By: Unknown
From: Business Wire
Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today announced that it has served over 10 billion user-generated product reviews to shoppers around the globe. Bazaarvoice, which launched in January 2006, passed the 10 billion milestone in March 2008. The company currently serves over one billion reviews per month, more than double the rate a year ago.
To commemorate the milestone and highlight the growing reach of user-generated product reviews, Bazaarvoice has added a real-time review counter on www.bazaarvoice.com. The review counter instantly tallies each user-generated review accessed by shoppers on Bazaarvoice client sites. Bazaarvoice clients include over 190 of the world's largest and most trusted brands, including Dell, Macy's, Office Depot, Inc., Overstock.com, PETCO, QVC, and Sears.
"The 10-billion-reviews-served milestone reflects the increasing reliance on reviews by consumers, manufacturers, and retailers," said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. "Each review impression is the opportunity for a customer to read authentic, credible, and relevant content to help them make better purchase decisions -- and an opportunity for a retail or service business to build trust in their brand, drive more sales, and increase customer loyalty and satisfaction."
In the two years since Bazaarvoice launched, reviews have exploded from a niche capability to a central part of the research and purchase process. Research from leading analysts including Deloitte, Forrester Research, Jupiter Research, Nielsen and others has demonstrated the positive impact and importance of reviews in the online and offline shopping experience:
Consumer recommendations are the most trusted form of advertising (78% versus 34% for search-engine ads) (Nielsen, October 2007)
82% of consumers who read reviews said that their purchasing decisions have been directly influenced by those reviews (Deloitte, October 2007)
90% of reviewers report that they write reviews in order to help others make better buying decisions - and 66% are writing online reviews of offline purchases (Keller Fay Group & Bazaarvoice, November 2007)
8 out of 10 consumers trust brands who offer reviews (Vizu & Bazaarvoice, August 2007)
Throughout its company history, Bazaarvoice has remained wholly committed to accelerating the adoption of ratings and reviews by online businesses. Its growth has been marked by several groundbreaking product innovations, including the industry's first video review capabilities and syndication model for reviews via its SyndicateVoice program. Bazaarvoice has also built its client services organization to support clients in integrating the rating and review content into their day-to-day marketing and business strategies to drive measurable results. Bazaarvoice clients quickly achieve significant and measurable benefits from their social commerce implementation including: increased site conversion, reduced product returns, increased email clickthrough and conversion rates, increased natural search traffic, and increased customer loyalty. Bazaarvoice continuously evolves new best practices and capabilities resulting in measurable improvements to integrated multichannel marketing initiatives.
"What is really exciting to us right now is the number of clients who are extending the customer voice by adding review content to traditional marketing activities like catalogs, TV, radio, and print," said Sam Decker, CMO of Bazaarvoice. "The 10 billion number, impressive as it is, actually under-reports the reach and impact of ratings and reviews as they become part of the traditional marketing mix for our clients."
About Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice offers outsourced technology, services, analytics, and expertise to help companies enhance the online shopping experience with social commerce applications that drive sales. Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews and Ask & Answer™ deliver immediate success by minimizing implementation risk and maximizing the strategic impact of user-generated review content through complete customization, deep integration, community management, advanced analytics, search engine optimization, and syndication across the Web and to offline channels.
Bazaarvoice was named to the 2007 Red Herring Global 100 and 2006 Red Herring Top 100 lists and received the 2006 ClickZ Marketing Innovation of the Year award. Bazaarvoice currently serves over 190 eCommerce leaders including Bass Pro Shops, Dell, Macy's, Office Depot, Inc., Overstock.com, PETCO, QVC, Sears, and ZipRealty. The company has headquarters in Austin, TX and offices in London, UK. For more information, please visit the company's Web site at www.bazaarvoice.com, read the blog at www.bazaarblog.com, or email info@bazaarvoice.com.
