Founded in 1932 and now offering more than 25,000 products, Oriental Trading Company is the nation’s leading direct marketer of value-priced party supplies, arts and crafts, toys and novelties. OTC has been recognized as one of the Top 50 Internet Retailers and one of the Top 50 Catalog Companies.

When the company implemented Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews at orientaltrading.com, they immediately saw the value of reviews – particularly negative reviews – and made strides to improve customer satisfaction.

Reviews lead to product revamp

With product reviews, quality issues come to light much sooner – long before OTC finds themselves sitting in excess inventory months after an item is introduced. When they see low-rated products, they take action.

Oriental Trading noticed low ratings – an average of two out of five stars – on its Inflatable Solar System. Intradepartmental teams worked together to correct the issues.

Their quality team worked with the manufacturer to improve the product. Working with the merchandising team, the copy writing department updated the product description and new images were uploaded to better set customer expectations for the product.

OTC then took the additional step of communicating with customers – directly in line with the reviews – to inform them that OTC heard their complaints and had upgraded the product.

This all happened quickly. OTC saw the first negative review on November 3, 2008, and had new sets available on December 23, 2008.

The very first review of the newly improved solar system was favorable and customers who purchased the product after the improvements rated this product, on average, four out of five stars.

Customer-generated content impacts all products

Improvements in the overall production process followed as a result of customer reviews. Today all products are more closely inspected against the production samples, and initial product design takes place with customer feedback at the forefront. OTC also responds to customer reviews to thank them for bringing issues to their attention, and lets reviewers know when they have taken action based on their feedback. In five months, customer reviews led to changes in approximately 700 products.

In addition, OTC sees a direct correlation between ratings and sales. Its highest-rated products convert at double the rate of average- or low-rated products.

The bottom line

By being attentive to customer reviews, creating an intra-departmental effort to act on feedback in the reviews, and communicating to their customers, OTC has enabled the voice of the consumer to help drive their business, across the organization. Embracing and acting on customer feedback shows OTC’s commitment to their 100% satisfaction guarantee.