’ trust and loyalty. In addition to the cost savings of fixing bugs before release, it’s taking out insurance that your product will stand out in Amazon’s competitive landscape.
Get the Report
Ready to reap the benefits of pre-release product testing, including a boost to your product quality and your overall star rating? Get more stats, strategies, and resources in the downloadable version of the Star Ratings impact report.
