I wrote a week or so ago about customer reviews and wanted to follow-up that post with some new research…
In Revenue Magazine (July/August 2007, pg.104) an article titled “Reviews are Good” provided some interesting insights from recent customer review studies. Two key points were:
- A study by MarketingSherpa and Prospectiv showed that, “almost six in 10 respondents “strongly” or “somewhat” preferred sites with product reviews written by peers.
- A case study from PETCO presented that, “products that were rated in the top percentile converted at a 49 percent higher rate after PETCO added customer reviews to its site and that these shoppers spent 63 percent more after viewing the ratings section.
I find the greatest challenge for small businesses is gathering and presenting customer reviews on thier sites within a usable format that enhances a customer’s web experience. Most third party systems like PowerReviews.com are currently out of economic range for most small businesses while many lower-end e-commerce systems may have customer review modules but the user experience is not very effective.
Anyone have a good 3rd party solution for adding customer reviews? I spoke to PowerReviews.com and they are apparently developing a small business solution for late 2007, early 2008.
Posted on August 13, 2007
