Questions and Answers on Your Product Page

Do you need a Questions and Answers section in your online store? In an online world where consumers face an endless array of options and competing products, it's only natural that plenty of questions come up as they weigh their purchases. You can add questions and answers to your product page with the Premium version of weeComments. (€34/month, VAT included) In fact, the ability to ask questions is a decisive factor for consumers—one that is really only outranked by pricing. A Harvard Business Review study found that consumers value easy access to reliable product information when making purchases (something we already knew, of course), and many report that FAQs and the option of online Questions and Answers are extremely valuable resources. The truth is that unanswered questions can stop shoppers from buying your products, and—worse still—they make potential future buyers distrust your brand. For good reason, ecommerce Q&A tools have become a staple of online business. These tools let brands and other consumers answer product questions directly, both within the store and beyond it. It's a great benefit for shoppers, but an even bigger one for brands and retailers. Building a Q&A section into your product page lets you have a personal conversation with your shoppers. Whenever you can open a direct channel to your audience—especially when they're ready to buy—your brand will benefit from it. This feature works much better when it's tied to the customer review system in your online store. Here are the main reasons to include a Questions and Answers tool in your ecommerce store.

1. Reach shoppers at the key buying-decision moments

This is the biggest benefit of Questions and Answers. When shoppers ask questions, they're engaging, and they're usually entering the decision phase. In short, this is the moment that signals they're ready to buy something and are only waiting to confirm it with the store or with other users. There are two common types of questions: qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative questions are those where shoppers ask about specific aspects of the product, such as “do you have it in black too?” or “how many HDMI ports does this TV have?” These questions point to specific details of a product or service. Qualitative questions tend to focus on more subjective product details and personal opinions. “Is it a good blender for making smoothies?” “What do you think of the picture quality on this TV?” This type of question helps the consumer validate or debunk their own opinions. In short, they're looking for a second opinion, preferably from someone who has already tried the product. When you can answer both types of question, you have a perfect combination of information and credibility. Data and figures quickly reduce uncertainty about a product, but decisions tend to be rooted in emotion. Quantitative questions give shoppers facts, while qualitative ones tell a story about the product.

2. Build an FAQ list organically to boost conversion

A list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) is one of the most tried-and-true methods for improving consumer trust. That same Harvard study shows the value of making it easy for consumers to gather, understand and evaluate their options. Brands that worked on this were an astonishing 86% more likely to be bought from, and 115% more likely to be recommended. The easier a brand makes the buying-decision journey, the better—and an FAQ list can move shoppers quickly toward their own conviction. But building an FAQ isn't easy. You have to research your customers to identify common questions and pain points, and then you have to answer them. And not just generally across your store: if you want to do it well, you should do it on your individual products too. But what if you cross-reference the data from the questions your customers ask and identify the most frequent ones about your products? With the right tools, you can pinpoint the topics that interest your audience most, or the products that raise the most doubts. By giving customers a way to ask their questions freely, you're gaining a powerful source of consumer insight into the common questions people have about your products.

3. Social proof for your products

and for good reason. It describes a phenomenon of psychological and social influence in which people look around them to figure out what's trending and what's cool. “If everyone does it/wears it/has it, I should too.” In a marketing context, it's a powerful force. Simply put, people often turn to their peers when making purchase decisions. That's why ratings and consumer-generated reviews (CGC) have been so successful in ecommerce: at their most basic level, they prove that other people have already bought and are using something. Ecommerce Q&A tools produce a similar effect. As well as letting customers ask questions and find answers, a Q&A platform also shows shoppers that other people are interested and that others already own the product. But Questions and Answers here go a step beyond ratings, reviews and other forms of user-generated content, because they let users ask why everyone is moving in a particular direction. Every time someone makes a purchase decision, they experience a certain degree of anxiety. According to Crazy Egg, to dispel that anxiety we observe the actions of others. We want to know that other people have shared our experience. And we want to know that the choice we're making has already been made by other people. The more online reviews, comments, Questions and Answers, social likes and followers a brand or a product has, the more respect it earns. After all, when a lot of people are paying attention to you, you must be doing something right. That's the beauty of social proof in ecommerce. Sometimes, all you need to get a customer to click the buy button is to show them that other people have already clicked that same button before.

4. Boost your SEO with key content to attract more shoppers

When you're juggling lots of products and plenty of category pages, details are bound to be missing somewhere. The more information you provide on your product pages, the more customer questions you'll answer before they're even asked—and the better your page will rank in search engines. Online shoppers tend to ask questions when information is lacking, which can help you identify content gaps on your page and fill them with keyword-rich content. As an added bonus, letting customers ask questions about your store naturally boosts your page's SEO. First, because your product pages are constantly updated with new Questions and Answers, that means your pages have fresh content. Second, people's search queries often match the keywords in customer questions. Let Questions and Answers do a great SEO job on your product pages. Shopping has always had a strong social component. Interested buyers ask questions, talk to shopkeepers, examine items, check prices and compare products. Even though online commerce means this no longer happens in person, the tools that recreate those experiences make the same feelings possible. And Q&A tools do exactly this: they offer a space to interact with shoppers and answer them right when they're about to make a decision. As explained here, this delivers a very positive experience for the consumer, but it also helps brands and their products stand out while attracting shoppers at the right moment with the right content. You can add questions and answers with the Premium version of weeComments. (€34/month, VAT included)