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Hi Reader,
First, a red alert:
A scammer is sending email impersonating us. If you got an email from a Gmail address, it wasn't us. Our emails use the aeolidia.com domain.
Do not reply, share store access or credit card info, or install apps. It may help to report suspicious emails as phishing (find the option in Gmail's ⋮ menu).
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Now then, I hope you've had a great summer and are ready to settle into fall! If so, let's talk about an important feature that your site pretty much must have. Now's a great time to implement or improve this feature before the holiday shopping season.
We're talking about: product reviews!
The product page is all about getting people interested, answering their questions, reassuring them about their hesitations, and getting them to click the “add to cart” button. In their ecommerce usability research, Baymard Institute found that up to 95% of participants consulted product reviews when considering a product.
Product reviews are absolutely vital in this quest, and I’d make sure that building up your product reviews is an important part of your ongoing strategy.
Do this using an app, so that it will be coded using the structured data Google needs to display your reviews in search results. I will recommend some apps in a few paragraphs.
If you sell one-of-a-kind products or many similar products, such as greeting cards, it can seem tricky to get reviews for every single product. Many apps allow you to share reviews between products - so, for instance, some product groups could display reviews for all the products in that group. This way, people can share the high quality of the product, and how great you did with shipping, customer service, and any other nice touches.
Once you have the reviews functionality set up, it’s important to gather reviews for as many products as possible, and as many reviews per product as you can. The more positive reviews I see, as a customer, the more convinced I feel that many people are purchasing your products, and that I won’t be disappointed if I do, either. Make sure your reviews app is set up to request reviews from customers after purchase. Run a marketing campaign to your existing and past customers to get reviews from them.
It can look concerning to customers when you first start collecting reviews and don't have many. It makes it look like you don't get many sales. To solve this, you can hide reviews until you have some, and then when you do, it’s a good idea to show the stars for each product on the collection pages and product pages right up top. Consider adding the functionality to answer customer questions.
Once you have reviews coming in, you can use them for marketing insights. From your reviews, you will learn what benefits customers appreciate in their own words, which you can reflect back to them when marketing and writing copy for your products and website.
If you're curious what app to use, we currently use and recommend these:
- Judge.me for small to medium brands. It's very full-featured on the free plan, and the paid plan is affordable
- Okendo for larger brands.
- Loox for larger brands with a heavy focus on social media.
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Here's a reader question about affiliate apps as answered by Nellie Wu, Marketing Assistant on our team:
Q: Do you have an affiliate app that you could recommend? |
A: Affiliate apps help online shops convert customers, influencers, and creators into sales partners by providing tools to engage affiliates, track referrals, manage commissions, and automate payouts. Affiliate support is becoming increasingly popular as ad costs rise and shoppers, especially Gen Z and Millennials, trust creators and peers more than traditional advertising channels. With the rise of TikTok Shop, Instagram Shopping, and other video-first platforms, these apps give independent retailers a cost-effective (and a deeper look into performance) way to acquire new customers, tap into authentic community voices, and scale growth.
Here are some apps to check out:
Question: Answered
Our team includes experts in branding, design, development, email & SMS/text marketing, search engine optimization, copywriting, conversion optimization, ecommerce strategy, business growth, and more. Have a question for us? Email back, and I'll consult one of our experts and share one weekly response over email.
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Interesting Clickables
⚓️ Read past issues of Aeolidia's newsletter here
- Affiliate marketing is changing. Learn more in this article about how video-first channels and live shopping (think: TikTok Shop and Instagram Shopping) are increasingly outperforming traditional affiliate models.
- Bonnets and lace? From traditional Polish lace crochet to bonnets, the fashion world is turning to more traditional crafts for inspiration.
- In these challenging times, loyalty-focused marketing is the key to growth. In July, brands that focused on email and SMS marketing saw a 14% boost in revenue, despite rising costs and declining discounts. Read on in this article from Klaviyo.
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Latest Aeolidia Launch
A Shopify site for Amy Howard at Home.
We partnered with Amy Howard at Home, an artisanal brand known for its history-inspired refinishing products, to deliver a Shopify project that included full branding and collateral design, SEO and copywriting, development enhancements, plus a Klaviyo audit and newsletter design. Known for its innovative products, creative workshops, and timeless aesthetic, the company blends craftsmanship with education to help people confidently create, restore heirloom pieces, and infuse meaning into every design choice.
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Wishing [COMPANY GOES HERE] all the best,
Arianne Foulks | Captain & Founder
Aeolidia, Shopify Experts
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Refer a Friend
If you have a colleague who could use help with ecommerce, email marketing, and/or branding, I invite you to connect them with me. Refer a friend »
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