Retail, in the eyes of the everyday customer

If restaurants added a feedback feature on bills it would give valuable input on how people liked individual dishes.  As long as the feedback process was painless most patrons would participate and the information could be integrated to update the menu.  Avinash has shown how simple feedback gives valuable insight through 4Q, my idea merely extends the concept to an offline environment.

Concept Bill

Onlynaturalpet.com doesn’t only let customers write reviews, they also respond to them.

Not a new topic but Kelly Mooney presents a great example that eloquently ties all theory on the subject. See below:

If you wish to dig deer, read related articles: The first review and Solving the shopping cart abandonment problem

For the last two months I’ve been searching for a pair of headphones specifically designed for running. Searching online hasn’t helped me find a perfect pair. That being said I have found some personal Blogs etc but this is not sufficient because I want to hear the reassuring voice of an expert. This, then, is the basis of my idea. We have social shopping sites like thisnext.com, we also have comparison shopping sites like PriceGrabber.com. What we don’t have is a site that reviews retailer products the way CNET.com reviews electronic products. If such a site already exists please point me to it, I really need those running headphones.

Vintagetub.com, like other ecommerce sites, asks customers for feedback. But you have to be registered to write a review. Fair enough. However, when I saw a useful review and went to mark ‘yes’ for the question “Was this review helpful to you?” I was once again asked to register. This, I think, is a bad idea.

By voting for or against a specific review I am essentially telling vintagetub.com which reviews have a higher influence thus allowing them to prioritize which reviews to address first.

PS: I shared this with Allan Dick (their CMO) and he made the change!

Today, the good folk at PowerReviews and e-tailing group held a webinar on ‘customer reviews’. One of the ‘concept’ ideas presented was having kiosks in stores where swiping the product tag would display reviews from the Web site. Great idea.

Reviews influence shoppers…. 63% of consumers indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has product ratings and reviews. Additionally, consumers are willing to pay significantly more for services that are highly rated.

But what if a customer gets to a page with no reviews? My hunch is that this might have a negative effect… Here is one possible solution to that scenario….

Jane is a registered user and while on your site she adds an item (with no reviews) to her shopping cart… Now lets assume that for some unknown reason she abandons her shopping cart. A few days later Bill buys that same product and gives it a 5/5 rating. Conceivably seeing this favorable review might have prevented Jane from abandoning her shopping cart…

So we send her an email saying “Hey Jane, last week you were looking at *item* but did not buy it. At the time no customer had reviewed it. Since then *item* has had its first review and because you are a registered user we wanted to share the review with you. Product review is below…”

Do you think this could reverse an abandoned shopping cart?

Product reviews are the best (and easiest) way to convert browsers into shoppers. Reviews work because they represent independent customer testimonials, positive product reviews lift sales and negative reviews dampen them. The challenge is getting the first review, an empty review section casts bad light on the product:

So what is a marketer to do?

One rather simple workaround is sending out an email to people who bought the item asking them for their feedback. This email should be sent few weeks after the purchase (so customers have enough time for evaluation). Those reviews could then be put online.

Other articles on ‘product reviews’: Product Reviews – The art and science, Ratings/reviews improve product return rates

According to ratings service provider BazaarVoice PETCO found that products without reviews have a 20.4% higher return rate than those with reviews, and products with 50+ reviews have a return rate that is half of those with less than 5 reviews. Full story here.

While I am a huge fan of product reviews they have one inherent flaw – they are not designed for average products. Exceptionally good/bad ones get away because they inspire comment. As a result average products (which are in the majority) get left empty with obscure greetings like:

which, by the way, does more harm because research shows positive reviews significantly impact sales and so the lack of reviews should have a quasi opposite effect too.

so what’s the work around? well, first of all reviews only tell what a fraction of the buying audience feels about a product but more importantly reviews might not always be married to fact (like sales figures, return rates; you know, the really important stuff). so why is it no retailer is willing to show exactly how much of each SKU sells and how many pieces get returned. If i read a review which is negative but see that the product sells like crazy I might just overrule the verdict by potbelly1327. Isn’t it time retailers started reclaiming turf stolen by online reviewers?

Another article on product reviews: Reviews