Social commerce platform celebrates digital milestone
Mar 25 2010
Retail Wrap >>

Social commerce is defined as a strategy to facilitate customer interactions to maximize business results. Bazaarvoice.com is a social commerce platform that helps businesses capture, display, share, and analyze customer conversations online.

Bazaarvoice announced it has served more than 100 billion impressions of user-generated Reviews, Answers and Stories since its launch. With 80% of consumers now seeking user-generated review content to guide purchases, the vendor said this new milestone represents a transformation in shopping behaviour and underlines the power of digital word-of-mouth as a form of advertising.

The 100-billionth impression comes as the social commerce provider prepares to celebrate its fifth anniversary, with more than 750 clients operating in 25 languages and 36 countries. To mark the occasion, Bazaarvoice highlighted significant landmarks in the company’s growth over the last five years.

Endorsement extends to customer base: It said it had amassed more than 40 customer case studies highlighting how user-generated content can be used to effectively increase sales, improve search engine optimisation (SEO), increase customer loyalty and satisfaction. One example of this is DIY giant B&Q, which analyses user feedback and works with manufacturers to continually improve products based on customers’ comments. Outdoor equipment and clothing retailer, Orvis is also harnessing this approach through its Voice of the Customer team, which continually analyses both positive and negative customer feedback to improve the customer experience.

In 2009 Bazaarvoice debuted MobileVoice, which enables users to access the voice of the customer via their phone while shopping in-store. Additional developments have seen the introduction of the BrandAnswers and BrandVoice solutions, which raise the bar on social commerce by allowing manufacturers to impact and join customer conversations on the world’s largest retail sites.

Last summer, Bazaarvoice launched Social Recommendations for its Stories product. The company said this functionality enables brands to evolve word of mouth referrals by allowing consumers to post narratives about their product and brand experience.

Emerging dimension to digital marketing: “Recent years have seen many of the conversations traditionally held in person increasingly digitised online to the point where they now widely influence purchase decisions,” said Andy Leaver, international vice president at Bazaarvoice. “Reaching 100 billion impressions illustrates that brands appreciate this and are rewriting their textbooks on marketing and merchandising to utilise the business benefits that user-generated content brings.”

“As the explosion in social media continues over the next five years we’re confident that our continual innovation will see us support a growing client roster as well as give something back to the communities and charitable causes around us.”

Adapted from Source: www.retailtechnology.co.uk, 9 March 2010