Discgear.com lifted conversions by 74% within five months of adding product ratings and reviews to its site in time for the 2008 holiday shopping season, the e-retailer of CD and DVD storage cases reports. There are now on average 20 reviews per product and that number continues to grow, says Michael Brown, Discgear information technology director.
Discgear, which uses the customer reviews services of vendor PowerReviews, generated its first 100 product reviews within three weeks of implementation. Besides the ability to read customer reviews in full, the PowerReviews Express service, which is designed for smaller retailers, offers reviews snapshots—summaries shoppers can scan at a glance—and a feature that allows reviewers to describe themselves to other shoppers. It also includes a feature that indicates whether the reviewer purchased the item reviewed.
Brown says reviews are fundamentally altering how consumers make purchase decisions across the industry, noting that he has seen that online shoppers are willing to spend more for highly rated products. He also says page views increase and customers say they feel more satisfied with their shopping experience when it includes customer reviews.
“User-generated comments and reviews are second only to word of mouth as a purchase driver for web users,” says Brown. Of his decision to outsource ratings and review functionality, he says, “We needed a solution that would enable and encourage customer feedback without the overhead.”
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