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Ratings, Reviews & ROI
How Leading Retailers Use Word of Mouth in
Marketing & Merchandising
Brant Barton, VP Business Development
Bazaarvoice

Customer Ratings & Reviews . . . Why?
• User-generated content that passes key tests:
Authentic (users say things that Marketing can’t)
•
Focused on the object of the purchase task
•
Highly sought out by consumers
•
Highly measurable
•
• Proven driver of conversion
• 81% of surveyed CompUSA shoppers say reviews are
important to their purchase decisions (August 2006)
• PETCO customers ranked reviews #1 site feature most
influential to purchase, beating site search (July 2006)
Slide 3

Most Widely Read Consumer-Generated Content
Slide 4

Customer Ratings Are Highly Positive
60%
% of Total
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
5
1 2 3 4
Rating
Slide 5

Customers Write Better Copy
“These plants made it through
Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita
and the hot weather that followed.
We were asked to conserve water
so no sprinklers. These plants were
troopers with no watering at all -
they bloomed their hearts out
when everything else was crispy
brown. I'm putting in my order for
twice the number this year.\"
Slide 6

Efficient Fuel for Multichannel Marketing
43% higher
55% higher
clickthrough
conversion
(Burpee)
(Golfsmith)
60% higher
49% higher
conversion
conversion
(CompUSA)
(PETCO)
Slide 7

Measuring WOM Retailer Case Studies
• Ratings & Reviews case studies from 5
leading multichannel retailers
• Metrics are based on segmentation
analysis using web analytics tools (e.g.,
Coremetrics)
Slide 8

Integrating the Terminology Framework
• Ratings & Reviews are WOMUnits
• Retailers act as Senders
• Their Actions include:
• Distribution of reviews on retailer web sites & in email
newsletters
• Indexing reviews on search engines, on-site & off
• Syndication of reviews via RSS
• The ultimate Outcome and ROI measuring
stick is Conversion
Slide 9

Customer Reviews Enhance CompUSA’s
Natural Search Presence
CompUSA customers
CompUSA customers
acquired via reviews-
acquired via reviews-
related searches
related searches
convert at 60% higher
convert at 60% higher
than the average
than the average
customer and spend
customer and spend
50% more per order
50% more per order
Reviews-related
Reviews-related
searches drive 10,000s
searches drive 10,000s
of visitors to CompUSA
of visitors to CompUSA
each week
each week
Slide 10

Customer Ratings Define PETCO’s
Site Search Experience . . .
Sort by Rating drives
Sort by Rating drives
41% higher sales per
41% higher sales per
visitor than conventional
visitor than conventional
methods
methods
Sort by Rating is now
Sort by Rating is now
PETCO’s default option
PETCO’s default option
PETCO’s success is
PETCO’s success is
driving other retailers to
driving other retailers to
use similar tactics
use similar tactics
Slide 11

. . . And Casual Browsing Experience
Customers who browse
Customers who browse
the Top Rated Products
the Top Rated Products
sections of PETCO.com
sections of PETCO.com
convert at 49% higher
convert at 49% higher
and spend 63% more
and spend 63% more
than non-TRP browsers
than non-TRP browsers
on a multi-session basis
on a multi-session basis
Slide 12

Customer Reviews Drive Higher Clicks For
Burpee’s Featured Products
Burpee RSS feed
Burpee RSS feed
updates that feature
updates that feature
customer reviews
customer reviews
receive 43% more
receive 43% more
clicks than the RSS
clicks than the RSS
feed’s average daily
feed’s average daily
clickthroughs
clickthroughs
Burpee now leverages
Burpee now leverages
reviews on its blog as
reviews on its blog as
well
well
Slide 13

Golfsmith Lets Its Customers Do the Talking
. . . and Emailing
Golfsmith’s use of
Golfsmith’s use of
customer-generated
customer-generated
copy in its email
copy in its email
newsletter resulted in
newsletter resulted in
55% higher conversion
55% higher conversion
and 54% higher sales
and 54% higher sales
per email sent
per email sent
Slide 14

Bass Pro Shops Finds Success With
Top Rated Products
Bass Pro Shops
Bass Pro Shops
customers that browse
customers that browse
Top Rated Products
Top Rated Products
pages convert at 59%
pages convert at 59%
higher and spend 16%
higher and spend 16%
more than the average
more than the average
browser
browser
Slide 15

What’s Next? Syndication & Beyond . . .
Slide 16

Many Other Benefits & Opportunities
• Reduce product return rates and increase
post-purchase satisfaction
• Seize opportunities to redesign and improve
products based on customer feedback
• Build deeper relationships with your most
passionate and vocal customers
• Use participation to drive loyalty marketing
strategies
• Leverage content offline – at the register, in-
store signage, in the call center
Slide 17

Who is Bazaarvoice?
is a fully hosted solution
for customer-created content
- Hosted technology
- Content review
- Analytics & reporting
- Search & syndication
Slide 18