The following is an interview with Shannon Glass, Director of Internet Operations, for Limited Brands, parent company for Bath & Body Works as well as Victoria's Secret, C.O. Bigelow, Henri Bendel, La Senza, and The White Barn Candle Co.:

Why did you add reviews to the Bath and Body Works web site?

Adding reviews functionality was a great way to connect to our customers, and it’s a perfect medium for customers to give direct feedback on our products. From a business perspective it will help us with merchandising and marketing strategies. We learn what products customers want to see in the store, what we can do to improve products, and how to market them better. We’ve already tested two emails with top rated products which have turned in great results!

Why did you choose Bazaarvoice over GSI Commerce’s standard reviews solution?

There were several reasons.

First, Bazaarvoice had a robust turnkey solution. The hosting, moderation, workbench administration, reporting, and support model met or exceeded our expectations and standards. Second, our incentives were aligned.

Bazaarvoice’s business model meant their service, technology and roadmap were aligned to optimize our total ROI.

Third, it was (relatively) easy to deploy. GSI learned a lot with our implementation, and subsequent clients should be easier. Despite being first GSI client to implement Bazaarvoice, it was relatively easy to deploy.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we believe in Bazaarvoice’s best practices, roadmap, vision and leadership. Bazaarvoice is an extension of our team, and will be a collaborative partner for the operations and product for our social commerce strategy. 

How would you describe your implementation experience coordinating with Bazaarvoice and your platform vender GSI?

Bazaarvoice has built a very smart and easy to integrate offering. After the appropriate kick-off meetings, we were able to implement and have live with GSI within 8 weeks. During the implementation process, Bazaarvoice was quick to answer any questions, exceeded support expectations and found a solution to any potential hurdle.

How would you rate your experience with Bazaarvoice?

5 Stars. They are very collaborative, quick to respond and simply provide an easy to integrate and manage offering.
 

Do you anticipate leveraging other Bazaarvoice products in the near future?

Our current focus is on the Ratings & Reviews with supporting dashboard reporting. We would like to take the appropriate time to really maximize this new feature and integrate it into the entire business before moving on to Ask & Answer.
 

What area of your business do you feel has most benefited from the implementation of Ratings & Reviews?

Truth be told, the entire brand. We have found our reviewers are a mix of retail and online shoppers providing the business with insights to potential line extensions and new marketing opportunities. The Direct business is most likely to see the first impact on sales with increased product page conversion.
 

What do you feel is the most exciting way that you have been able to leverage Ratings & Reviews content in marketing activities?

We recently launched in email promoting Fit Flops(tm), a product that is relatively new the Bath & Body Works and our customers. We took this opportunity to share customer ratings and reviews to educate our customers on the benefits.  We saw a great click through and conversion rate and plan to use in the future.

Anything else to add?

The greatest thing about Bazaarvoice is we have been able to provide our customers with a voice. We have a very vocal and passionate customer and to be able to provide them with a venue to share their feedback, experiences and recommendations to other customers has been amazing.

The key finding is that US and UK shoppers have more trust and respect for Brands that enable product reviews. In fact, 8 out of 10 shoppers trust and respect brands more if they have authentic, user generated reviews on their site. So, not only do reviews help improve conversion, average order value, returns, satisfaction, natural search traffic, RSS feed click through, email revenue, and offline impact (ask us for any of these case studies)…they also improve brand perception! 

Another finding: US shoppers consider ratings and reviews to be the most useful eCommerce site feature (44 percent). Product comparison (15 percent), product navigation (12 percent), and privacy information (11 percent) followed in the distance. We knew this already from site surveys with PETCO and CompUSA, but it's always helpful to get another data point! We're sort of maniacal about data