Nothing is certain but death and taxes, as the old saying goes. Well, you can probably add online shopping to that adage, such is the proliferation of eCommerce across the world.
It’s a busy space, to say the least. But in the clutter, we’ve seen leaders emerge. Today we want to talk about one of the giants in the eCommerce realm – our friends at WooCommerce. With over 3.4M stores on WooCommerce (source: Builtwith), we all know who WooCommerce is (but for the uninitiated – they’re an open source commerce platform, built on the popular site-building platform of WordPress, that lets people create a shopping site).
So, why do we want to talk about WooCommerce specifically? We’re glad you asked. We love them because they have a similar goal to us; making online shopping as easy, straightforward and trustworthy as possible. They’re opening up the world of online retail to people that are starting out on their journey, or those looking to make the experience even better for their customers. And we liked their offering and ethos so much that we’ve become an official partner.
We’ve covered the who and the why – let’s dive in and see what WooCommerce does, how they help retailers to build a frictionless online space, and how we tie into their work (two hows for the price of one!).
Infinite aisles, infinite uncertainty
The idea of the infinite aisle isn’t a new one. In fact, we’ve recently released an entire ebook looking at the issues that people face when shopping online, and why trust is so vital to overcoming it.
But for those of you with places to go and people to see, let’s break it down fast. Multiple studies and research over the last 25 years have shown that having the choice that the internet has brought to shopping can have a negative effect. Namely, that people get overwhelmed by the choice on offer, the number of storefronts selling similar products – and the bad eggs who mislead consumers in the hope of making a quick buck.
It all adds up to purchase paralysis. In the olden days, a customer that needed, say, a plant pot, would go to a gardening store and choose from a handful of options, they’re now faced with tens of thousands of options, from hundreds and hundreds of different online stores. And for a great deal of people, this can lead to them giving up, swirling in a tidal wave of options that makes a simple purchase seem insurmountable.
But fear not, there is a way to give consumers a better purchasing journey – and subsequently retailers to be more successful via a smoother pathway for customers to finish their purchasing.
It’s all about leveraging trust. And when we saw what WooCommerce was doing, we decided to partner with them, and to help bring the trust-powered journey to their customer base.
Common sense collaboration
We’ve researched the impact of tried-and-tested customer reviews via our platform, and the results were impressive. You can see the full report here, but one illustrative takeaway is that an advert that displays a brand’s Trustpilot star rating and a customer review quote raises clickthrough rates by 88%. That’s real impact.
We wanted to bring some of this impact to the very storefronts that WooCommerce’s clientele build and run their stores through. So, through easy drag-and-drop interfacing, our Trustboxes, showing star ratings and customer feedback, can be put straight onto a WooCommerce WordPress site. More transparency = more trust.
Further to this, we’ve also teamed up to offer the ability to automate review invitations through WooCommerce sites. On the surface, this is a handy time-saving piece of automation, that asks each customer to review the service they’ve received, taking the onus off manual invites.
But looking deeper than this, it again reinforces trust. If a shop is confident and transparent enough to have all of their customers asked to review them, it’s a store and team that can be trusted. It also navigates away from, let’s say, ‘selective’ review invites. Because if we’re being honest, that leads to a temptation of only asking those you know have had a fabulous experience and love the product.
Yet again, WooCommerce, working with Trustpilot, builds online stores that instill a confidence in their patrons.
Trust that keeps on delivering
There are further tangible benefits to a trust-powered eCommerce site that goes beyond customer confidence and can start to impact the bottom line. Let us explain.
WooCommerce customers that invite reviews and showcase their TrustScore build lines of communication with their customers. Feedback (the good, bad and indifferent) comes pouring into the business like never before. WooCommerce has done a deep dive into one of these stories – check it out on their blog.
Those stores can then use this insight to make better decisions and iron out any kinks in their experience or products. Listening and learning from reviews can pinpoint those hidden sore spots.
SEO dogfights
A final advantage of this partnership is how our reviews link into Google Seller Ratings. Like it or not, Google’s SEO rankings can make or break a businesses’ visibility and chances of success. No one wants to be on page three of results for their key search terms.
Because Trustpilot feeds into Google Seller Ratings, this then bolsters WooCommerce sites’ SEO rankings, helping them to stand out in busy, competitive fields from a search perspective. It might not be the main thrust of the trust-powered journey, but it’s another aspect where our collaboration is delivering results.
Putting the Woo! in eCommerce
As we mentioned at the start, we love what WooCommerce is doing in making new business ideas, dreams and systems accessible, that were previously only in the hands of experts and those that have training and technical access.
If anything has come from the last few, strange years, it’s that more and more people are taking risks to change careers, go independent, and set up that business they’ve always thought about building. That’s such an exciting change, and one we’re proud to encourage in our small way.
At Trustpilot, we don’t just integrate with anyone; we collaborate with those that share our ethos of making online retail a safer and more welcoming place. And that’s why we collaborate with WooCommerce, who put everything in place for ambitious people to get started selling. We just add the magic ingredients: a sprinkling of trust and transparency that helps the world go round.
Want to take advantage of all the great benefits of a Trustpilot and WooCommerce partnership?
