What are product reviews?
A product review is a customer’s written or visual feedback on an item they purchased. Product reviews are typically shared across multiple channels, such as websites, social media accounts, and emails.
But product reviews aren’t just for show. Klaviyo’s 2025 future of consumer marketing report found that reviews influence an initial purchase more than competitive pricing or even discounts.
When used strategically, product reviews can help B2C brands deliver more personalized experiences, drive more sales, and improve their product development and customer service efforts.
Why are product reviews important?
A common misconception about product reviews is that they only have an impact on a first purchase. Here’s how positive reviews translate to business results, both in the long and short term:
Higher customer acquisition and retention
The link between product reviews and customer acquisition is clear—proof points from other shoppers lead to faster first purchases.
But Klaviyo’s future of consumer marketing report also found that product reviews matter for customer retention. Even when purchasing from a brand customers are familiar with, reviews are still one of the top two factors contributing to their decision.
For certain industries, however, product reviews are the number one contributing factor to a repeat purchase. For instance, nearly 1 in 4 restaurant consumers (24%) considers customer reviews the number one reason why they went back to an establishment.
Deeper trust and loyalty
When you showcase product reviews across the entire customer journey, it demonstrates that you’re confident in what you’re selling. This builds trust with consumers, who are always looking for signals that a product or service is worth their money.
You can use review data to segment your customers based on whether they’ve submitted a review, their rating, and even the sentiment of the review (whether it was good or bad). You can then send these segments personalized messages that are tailored to review quality. Given that, according to Klaviyo’s aforementioned report, 74% of consumers expect more brands to provide personalized experiences, this kind of segmentation is non-negotiable for B2C brands today.
More actionable feedback
Product reviews are an invaluable source of customer feedback.
Positive reviews can reveal which products customers really like, giving you a better understanding of where to invest your marketing budget. Negative reviews can reveal gaps in your customer support experience and help you collect insights for product development.
For instance, maybe you notice that a significant number of reviews express unhappiness with the color of a bag because it doesn’t match what’s on your website. This could be the feedback you need to update your product photos.
With the right process in place, you can create a loop where your team collects feedback, takes action, and—hopefully—receives even more positive reviews as a result.
The anatomy of a high-quality product review
Not all product reviews are created equal. Product reviews that influence purchase decisions should include the following:
Organic customer commentary
Authentic product reviews are not influencer campaigns. They need to contain organic, unsponsored assessments from a verified customer. The unfiltered nature of reviews is what builds trust and credibility with consumers.
Attention-grabbing headlines
Review headlines summarize the content of a review in one line, which is especially important on a page with a lot of reviews. A concise headline like “high-quality fabric” or “the most comfortable shoes I own” can give shoppers an at-a-glance sense of overall sentiment, without needing to read the entire review.
Make sure to give customers the chance to write their own headline. Or, better yet, use generative AI to suggest headlines based on the content of the review, with plenty of options to choose from.
Clear rating systems
Similar to review headlines, a clear rating system can make it easy for people to make quick assessments about your products. A 5-star scale or a “recommend” or “do not recommend” option can draw people in to read more in-depth reviews, especially if you’re also transparent about how many reviews the rating is based on.
Useful demographic information
Give customers the option to share certain demographic information, such as age, height, or weight. This is especially important for clothing, where there’s a lot of variation in how an item can fit. You may also want to include the option to share skin tone for certain beauty products, so people can easily see themselves in the reviews.
Just make sure the demographic information you’re presenting as an option is relevant for the product you’re selling. What makes sense for a fashion brand, for example, might not for a kitchenware brand.
High-quality visuals
If it makes sense to see your products in situ—in a product’s natural environment—find a way to encourage people to submit reviews with photos. This works especially well for home goods or fashion, where it’s important to see a product in real life. And as an added bonus, visuals can also be repurposed for high-quality user-generated content.
How to collect product reviews
While some customers proactively leave product reviews, the vast majority don’t. That’s why you need a thoughtful process in place to capture high-quality reviews at the right time. Here’s what we recommend:
Step 1: automate review requests
Once your brand grows past a certain size, it becomes impossible to scale manual review requests. Here’s how to automate key parts of the process:
- Timing: Your review request should take into account date of delivery and product use. Trigger your request to go out after the product has actually been delivered and is still top of mind—but also after the customer has had a chance to use it. This is the sweet spot you’ll want to hit to collect thoughtful, high-quality reviews.
- Channels: Set up your review request to go out on the customer’s preferred channel. For instance, if someone has indicated they prefer SMS communication, you may want to send them a request via text rather than email (with email as a follow-up if they haven’t responded).
- Cross-sell and upsell opportunities: Consider your review request part of a flow. If someone leaves a good review, it may be a good time to cross-sell or upsell. Klaviyo has 8 pre-built automated review flow templates to help you design your review requests as a personalized experience rather than a one-and-done communication.
Step 2: verify reviews
Bot-generated reviews are a surefire way to break trust with consumers. Make sure your reviews are verified by attaching those reviews to real email addresses and order profiles. For example, Klaviyo verifies reviews when:
- A customer submits a review by clicking a link in a review request.
- A customer submits a review manually using an email address attached to a previous order for the relevant product.
- A brand uploads a list of verified reviews from a past platform.
Step 3: sync and display reviews
Expand the reach of your reviews by showcasing them on Google, which displays reviews in search results so that shoppers don’t have to go to a third-party website. This is likely why 83% of consumers check Google reviews before doing business with a brand.
You can also sync your reviews to Shopify and other multi-store platforms to drive more traffic to your website.
By strategically displaying product reviews at key customer touchpoints, you can significantly boost conversion rates and build trust with consumers outside of the walls of your own marketing channels.
Step 4: follow up
When a customer takes the time to leave a product review, always follow up with a personalized response.
Happy Wax, a flame-free home fragrance system, does this by creating personalized follow-up flow for reviews. If a customer leaves a review with 3 stars or fewer, the customer service team gets notified and reaches out to offer a new scent, free of charge. As a result of these customized flows, Happy Wax saw 27% YoY growth in reviews submitted in the first 100 days after implementation.
Similarly, if a customer leaves a 5-star review, you can follow up with a thank-you discount or similar incentive.
Step 5: take action on data
A critical part of the review collection process is taking action on the data you collect. You can monitor metrics like response rates, total reviews, and rating trends to inform your approach to product reviews. You can also use reviews data to segment customers and personalize messages.
But if you want to get the most out of your data, use an AI-powered tool to conduct a review sentiment analysis. This can help you identify themes you might not have noticed otherwise.
For example, let’s say you’re launching a new style of jeans and want to understand how customers are responding to it. You can use AI to scan all the reviews since the product launch and identify recurring themes in the feedback, such as sizing, fit, and quality expectations.
Smart ways to showcase product reviews
Product reviews are an omnichannel marketing tool. If you’re not sure where or how to use your customer feedback, start with one of these channels:
Website
The most common way to showcase your product reviews is to share them on your website. Most brands have a section on each product page for reviews. Others have an entire page on their website dedicated to reviews. Use heat maps, website analytics, and A/B testing to determine which approach works best for your brand.
Social media
You can also organically share any positive reviews across your social media platforms. This is a great way to nudge people who might follow you on Instagram, for example, to check out your website. Since social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok are highly visual, it’s the perfect home for user-generated content featuring product reviews.
Ads
Ads based on real customer reviews are not only cheap to produce but also effective for building trust. If you’re short on budget, consider putting some ad spend behind some simple graphics that highlight your best and most concise reviews. The click rates might surprise you.
Email marketing
Email marketing is great for showcasing product reviews because you can personalize them for each audience segment. If, for example, your B2C CRM has captured data that someone is checking out one of your product pages several times in the span of a week, you can personalize your browse abandonment email to include a review for that product.
But to do that, you’ll first need to consolidate your data collection, email automation, and review collection. Creekside Nursery, for example, has centralized their email, SMS, and reviews all in one platform so they’re in a better position to match certain types of reviews to different audience segments.
How a B2C CRM can power your product reviews
To properly leverage reviews across multiple channels, brands need a way to integrate the review collection process with marketing communications. A B2C CRM connects your customer data, reviews, and marketing efforts in one place, making it easier to turn customer feedback into action.
Klaviyo is the only CRM designed specifically for B2C brands. From pre-built automated review flow templates to custom review questions and AI-powered headlines, Klaviyo B2C CRM helps streamline the process of collecting, analyzing, and promoting your product reviews across multiple channels.