Are you using customer testimonials on your store? If not, you should be. They are a powerful tool that lets shoppers know you have other satisfied customers. When new shoppers know that other people are happy with your store they gain a sense of trust and that leads to higher conversion rates and sales.

Most stores (myself included) ask for testimonials and put up the ones that are most flattering. It's pretty easy to get some nice "sound bytes" for your homepage. But, just grabbing to best sounding testimonials may not be the best tactic.

Ramit Sethi from IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com is an expert in human behavior. I had the pleasure of talking with him this week at MicroConf 2011 and he pointed out that testiminials are a great opportunity to build more than trust. They can be used to address specific concerns your customers may have.

He suggested that everyone should be tactical in deciding which testimonials to post. If your shoppers are concerned that the quality of your products may not be great because of your low prices, seek out testimonials that address that concern. Find a testimonial that says something like "I though the quality would be poor because the prices were so great but instead this thing is built like a truck."

Picking testimonials that address your shopper's fears prior to purchasing is something that you can do today that your competitor's won't be doing. It's a quick easy way to increase sales. Take a look at your catalog of testimonials and see if you can swap them out for smarter ones right now.