Steve Mulder Why and how
to implement ratings and reviews Your users trust each other, not you

Why implement ratings & reviews?

People don’t trust you

76% of American consumers believe
companies don’t tell the truth in advertising Yankelovich (2005)

60% have a much more
negative opinion of marketing & advertising than a few years ago Yankelovich (2004)

People do trust each other

78% say consumer recommendations are
the most credible form of advertising Nielsen (2007)

83% say online evaluations and
reviews influence their purchasing decisions Opinion Research Corporation (2008)

84% trust user reviews more
than critics’ reviews MarketingSherpa (2007)

Trust in “person like me”
tripled to 68% from 2004-2006 – biggest influencer to consumers Edelman Trust Barometer (2006, 2007)

Think beyond products Content Topics
Features People Places Companies Events

76% use online reviews to
help make purchase decisions Forrester Research (2007)

63% of consumers are more
likely to purchase from a site offering ratings/reviews eVOC Insights / RelevantView (2006)

69% of those who read
online reviews share them with friends, family, or colleagues Deloitte & Touche (2007)

What about B2B?

93% consider ratings and reviews
valuable or very valuable for the business user Christian C Carlsson dissertation research (08)

58% have removed a supplier
as an option because of a negative rating/review Christian C Carlsson dissertation research (08)

What do the adopters think?

Although only 25% of top
ecommerce sites have ratings and reviews so far… Forrester Research (2007)

96% of those sites rate
them as an effective or very effective merchandising tactic Forrester Research (2007)

Reasons merchants added online reviews
<ul><li>Improving the customer experience </li></ul>E-Tailing Group (2008) 58% Building customer loyalty 47% Driving sales 42% Maintaining a competitive advantage 37%

What’s the ROI?

Impact of ratings/reviews on online
retailers <ul><li>reported site traffic increases </li></ul>E-consultancy and Bazaarvoice (2007) 77% reported improved conversion rates 56% reported higher average order values 42%

NetShops found that reviewed products
experience a 26% lift in sales College of Information Science, University of Nebraska (2007) Product with no review Product with reviews

Petco let users sort products
by rating and saw sales increase 41% per visitor Petco (2007) Before rating sort After rating sort

Bass Pro Shops users who
viewed Top Rated Products had a 59% higher conversion rate Bass Pro Shops (2007) Average visitors Viewers of Top Rated Products

Impact goes beyond the sale
<ul><li>higher satisfaction reported for sites with reviews </li></ul>ForeSee Results (2007) 10% more likely to purchase from the retailer again 8% more likely to recommend the site to others 11%

SEO

Customer support

200% ROI in one year
Forrester’s calculated ROI for ebags.com implementation of ratings/reviews

Benefits beyond the Web

Petco saw a 500% increase
in email clickthrough after including ratings/reviews Petco (2008) Before ratings After ratings

93% of adults research products
online before purchasing in a store BIGresearch (2007)

24% of those online have
used online reviews before buying a service delivered offline comScore / The Kelsey Group (2007)

The challenge of negative reviews

“ People only write reviews
when they’re mad or disappointed”

80% of reviews are positive
Forrester (2007)

Breakdown of ratings submitted on
all Bazaarvoice client sites 1 2 3 4 5 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Bazaarvoice (2006)

“ Negative reviews scare others
away”

Conversion rates are higher for
products with positive and negative reviews <ul><li>Negative ratings and reviews… </li></ul><ul><ul><li>make the site (and its products) more credible </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>increase comfort in purchasing (weaknesses are now known) </li></ul></ul><ul><li>&quot;We're always surprised by how much negative reviews help drive sales.&quot; John Squire, VP of Product Strategy, Coremetrics </li></ul><ul><li>“ When customers see a mix of different ratings they are more apt to trust the review process…. Negative reviews help customers affirm they've vetted all concerns before making a purchase decision.” Don Zeidler, Director of Direct Marketing, Burpee </li></ul>

Negative reviews can lead to
product improvements

Turning a negative into a
positive

Best Practices

Best Practices Item Page

Make ratings & reviews discoverable:
location, context, prominence

Stick to what’s familiar: stars

Use the familiar 1-5 scale

Consider ratings by attribute

Show date of review

… and reviewer info

<ul><li>Name/nickname </li></ul><ul><li>Contributions </li></ul><ul><li>Relevant profile (e.g.,
location) </li></ul><ul><li>Member since </li></ul>

<ul><li>Badges </li></ul><ul><li>Stats </li></ul><ul><li>Personal info </li></ul><ul><li>Connections
</li></ul>

Reviewer actually owns it

<ul><li>Helpful votes </li></ul><ul><li>Report/offensive </li></ul><ul><li>Comments </li></ul>

Respond to negative reviews

Average rating and number of
ratings

Distribution of ratings

Trend over time

Sort reviews (also by helpful)

Friends’ reviews

Summary of reviews

Parsing by attribute

Cross-selling / merchandising

Best Practices Beyond the Item
Page

Show ratings on listing pages

Search results pages too

No ratings shown???

No way to filter or
sort by rating???

Sort by highest rating

Filter by rating

Filter by rating

Give users more control

Show ratings from people like
me

Promote using ratings

Merchandise/promote using “top” lists

Cross-sell using “top” lists

Best Practices Eliciting Reviews

19% of US online adults
write an online review at least monthly Forrester Research (2008)

Step 1: Ask!

Step 2: Invite reviews via
email follow-up

Step 3: Invite reviews via
your site

Incentives can help, but rarely
needed

Recognize top reviewers

The easier the better

Clean design, few distractions, helpful
tips

Keep registration barrier low

Encourage detail, prod with questions

Don’t go insane

Let people preview their review

Set expectations for posting

Moderate lightly

Implementation options

[email_address] Let your customers talk
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