Brooks Running Australia boosts conversion by 52%

During the COVID-19 pandemic, as gyms locked their doors, running gained popularity worldwide. After all, it was the perfect activity for a pandemic-ridden world: It was accessible to everyone and made social distancing easy. All you needed was a pair of running shoes.

“With team sports and group activities restricted, running became the go-to activity for many during the lockdowns,” said Mark Nair, E-commerce and Digital Marketing Specialist at Texas Peak Group. “And the pandemic made e-commerce not just a choice, but the primary shopping avenue for many.”

Brooks AU, a leader in running shoes and apparel, faced the challenge of adapting to this sudden spike in demand and consumers’ new online shopping preferences. Texas Peak, the Australian distributor of Brooks Running, wanted to give shoppers the information they needed to make confident purchasing decisions and sustain heightened product interest post-pandemic. “We were looking to capitalize on that and knew we would need to do more once that tailwind had sort of dried off,” Nair said.

Brooks AU teamed up with Bazaarvoice to deploy its Ratings & Reviews solution. This enabled Brooks AU to gather customer reviews, showcase them on their website, and share them with retail partners. Brooks AU used Bazaarvoice’s Sweepstakes and loyalty program features to encourage customer reviews.
“We tie the reviews quite closely with our loyalty program,” Lydia Teh, Digital Marketing Manager at Texas Peak said. “Having reviews sit within the loyalty platform has driven membership and engagement within the program. Members definitely convert more.”

Nair had positive remarks about the Bazaarvoice integration. “We had a goal to improve the conversion rate, and integrating Bazaarvoice seemed like a positive step. The SEO benefits of having reviews on our website were also appealing.” He added, “The prospect of having organic listings with ratings was another attractive feature. Overall, these factors made the integration of Bazaarvoice a positive move for us.”

The results have been impressive. Brooks AU has seen a 52% uplift in conversion rates when shoppers engage with reviews, a 48% increase in revenue per visitor among shoppers who interact with reviews, and a 10% lift in organic reach.

Brooks AU found that leveraging sweepstakes was a particularly effective way to incentivize customers to write reviews. About 95% of their reviews came from the post-purchase emails. “We’ve collected 20,000 native reviews and syndicated an additional 100,000 reviews,” Nair said.

Brooks AU also enabled the photo upload option, which allows users to add visual content to their reviews. This helped to make the reviews more engaging and informative for other shoppers.

“Our customers are quite involved. Once they get into our shoes, they’re generally quite happy to respond,” Teh said. “The quality of the pictures we get and the reviews are pretty extensive, with people filling out all the different specifications that we ask for.”

Brooks AU chose Bazaarvoice’s Ratings & Reviews solution for several reasons.

Detailed reporting: Brooks AU wanted to be able to track the performance of their reviews and identify key insights. Bazaarvoice’s detailed reporting capabilities allowed them to do this. “I was particularly impressed by the insights and analytics provided by Bazaarvoice and how it could enhance our reporting,” Teh added.

Local support: Brooks AU wanted to work with a partner with a local presence in Australia. Bazaarvoice has a team of experienced professionals in Australia who were able to provide Brooks AU with the support they needed. “It was great that we had the option of a local representative talking to us, talking through Bazaarvoice with us,” Teh said. “And the demo was very extensive.”

Ability to syndicate reviews to retailers: Brooks AU wanted to syndicate their reviews to their retail partners so that shoppers could see them on the retailers’ websites as well. Bazaarvoice’s platform made this easy to do. Said Teh, “The ability to syndicate reviews with our US counterparts was a crucial factor in our decision.”

Easy-to-use platform: Brooks AU appreciated Bazaarvoice’s easy-to-use platform, which made it easy to implement and manage the solution.

Nair spoke highly of the Bazaarvoice platform. “Its robust reporting capabilities and easy setup made it an ideal light-touch program for our lean two-person digital team. It doesn’t consume much of our resources or time, which is perfect for us.” He added, “We felt it was something we absolutely needed.”

Brooks AU implemented the Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews solution with the help of Bazaarvoice’s integration team. Brooks AU was impressed with the team’s expertise and the seamless implementation process.

Brooks AU started by importing a backlog of reviews from their US website. They then set up immediate outbound syndication to their main retail partners. The process was seamless overall, with only a few hiccups when retailers changed things on their end. Bazaarvoice was quick to fix any issues that arose.

Brooks AU’s partnership with Bazaarvoice has been a success. The company has been able to build up a robust library of reviews quickly, syndicate them to key retail partners, and incentivize customers to write thoughtful reviews. As a result, Brooks AU has seen a significant improvement in its conversion rates, revenue per visitor, and organic reach.

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