'Net Features : ratings and reviews

5+ User Review Websites Critical to Small Businesses

Allison Howen — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:15:00 GMT

Thanks to the Internet, word-of-mouth reviews spread like wildfire – which can be both a good and bad thing for merchants.

Since consumers tend to trust the opinions of their peers more than anything else, user reviews are a very influential factor in a customer’s purchasing decision. In fact, a 2012 BrightLocal study reveals that 72 percent of survey respondents claim that they trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations, while 52 percent said that positive reviews make them more likely to use a local business.

That said, it is important for businesses to keep an eye on their consumer reviews, as it will provide them with some insight of how customers perceive their business. Moreover, by monitoring review sites, businesses can learn what areas of their enterprise need improvement (customer service, product selection, cleanliness, etc.), as well as share their most favorable reviews with fans and followers. In order to do this, however, merchants must first know which user review websites are the most critical to their business. This will allow them to monitor the consumer feedback, and in some cases, even give a response to the reviews. To get you started, Website Magazine has compiled a list of five user review websites that are critical to small businesses, regardless of industry:

Yelp

Yelp is among the most popular user review websites. In fact, this site received more than 1 million new reviews in January 2013 alone. That said, the best part about Yelp is that business owners can claim their establishment on this site and not only monitor their reviews, but also interact with their customers through the platform both privately and publicly. Moreover, Yelp provides tools to its business users that allow them to track how many people visited their page, create deals to attract customers and view other stats and charts to measure the performance of their business page.

Google+

Google’s acquisition of Zagat has user reviews not only incorporated in the search results, but also on the search giant’s social network. In fact, when a consumer conducts a search and then clicks on the business’s Zagat review score they are automatically directed to Google+. This is one of the many reasons why businesses should maintain a presence on this site.

Facebook

Every social network’s newsfeed sees some sort of word-of-mouth advertising from its members, and Facebook is no exception. In fact, Facebook Business Pages have a recommendation section where customers can leave reviews that business owners can monitor. Moreover, these reviews, along with likes, comments and other interactions, are expected to increase a business’s visibility when the social network’s new Graph Search feature comes out of beta and is open to the public.

Foursquare

This location-based social network is all about the reviews. Upon checking-in to an establishment, consumers have the option to rate the business and leave tips (reviews) about their experience. Businesses can monitor these user reviews by claiming their establishment on Foursquare, and can also leverage the platform’s business tools, including engaging customers with updates, attracting customers with specials and measuring success with analytics.

BBB

While consumers typically don’t go to the BBB (Better Business Bureau) website to write positive reviews, the platform does allow consumers to do so on its accredited business pages. That said, accredited businesses aren’t the only ones who should monitor this platform, as any business can receive complaints through the BBB website. Businesses are notified from the BBB about their complaints, and have the opportunity to respond and close the complaints to maintain or improve their BBB rating.

And More…

The aforementioned are among the most influential user-review sites, yet they are far from the only platforms where customers go to review the products and services they receive. Here are a fifteen more sites to keep on your radar:

Citysearch

This popular listing site features user reviews for a variety of industries, including arts and entertainment, construction and remodeling, financial services, food and dining, health and medical services, home and garden, personal services and retail stores.

Yahoo! Local

Yahoo! Local enables users to discover, rate and review local establishments and events.

Local.com

Consumers can use Local.com to discover, rate and review nearby businesses, events, deals and activities.

Insiderpages

Insiderpages provide local reviews for the health and medical, home and garden, hair and beauty, auto services and pet industries.

MerchantCircle

Consumers can use Merchantcircle to find local businesses and deals, as well as rate and review businesses from a multitude of industries.

Judy’s Book

This website calls itself a “social search tool.” It allows consumers to search for local reviews, recommendations and revies, as well as share places and recommendations with friends.

Angie’s list

Consumers can go to Angie's list to rate and review service providers, including home, outdoor, health and auto services.

Manta

Consumers can go to this website to review and rate everything from small businesses to products and services across a variety of industries, including business services, consumer products and services, food and berverage, industrial, health, technology and communications.

Yellow Pages

The Yellow Pages aren’t only for finding local businesses anymore, because consumers can also go to this site to look for deals, as well as review and rate businesses and services.

Cityslick

Consumers can visit Cityslick to find coupons and browse local business information, including ratings and reviews, for numerous industries.

localPages

Similar to many of the aforementioned services, localPages allows consumers to discover local businesses, deals and coupons, as well as rate and review businesses and services.

Buzzillions

This user review website focuses on products instead of retailers. It featuers reviews for a wide variety of products, has a robust filtering system and allows consumers to compare products side-by-side.

Epinions

Epinions also focuses on products, however does include some store reviews as well. Moreover, this platform features a robust filtering system as well as numerous review categories.

ExpoTV

Consumers can go to ExpoTV to upload a video user review for new products and earn rewards in doing so.

SiteJabber

If you want to know what people think about your website, check out Site Jabber. This platform allows consumers to discover and review sites across the 'Net.

These are far from the only user review sites that can be found on the Web. If we missed one of your favorites, let us know in the comment section below.

Reviews Come to Listrak Emails

Allison Howen — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Online retailers know how important product reviews are to digital shoppers, which is why Listrak has brought ratings and reviews to email.

The company’s new Ratings and Reviews solution automatically incorporates a merchant’s best reviews into email messages. The solution integrates with Bazaarvoice, recently acquired PowerReviews and Magento’s ratings and reviews module to help improve the performance of email campaigns. This is because user-generated content, like ratings and reviews, can influence a customer’s purchasing decisions, which can lead to increased engagement and conversion rates.

The Ratings and Reviews solution delivers user-generated content into highly targeted emails, incorporates the retailer’s unique branding and messaging as well as delivers messages at the right time in the sales cycle. Moreover, Listrak’s solution filters the ratings and reviews, so only the most impactful are used. By incorporating reviews into campaigns, merchants have the ability to influence purchasing decisions and shorten the sales cycle because consumers won’t need to search for product reviews online.

“In addition to influencing immediate purchase decisions, ratings and reviews result in consumers being more engaged with the brand, prolonging the customer lifecycle and increasing customer lifetime value, which is what all of Listrak’s email marketing solutions promise to deliver,” said Listrak CEO Ross Kramer.

New Patent Drives Results for PowerReviews

Linc Wonham — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Social commerce solutions provider PowerReviews has received a new patent relating to the method in which it delivers user-generated product reviews to more than 4,700 websites globally. This is the second patent PowerReviews has received for social commerce innovation since 2009.

PowerReviews’ Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery methods make it possible to display user-generated content on brands’ product pages in a format that is easily crawled by search engine spiders, making it a leader in the space along with Bazaarvoice and others.

“The SEO value of user-generated content is essential to our business,” says Kimberly Ruthenbeck, Director of Web Customer Experience at home furnishings retailer Room & Board. “PowerReviews’ technology allows us to drive more traffic directly to our product pages and increase sales.”

In November 2009, PowerReviews received its first patent relating to its Review Snapshot, a technology that helps provide consumers with a structured review summary. In a study of over 400 Internet shoppers, PowerReviews’ structured reviews were preferred 2-to-1 over traditional reviews for making more informed purchase decisions.

“Because of our multi-tenant SaaS model—which ensures all customers are on a single code base—we can consistently deliver innovations that produce results for our customers,” says Nadim Hossain, Vice President of Marketing for PowerReviews. “We’re pleased to be recognized by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for our technology, validating our commitment to social commerce innovation.”

Online Shoppers Consuming Reviews in Record Numbers

E-Commerce Express : feature — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 09:00:00 GMT

New data from social commerce solutions provider Bazaarvoice underscores the dramatic change taking place in the shopping behaviors of online consumers. Bazaarvoice is one of the leading providers of user-generated ratings and reviews, sharing the competitive...(read more)

Reviews Getting Five-star Treatment from Luxury Retailers

Linc Wonham — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:30:00 GMT

For all of the discussion about product ratings and reviews in the past year, their widespread adoption by the world’s most upscale retailers has not gained much mention – until now.

Just in time for the holiday rush, Saks Fifth Avenue is rolling out its new ratings and reviews system powered by Bazaarvoice on Saks.com. While the larger shift toward ratings and reviews throughout the e-commerce industry has been discussed here often, Saks’ move is indicative of a more recent trend among some of the world’s most established retailers of luxury items.

Later this month Saks will unveil its five-star reviews platform, similar to the Bazaarvoice-powered system that was implemented by Nordstrom at this time last year. More recently, Bloomingdales and Nieman Marcus have installed their own online reviews platforms in which customers can share their opinions about products ranging in price from a few dollars for cosmetics to several thousand dollars for designer shoes, dresses and handbags.

It is an interesting and perhaps significant new relationship between upscale retail and the increasingly effective online selling mechanism of user-generated reviews. With Internet sales improving at a faster rate than their in-store counterparts, ratings and reviews platforms are a way for retailers to generate more e-commerce revenues for the holidays and beyond.

But the marriage between customer product reviews and luxury retailers may take some getting used to for some. Already, fashion designers and certain brand’s executives have expressed the need for some changes in their own attitudes if their products and creations are to be open for online appraisal and not just reviewed more intimately by an elite group of journalists and consumers.

The fact that Saks, Nordstrom, Bloomingdales and Nieman Marcus have gone in this direction reflects their assertion that e-commerce is vital to the success of their businesses and that of the brands they carry, and that ratings and reviews are vital to their success in e-commerce. The next step is determining if the two are, in fact, the right fit.

Bazaarvoice is one of the leading providers of product ratings and reviews, and – on the other end of the retail spectrum – has also just announced Walgreen’s as the newest high-profile partner to implement its successful platform. Other leaders in the space include PowerReviews, RatePoint and RateVoice, all of which will be examined in the upcoming December issue of Website Magazine.

Ratings and Reviews a Big Hit for ShopNBC

Linc Wonham — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:30:00 GMT

Yesterday we learned that PowerReviews had joined Google’s Product Reviews Program to provide user-generated ratings and reviews for e-commerce merchants. Today we hear from Google’s other partner in the program, Bazaarvoice, announcing that its ratings and reviews social commerce platform has been a huge success for ShopNBC across multiple sales channels.

The not-so-subtle message for online retailers is that it’s time to get on the R&R gravy train if you haven’t already done so.

ShopNBC connects with over 1 million shoppers across the Internet, on television and through social and mobile platforms as an authority in beauty, jewelry, home, electronics, health, fitness, watches and fashion. The company is leveraging Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews through its multiple sales channels by having Customer Choice items appear both online and on TV. By featuring customer testimonials across its multi-media shopping platforms, ShopNBC is greatly improving its sales performance and the quality of the shopping experience for its customers. It is also leveraging customer reviews to assist in its merchandise planning and customer service initiatives.

Bazaarvoice and PowerReviews are two of the leaders in the ratings and reviews space, but they are by no means the only solutions for e-commerce merchants looking to update their social commerce profiles. The clear message we're getting every day is that the time to act is now.

Bing Will Show ResellerRatings Reviews in Search Results

Linc Wonham — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:00:00 GMT

Bing, Microsoft’s search engine that is slated to join forces with Yahoo! later this year, has announced its partnership with e-commerce merchant reviews provider ResellerRatings. The ratings site currently has nearly half a million user-generated reviews of online merchants that will start appearing in Bing’s shopping search results.

The ratings and reviews space is gaining momentum in the e-commerce industry, and ResellerRatings offers merchants the ability to respond to reviews by contacting customers directly and posting public replies. Bing’s newest partner claims that its reviews have influenced more than 10 million purchasing decisions in the past year.

Google announced a similar partnership with Bazaarvoice back in April, when it also said it would be adding other vendors for providing user-generated reviews. ResellerRatings, whose new relationship with Bing is non-exclusive, also now provides reviews for Google Product Search, TheFind.com, ShopWiki.com and other shopping search sites. Other leading reviews providers include PowerReviews, RatePoint and RateVoice, to name just a few.