French Connection introduces Rating & Reviews

French Connection, the premium fashion retailer, has implemented Bazaarvoice’s Social Commerce platform Rating and Reviews™ to enhance the online customer experience and reduce returns.

The new customer-centric strategy, which aims to build brand loyalty and trust, will encourage consumers to rate products and share written reviews with peers enabling them to make more informed purchases when shopping on the Internet.

Additionally, the insight gained from customer reviews will be used to inform how French Connection merchandises its products online helping it to refine product descriptions and how they’re presented so that items of clothing align better with customer expectations.

InStyle magazine’s deputy editor, Pat McNulty, has reviewed 70 products and her subsequent views were published online, marked with an Instyle tag, to start the seeding process. The retailer is set to launch a competition during August 2010 that will aim to capture customers’ views and opinions on its new lines.

French Connection has also launched a post-purchase email campaign that asks customers to come back and rate a product or leave a written review as part of the ongoing seeding process.

“Capitalising on customer enthusiasm can reveal many hidden truths and increase the likelihood of a customer buying online,” said Jennifer Roebuck, xxx at French Connection. “For example, in any given season we stock 12 different dress styles and each of those has a different fit. So a customer could find that a size eight works best in one style and a size 10 might be best in another.

“Unlike our high street stores, shoppers don’t have the opportunity to try on an item of clothing before they buy. So giving customers a chance to share those insights post purchase will help others to make a more informed purchase, help reduce the number of returns, and encourage brand loyalty.”