Survey shows shoppers are more likely to buy if they can get quick responses to their queries via your website
Consumers have questions and if you don’t provide the answers on your websites, it can cost you money, according to a new survey.
Q&A content — generated through live chat or through previous customers’ comments, or presented as an FAQ — helps alleviate consumer uncertainty and boost e-commerce sales, according to a new survey from Chicago-based PowerReviews. And to be most effective, Q&A needs to be on product pages, the survey finds.
More than one-quarter of shoppers are “more suspicious about product or brand quality if a product page doesn’t have a Q&A section, and 33% of Gen Z shoppers say they’re less likely to purchase without a Q&A section on the product page,” according to a news release detailing the results of the survey, which was conducted in June among 7,528 U.S. consumers.
It makes sense. In-store shoppers can turn to retail sales associates when they want to know more about products. Q&A features can mimic that interaction.
A complementary analysis by PowerReviews found consumers were 157% more likely to purchase when they interact with Q&A content.
More survey findings:
- 99% of consumers read Q&A at least occasionally; 72% read Q&A always or regularly
- Of consumers who read Q&A, 98% also read product reviews
- 56% of consumers expect to get an answer within 24 hours, and 21% expect an answer in four hours or less
- About one-quarter of customers rely on Q&A to understand other shoppers’ experiences with product warranty and shipping
- 82% of consumers say they pay attention to the small print detailing who provided the answer response.
“No matter how comprehensive your product pages are, there’s no way to anticipate each and every question customers will have,” says Andrew Smith, vice president of marketing for PowerReviews. “It’s imperative to provide shoppers with a mechanism for getting any additional information they seek.”
