Shopping.com Rolls Out Free Product Review Service to Online Retailers
Shopping.com UK launches its new product review service, free to its online retail partners. Customers are encouraged to review products online, which in turn encourages other customers to make a purchase, improving conversion rates for online retailers. The new review service is designed to be easy to integrate into retail sites and at zero cost, which is a big plus in particular for SME retailers wanting to offer review functionality in the run up to Christmas.
London (PRWeb UK/PRWEB ) November 1, 2009 -- Today eBay owned price comparison site Shopping.com UK announces the November launch of a new customer product review service, free to its online retail partners and perfectly timed for the Christmas online shopping rush. The new service has been developed by Shopping.com as part of its ongoing drive to strengthen the value proposition to retailers and is particularly aimed at supporting small and medium sized retailers.
Designed to be easy to integrate into retail sites (by copying and pasting simple javascript code, downloaded from the Shopping.com UK Merchant Account Centre), the new service not only allows retailers to add product rating functionality to their web sites, but at zero cost - a big plus in particular for smaller retailers wanting to keep up with best practice, but finding that the cost of building this functionality directly is prohibitive.
Third party research consistently shows that online shoppers want reviews and merchants benefit from higher conversion rates when they offer them*. The new Shopping.com UK service encourages customers to review products online, which in turn encourages other customers to make a purchase.
Mark Elwig, Head of Merchant Services at Shopping.com is leading the initiative in the UK and said, "We keep being asked what we're getting out of building this free service for our merchants. The truth is that the Shopping.com network has over 10 years of customer reviews expertise (we have 'Epinions' in the US) so the business has the background and knowledge to develop the very best technology. Product reviews are a positive addition for our merchants and for consumers, so we're looking to make it available to as many of our online retailers as possible within the next 6-9 months - especially the smaller companies that couldn't do it alone."
He went on to say, "The overarching plan is to create a richer experience for our shoppers, with both more content and richer content, so that we drive more sales, return visits and increase customer engagement."
Online retailers that integrate the review service are asked to share the new content on the Shopping.com main sites (Shopping.com UK and DealTime) in order to build their own product offering and UK community, improving SEO (search engine optimization) and adding further benefit to their retail partners.
Notes to editors
Statistics:
| | - Shoppers who navigate to pages with top-rated products convert at a 50% higher rate than others (Internet Retailer, Feb 2008)
- 171% increase in conversion rates on merchandizing pages featuring reviews (Netshops Case Study, 2007)
- 96% of online retailers rank customer ratings and reviews as an effective or very effective tactic for driving conversion (Forrester)
- 73% of online retailers still don't use consumer ratings and reviews on their websites (Ibid)
- 27% of the respondents who read customer reviews reported average spending between 5% and 10% higher than those who did not read them (Internet Retailer, 2008), and nearly 7% of respondents who said they read customer reviews reported average spending of 20% higher than other online shoppers (Internet Retailer, 2008)
- 26% increase in product sales from tag-based customer reviews (Netshops Case Study, 2007)
- Customers who clicked through on e-mail containing review content viewed 7.48% more pages on the site, and the average sale per visitor was 11.46% higher (Internet Retailer, 2008)
- Customer satisfaction was 11% higher among visitors who said they had seen customer reviews on a site (Foresee Results, 2007)
- 70% of online shoppers actively seek out customer reviews before they buy (eTailing Group and JC Williams Consultancy, Apr 2006)
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About the Shopping.com Network
Shopping.com, an eBay company, pioneered online comparison shopping and is one of the fastest growing shopping destinations on the Internet today. Now the UK's number one shopping comparison network, its family of sites includes uk.shopping.com and Dealtime.co.uk.
Shopping.com's mission is to create the most convenient and satisfying comparison shopping experience possible, anywhere on the Web, helping consumers find and compare millions of products from hundreds of brands and retailers.
Shopping.com offers its retail partners excellent returns on their campaigns by driving high quality leads, tailored campaign advice and management services, in addition to easy-to-use tools for both its merchant and affiliate partners.
About DealTime.co.uk
DealTime.co.uk was Shopping.com's original site. Founded in 1998, it launched in the UK in 2001
The original idea was to create a downloadable tool that would monitor changes in prices of products and notify consumers when the product price reached a predetermined level - hence the site's name: DealTime
The site has consistently been in Hitwise UK's top 10 Shopping & Classifieds rankings since its launch.
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See the original story at: http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2009/11/prweb3139304.htm
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