Review System for Online Stores - Cackle Reviews

Hello! Today we will talk about what exactly a good feedback collection system should do in order to guarantee an increase in website conversion using our product as an example - the Cackle Reviews feedback collection system. The first release took place in November 2013. In the year and a half of our existence, we have about 200 customers (of which 150 are online stores) and a clear idea of ​​what features of the feedback system honestly affect the conversion growth:

1. Automatic indexing of reviews to Google with a micromarking of the schema.org/review rating;
2. Import reviews from Ndex.Market;
3. Subscribe follow-up letters after purchase with an invitation to leave a review;
4. Broadcast reviews in social networks;
5. SPAM test ( mail-tester.com ) with a score of at least 9/10 points.

How it all works in Cackle Reviews - under the cut.
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1. Indexing to Google with a micro markup.

The micro markup is a specific data format for Google to understand and display links to your site in the search results along with beautiful orange stars, rating and number of reviews.


In Cackle Reviews it works automatically. When installing on any page of the site, our service will tell Google that this page should be indexed with micromarking . And most importantly, “It's Just JavaScript ™”, that is, no additional settings are needed in the form of synchronization of reviews to a local database or plug-ins for CMS. This works because Google indexes JavaScript.

Check in Google Testing Tool

To ensure that Google will index your site with micromarking, there is a special Google Validator Testing Tool . Since Cackle Reviews works through JavaScript, you need not just to copy the address of the page with reviews, but to open the browser console (for example, in Chrome it is Ctrl + Shift + C), go to the Elements tab and copy the entire code of the page into the window 1 of the validator, click "CHECK". If there are no errors and the result is the rating (values ​​for the example):

 aggregateRating [AggregateRating]: ratingValue: 4.5 reviewCount: 3 

That's all ok!

Living example

In Google, find the text “ Pluses: Excellent watches are worth it. Comment: the model is excellent ” is the first link bestwatch.ru/watch/Frederique_Constant/FC335MC4P5 (our client), on the side “ Rating: 4.5 - 4 reviews ”. We turn to this page, below the system for collecting feedback Cackle Reviews. Next, we will open the page in HTML form and see that there are no reviews in the code, which means that indexing with microdata works through JavaScript and you don’t need to make additional settings: saving reviews to a local database or pulling in third-party HTML.

Implementation details

Google indexes javascript with micromaps schema.org/review. Therefore, in the widget, when rendering HTML, it is enough just to support this format .

2. Collect feedback from Yandex.Market

Reviews - a proven and inexpensive solution to increase site conversion. Declining the user to write a review is difficult, so it's best to take ready-made, for example from Yandex.Market. Benefits for you:

• Valuable and proven content, giving additional traffic to the site;
• Reliable reviews with a source mark (a review from Yandex.Market) help a potential buyer to quickly determine the purchase and increase the credibility of your online store.

Gather feedback from Yandex.Market at Cackle Reviews

First you need to get the Yandex.Market key to access the feedback loading API, indicating it in the form of Cackle Reviews and the IP address of our server (cackle.me). Save the key in the Cackle admin panel (Testimonials tab, Settings menu).

To collect feedback, upload products from your online store to Cackle using the API:

HTTP method	Endpoint	Restriction
POST	cackle.me/api/3.0/review/productym.json	2 times a minute

Parameter	Description
id	ID of your widget
siteApiKey	The secret key of the widget.
accountApiKey	Account secret key
products	List of goods in JSON format

Each item must have a special parameter, ymId , that takes the modelId value from Yandex.Market.


Product example (products parameter):

 [{ "prodId": "12345", "ymId": "11031822", "chan": "/product/12345/", "url": "http://myexamplestore.ru/product/12345/", "name": " Apple iPhone 6 Plus 128Gb", "photo": "http://mdata.yandex.net/i?path=b0912201833_img_id3857037135783998090.jpeg", "price": "65500" }] 

prodId - product id from your database
chan - channel for link reviews from the site ( more )
url - pages where there will be reviews

Demonstration on client sites: delonghi.club , shveiburg.ru , mrklimat.ru .

Developers: implementation details

The functionality is written in Java, Spring and Hibernate. Operates with 4 main database tables, in more detail - in the spoiler.

3. Follow-up letters after purchase with an invitation to leave feedback.

You need to collect reviews not only from Yandex.Market, but also from real buyers. Suppose a user purchased a product from an online store. A few days later, he receives an email to his email asking for feedback on a previously purchased product. These letters are called follow-up and Cackle Reviews can send them automatically.

The uniqueness of Cackle Reviews is that the link “Leave feedback” in the follow-up letter leads exactly to the page of the purchased product of the online store (and not to the site of the feedback collection system, as in all other similar systems) and upon transition, the form for writing a review opens automatically with already authorized user.

Integration of follow-up mailing with online store

Loading orders

To send follow-up emails to customers, you must upload orders from your online store to Cackle. This is done using the API:

HTTP method	Endpoint	Restriction
POST	cackle.me/api/3.0/review/order.json	Once every 5 seconds

Parameters are similar to the API loading of goods, except for the products parameter, instead of orders.

Order example (orders parameter):

 [{ "orderId": "123", "created": 1426330626814, "modified": null, "notify": 1426330626814, "paid": true, "deliver": true, "notified": false, "user": { "id": "775", "name": " ", "email": "dmivanov@mailforspam.com" }, "products": [{ "prodId": "12345", "ymId": "11031822", "chan": "/product/12345/", "url": "http://myexamplestore.ru/product/12345/", "name": " Apple iPhone 6 Plus 128Gb", "photo": "http://mdata.yandex.net/i?path=b0912201833_img_id3857037135783998090.jpeg", "price": "65500" }]}] 

// notify - parameter for unconditional sending of follow-up letters on the specified date (milliseconds);
// received - if true, then a follow-up letter has already been sent for this order, if false, no;
// user is a user registered on your site ( single authorization, SSO ), or instead there can be two parameters (email and name) for an anonymous user.

Create a newsletter

When orders are loaded, you need to create a newsletter with the terms of dispatch and the letter template. This can be done in the Cackle administration panel (“Feedback” tab, “Newsletter” menu).

Follow-up letter

The letter consists of several parts. Editable - sender, subject, logo, letter body (body), signature (footer). Non-editable — a product or product list with a name, photo, and a “Leave Feedback” link.

The link “Leave feedback” leads to the page of the purchased product of the online store. All service parameters, for opening a form for writing a review and automatic authorization of a user, are transmitted in a link after the hash (#) in a coded format (MD5).


If a user follows the link “Leave feedback” and publishes it, then he will be marked with the “Verified Buyer” icon, which indicates that the customer has actually bought the product.

Testing, debugging

The created mailings have a “Test” button, on click on which instantaneous processing of the found orders and sending of follow-up letters occurs. For example, you can download several test orders from email @mailforspam.com or @mailinator.com , and then test sending emails.

Automatic execution of activated mailings occurs at night from 01:00 to 06:00 Moscow time.

CMS Plugins

The follow-up mailing list works automatically in 1C-Bitrix and OpenCart plugins. In the near future we plan to connect this functionality for Joomla (VirtueMart, K2, Zoo) , PrestaShop and InSales.

4. Broadcast reviews in social networks

Cackle Reviews supports three types of authorization: anonymous, social and one with the site. If the user selects social authorization and logs in via VKontakte / My World / Facebook / Twitter, then his review will automatically fall on the wall of the social network with a link to the site. Benefits for the online store:

• Attracting additional traffic from social networks;
• Increase site confidence among friends.

The functionality is available for testing on the solution demonstration page .

Implementation

Each social network has its own API for posting posts on the wall. We include this API in the implementation of the OAuth authorization libraries. In Cackle, Spring Social is used for such libraries, only with its implementation for each social network. This is very convenient, as much Spring Social does for you, for example, support for OAuth 1.0 and 2.0 standards, saving and updating access, refresh-tokens and expired.

5. SPAM test

Perhaps someone does not know, but there is a service for checking letters on SPAM, like mail-tester.com . The result of its verification is the number of points from 1 to 10. For a feedback collection system with follow-up mailing, a low score means that buyers simply will not receive letters inviting them to leave feedback.

In the next topic, we’ll tell you about our experience in setting up an SMTP server and how we achieved this result for Cackle Reviews:


If you want to try Cackle Reviews on your site - welcome ! Installation takes less than 1 minute.

Thanks for attention. Successes to all!