AUSTIN, Texas (Business Wire) -- Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today announced that holiday shoppers are increasingly using reviews to guide their purchase decisions. Bazaarvoice served more than 1.2 billion user-generated product reviews, answers, and stories over the course of Thanksgiving Week as consumers carefully researched their holiday purchases. Review usage peaked at 9:45 pm EST on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, indicating that reviews again played a significant role in planning offline purchase decisions on Black Friday and through the Thanksgiving weekend.
Review usage spiked again on Cyber Monday, December 1, when Bazaarvoice served more than 165 million reviews and 24 million answers to shoppers across the nation and around the world. Total review impressions were up 132% from the 71 million reviews served on Cyber Monday last year and up 768% from the 19 million served on Cyber Monday 2006. At the peak on Cyber Monday, Bazaarvoice was serving over 4,500 impressions per second, another record for the company.
“Research released by Forrester in October showed that the number of US adults who read product reviews has nearly doubled in the past year,” said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. “People have learned how to shop by reviews – and in a season where people are carefully considering each purchase, reviews are at the forefront of the online and offline shopping experience. The truly astounding number of reviews served over the past days speaks to this new way of shopping and the success of our company and our clients in facilitating access to reviews for consumers.”
“On Cyber Monday last year, we served 71 million review impressions,” said Sam Decker, CMO of Bazaarvoice. “This year, we served more than 165 million reviews, which means that online shoppers are benefiting from a 132% increase in readership of reviews - yet sales growth is at 2%. Therefore, a retailer without reviews is losing market share.”
Nearly 72% of consumers are planning to research products online prior to purchasing (e-tailing group, October 2008). In fact, for every $1 spent in online sales, the Internet influences $3.45 of store sales (eMarketer, 2007). Data also shows that online word of mouth is overwhelmingly positive. Across Bazaarvoice clients, positive reviews outweigh negative reviews 8 to 1. When charted, review distribution follows a “Ratings J-Curve” across many Bazaarvoice clients in diverse industries. The initial findings on the Ratings J-Curve and follow up analysis are available at the Bazaarvoice blog (http://www.bazaarblog.com).
Data was collected across more than 290 retail and manufacturer websites, including the largest multichannel retailers in the world. Bazaarvoice clients include Borders, Dell, Macy's, Office Depot, Inc., Overstock.com, PETCO, P&G, QVC, and Sears. A more comprehensive client list is available at http://www.bazaarvoice.com/clients.html.
About Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice offers outsourced technology, services, analytics, and expertise to help companies enhance the online shopping experience with social commerce applications that drive sales. Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews™, Ask & Answer™, and Stories™ deliver immediate success by minimizing implementation risk and maximizing the strategic impact of user-generated content through complete customization, deep integration, community management, advanced analytics, search engine optimization, and syndication across the Web and to offline channels.
Bazaarvoice's recent awards include the 2008 ClickZ Marketing Excellence Award for Best Social Media Marketing Platform and the Austin Business Journal's 2007 Tech Innovator Award. Bazaarvoice currently serves over 290 eCommerce leaders including Borders, Dell, Macy's, Office Depot, Inc., Overstock.com, PETCO, P&G, QVC, Sears, and ZipRealty. The company has headquarters in Austin, TX, and offices in London, Paris, and Singapore. For more information, please visit the company's Web site at www.bazaarvoice.com, read the blog at www.bazaarblog.com, or email info@bazaarvoice.com.
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