Top Shopify Brands Getting 5-Star Reviews (And How You Can Too)

Brands with reviews between 4.0-4.5 stars get 28% more revenue than their competitors, according to ReviewTrackers. It makes sense — we all prefer to purchase goods and services that other people agree are exceptional. Who wants to eat a two-star breakfast or buy one-and-a-half-star jeans?

The challenge for merchants using Shopify or other ecommerce platforms is generating those positive reviews. As a seller, your goal is to make an experience that creates happy customers who want to say good things about you — that’s been true for as long as there have been people who sell things. But it’s not that simple, is it? 

If a customer doesn’t understand how to properly use your product, isn’t aware of how to take care of it, or feels that it doesn’t give them what they paid for, you get a bad review (and you lose your shot at a repeat customer, too). Once the product has shipped, it’s out of your hands. Or it would be, if you didn’t have a five-star customer success strategy to help you get excellent, authentic reviews.

To start creating five-star experiences, you’ll need to make a bit of a mindset shift. Instead of  focusing on the sales cycle, top merchants are putting their attention into the after-sale product experience, which means they care more about how well a customer does with the product after they receive it than getting them to hit “checkout.” 

What do we mean by after-sale product experience, anyway?

Your communication with customers shouldn’t stop after they hit “checkout,” and it can encompass more than endless promotional emails. The first few weeks after a customer makes a purchase is filled with touchpoint opportunities that you can use to help them have a fantastic experience. 

Starting at the moment of “unboxing,” or the moment a customer gets what they bought from you, you can bring your product to life by engaging with your customers and providing helpful messages that are tailored to their unique backgrounds, environments, and goals. By focusing on the lifetime value of your product and supporting users of all skill levels appropriately, you can increase customer success, which leads to better reviews. It’s not a magic trick — you’re giving your product a voice by making sure they understand how to use it and what they’ll get out of it. Instead of getting angry and then trying to reach you over the phone, you engage them and answer their questions before your customers have thought to ask them.

The product life cycle starts when your customer orders the product, and it doesn’t end until they stop using it. Providing support around the unboxing of the product shows customers that you care (because you do) and makes them more likely to succeed with your product, which makes them more likely to give it a great review. It also gives you a way to find out if a customer is having a bad experience that could lead to a negative review, in which case you can extend a helping hand before they reach that point and, potentially, change their mind.

6 Brands We Love with a Winning Customer Success Strategy

We selected six extremely successful Shopify brands to break down why they get so many five-star reviews. We also use each one as an example to show what similar brands could do using an after-sale product engagement solution (the thing that we do) via Blustream.

All of our chosen brands have excellent stories that they use to connect with their customers in meaningful ways, and most of them use personalization to help their consumers succeed with their products. The former draws customers in, and the latter is what creates customer success and, as a result, the excellent reviews that encourage new customers to try their products, too.

The best brands are the ones who do everything they can to connect with their customers to make good reviews a forgone conclusion. Every purchase starts a conversation, and providing a great after-sale experience cultivates that connection into a two-way, mutually beneficial brand/consumer relationship. 

Okay. So, before we get into how real brands are getting it done, how does Blustream play into this?

What Does Blustream Do?  

Blustream empowers businesses to help customers succeed with the products they love through automated, personalized messages after a purchase, most commonly via SMS. Using timed and conditional triggers along with some help from AI, Blustream’s platform lets business owners send automated text messages that help ensure customer success (here’s a more in-depth look, if you’re interested). It can be used to provide people with tips tailored to their unique profiles, which are built using data collected via conversations, and help establish a relationship between them and the brand. This fosters better communication and easier customer service while (most importantly) helping product owners get what they want out of your product, all of which improves the after-sale product experience and your revenue, too.

Without further ado, the best of the brands, their products, and our ideas on how Blustream could enhance the after purchase product experience of these and other businesses like them. 

Prose — Custom Shampoo

Prose spends a ton of time up-front getting to know their customers so that they can provide them with customized products, like their custom shampoo. Before buying anything, customers fill out a detailed questionnaire, making the products that Prose delivers tailor-made for them, from fragrance to hair health, texture, and more. Prose gives customers unique input into their hair care products, which establishes a connection with the brand; customers can tell their voice has been heard when they receive shampoo made specifically for their needs.

Blustream Boost: By using Blustream, businesses like Prose could teach customers how to use their new custom shampoo based on their unique profiles or even walk them through how to use it step-by-step while setting expectations for what results they should expect and how long it should take to achieve them.

By reaching out after a sale has been made for feedback, Prose could gather even more information than what was used to create each formula and use it to build even more customer success. For example, Prose could send specific customers messages based on humidity or another environmental factor that could impact hair styling and scalp care. These personalized messages build customer loyalty and the likelihood that when you ask, a happy customer will leave you a positive review.

Native — Natural Deodorant

Native sells personal care products with an emphasis on being environmentally friendly and using natural ingredients. Their deodorant has all ten of its simple ingredients listed along with an explanation of why they’re in the product to be transparent with customers about exactly what they’re buying. They’re straight shooters, and they even feature reviews right on the page, which reflects their promise of not hiding anything from shoppers.This creates an instant connection between the brand and anyone visiting the store.

Blustream Boost: Native could take a step further by implementing an after-sale product engagement approach of asking recent buyers if they are new to natural deodorant. If they are, Native could provide tips for new users to help them acclimate to the differences. Many products have a learning curve, and not fully understanding how your product works can damage the customer experience. In the case of health and wellness products, it often takes a few weeks before customers will see results. Without that information, they might use a product, see no change, throw it out, and leave it with a bad review before realizing that.

By using Blustream to provide timely information over the first few weeks of use, Native could increase customer retention. Furthermore, by collecting new customer data, Native would know which customers don’t need pointers and how tos, which could annoy experienced buyers or returning customers. In their case, Native could use after-sale touchpoints to learn more about their knowledgeable and loyal customers to find out what kind of support they would like to receive. More data always leads to more opportunities to delight customers of all kinds.

Alo Yoga — Yoga Mats

Alo Yoga sells a wide variety of yoga gear for beginners, experts, and everyone in between, including top-of-the-line yoga mats. Besides making great equipment, their brand stands out because of its focus on community building. They create experiences at their sanctuaries in-person and build online communities through their yoga streaming service, Alo Moves. Alo has a strong brand story that places customer wellness at the center and speaks to beginners and experts alike. By providing courses alongside their physical products, Alo establishes themselves as a trustworthy guide that sticks with its customers as they grow. 

Blustream Boost: Alo could improve their customer experience by asking customers questions after a purchase about whether or not they are a yoga practitioner and tailor their use and care tips to their product owners’ answers. In the case of customers who do yoga, they could drive them toward their massive community if they’re interested. And they could tell new practitioners how to take care of their mats or new leggings and point them to helpful beginner classes. For example, prompting new customers with fabric care tips from the get-go will allow them to extend the longevity of their favorite outfits and feel good on and off the mat. Once again, personalization after purchase helps build brand connections that lead to loyal followers who are inclined to leave a positive review when you ask for one.

Allbirds — Running Shoes

Allbirds has made a name for itself by selling natural, sustainable shoes and clothing. Every product lists the materials used to make it along with the carbon footprint associated with the manufacturing process. Their brand story is strong and easy for customers to identify with — who doesn’t want a cleaner world? Instead of stating that they believe in sustainable practices on their company overview page, they meet their customers where they are in the listings and create a connection with them by including them in the process of doing business in an environmentally friendly way.

Blustream Boost: An easy upgrade would be supplying a guide for how to check for a proper fit upon arrival. Furthermore, Allbirds could send new owners reminders to occasionally wash the shoes along with step-by-step instructions on how to do it since it’s one of the selling points of their product. These tips could be tied to usage by collecting data about whether their customers are looking to wear their shoes to run every morning or if they only wear them on special occasions. By making this information part of their customer profiles, Allbirds could personalize their messages to each group; everyday runners would receive more frequent reminders than special occasion wearers, for example. The more personalized, the better. 

Bulletproof — Coffee

Bulletproof built its brand around a specialized mix of coffee, MCT oil, and grass-fed butter as a diet-friendly breakfast alternative. Their brand relies heavily on their story, which it builds upon with a deep blog about healthy living and recipes tailored to living and eating well. Most of their supplements and coffee additive products came after the original butter coffee recipe became popular, but they remain true to giving people information about how to eat healthy and be happy doing it, which proves to their customers that they are genuinely invested in helping people live healthier lifestyles.

Blustream Boost: By reaching out to customers after they purchase coffee beans, Bulletproof could learn their customer’s specific dietary goals and help them get there using the numerous resources on their site. The information is all there, but customer loyalty could be boosted by presenting it in a personalized way that doesn’t require customers to sort through the content by hand. They could also learn about customers’ experience levels in order to know how much help to send them. Someone who just started following the keto diet a week ago might want more help than someone who has been following it for years, for example. By having customers answer a few automated SMS messages, Bulletproof could add this information to their unique customer profiles and use it to trigger personalized advice and product recommendations. 

Promix — Protein

Promix’s brand is all about natural ingredients and athlete-tested formulas. They have a strong brand story, and they’ve made a name for themselves in the dietary supplements industry as a go-to for quality and safety. We particularly love their protein calculator, which can be used to give customers a general idea of how much protein they should be consuming for their fitness goals. It’s a free tool that they offer whether a visitor is planning to make a purchase or not, which assures anyone using their website that they are deeply knowledgeable about dietary supplements and opens a clear line of communication with potential customers.

Blustream Boost: Promix could make their protein calculator part of the unboxing experience by texting a link to their customers when their product arrives. That way, they would be more likely to reach their goals. Additionally, they could collect data about why someone purchased the product they did and follow up with detailed information to help customers succeed with that product. Then, Promix could use Blustream’s messaging journeys to gauge customers’ fitness goals and then offer suggestions on other products that fit the specific nutrition needs of each individual. 

What Are the Common Denominators of Success?

Each brand on this list is loved for the attention they pay to their customers. They don’t get five-star reviews for holding promotions or offering discounts, they get them for focusing on the customer and the lifetime value of what they’re selling. They may not have an after-sale solution like Blustream to help them, but you’ll notice that they all offer more than sales promotions.

Promix helps customers find out how much protein they need to meet their goals, Native tells people exactly what’s in their deodorant, and Allbirds works with customers to decrease harmful waste. Bulletproof tells people how to work their coffee into their diet, Alo Yoga provides both equipment and training material for its customers, and Prose gives detailed instructions for custom hair care. All of these brands do something special to create customer success, and that’s what makes happy customers who are thrilled to give them five-star reviews.

Blustream could help each of these brands, and other businesses like them, take those efforts even one step further. One of the hardest parts about selling to any customer audience is knowing exactly what their individual needs are. By talking to customers both before and after a product has been used, brands can find out what those needs are and address them with personalized messaging for the entire product lifecycle. Successful customers leave good reviews, refer their friends, and come back for more purchases. The more you can do to help your customers succeed with your product(s), the better your reviews will be.

Better Unboxing Begins with Blustream

There’s nothing better than the moment of unboxing — ripping open the packaging and seeing what you ordered lying inside. As a business owner, you can carry that excitement through to positive reviews by connecting with your customers, on a personal level, to bring that product to life once it is in their hands. Blustream’s solution for personalized messaging after-sale makes that possible.

If you’re interested in improving your after-sale product experience and taking unboxing to the next level to increase positive reviews, try Blustream by downloading the app for your Shopify store.

And don’t worry about getting set up with Blustream or having to do it all on your own — the after-sale product experience is our focus, and that applies to our customers, too.

P.S. Not a Shopify merchant? Blustream can integrate into your ecomm platform too.