Bazaarvoice Leads the Market as #1 for Customer Reviews Among Internet Retailer 500

Bazaarvoice, a market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today announced that Bazaarvoice stands alone as the #1 provider of customer reviews for large and mid-sized retailers. According to the 2010 Internet Retailer 500 list, more retailers use Bazaarvoice (113) than in-house solutions (88), making 2010 the first year that a hosted solution has surpassed in-house options. The list places Bazaarvoice far ahead of any other hosted reviews solution with 80% more clients (113 vs. 62) and more than 3x the sales volumes of its nearest competitor. Overall, Bazaarvoice serves more retailers on the IR 500 than all hosted solutions combined (113 vs. 86).

“Bazaarvoice changed ecommerce forever, by putting the voice of the consumer first, and by making it a business win for etailers at the same time,” said Andy Sernovitz, author of "Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking" and a Bazaarvoice advisor. "The latest Internet Retailer ranking is another big proof point for Bazaarvoice’s growth and leadership.”

Bazaarvoice has served over 115 billion pieces of user-generated content and is celebrating its fifth anniversary this month with more than 800 brands using its integrated suite of six products in 25 languages and 36 countries. Companies using Bazaarvoice gain a proven and innovative way to market with their customers in the channels where they shop, creating authentic conversations that deliver tremendous consumer value, drive real business results, and power organizational transformation. Bazaarvoice has published more than 40 case studies, 550 Bazaarblog posts, and 30 webinars that prove out the ROI for social commerce.

“When Bazaarvoice was founded five years ago, only Amazon.com and a small handful of retail sites offered ratings and reviews,” said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. “Today reviews are engrained into consumer shopping behavior – in fact, more than 80% of customers now seek user-generated review content while shopping online. The 2010 Internet Retailer 500 list is another key milestone that speaks to the radical transformation of both shopping and marketing that is being driven by digital word of mouth. Our position as the leader in this rapidly growing category is a tremendous testament to the vision and commitment of our clients, employees, and partners.”

Bazaarvoice’s corporate culture of excellence and innovation is central to the success of its business and clients, and the company has maintained its unique approach as it has grown to over 550 employees worldwide, across 8 locations. Bazaarvoice’s culture and business was recently highlighted on CNN in their Building Up America series, and the company has been named a Best Place to Work by the Austin Business Journal for the past three years running. Most recently, the company concluded its third-annual U.S. Social Commerce Summit in Austin, which brought together hundreds of executives, authors, thought leaders, and social commerce stars for three days of learning, connections, networking, and fun. The next Summit will be held in London at the British Film Institute IMAX theater on October 6, 2010.

As a market leader, Bazaarvoice takes every opportunity to help retailers use ‘customer oxygen’ to build and transform their business. We are always focused on innovating in this space, whether that be sharing best practices with clients or launching new technology out of Bazaarvoice Labs that keep our clients on the cutting edge of social commerce,” said Sam Decker, CMO of Bazaarvoice. “Customer conversations are the most valuable and strategic asset a company can have, and retailers can trust us to make the most of these voices.”

About Internet Retailer

Published by Chicago-based Vertical Web Media LLC, Internet Retailer is a monthly national business magazine that is at the core of the leading retail information web site, an e-commerce conference and four directories that serve the retailing community. Internet Retailer’s 42,500 subscribers and 250,000 monthly web readers represent senior executives primarily from retail chains, independent stores, catalogs, virtual merchants and brand name manufacturers. Internet Retailer's circulation represents the largest multichannel readership base of any retailing magazine.