Happy Birthday Buzzillions – 1,572,000 reviews and counting!

The BUZZ on Buzzillions is that PowerReviews hit a huge home run already in just the first year of this new site. Buzzillions offers shoppers an innovative and exciting new way for people to find the right product for them using insightful and relevant feedback from other shoppers – just like them! This customer review/product research portal is exceeding all performance expectations in its first year.

Not only have our 250+ network of clients contributed more than 1 million reviews to the site from their more than 2,000 websites (yup, that makes PowerReviews the most implemented review solution in the world!) but other merchants, including those with their own in-house solutions or use a third party solution by Bazaarvoice, eagerly send us their product feeds and joined our site as well. Why you might ask?

Because companies like Overstock, Petco, HSN, Moosejaw and Drugstore.com fully understand the power of reviews in the shopping process and intelligently want to leverage this content on Buzzillions, which has now become one of THE TOP converting portals in the shopping site arena.

Buzzillions as an affiliate

Buzzillions has earned top-affiliate status at Commission Junction, LinkShare, Share-a-Sale and Performix because of the consistently high converting traffic that we send to our merchants – we send those merchants buyers not browsers. And folks, get this – the traffic we send them is proving highly valuable as well and here’s why.

Buzzillions operates almost entirely on a CPA (revenue share) basis that:

• brings all our merchants unlimited FREE traffic
• shares only in the merchant’s success meaning we make money only when they do!
• is non-coupon based traffic
• delivers highly loyal buyers who are focused on product performance, not price

Many merchants have documented that shopping by “Top-Rated” produces higher AOV and higher converting orders compared with any other merchandising strategy. Buzzillions does the same thing on a network-wide basis… which makes us one of the most profitable and highest performing affiliate for many of our merchant partners.

The SEO ”duplicate content” rumors are total nonsense

I know there are those of you out there that already saying to yourselves “Jay, this sounds too good to be true! What about all this SEO nonsense we are hearing these days, that Buzzillions is the SEO Devil?” Well, I am glad you asked, because it is nonsense and here’s why.

By intention, the Buzzillions site is optimized for the keywords “review”, “reviews”, “top-rated” and the like. That is where we make our money and that is where our focus lies. And even with that said, we are the inventor and originator of the SEO mini-site, which we create for our clients, is hosted on their site, and contains ALL the review content that is entirely “crawlable” by the engines. Basically, we created a page for that directly competes with our revenue generating efforts! We do this because we believe that we are NOT competing for the same customer… the retailer is targeting the directed shopper who already knows what they’d like to buy, while Buzzillions targets the researcher who is just beginning their shopping investigation.

That being said, with more than 250,000 products on Buzzillions, there might be those rare instances when a search generates a result that is perhaps one or two listings higher than the client’s. That is neither our intent nor our goal.

At the end of the day, if there was truly a significant negative SEO impact as is being claimed by our competition, then our direct clients like Staples, REI, ToysRUs, Walgreen’s as well as Bazaarvoice’s top clients like Petco and Overstock (who voluntarily send us their feeds) – all who have full-time staff devoted entirely to SEO efforts – would certainly have shouted loudly by now and demanded that we change our functionality. They have not done so because there is no problem. In fact, we hear nothing but the opposite with clients sharing with us that we are bringing them some of their highest quality and converting traffic – both through their SEO mini-sites as well as through Buzzillions.

Finally, Bazaarvoice actually engages in exactly what they accuse us of doing via SyndicateVoice to Smarter.com and other Price Comparison Engines, which deliver CPC based traffic that may not deliver a positive ROI and ultimately drives low price shoppers that are loyal only to price and not to the merchant. At the same time, these comparison shopping engines are competing directly with the retailers for the SAME CUSTOMERS, using the SAME STRATEGIES (SEO, SEM), with the SAME CONTENT.

It’s funny to think that, while BazaarVoice criticizes Buzzillions with claims of duplicate-content, its SyndicateVoice “solution” does exactly that – it duplicates their client’s content across dozens of price comparison engines.

Of course, you are the retailers and are faced with decisions like this on a daily basis; specifically where to send your traffic and who are you going to trust.

I want to leave you with this. You know me, my years as an online retailer and my passion for the customer experience. I could never be involved with something that I thought was intentionally detrimental to the rest of my network of merchant friends. In my heart I know there is no SEO problem because if there was we certainly would have heard it by now, loudly in fact.

What you are hearing these days is simply competitive nonsense, meant to do just one thing: stir enough fear into you that will keep you from doing business with our company – no matter what the cost in terms of lost revenue and opportunities.

So, do you want to join the ranks of REI, Staples, ToysRUs, Radio Shack, Overstock, HSN, Petco and nearly 300 others, maybe even for a 60-day trial period? Or do you want to sit on the sidelines because of something someone whispered into your ear without any real supportable evidence.

The decision is yours – please remember that.

Top-Rated Products: A Merchant’s New Best Friend

Hey everyone

Last week, my good friend Chip Arndt, EVP Business Development/Co-Founder of Merchant Advantage, invited me to be a guest blogger on his highly insightful and entertaining www.etaildtail.com.

So I penned up some thoughts on the newly forming merchandising battle between Top-Rated vs. Best Selling products. I got so many emails on the subject that I thought you all might enjoy the read as well…

Move over Best Sellers, a more powerful and proven enticement has arrived!

As a former merchant myself, (former VP of Marketing at Wine.com) I understand the power of merchandising and the important role that the merchandising of most popular and best selling products play in getting your customer’s attention. That’s why I am thrilled to be sharing with you the latest “hidden gem” that comes from leveraging customer reviews on your websites: I want you all to meet Top-Rated Products.

The marketing of best sellers, up to now, has probably been the surest and easiest way for merchants to generate quick sales. Let’s face it, somewhere at the core of our buying public is the notion of “having what everyone else has,” so advertising what is most popular in the form of best selling items is a “no brainer” of sorts. There are some inherent problems with this approach, however, as a product’s selling popularity can be due to a myriad or reasons, the most often being discount or sale pricing. So while best sellers can often drive sales, they don’t often drive matching profits!

Now let’s meet Top-Rated or as my friends at Mountain Gear, User-Approved Products (you have got to love that one!). First of all, these items all have one thing in common – customers rave about their off-the-shelf performance. And one thing we have heard over and over and over again from our clients these past months is that shoppers are willing to pay for guaranteed performance. These items, then, are often sold at full price with no need for coupon or discount incentives to drive heightened consumer interest. They garner attention simply by being rated as standouts by the customers that use them!

Here are some interesting data points and or general trends associated with Top-Rated vs. Best Seller email and website campaigns as shared by clients including Brookstone, Staples, REI, Onlineshoes and Mountain Gear. Highlights of Top rated merchandising include:

• Open rates with Top-Rated subject lines outperformed Best Seller campaign and open rates for email
• Equal and or increased click-thru rates for email campaigns
• Mountain Gear saw a 50% higher AOV with Top-Rated email campaigns
• For website merchandising efforts, REI saw their Top-Rated category outperform corresponding Best Sellers by a $20 higher AOV as top-rated items are often sold at full price (yea!)
• Top Rated as a presentation sort on category pages (dropdown menu choice) is becoming the preferred customer experience

The rate at which our clients are sharing these wins with us is all the proof I need to say the rest of you merchants out there, let me introduce you to your new best friend – Top Rated Products!

Hope this helps get your Q2 ’08 off to a rousing start!

TAG: They’re NOT it!!!

Blog Preface

We have stood by quietly as Bazaarvoice’s review solution has “evolved” from the long time, commonly used sub-category structure they originally took to market to look more and more like our innovative tag-based approach over the past months. No more. They have crossed the line with their recent Mighty Leaf Tea implementation and I am pushing back. Notice given.

The Blog

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but I have a message to Bazaarvoice: stop “flattering” us by mimicking our innovative approach to customer reviews.

Let me explain:

One of our customers, Mighty Leaf Tea, wanted to switch vendors – and of course we ensured that they were able to take the thousands of reviews that they had created with our review system with them. As we have always said, it’s their content. We expected their new vendor – Bazaarvoice – to import the reviews that we helped Mighty Leaf Tea created into their solution which they have today.

What we did not expect was to have our innovative, patent-pending technology imported as well.

Bazaarvoice’s blog announcement today about their implementation on Might Tea Leaf sparked my interest so I visited the Mighty Leaf Tea site to see what it looked like. And that is when I saw it – the review template that they implemented was nearly an EXACT copy of our review template for tea. And they’ve branded it TagShare by Bazaarvoice, and to call it a rip-off is too kind.

There is a fine line between “research” and “plagiarism” (as Tom Lehrer reminded us!), but this is pretty clearly on the other side of that line, and I’m concerned that this inferior copy of our tag-based approach technology and vision that we have presented to the online community since our very first day of business is actually quite detrimental in their hands, as Bazaarvoice has no idea how to even implement it and integrate it into a client’s site.

Want proof? How’s this: have you ever owned a “Weak” or “Bitter” teapot? Me neither, but thanks to Bazaarvoice, you can actually describe a teapot (or any other tea-related accessory) as “bitter,” “flat” or “great aroma.” Why? Because our tag-based approach to reviews was copied BADLY!!!

You see, unlike Bazaarvoice, we have a separate review template for every product category, subcategory and down to the most detailed subcategory product offering a client may have so that the right voice and the right conversation is captured during the review process. For instance, we have a separate template for books, cookbooks, Italian cookbooks, etc. each with pros and cons specifically associated with that subcategory/product.

Bazaarvoice does not use this approach. In fact, they use same review form per client across that client’s entire product offering no matter how varied the products are or the selection is. So whether the customer is being asked to review a toaster, a vacuum, a digital camera or even a power surge protector, it is the same form, with the same questions.

It is obvious that they can copy and paste, quite well in fact, what’s not obvious is why this self ascribed word-of-mouth expert does see the need for or value in category specific templates or perhaps intentionally choose not to deploy them to limit implementation efforts. To us, all products are not the same, so why would you apply the same review form to each? Why would you advertise a new feature – Tagshare – that actually forces a reviewer to evaluate a teapot or teakettle in terms of it being “bitter?” Can someone, please answer me that?

So with this being the case, you can image my surprise – and disgust – when I see that Bazaarvoice implemented reviews on Mighty Leaf Tea’s site using a tag-based format for selecting pros and cons that is nearly an exact copy of ours. In fact, four of the five “Pro” tags are exactly the same as ours, as are the four “con” tags, except that they slightly modified one to read “Prefers Tea Pouches” instead of “Prefers Loose Tea.” And while I publicly thanks and acknowledge Mighty Leaf Tea for helping drive the choice of tags on our tea template, the presentation of tags in a pre-populated form with functionality to collect additional user-generated alternative tags is our brainchild. And if duplicating the actual review approach isn’t revealing enough, they used the exact same example for location – San Jose. What did San Jose ever do to them?

But don’t take my word on it, see for yourself and decide after reviewing the following screenshots. (don’t forget to try to review a teapot and see if something looks familiar to you there, too. http://www.mightyleaf.com/product.aspx?ID=336&CategoryID=76

Bazaarvoice review template – Mighty Leaf Tea pros and cons

PowerReviews review template – Mighty Leaf Tea pros and cons

Bragging Rights!

It’s been a while since I really went down the self-indulgent verbiage path so now seemed like the perfect time. Here it goes!

I am thrilled to share with you that PowerReviews is the most implemented customer review solution in the world! We are now partnered with more than 240 merchants across every major retail category and now power the review solution on more than 2,000 websites! Yes, you read that correctly.

From retailers small to large and in between and whether offering gifts, consumables, clothing or household goods – heck almost anything for that matter – we are there.

To see the real power of our review network all you have to do is go to Buzzillions and visit the “Labs” section of the site, scroll down and click on “Real Time Reviews” to see it larger than life.

Do this and you will see just a sampling of the reviews as they are being processed and then pin-pointed to the U.S. map and beyond (thanks Google Maps). I don’t want to say more on this as the actual visual experience is more impressive than anything I could put into writing – so make sure you see it for yourself.

And speaking of Buzzillions, we continue to be impressed not only with the performance of this customer review/product research site of ours, but with the enormous attention and interest that some of the most popular and well know merchants outside of our client network are giving us! Besides Petco and Overstock, other merchants sending us their product review feeds whether generated by their own proprietary in-house system or another service provider include HSN, Moosejaw and soon to be launched Zappos and Shoebuy.com. I am sure I am forgetting someone else, but to be honest, I am having a hard time keeping track these days.

And as always, I say never just take my word on it folks, see and experience it for yourselves!

The Growing Influence of Online Social Shoppers

Who ya going to trust these days? Well, according to us at PowerReviews – and now the latest report from eMarketer – you are going to trust “people just like you!”

We’ve been saying it since day one and it has been coming true ever since. The voice you want to hear about how a product really performs off the shelf sounds just like your own!

According to the Edelman “Truth Barometer” (see report), “consumers feel the most credible source for information about a company—and by inference, products— is a “person like themselves.” A whopping 60% think so for starters.

And check out this latest stat from Jupiter Research:

So let me just say this about that…..if you have reviews on your site now – good for you! And if you don’t then you better get on board, because this train is nearly left the station. As of last count (last week) we have partnered with more than 240 clients to-date and now power the customer review engine for nearly 2,000 retail websites!