The best fit yet!

If you are in sales, one of the greatest feelings comes from seeing a customer really happy with their purchase. If it is software or a service you are selling, then happiness often takes the form of a very successful, fully leveraged implementation by a customer driven at the onset to derive every benefit possible from your product, to squeeze every ounce out of the vision you shared with them during the sales process.

How do I know all this? Well, we have just such a PowerReviews customer – Onlineshoes.com.

Customer Spotlight: Onlineshoes.com

From our very first meeting we knew they “got it.” They immediately grasped the value our relevancy-based reviews solution brings to today’s online shopping experience and the impact our innovative, tag-based approach could have on what is already the widely adopting practice of selling shoes online.

Starting with the basics

Shoes need to fit. Period. And with all online shoe companies offering free shipping on returns to eliminate any concern a customer might have about ordering shoes that might not fit right, adding reviews to provide accurate sizing information to shoppers was a no-brainer. Sales go up, returns go down. The Onlineshoes.com folks, however, saw this as “a given” and the starting point for what any review solution would provide. What they were more interested in was what they could achieve beyond ensuring a proper shoe fit. Because in the world of shoes, fit is just the first, but required, hurdle to cross for shoppers – with real satisfaction being achieved when the shoes they buy are as comfortable as they had hoped or provided the traction they wanted or better yet, were the right look for that weekend barbeque or special occasion.

Onlineshoes.com realized from the start that by fully integrating our review system into their online shopping experience, our enhanced review content could address product concerns well beyond just size and fit. That’s because we gather feedback in a tag-based format around the Pros, Cons and Best Uses for each product, providing shoppers with more informative and highly relevant customer reviews. To realize the full power of reviews, though, Onlineshoes would have to leverage reviews throughout their entire shopping process, beyond just the product page. And that is exactly what they did.

Social Navigation

Well, they did it! Onlineshoes is the very first website to offer Social Navigation – the ability to narrow product selection based on feedback from customers just like them – to the ecommerce world. Because of the structured format of our review content, the terms or “tags” gathered during the review submission process can be directly integrated into site navigation, presenting shoppers with additional filtering choices to browse products and narrow product selections based on real customer feedback, In addition to browse by color or by size, shoppers can now chose to browse products that other customers have said were “comfortable” or “warm” or were great for “wet weather” – all the things you would want to be absolutely sure of before their first use.

I invite you all to experience Social Navigation first hand and see the very first instance of the future of online shopping. (scroll down past the “Colors” navigation to see Customer Feedback choices)

Onlineshoes

Finally I would like to publicly acknowledge the incredible group of folks, led by Jimmy Healey, Product Manager at Onlineshoes, who shared this vision with us and worked incredibly hard and smart to achieve this incredible milestone. Here are some highlights and accomplishments along the way:

• Pre-launch email blast to last 6-months of customers generated a review volume at launch covering 20% of their product assortment with some of the more popular products having more than 20 reviews.
• Tested subject lines in the email before committing to the Big Blast to make sure they got the highest open and review submission rate possible.
• Displaying the ratings snippet with the product on all category list pages helped promote the awareness of reviews to their shopping base, further driving the adoption or reviews which covered 30% of products within the first two months.

Realizing the vision

We have been busting at the seams to tell the world about our vision coming to life, but this functionality was launched just a short while ago and we are still gathering data and developing related metrics. For those of you that may have some of our earliest sales collateral, you’ll see that Social Navigation is a since the very beginning. We did know that we would have to be patient, though, as Social Navigation is dependent on several factors, the most important of which is review volume – including the penetration of reviews across product categories as well as the depth of reviews per product.

The cat is out of the bag

With the recent interview in February’s Internet Retailer Magazine: The Power of Customer Reviews, Jimmy Healey at Onlineshoes shared with the internet world his early findings with their implementation of social navigation.

I could go on and on and on and on about this great company but then I would never get any work done. I suggest all of you keep your eyes on these guys as I continue to expect great things from them as they find greater ways to harness the power of customer reviews across their website!

Next in the series – Top Rated Emails
My mail just got rated!
Not so obvious – buyers, merchandisers, vendor feedback, customer returns..,the synergistic perks.
Multi-channel – catalogs, kiosks and in-store

Who’s Counting?

We have been going non-stop since the beginning of the year with trade shows, client launches, a webinar and white paper, a HUGE party at eTail…and as if that wasn’t enough, we also moved into our new San Francisco offices.

It’s no surprise then, that putting things in order has become a daily regiment around the office. And with so much organizing going on I couldn’t help but capture some of that energy to put a few marketing things in order as well. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit, that topping that list was a much overdo revised client list which had not been updated in more months than I care to admit.

Why am I blogging about this you say? Well, this was no easy task considering everything else that was going on around here! Our sales, marketing and account management teams worked diligently these past weeks securing more than 100 new client logos, then organizing them for display across more than a dozen retail segments.

But instead of me telling you about all their hard work, why not just show you…

I am both happy and proud to present the new client section of our corporate website that showcases more than 120 featured clients across all key retail categories. (They told me I was crazy to want to list all 220+ clients!)

http://www.powerreviews.com/social-shopping/clients/

Again, hats off to the entire PowerReviews team with special thanks to Blake, Yury and Cathie for making this truly a showcase of all our hard work and successes.

Saving the best for last?

I’ll let the attendees of the Merchandising/Visualization Day at last week’s eTail be the judge of that where I had the honor of serving as Chairman for the day. I can tell you this everyone, it was a great event – an interactive audience with stellar speakers that included my dear friends Lauren Freedman, president, e-Tailing group, Peter Cobb, Founder and SVP of eBags and all my new friends such as Deborah Shearer, VP of Marketing at Organize.com and Paul Lentz at Cnet.

In fact, a few attendees even took the time to tell me that the thought our merchandising panel was one of the best panels over the entire 4 days of the event! My favorite moment was the fantastic interchange between Peter and Deborah in terms of how to merchandise to the sexes, especially in the world of accessories – whether they be for the body or the home! To be honest, chairing this day was a walk in the park when you have such fantastic panelists.

On a very personal note, having attended and or chaired many of these “additional days” at eTail shows – both east and west – I can tell you that some of the best information and interaction comes from these 50-60 person audiences. If you have not already, you may want to think about adding on one of these days to your next conference trip.

And for those of you that did not stay for that last day, boy you did get out just in time as the weather turned bad in just a matter or hours. By that afternoon, it hailed in Palm Desert and the nearby mountains got a fresh dusting of snow. I am just glad our little plane soared out of there without a hitch.

Green with Envy!

Warm Yourself without Warming the Globe. That’s the greeting you will get when you visit our newly launched green-section on Buzzillions.com our social shopping portal – powered by product reviews!

If you are searching for top-Rated Eco-friendly products, whether for the home, to wear, to eat or for the kids, then visit our social shopping portal because we have got what you are looking for my friends.

I am not going to say anymore as I don’t want to ruin the surprise and fantastic experience – I’ll let you discover it yourselves! Just visit Buzzillions.com and go green!

Oh What A Night!

There was a definite BUZZ in the air last night – or should I say the Buzzillions! What was already a fantastic first day at eTail 2008 in Palm Desert was capped by a fantastic, music filled party we threw at the Costas Club here at the resort to celebrate the 1,000,000th review on Buzzillions.com. And with more than 240,000 products – all with customer reviews – our Social Shopping portal really is powered by product reviews.

The energy was off the charts last night as vendors and merchants mingled without badges, creating the best fun filled party last night where we really got down to the business of making new friends while drinking and dancing the night away. I want to extend my many thanks to everyone who attended last night, adding to the success of the event!

Now that I’ve covered the night, let me back up and tell you about the day. The morning started with discover that we are the cover story of the just released February 2008 Internet Retailer Magazine – The POWER of Online Shopping Reviews. I must admit that I have always wanted to be a cover boy!

The morning sessions were again tops this year. Highlights included Larry Freed, of Foressee Results sharing with us all the 2007 Holiday Season from the Customer’s Perspective; my very good friends John Lazarchic of Petco.com and Penny Gniwisch of Ice.com delivering yet again valuable insights on building outstanding customer experiences on their sites, Meyar Sheik of Certona hitting huge home runs in my opinion with their discussion on giving consumers power of voice.

And, of course, specifically exciting to us in the customer reviews business is the continuing importance of product reviews in today’s online shopping experience that nearly every presenter specifically mentioned. As you can image, both the PowerReviews and our new Buzzillions booths were packed all day.

Stay tuned for more on Day 2 as well as the final Merchandising Day where I will have the honor of serving as Chairman for those festivities. And if anyone asks, I lost my voice from talking to so much to clients, partners and prospects yesterday as opposed to staying up all night dancing and drinking with 300 friends.

Let the Sun Shine In

I’m here in Palm Desert for the BIG eTail West show and it is a terrific 81 degrees!

So I couldn’t think of a better place or way to announce the launch of one of our newest clients, Sun & Ski Sport! And although they are of course in the middle of their winter merchandise offerings, these folks are 100% year round fun!

We here at PowerReviews are thrilled to add Sun & Ski Sports to our more than a dozen sporting goods clients that included the ever impressive large retailers as well as some of the most exciting niche players in the space. I am sure you won’t fault me for saying that we are the leaders and experts in this market segment, too!

Our review system with its highly expressive tag-based feedback has become the chosen favorite for gathering user generated comments in one of the most passion driven consumer industries today – outdoor recreation! If you have the time just see what some of the customers on these client sites are saying:

• REI
• Sports Authority
• Dick’s Sporting Goods
• Eastern Mountain Sports
• Callaway Golf (pre-owned)
• TREK
• Alpine Sports Outlet
• Divers Direct
• WaterWorld Sports
• Olympia Sports
• Evogear
• Mountain Gear
• Fit Couture
• Modell’s

In talking to our friends at Sun & Ski, here is what they had to say:

“PowerReviews allowed us to easily deliver customer-friendly, highly-informative product reviews,” said Scott Blair, eCommerce General Manager of Sun & Ski Sports. “Not only was the integration and start-up process was quick and easy, but the feature has caught on quickly and been very popular with our customers. User-generated content in the form of written comments and photos has been a huge plus for our site.”

Not only do they have five stores in the Houston area and one each in Austin, Grapevine, San Antonio, Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Cincinnati and Nashville, their e-commerce websites (www.sunandski.com and skichalet.com) offer more than 1,000 specialty products representing 100 brands.

Welcome to the family Sun & Ski!

(I’ll be blogging all week while down here at the eTail show so stay tuned!)

Big Man on Campus

Don’t look now, but there is a new BMOC and it’s PowerReviews!

It is with much excitement and honor that we welcome the newest member to our family of clients, CampusTech – these folks launched our customer reviews solution just yesterday, February 8, 2008.

Some of you out there I know are saying to yourself, didn’t these guys already have reviews? Well, yes, they did – just not ours. But they do now. Funny thing is that a little more than a year ago they wanted to try our solution, but you now how these things sometimes turn out, they didn’t.

A year has now passed and they have decided to try a different approach to customer reviews, and we are glad and excited they did!

So as of yesterday, not only did we launch their system, but also imported all the reviews generated with that other solution which, unfortunately for them, was less than 500! That’s right; they were only able to generate around 40 reviews per month throughout the entire year. How do we know that? Well, first off all, this is not secret and quite is quite public in fact. Visit their site www.campustech.com to see all the reviews from their prior efforts that we helped import, after of course having moderated every one to meet our high level of review standard.

I am sure that there are those out there that are thinking – wow, Jay, less than 500 reviews for an entire years worth of effort, are you sure? How could their provider allow this to happen? Well, we thought the same thing. And while I am not privy to the exact cost incurred by CampusTech to obtain these 500 reviews last year, I do know what I read in this month’s Internet Retailer which stated that the other review provider charges fees “around $2,000 per month to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.” It looks like, then, that they could have paid enough that first year to send a kid to college and at a minimum incurred cost of $48 per review. Yes, you read that right, it is not a typo. And while the ROI Gods must be shaking their heads or perhaps just burying them in the sand with shame at hearing this, the fault here lays not with the client, our friends CampusTech, but completely at the feet of any provider that willing sends that invoice month after month after month, knowing full well that client is not getting anywhere near the full benefit of their product.

To be very fair, we all know that losing a client to the competition happens now and then – that just business my friends. Heck, we’ve already converted one of their largest accounts a long time ago – Stacks and Stacks – and did it without a lot of fanfare because it was the right thing to do then. But with so many people asking me these days what is the “difference” between us and the competition, well, I felt I needed to share this with you all as it perfectly illustrates one of those many key differences.

In full disclosure, we too will be losing a client to the “other guys” in the weeks ahead. But that is where the similarity stops because the stats behind it are so completely different. After launching mid-June 2007, this client, one of our smallest with less than $2 million in online revenues, generated more than 2,000 reviews with us in just 6 months time. And yes they did if FREE of charge per our program and FREE of cost as they never integrated into the Buzzillions.com affiliate program. We believe so deeply in our vision, you see, that we invite all retailers to come give us a try completely risk free. And if any time they want to try something else, as did this client, we sadly support that decision, and support it we will and support it we did. We promise to put just as much dedicated support in helping you transition to this next opportunity as we did when we helped you implement our technology in those first days. And we will make the transfer of those reviews – all 2,000 of them – as seamless as we possibly can.

Why? Spend a few minutes chatting with anyone in our company and you will know why. We may be smaller than those other guys, but know this: we are 100% committed to our customer’s happiness, their success and their continued efforts to generate as many great reviews as possible.

So if you were indeed one of those out there wondering what sets us apart, just remember this: for our newest client, 1 year with the other guys generated less than 500 reviews at a cost of $48/review at a minimum versus 6-months with us to generate more than 2,000 reviews RISK FREE and in this case, COST FREE, too! And to that client that will be departing soon, we here at PowerReviews wish you much success in 2008 and beyond. And if, by chance, you find that the grass is not as green on the other side of the campus as you had hoped, well you are always welcome to come back and enroll in the class of 2009.

Tainted Love

Shot by cupid’s arrow? Then you better read on and BEWARE!

It seems like just yesterday that sending flowers, specifically roses, was the way we all celebrated Valentine’s Day. And for those few among us who plan ahead and made reservations at a romantic restaurant for that night, then more power to you. Those days are long past; in fact for many out there, getting roses on Valentine’s Day has almost become passé given all the creative ways to express love these days.

So for those of you that are sending a gift next week to that special someone in your life and are planning on straying from the safe path of sending a dozen roses this year, then you best see what our folks at Buzzillions have found out – The Top 10 Worst and Best Gifts give this Valentine’s Day.

In fact, after being picked up by the press this past week I have been deluged this past week with emails from people sharing their own horror stories with me. Of these, I must confess that there is a true favorite. And rather than telling you what it was I can simply just show you!

Warning: there last of this video clip doesn’t offend but is a little “adult” in them (on a scale of 1 to 10, it is a about a 2) Oh and also having been raised in Southern California, I am quite comfortable in sharing this with you, too!

http://www.tangomag.com/tangovideos?videoId=1397797709

In closing my friends, I feel that I have done my job this year in making sure that cupid’s efforts don’t unravel on you this next week. So pick and choose your Valentine’s Day gift well – and of course, let us help you find that perfect gift on Buzzillions.com!

Internet Retailer – the one-two punch!

Right Jab…

I am down that the Internet Retailer Web Design ’08 in Miami this week (and yes, I jetted back across the U.S. yet again having just been in Orlando for the Shop.org event) and must confess I am truly impressed with the show.

Of course, like lots of folks I had my doubts about this first, single topic focused event by Internet Retailer as they had been doing just a singe wide ranging national event up to now. But I can say unconditionally that they hit a BIG home run with this show. People are all a buzz with the quality of speakers and content on the first day as well as the small amount of vendors are getting large traffic to their booths with matching interest from retailers.

While we do not have a booth here at this event given our travel schedule, I am walking the show because some of our partners and client are speaking. The presentation by my dear friend Lauren Freedman, president and founder of the eTailing Group is still being talked about this morning. Lauren always hits one out of the park. And I am expecting the same from Glenn Edelman of The Wine Enthusiast who is the closing act for the show, speaking on Making Site Search Do More Than Just Return Results. I suspect he will be sharing with the audience his plans for implementing Social Navigation – the ability to filter product selections by customer feedback such as comfortable, soft, easy to use – on their website in 2008!

Trust me on this one folks; you definitely want to put this show on your list for 2009!

Left jab…

And if that was not enough “love” already from Internet Retailer, yesterday an enormously important article, The Power of Reviews by my new dear friend Mary Wagner hit the wires. This is a MUST read for every retailer as it is packed with important information and insights about reviews, pricing models as well as a quick introduction to Social Navigation as implemented by onlineshoes.com.

It is indeed an honor to be featured by such a respected and well known industry giant known for superb coverage of all think ecommerce!