Archive for the ‘eCommerce’ Category

Word of Mouth, eCommerce

Deborah de Freitas New video: transparency is “GOOD”

March 8th, 2010 by Deborah de Freitas Director, Marketing Communications

A colleague forwarded me this enjoyable little video from GOOD magazine the other day. In addition to some visually entertaining infographics, the video, titled “Transparency: Modern Retail,” is brimming with compelling stats on the ever-growing importance of UGC in online retail.

YouTube Preview Image

A few highlights:

  • “Among people who planned to post reviews of their online shopping experience, 88% said the review would be positive.” At Bazaarvoice we call this the “J-curve.” Across all of our clients (even internationally) customer reviews are overwhelmingly positive.
  • “Online social network users are three times more likely to trust their peers’ opinions over advertising.” Capitalizing on this trust is key. With features like Facebook Connect, it’s now possible for shoppers to find out what their friends are saying about products. TurboTax’s “Friends Like You” feature not only allows shoppers to filter reviews by personal aspects like “bought a home” or “had a baby,” but also allows them to find reviews submitted by their connections on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
  • “The highest performing businesses use customer insights in 80% of sales and merchandising.” We’ve seen clients infuse UGC into all of their multichannel marketing and advertising efforts with great success, from email to in-store, mobile and even paid search.
  • “The 2009 holiday season set a new record: 79% of online shoppers were satisfied customers.” UGC not only helps customers find the right products for them, it also helps to set realistic expectations. Together, these two benefits lead to more satisfied customers, fewer customer support contacts, and decreased product returns.

These are just a few of the great stats in the video, pulled together by eMarketer, BIGresearch, and the NRF, among others. For more social commerce stats, check out our Stats page.

Ratings & Reviews, eCommerce

Sam Decker Luxury getting social

January 12th, 2010 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

Richard MarcusRichard Marcus worked at Neiman Marcus from his teenage years until 1988, the last ten years of which he served as CEO and Chairman. Upon leaving Neiman Marcus, he began an exploration of how the Internet would change the relationships between retailers and their customers, vendors and employees.

I sat down with Richard to discuss luxury retail, and how he’s hoping more luxury brands embrace social media in 2010.

Is luxury behind in online technology compared to other retailers, and if so, what will change their trajectory?

Hard to say… there are some luxury sites that have some pretty cool online shopping experiences and others that are focused on the aura of the brand. Great storytelling is lacking online. And some luxury retailers are reluctant to engage their customers in meaningful feedback. Continuing down that path is a mistake.

How do people shop differently for luxury items than they shop for everyday items?

I have a problem with the word “luxury.” What does it mean: a brand associated with high prices? Good design and quality manufacture? Something that is limited and scarce? In many peoples’ minds, I suspect it is synonymous with “the best.” Others may think of luxury as a desirable object or experience that is only occasionally within reach. How people shop for what they believe is luxury will depend on whether it is aspirational, and the standard by which they make many purchase decisions.

What has been the biggest change in retail in your lifetime, and how did it change things?

Lower tariffs on imported goods and the Internet. The first opened up the world of sourcing and the second has changed the ways companies speak to their customers, vendors, employees and stakeholders.

In your years of retail experience, have consumers/shoppers changed? If so, how?

The old saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same” remains a useful reminder. Notwithstanding what some officials would have us believe, shopping isn’t the most important thing in life and customers want value (quality consistent with price), choices, and service consistent with the particular purchase moment (different service is required for a quick purchase of socks versus a new suit), and an experience that is enjoyable if not memorable. The good thing about the Internet is that you don’t encounter a salesperson’s bad breath.

What’s been the biggest change at Neiman Marcus since its inception?

Clearly, the size of the business has changed dramatically since the first store was built in downtown Dallas. But, perhaps the biggest change is that for 3/4 of its 100+ years the store was fervently engaged in educating customers about quality, style and fashion. As customers have more sources for all of this information, Neiman Marcus is less in the education business.

What do you see as the future of luxury retail?

There will always be people who want the best, and the luxury retailers who are great storytellers will prevail.

Luxury retailers, as well as brands, are late adopters to letting customers review their products. Should they be?

No. They need to understand it is happening whether they support it or not. I have hundreds of customer letters from my 30 years at Neiman Marcus that testify to our customers’ willingness to compliment and criticize. Compliments are fine, but criticism helps you improve your business. Today, the tools available for really useful interaction with customers should be embraced by all businesses.

***

We’re seeing more and more luxury brands embrace the customer voice online to drive social commerce. Keep an eye on this blog for more insights from niche brands.

Tags: ,
Ask & Answer, User-Generated Content, Word of Mouth, eCommerce

Sam Decker Holiday shoppers relying on word of mouth more than ever

December 10th, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

Thanksgiving Week 2009 was a record-breaker for Bazaarvoice clients. Collectively, shoppers consumed more than 1.9 billion pieces of user-generated content across hundreds of client sites, up 58% over 2008. And they read much more than just reviews. Use of consumer questions during this time was up 122% over 2008 numbers, and use of consumer answers increased 124%.

While research such as the recent Shop.org/BIGresearch study continue to show that customer reviews are consistently among the most important features on retail sites for consumers, brands that have added community Q&A and shared stories campaigns have seen that this content is increasingly impacting site traffic and sales.

The spike represents a continuing fundamental shift in the way consumers do research and make purchases. UGC usage peaked at 11pm on Thursday night, as users researched Black Friday deals online. And our network saw a 61% increase in UGC served on Cyber Monday than the previous year, serving 28,000 pieces of content per second during peak usage.

Our data matches the findings of a recent comScore study, which found that 28% of shoppers who have started buying holiday gifts were influenced by social media. Of these, 13% were influenced by a customer review, and 9% were influenced by a connection’s shared opinion on Facebook or Twitter.

Social commerce is changing shopping on a deep level, bringing interaction between customers into the purchase path to help shoppers and drive sales. Expect this trend to continue throughout this holiday season and into the new year.

Marketing Strategy, eCommerce

Sam Decker Webcast: 120+ CMOs have spoken – a look ahead at Social in 2010

December 1st, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

No doubt: social media will dominate in 2010. So how do CMOs link social marketing with real, bottom-line results? 120+ CMOs shared their biggest challenges, plans, and expectations for social marketing in a recent survey by The CMO Club and Bazaarvoice.

In short, CMOs will spend more on social media, and they expect a direct impact on revenues. So how do they plan to get there?

Find out as we quiz a panel of top CMOs at our upcoming webcast.

Webcast: 120+ CMOs have spoken – a look ahead at Social in 2010
December 17, 1:00 – 2:00 pm CST

Hurry; space is limited to the first 500 guests. Reserve your spot now.

Hear a panel of top CMOs share their views on:

  • Plans to blend social with commerce in 2010
  • Prioritizing the quality of social interactions over sheer quantity
  • Measuring social media’s direct impact on business metrics

Register Now

Tags:
Ratings & Reviews, User-Generated Content, eCommerce

Sam Decker Trendwatch Report: “Reviews are the New Advertising”

September 3rd, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

“Think ‘transparency’ is an established, maturing theme? You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Reviewing is the new advertisingThat was the opening of the latest Trendwatching briefing, titled “Transparency Triumph: Reviews are the New Advertising.” Obviously this report got our attention… plus Bazaarvoice and our clients were mentioned 5 times in the report, to our delight!

Trendwatching is viewed by 160,000 marketing professionals across 180 countries. I’ve paid close attention to this report for years, as their trends are always backed up by real-world examples that show how they reached their conclusions.

Trendwatching has covered the “consumers-are-empowered-and-transparency-rules-so-companies-are-opening-up” topic for a while. But this one brings it home because these are trends we experience as ‘consumers’ (lacking a better word), and macro trends any executive should understand.

We live and breathe this every day. When we started the company we pondered, we knew that reviews (and more broadly, user generated content) would rule the marketing landscape. We have asserted that the brands that win are the ones whose UGC is higher volume (word of mouth), better quality, and more amplified. Great UGC isn’t something you can buy (don’t ever pay for reviews). It is something you have to INVITE and facilitate. It starts now, and the sooner you start, the higher the net present value of your new marketing strategy.

We’ve compiled some cliffnotes on the report, below.  These notes are just the tip of the iceberg – the report has a wealth of real-world examples illustrating these points. I strongly recommend you share this report with your executive team.

  • We have more choices than ever (paradox of choice), and therefore more need for trusted advice. This “forever need” is now being met through user-generated content. As Nielsen reported, 70% of people trust online opinions from unknown users.
  • Businesses must accept it: reviewing is the new advertising. Consumer decision-making process has shifted to a new, powerful P2P arena.
  • There are 1.6billion people online today, and the next billion are on the horizon. For the future web population, contributing and sharing is a given, and reviews will be a way of life forever.
  • Consumers are increasingly enticed to review and share. Services like Bazaarvoice’s ShoutIT and Social Network Accelerators lets users share their reviews through FB, Twitter, and other social media.
  • Reviews form a cycle of trust and contribution.  As more reviews are submitted, the quantity neutralizes fake reviews.  Reviews become more trusted, and therefore utilized more often, encouraging even more submission of reviews.  And the cycle continues.

Trends to watch

  • Real-time reviews by location through mobile will influence offline shopping.Everything reviewed – reviews will infiltrate every industry and vertical, from retail and manufacturing to financial services and pharmaceuticals.
  • Real time reviews – sheer quantity of reviews will lead to daily or even hourly reviews for every product, service, and topic. Increased connectivity through netbooks and mobile will lead to real-time reviewing. Text, picture & video reviews will become increasingly available as they happen.
  • Reviews by location – increased availability of information relevant to location available through mobile.
  • Reviewer relevancy – profiles finding reviewers “like me” help shoppers discover the best products for their needs.
  • Right of Reply – brands should respond to reviews, even when they’re not on their own site. The easiest way to get Right of Reply is to ask for reviews on your own site. Guaranteed opportunity to openly and publicly react to negative reviews that would have cropped up elsewhere outside your control.
  • Transparency Triumph – bad reviews are not the problem, they’re a symptom. There’s always an opportunity to solve the issue and delight an unhappy customer.

We couldn’t agree more. Plug Warning: There’s a lot of Bazaarvoice investment along these lines. To learn how we’re progressing in all of these areas, ask to see our roadmap.

Tags:
Community, Interviews, Marketing Strategy, eCommerce

Heather Brunner Early social media adopter Golfsmith talks about what’s next

August 26th, 2009 by Heather Brunner Chief Operations Officer

golfsmith_logo-convertedThis blog was guest-written by Sherrie Nguyen, Bazaarvoice Community Manager.

Golfsmith, a leading manufacturer and provider of golf and tennis gear, was one of Bazaarvoice’s first clients, and started Tweeting (@golfsmithHQ) and set up a Facebook fan page in spring 2009. Like a lot of retailers, Golfsmith is new to social media, but they’re not new to listening to their customers – the company celebrated their 40th birthday in 2007.

Right now, they’re trying to measure the impact of Facebook and Twitter for their business, and it’s an experiment at this point. According to Eric Mahlstadt, Senior Online Store Manager, and Dillon Smith, Search & Marketing Analyst, they currently have more than 1,200 Twitter followers and almost 7,000 Facebook fans. They track click-throughs from these pages to their site, follow responses to posts and numbers of followers, and are pleased with their results thus far. And it’s part of their corporate strategy of listening to their customers.

“It’s very important to us to walk the line between being engaged and being obtrusive,” said Eric. “The value right now to us as a retailer is not as much about what kind of people these are, but what kinds of experiences they’re having. We’re interested in providing as many choices and platforms as possible for our customers to share thoughts and ideas and provide input. The struggle then becomes having enough engaged ears to hear all the feedback and to be nimble enough to act on that feedback.”

So, for Golfsmith, the next step involves tying these conversations to real commerce. As an early adopter of our new Social Network Accelerators, they’ll have the opportunity to use Twitter and Facebook to directly impact sales conversion on their site. It starts with increasing participation.

“With Social Network Accelerators, we expect to start seeing crossover/cross-pollination to and from customer reviews and Q&A and our Facebook and Twitter pages,” said Dillon. “This comes with using these accelerators to drive more participation with Golfsmith, no matter how our Guests want to reach out to us, then aggregating these reviews and answers to our product pages, to have a direct impact on sales. It’s important to Golfsmith to listen to our Guests, over any channel they choose to use to communicate with us, and interact with them as much as possible. The more we hear from our Guests, the better we can work to improve our customer experience.”

While Golfsmith is innovating with Social Network Accelerators to help drive participation, there’s even more to come. Working with Bazaarvoice can help Golfsmith continue to innovate to help them get the most from social profile information – showing Facebook friends on the Golfsmith site – and distribution – allowing consumers to submit content directly from their social networks.

“As we learn more and continue to strengthen our communication with our Guests, we plan to work to increase the ease of sharing information, opinions and media to and from our Guests,” said Dillon. “We aim to provide social commerce applications and social networking in the format that our Guests would most like to use.”

Tags: , ,
Ask & Answer, Bazaarvoice Stories, Ratings & Reviews, eCommerce

Mike Svatek Introducing Social Network Accelerators from Bazaarvoice

August 10th, 2009 by Mike Svatek Chief Product Officer

Follow us on TwitterTwitter and Facebook get all the headlines and are clearly great ways to connect, but how do they drive real results for business? At Bazaarvoice, we’re all about results, so we’re creating real ways for companies to use social networks to fuel social commerce.

Our new Social Network Accelerator program, announced today, gives brands a blueprint for plugging into social networks in the right way to drive sales. It all starts with engaging users through social commerce applications such as Ratings & Reviews, Ask & Answer, and Stories – and gives brands an integrated strategy to tap into social networks for better distribution, profile information and participation.

Become our fan on FacebookDistribution: With Facebook Connect, for example, customers can automatically publish reviews, answers and stories directly to Facebook to share their opinions with their network of friends. Unlike other solutions on the market, we give our customers control of the message. They decide when and if the content should post to social networks, ensuring the content is moderated and safe for the brand.

Profiles: Clients that integrate with Facebook Connect can let their customers automatically see opinions of their Facebook friends, and find out what products they liked best. This will help drive sales and increase engagement with the site.

Participation: There’s also an opportunity for customers to submit reviews, answers, and stories via Twitter or Facebook and automatically funnel back to a site, directly to the product and category pages, where they can directly influence sales, increase search, and more.

In addition to the superior technology of our Accelerator program, we’ll also provide recommendations and best practices through our Community Managers. As part of a broader ecosystem, we recognize that our Radius partners will also play a key role in maximizing Social Network Accelerator results for our clients.

This all adds up to help companies broaden their reach, increase engagement with customers, and increase their intelligence about their customers as a whole. And – finally – companies can use Facebook and Twitter to drive real, measurable results. These are just a few ways we’re innovating to drive value throughout all of social.

Tags: , ,
Social Commerce Summit, eCommerce

Sam Decker Webinar: Can Social Media Help your Business?

July 21st, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

Is your social commerce strategy ready for a shot in the arm? We’re excited to bring you the first installment in our complimentary webinar series previewing the 2010 Social Commerce Summit. Each of the four webinars will focus on applying winning social commerce practices to your own brand, brought to you by industry thought leaders and featuring real world examples.

As brands struggle to understand how to put the social commerce phenomenon to work for them, one question is on everyone’s mind: What tools will help my company drive business results?

Speakers

The webinar will feature Summit speaker Mitch Joel, President of Twist Image and “Rock Star of Digital Marketing,” plus Bazaarvoice’s own Mike Svatek, VP of Product Strategy. Together they’ll explain:

•    How to select the right social tools for your marketing strategy
•    How to interact in communities and conversations to drive real results for your business
•    What’s next in social commerce – a look inside future products and services

Details and Registration

Thursday, July 30, 2009
1pm – 2pm, CST

Click here to register now. All attendees will be entered to win complimentary registration to the Social Commerce Summit, and a few other surprises along the way!

You can direct any questions about the Social Commerce Summit and the webinar series to summit@bazaarvoice.com. Stay tuned to our blog for details on upcoming webinars in this series in October, January, and April.

Click here to register now

Tags: ,
Ratings & Reviews, User-Generated Content, eCommerce

Sam Decker Nielsen study finds that 70% of people trust online recommendations from unknown users

July 14th, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

70% of consumers trust online opinions of unknown users.

The numbers don’t lie: shoppers online trust the opinions of other shoppers like them.

Second only to recommendations from people known, opinions posted online are the most valued information source by consumers. According to the new Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, 70% of people trust recommendations from unknown users online, up 9% from 2007.

Jonathan Carson, president of online, international at Nielsen Co., attributes this increasing trust in online recommendations from strangers to the “explosion” of available user-generated content in the past few years. “… Consumers’ reliance on word of mouth in the decision-making process, either from people they know or online consumers they don’t, has increased significantly,” Carson says.

And trust in online recommendations is even higher in some segments. A recent study from BabyCenter, LLC found that 73% of mothers online trust the information they find on products and brands through online communities focused on their interests.

Trust in traditional forms of advertising increased as well, the study shows. Trust in brand websites increased 10% over 2007 to 70%. Carson asserts that this increase in trust could be due to the swell in available consumer-generated media (CGM) as well. “… It’s possible that the CGM revolution has forced advertisers to use a more realistic form of messaging that is grounded in the experience of consumers rather than the lofty ideals of the advertisers,” he says.

This comes as no surprise to Bazaarvoice; our clients know that the mere presence of user-generated content on brand sites builds trust in the brand and drives sales, even for products without reviews.

As the presence of online UGC continually grows, online consumers will become increasingly dependent on feedback from shoppers like them in their purchase decisions. Are you giving your customers the information they need to make a purchase?

Tags: , , ,
Marketing Strategy, Partners, eCommerce

Sam Decker Econsultancy’s take on social commerce trends

July 10th, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

This blog post is guest-written by Jacob Salamon, Bazaarvoice’s European Marketing Manager. lieb_rebecca_2008

This is the final post in our three-part blog series with Rebecca Lieb, Econsultancy’s Vice President of North America. Econsultancy, the UK’s leading source of insight on digital marketing and e-commerce, has been a partner and resource to Bazaarvoice in the UK for over two years and is now launching its US office in New York City. Here, Rebecca shares her thoughts on research and e-commerce trends. Read the first post on growing the new US office and the second post on monetizing Twitter and social media.

Q: What are some of the smartest retailers doing right now to stave off effects of the economy?

A: First and foremost, they’re selling online. E-commerce is suffering as a channel along with the rest of the economy, but it’s not suffering to the extent that offline retail is. They’re getting smarter about search, both SEO and SEM, as well as vertical and local search, and many are having great success with online coupons, which have really taken off in tough times. They’re also building social media components into their efforts, both on-site and off. We’re talking customer reviews, of course, but also using tools like Twitter, blogs, photo-sharing and more to encourage users to do no small part of the online marketing lifting for them.

Q: What are some trends you’ve identified, specifically with regard to social commerce?  As customer reviews are now commonplace, what is Econsultancy’s view on the future of social commerce?

A: People are social by nature, and commerce is an everyday activity. Wikipedia defines social commerce as a type of e-commerce in which “active participation of customers and their personal relationships are at the forefront.” This is nothing new — commerce and social interaction have commingled since the days of the agora. Recommendations, reviews, lists, and other forms of sharing and participating in shopping and commerce are utterly inherent to human nature. Online tools enable extending these very natural impulses and proclivities into the realm of e-commerce. People have always gone shopping, at least in part, to be social.

Q: We advocate embracing customer conversations on your site – to drive social interactions within the purchase path.  How else do you see brands engaging in social initiatives to drive measurable sales?

A: Twitter is the channel most in the news these days. Dell recently attributed over $3 million in sales — $3 million! — to Twitter-generated sales. Certainly tech companies have jumped on that bandwagon, but so have United Airlines, which is offering Twitter-only deals, and Starbucks, which is giving away gift cards in the channel.

I’m also seeing companies use Facebook to generate contests and user-generated content, not to mention bases of fans and loyal supporters. Certainly this drives sales and affinity at least indirectly.

PR is another important tool in social channels. Grasshopper recently sent 5,000 chocolate-covered grasshoppers to influential bloggers, generating mountains of social media coverage. Automotive companies are doing the same, offering loaner vehicles to influentials in exchange for coverage. These initiatives, when properly executed, can generate sales, if not at least consideration — and have the potential of going really viral.

Really, ways to increase sales in social channels are limited only by imagination and proper execution — neither of which is to be taken lightly. This stuff can be hard. But the rewards can make the effort worthwhile, as can the minimal impact on marketing budgets.

Tags: , ,
« Older Entries