Bazaarvoice Introduces MobileVoice, Bringing Product Reviews to the Mobile Device and into the Retail Store

Austin, Texas – January 20, 2009 – Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today introduced MobileVoice, a new service that delivers authentic product reviews directly to shoppers’ phones in the store or mall. With MobileVoice, Bazaarvoice clients can now easily provide reviews to mobile users in order to help shoppers narrow their choices and buy the right product. Shoppers can easily browse reviews by category or look up a specific keyword or SKU to immediately access the opinions of their peers, adding value to the in-store experience and building confidence in purchase decisions.

“Reviews have become a core part of the shopping experience -- Nielsen reports that 8 out of 10 shoppers read product reviews this holiday season, and we served over 1.2 billion review impressions over the course of Thanksgiving week,” said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. “Now, with MobileVoice, shoppers don’t need to research online before their shopping trip. Instead, they can access reviews in real-time, in the store, to make sense of their choices and ensure a considered and careful purchase.”

“We want to deliver the best client experience to our shoppers, wherever they shop,” said Julie Bornstein, SVP Sephora Direct, which is launching MobileVoice this month at r.sephora.com. “MobileVoice allows us to amplify the voice of our clients by making reviews easily accessible through iPhone, Blackberry, and other mobile devices at r.sephora.com. In-store shoppers can simply read the reviews written on any product, or use top-rated products as a guide, to select the right lipstick or blush.”

For retailers and manufacturers, MobileVoice extends the proven benefits of a Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews implementation into the offline channel. MobileVoice clients gain sales by improving customer satisfaction, increasing brand authority, and further leveraging their word of mouth investment. They can also offset some of the most significant challenges associated with in-store merchandising, including the limited opportunity to message product information beyond the package, a potentially overwhelming multitude of product choices, and the perception of store reps as biased or commission-driven.

“Last year, almost 50,000 consumers reviewed TurboTax products with an average rating of 4.7 stars through Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews. MobileVoice puts the collective power of those customer reviews right into the store, and into the hands of people as they are shopping for tax software,” said Kerrie Foss, Senior Marketing Manager with Intuit. “We know that recommendations from ‘people like me’ influence a consumer’s purchase decision.” Intuit is making TurboTax reviews available at m.turbotax.com.

The MobileVoice Opportunity

US mobile adoption has surpassed 75% and more than 83% of cell phone users take their phones with them wherever they ago. In addition, adoption of smart phones and iPhones is accelerating at a breakneck pace and more than 140 million U.S. consumers will be paying for mobile broadband services in 2013 -- up from 46 million in 2008. (Parks Associates, 2009).

MobileVoice builds on the proven influence of online ratings and reviews by extending them to this hot new channel. Already, almost two-thirds (62%) of consumers read consumer-written product reviews on the Internet (Deloitte & Touche, 2007), and a recent Nielsen survey said that 81% of 2008 online holiday shoppers read reviews. 44% cited customer reviews as one of the primary reasons they bought from a retailer – either online or offline (Foresee, 2007). In addition, consumers are 2.5 times more strongly influenced by customer reviews than a salesperson’s advice (Rubicon Group, 2008), making the ability to access product reviews in the store extremely valuable to both consumers and retailers rather than forcing them to leave the store to find the information.

“MobileVoice represents the new ability to access credible word of mouth on products and services from any location,” said Sam Decker, CMO of Bazaarvoice. “Now, there is a chorus of voices to share their experiences on any product that you pick up and look at. This is great news for shoppers – and great news for retailers who need to drive sales in a tough climate by leveraging the content that matters to shoppers instead of increasing marketing or ad spend.”

MobileVoice Features and Benefits

MobileVoice provides meaningful access to product-related content that helps shoppers pick out the right product in a crowded aisle. With MobileVoice, all reviews posted at a Bazaarvoice client’s website are automatically displayed on a mobile-optimized site hosted at m.clientname.com. Shoppers who visit the mobile site can browse product categories, search by keyword, or look up reviews by SKU number. MobileVoice displays top-rated product pages for every category, as well as product and review pages for every reviewed item. MobileVoice features a fast load time (each page is designed to be less than 10KB) and mobile-specific analytics. MobileVoice does not include a product purchase option at this time.

Availability

MobileVoice is immediately available to all Bazaarvoice clients. For more information, visit http://www.bazaarvoice.co.uk/mobileVoice.html.