Walmart is one of the largest online marketplaces that provide opportunities to aspiring entrepreneurs and their clients wishing to choose the best options from an assortment of products and services. The platform has some useful embedded features and tools for building strong relationships with customers and shaping a loyal clientele. But you must know how to leverage those tools to boost your brand authority.
These officially approved Walmart methods can increase feedback and encouraging product reviews.
What are Walmart reviews?
Walmart provides two review options: a marketplace retailer review and a product review.
Customer product reviews
In real life, people seek advice from friends and relatives when shopping. Your closest people may lack information on niche goods. In such a case, it is worth taking advantage of the power of the internet and referring to an online community, namely, checking the feedback of those who have already bought similar products.
The review feature on Walmart's site, as it is on most any etailer site. After buying something, consumers can freely share their impressions. Also, this feature is available to Walmart's staff. Once the employee expresses their point of view, their message is marked with the Walmart Associate tag.
From reading comments people can understand what to expect from a certain product and whether it can satisfy their needs. It is an easy way to find out about the product's unusual applications in addition to learning storage and maintenance tips.
Customers tend to trust reviews if there are both positive and negative comments on the page. Or, let's suppose the product is perfect. Then feedback should at least look natural and not contain frankly promotional elements. An open and honest information exchange always delivers more value than intrusive calls to action.
Walmart Marketplace Seller Reviews
Such comments are written by people who have bought some products on traders' marketplaces and websites. The reviews do not concern the product itself but the quality of customer service provided by the seller, timeliness of delivery, packaging and condition upon arrival, and other relevant feedback.
How can you share buyer feedback at Walmart?
There are three options for submitting buyer feedback:
- Several weeks after an order is fulfilled, Walmart invites customers to share their impressions of products purchased. A letter with detailed instructions on how to submit a review is sent to a client's email.
- A client need not wait for an invitation. A review may be placed under a product's description on its individual page in a brand's catalog. This page can be accessed via the order record in the buyer's personal account.
- A product of interest can be reviewed even if you haven't purchased it yet or if this was done long ago. Just use a special field on a product's page.
Keep in mind the following tips when posting reviews as a buyer:
- Be polite. The online community will not tolerate rude and obscene expressions. If you do not like a certain product or brand, state your opinion, and substantiate your point of view with strong arguments.
- Do not muddle up feedback and advertisement. Walmart's administration is likely to ban messages of this kind: "The product is OK, but I know the brand offering cheaper analogs. Check out this link." Such content will be referred to as spam and erased.
- Do not post contact info. "Call this guy! He will sell you some cheap and cool stuff."
- Do not fight with other reviewers. If you disagree with their opinions, there is no need to inform anyone on the network about this. Just provide your autonomous review, without condemning and criticizing other people.
If the reviewer has never used the product, the likelihood of Walmart's consent to post a comment is very low. Also, comments should correspond to some criteria and be written in plain and clear English. A newly submitted review will appear on the website within five to seven business days.
Why reviews are important to the seller?
Data reveals that most modern consumers take time to study reviews of goods and services before committing to a purchase. Even if you provide quality content, this may be not enough. The opinions of other buyers are perceived as being more objective than those of a company sales representative, who is unlikely to mention the product's shortcomings. Genuine reviews from real buyers paint a realistic picture of what can be expected in terms of product performance and overall satisfaction.
Feedback from real users helps buyers learn about
- The pros and cons of using the product.
- The durability of the product, and how it differs or lives up to the manufacturer's claims.
- The quality of customer service on the phone or in the service center.
- How the product compares with other brands.
- Common problems or shortcomings encountered by other buyers that reveal the product's quality.
- Benefits and positive experiences that reassure potential buyers.
Sellers should always keep in mind that both positive and negative comments can contribute to the increase in their revenue.
Tips for getting positive customer feedback
If you run a Walmart online store, you can use various authorized methods for encouraging customers to post positive reviews. Let's consider the most efficient ones.
1. Provide outstanding customer experiences
When it comes to online selling success, there is no substitute for excellent customer experience and high-quality products. Fast delivery, secure packaging and competitive pricing will encourage your customers to give positive feedback and make future purchases.
2. Leverage Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice is the platform that allows Walmart consumers to share their opinion on goods purchased, create personal profiles, ask and answer questions, and run individual Spark Sampling Reviewer programs.
Walmart's Spark Reviewer enables groups of web users to try products in exchange for honest and argumentative feedback. This feature is very similar to Amazon's Vine program where participants can review and obtain products for free.
Both programs can be accessed only through the marketplace's invitation. To get such an invitation, a buyer needs to submit quality reviews, both positive and negative, over a certain period of time and actively answer other consumers' questions.
Walmart sends program participants monthly lists with about a hundred different products. Reviewers test these products and provide feedback (at least 200 words long).
3. Respond to negative reviews
Negative reviews can be harmful to business, so it is important to restore trust by providing professional seller responses to negative reviews.
How to handle negative reviews:
- Respond quickly
- Acknowledge errors
- Highlight your strengths
- Offer restitution
- Ask customers to share feedback
4. Answer questions
Walmart's product pages include a Q&A section providing comprehensive information on the product’s key features, advantages and disadvantages. Questions can be answered by the seller, previous customers or anyone who can provide information about the product. Bazaarvoice supports this feature, and sellers can connect their Walmart stores for free, to respond more quickly to questions or negative reviews.
Consumers value information provided by traders and other buyers who have purchased a product since it helps them make informed purchasing decisions.
5. Attach a request for a review to each product sold
This should stimulate your clients to share their impressions. Be sure to provide detailed instructions on how feedback can be posted and what criteria it should comply with. You can also encourage buyer feedback by offering a gift or a discount on future purchases in exchange for comments.
6. Use social media
Improve your brand image on social networks and place links to products in your online store to stimulate purchases and feedback. Incorporating these tips into your promotional strategy should contribute to building trustful relationships with consumers, increasing conversions and improving your online business at Walmart.
As you can see, it is not at all challenging to gain a loyal clientele at Walmart. Most of the breakthrough promotional methods are easy to apply and do not entail investments. Therefore, any aspiring entrepreneur can leverage them and get to the cohort of leaders in its niche.
On their part, customers can improve their buyer experience by posting and reading reviews and make the most of their shopping sessions.