As we celebrate this milestone, we are also close to celebrating our 5-year anniversary (Brant and I founded Bazaarvoice on May 2, 2005). With 80% of consumers now looking for customer reviews, it is hard to appreciate now just how few U.S. retailers offered customer reviews on their websites in May of 2005. Would you believe only four? Today we serve more than 50 of the top 100 U.S. retailers, more than 25 of the top 50 U.K. retailers, and similar numbers in Australia, France, and Germany. And we serve many clients outside of retail, from health care to manufacturing to financial services. We have rapidly grown into a company of 750 clients and 515 employees globally, operating across 25 international languages. I do not take our success for granted one bit and I'm very proud of and thankful for our partnerships with our clients. I'm also proud of the culture we have created here. We spend the majority of our waking time at work, and we strive to make that time as fun and meaningful as possible. Our passionate culture impacts the way we serve our clients and also give back to the community.

As I look back to my first Bazaarblog post, I think back to my analytical roots, spending seven years building Coremetrics, and reflect on how much we have achieved on the analytical front at Bazaarvoice. The "hidden" impact of 100 billion impressions is how we are writing the new marketing and merchandising textbook together with our clients. In a world of increasingly fragmented media, a dramatic shift to time spent in the online channel vs. other channels, and a rise in the prominence of the voice of the customer, the "hidden" impact is felt in how marketers and merchandisers adopt new practices based on user-generated content. And, to be totally frank, I underestimated the impact in how Bazaarvoice would change the world in this way. The Bazaarvoice School of C2C Marketing Seal to the left is from our first Social Commerce Summit in 2008, which quickly sold-out and was a magical event, full of clients speaking about writing the new textbook together (our fifth Summit is coming up in Austin April 19-21 and is almost sold-out already).

So this blog is dedicated to some of the most dramatic changes I have seen on the path to 100 billion. Here is a look back on just a few of them:

• Oriental Trading's CEO, Sam Taylor, leads a radical organizational change to reform merchandising based on user-generated content and wins the prestigious Gartner Group Customer Experience award (read the Bazaarblog post on the award, and another on specifics).
• The customer reviewer becomes the spotlight for campaigns (Free People example, and Urban Outfitters too). At that time, I believe this was an industry first. With 80% of reviews usually coming from the top 20% of your customers by lifetime value, this campaign technique will be adopted rapidly.
• Sephora uses in-store signs to get customers to read reviews via their mobile devices, and trains in-store associates to promote it. [Note: the sold-out Shop.org (NRF) and RAMA Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference in San Francisco this week will feature Julie Bornstein of Sephora - read her interview by NRF on the ROI of social media, a special Mobile Boot Camp, and me moderating a panel of rockstar venture capitalists.] Related to Sephora, Intuit's TurboTax did the same with their in-store displays, and made an impact at every Best Buy, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, and Walmart store in the U.S.
• The broad multichannel marketing implications of user-generated content, from print, to TV, to online. I'll never forget the first time this reviews were promoted on in-store receipts and by whom.
• The transformation of channel advertising with BrandVoice and BrandAnswers. With 80% of consumers searching for reviews, the implications for channel advertising are huge and user-generated content in the channel is quickly becoming a business imperative for a supplier. And it isn't just UGC. BrandAnswers and Ask & Answer now bring in supplier-generated content as well as retailer-generated content to answer user-generated content in the form of product pre-sell questions.
• TurboTax partners with us to launch the "Friendalyzer", where you can see TurboTax reviews written by your friends on social networks, including Facebook (which now has 400 million users). Seth Greenberg of Intuit will be presenting the great results on this live at our Social Commerce Summit this April 19-21 in Austin. The implication for technologies like Facebook Connect are profound for user-generated content at large and we are in Inning One for these innovations.

It has been an amazing 4 years, 10 months, and I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of our clients, employees, partners, investors, and advisors. We promise not to take our success for granted, and we are ramping up R&D and Client Services like never before. This quarter alone, we are attempting to hire at least 80 people, but our very high bar makes this difficult indeed (we have 14 full-time recruiters working in our office at Bazaarvoice today and there is nothing more important for our culture than its foundation: our people). If you know of someone that may be interested in joining us, see the many jobs available here and note our referral incentives.

The next 100 billion impression milestone will no doubt be achieved much faster than the first, but I expect our impact to be no less profound than with the first (see our many case studies, webinars, or whitepapers for more). Thank you, thank you, and thank you again for your support. And stay tuned to this blog as we continue this exciting journey. As I said in my first-ever blog post on Feb. 3rd, 2006 (and remains just as true today):

Welcome to the age of customer empowerment in our hyper-connected global village! We look forward to being your tour guide in this wild, wild ride.

Reviews now have an even bigger impact on search results.

On Tuesday, May 12, Google introduced Rich Snippets, a new feature that allows Google to display product rating, review count, and actual review text direct in Google search results.

We already know reviews have a positive impact on search, and this further underscores the need for reviews on any and all websites that want to attract people researching or buying products or services. Organizations without reviews will be left even further behind in the search game.

And it’s great news for Bazaarvoice clients – this free feature will automatically be turned on for all 525+ brand sites Bazaarvoice powers, driving traffic to more than 2 million pages.

We already know that reviews on sites enhance the customer experience and drive sales. Now, Rich Snippets amps up the impact reviews will have on natural search results. Searchers – especially those who are ready to buy – won’t be able to ignore these review snapshots.

Google’s own experiments have shown that users find the new data valuable — if they see useful and relevant information from the page, they are more likely to click through. And we already know customers are looking specifically for product reviews – December 2008 Nielson research found that 81% of shoppers seek reviews.

Maximizing results with Rich Snippets

Review volume matters. Google’s Rich Snippets will show a summary of review information, and pages with more reviews will appear more favorable. In short, it’s important that all products are reviewed – and reviewed a lot.  Bazaarvoice Community Managers, who act as an extension of their clients’ marketing teams, constantly gather and share best practices for driving new volume and engagement, so our clients’ sites rank well.

Syndicate manufacturer reviews to retailers to boost traffic. Retailers need more reviews, and today manufacturers can help build this volume through content syndication. BrandVoice – Bazaarvoice’s product that enables manufacturers to capture reviews on their own sites, then syndicate them to retailer sites – allows the manufacturer to directly, positively impact search results for its key retailers.

Grab the long tail of search. Searchers are getting more specific: according to Avinash Kaushik, Google’s Analytics Evangelist, the average search string has increased 25% since 2008. And the more specific the search, the closer the searcher is to buying. For example, a search for “Nissan Sedan,” may be a search for generic information; however, a search for “2009 Blue Nissan Sentra SE Austin,” is an indication that the searcher knows what he wants and is looking to buy.

More and more, user-generated content drives the way shoppers search, and Rich Snippets is one more way Bazaarvoice clients can benefit from reviews on their site. Here is an example of how content powered by Rich Snippets could be displayed.

BrandVoice is taking off in a big way with manufacturers, and we’re pleased to see some great results.

We recently turned “on” BrandVoice for Dell, Epson, and Kingston on a major consumer electronics website and on OfficeDepot.com. These manufacturers had been gathering their own product reviews on their sites for several months; however, product reviews had been average on the retailer sites.

As soon as we started syndicating reviews via BrandVoice to retailer sites, review volumes on these sites dramatically increased for these products, with Dell seeing a 34X increase in number of reviews, going from about 32 reviews per product up to more than 1100 review per product.

In every case, BrandVoice helped each brand show way more reviews per product versus other competitive products in the product category. Epson products, for example, had 33X more reviews than other products in their category. Kingston now shows 7X more reviews than their competitors, and Dell product reviews show up 55 times more than other reviews in their categories, on average.

This online visibility increases product visibility on a retailer’s site. Just like brands fight for “shelf space” and placement within a store, product reviews can help products stand out more to research-driven consumers. Consumers trust products that have customer reviews, and higher review volumes lead to higher sales conversions.

If you’re a manufacturer capturing product reviews on your site, ask your online retailers how you can syndicate your reviews to their sites. And if you don’t yet capture reviews on the products you create, what are you waiting for?

Read more about how BrandVoice drives review volume increases, and also read how Kingston doubled its conversion with BrandVoice at OfficeDepot.com.

Attendees will hear all about the amazing results manufacturers and retailers have seen with BrandVoice by way of increased review volume and sales metrics.
While we know that products with more customer reviews sell better, just 15% of products are reviewed on retailer sites, on average. BrandVoice enables manufacturers to collect UGC on their sites, then syndicate it to retailers, who get this content for free. When Kingston syndicated reviews to OfficeDepot.com, Kingston reviews increased tenfold and conversion for reviewed products doubled. It’s a win-win.

Our thanks go to the Shop.org retailers, who selected us as one of the winners. We look forward to seeing you all at the Forum!

It was a great opportunity to meet with our consumer electronic clients and hear about how they are using the voice of the customer to drive their business. One of the most exciting conversations was with Patrick Beck, a Marketing Manager for Altec Lansing. Altec Lansing is an industry leader in the design, manufacture, marketing, and support of advanced audio solutions for PCs and related technologies.

Altec Lansing recently launched the Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews service and most importantly are breathing customer oxygen (as Sam Decker would say) into the organization. This was prominently displayed as part of the Altec Lansing future product exhibit room where they bring buyers and partners in to show them the next generation technology coming out of the company. Here are a few pictures from the room (our lips are sealed on what great new things will be coming to market).
 
 
We talked to Patrick about their program and the genesis behind these display ads. He said that at Altec it is “important for us to a have an open dialogue with the marketplace.” This type of conversation is supported from all parts of the organization. One group that is already benefitting is Product Development. Recently they had a product that was being rated very highly; however, when they analyzed the review content they found some great insight. Customers loved everything about the product except for the fact that it attracted fingerprints. The 24×7 focus group created by Ratings & Reviews enables Altec and other companies to learn from their customers in real time.

We also discussed feedback from outside the organization. Customers are clearly supportive of the idea judging by the content already shared. Patrick said their “retailers are really behind the idea as well.” Not only will it help Altec learn about the needs of their customers it also provides them invaluable content to share with their online retail counterparts.

Here is an example where Altec is sharing review content on Best Buy. This type of content syndication helps retailers fill gaps in their review base and most importantly provides a complete picture for customers so they can make an informed product decision.

From a Social Commerce perspective, IBM is using the Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews solution to help small and medium businesses (SMBs) connect with one another and learn from their collective experiences.  The information shared will help streamline the purchase process for these organizations and assist in matching the right solution for that organization’s needs.  In addition, Bazaarvoice Ask & Answer will enable community participants to pose product- and solution-specific questions.  This dialogue will fill key information gaps, helping not only the person writing the question but everyone who follows to make better buying decisions

The opportunity for IBM is significant.  By tapping into the SMB community through social commerce, everyone in the ecosystem wins.  It serves as another case study in how businesses selling to other businesses (B2B) can benefit from user-generated content. Remember that at the end of the day we are all consumers, whether we are buying new HDTVs for our homes or buying CRM systems for our small businesses.  To build confidence in purchase decisions, we will turn to “people like us” who have had similar experiences.  In fact, 66% of IT professionals leverage user-generated content for purchase decisions and 75% say this content has made their lives more efficient (IT Execs: Social Media Most Trusted Source for Purchasing Decisions, 2007).

Nancy Kho (eContent Magazine, 2008) said “The irony is that social media tools, properly designed and deployed, may actually bring a greater payoff to B2B users than in the B2C environment. The reason? Tools that enable faster and more personalized interactions between customer and vendor can enhance corporate credibility and deepen relationships. Those are all- important factors in B2B sales decisions, which tend to have a higher dollar value and longer-term impact than consumer sales.”

We applaud IBM for their innovation in this space and look forward to celebrating the success of the Blue Business Platform.

Now Chris and Wired strike again with a preview of his new book, "Free", which is due in 2009.  The cover article of this month's Wired is "Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business".  If you want to read now what everyone will be talking about next year, read this article now.  It isn't worth me summarizing here – trust me, it's worth your 15 minutes to read the entire article by clicking the link above.

Free is a very powerful word-of-mouth driver, and Bazaarvoice has certainly placed a lot of "bets" in this area.  Currently, the following Bazaarvoice solutions are free (to at least one stakeholder):

• ShoutIt!: Share your review on Facebook, digg, and Del.icio.us – free to clients and users; creates a form of advertising without the taint of being advertising
• SyndicateVoice: free for shopping comparison portal partners, free for new clients for a period of time; creates a form of advertising without the taint of being advertising
• BrandVoice: free high-converting user-generated content for clients from the customers of their manufacturing partners; leverages the power of channel marketing, which has existed since the dawn of vendors selling through the retail channel
• Ratings & Reviews, Ask & Answer, Stories: free for users; gives them the context they need to make a purchase decision as well as connect with other customers; consumers used to pay for this type of content from people like "Consumer Reports", or by physically driving to a store to speak to an in-store sales person who may or may not have the information and context that they need

I look forward to seeing how Chris's new book shapes up, and I have no doubt that it will be impactful.  As he so eloquently describes in this article, free already surrounds us due to near free transistors and bandwidth.  As more businesses transform to be information-based, this trend will radically accelerate.

How are you using the power of free in your business?

While the highly sought after "Influentials" segment garners much of the focus of word of mouth marketers, Forrester's findings provide ammunition for more broadly focused approaches to enabling and capturing word of mouth.  Rather than thinking in campaign terms, brands should be seriously evaluating tools and technologies that can widely capture consumer opinions, enable deep analysis of what these opinions reveal about brand strengths and weaknesses, and facilitate the distribution of word of mouth to those who actively seek it, from the brand directly or from other sources.  

Fortunately, marketing spending trends suggest that this is in fact happening.  The eMarketer brief also states that spending on word of mouth marketing totaled $1 billion in 2006.  Small by traditional marketing standards but quickly growing, with 2006 spending representing a 36% increase over 2005.