Customers on Zales.com share their real-life stories about the celebrations in their lives and the role Zales played in making them memorable
Austin, Texas – March 9, 2009 – Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today announced that Zale Corporation, a leading specialty retailer of fine jewelry in North America, has launched Bazaarvoice Stories™ to empower customers to share their real-life stories about Zales and Gordon’s Jewelers products. Zales, which has been successfully using Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews for over a year, added Stories to create an online destination (lovestories.zales.com) that features customers’ own narratives about the celebrations in their lives, and the role that Zales played in making these days special.
“The jewelry business is one that’s built on people’s personal stories, since fine jewelry is often given to celebrate joyous occasions like weddings, birthdays, the birth of a child, and special holidays,” said Steve Larkin, Executive VP and Chief Marketing and Ecommerce Officer of Zale Corporation. “Bazaarvoice Stories gives Zales customers a place to share their own love stories – whether humorous or heartfelt. This user-generated content is a great resource to connect shoppers with each other – and to build brand involvement and loyalty in an authentic and organic manner.”
Zales – a part of Zale Corporation’s $2 billion company with 2,100 retail jewelry stores across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico – promotes the Love Stories initiative, powered by Bazaarvoice Stories™, on its homepage and via a targeted email campaign, encouraging the thousands of people who have reviewed products on the Zales site to share their own personal stories. The company also promotes Love Stories through sweepstakes and contests that drive participation.
“Zales has been a pioneer in listening and responding to their customers via ratings and reviews, and their launch of our Stories product is just another milestone on their path to complete customer engagement,” said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. “Studies prove that when customers engage with one another by sharing their real-life stories about certain brands or products, they become more loyal to the brand, purchase more products, and become brand evangelists to their friends and community.”
With Bazaarvoice Stories, companies can create a compelling online destination within their own sites where customers and visitors share their personal real-life experiences related to a product, service, or brand, including how and why they purchased and what happened next. By encouraging consumers to share their life stories about products and services, Bazaarvoice Stories helps companies effectively increase brand involvement, generate interested leads, and create new opportunities to leverage engaging user-generated content (UGC) for use in multichannel contests, campaigns, and promotions.
About Zale Corporation
Zale Corporation is a leading specialty retailer of diamonds and other fine jewelry products in North America, operating approximately 2,120 retail locations throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Zale Corporation`s brands include Zales Jewelers, Zales Outlet, Gordon`s Jewelers, Peoples Jewellers, Mappins Jewellers and Piercing Pagoda. Zale also operates online at www.zales.com and www.gordonsjewelers.com. Additional information on Zale Corporation and its brands is available at www.zalecorp.com.
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 350 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.
For more information contact:
Renee Newby
Brady Public Relations
757.651.6554
renee@bradypr.com
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