Overstock.com is replacing its internal customer ratings and review application with a third-party program from Bazaarvoice Inc.
Overstock, No. 19 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, stores about 350,000 customer reviews on its product pages, but the retailer needed a speedier and more efficient way to post reviews and analyze the results, says Holly MacDonald-Korth, Overstock senior vice president of customer intelligence and retention. “We are improving our community management and analytics capabilities to bring the customer voice deeper into our operations,” she says.
The new technology will enable Overstock to more efficiently monitor its customer reviews and rankings using a hosted application. Customers now can review and see their comments posted on both products and specific product characteristics. So far Overstock has migrated more than 120,000 reviews to the Bazaarvoice platform. The technology also helps Overstock produce and measure more precise customer ratings and optimize customer comments for search engine rankings.
Bazaarvoice was founded by CEO Brett Hurt, who also founded web analytics developer Coremetrics. A typical Bazaarvoice installation varies in price, depending on the size of the company and other specifics. But a typical smaller retailer can expect to pay an installation fee ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 and a monthly licensing fee of about $2,000, Bazaarvoice estimates.
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