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!

Adoption of Social Navigation Continues

Late last month I shared with you the exciting launch of social navigation by Onlineshoes.com. I said then that while Onlineshoes was the first to do so, many retailers would soon follow and they have.

I am thrilled to share with you two more retailers that have integrated customer feedback directly into the site navigation. In conjunction with their platform provider GSI Commerce, Toys R Us and Dick’s Sporting Goods both began offering the social navigation experience on their respective sites.

So what does this really mean? Let me both explain and show you:

Toys R Us

On the Toys R Us site, shoppers visiting the Games and Puzzles Category can now browse for products based on highly relevant insights from customers just like them. Our customer reviews solution uses a tag-based approach for gathering data which can then be summarized and presented as additional filtering choices in the site navigation. In addition to narrowing selections by price, brand or color, shoppers at Toys R Us are only one click away from discovering games and puzzles that are easy to assemble or have clear instructions or great for the backyard. Equally important is the ability to find items recommended by other casual or avid game players or, which I think is incredibly empowering, are from Child Care Providers – now that is one voice that many folks might want to hear from.

Here are some of the navigational choices now available in the Games and Puzzles category:

Pros

• Awesome
• Clear Instructions
• Easy Assembly

Best Uses

Backyard
Creative Development
Entertainment

User Profile

• Avid Gamer
• Casual Player
• Child Care Provider

While powered by the same technology, the experience on Dicks Sporting Goods is excitedly different in both presentation and filtering choices presented to the shoppers. The new tags ideally capture the voice of the reviewer in terms of the type of golfer they are and the specific product attributes they are interested in, allowing the shopper to connect with the product.

Visiting the Golf Clubs, Drivers category, avid shoppers quickly notice the addition of star ratings in the product list display – immediately signaling that reviews must be near by!
Dick’s Sporting Goods

The names for the customer feedback section headers are slight different with more intimate headers like Why I like it and About me. With this implementation, shoppers can quickly and easily find the drivers that match them and their interests such as the most accurate for off the tee use by other beginners like me. And with just three clicks the shopper is presented with 10 products to choose from out of the original 79 drivers presented.

Why I like it

• Accurate
• Comfortable
• Large sweet spot

How I use it

• Long Holes
• Off the tee
• Replacement

About me

• Beginner
• Casual player
• Golf Enthusiast
• Tournament golfer

I invite you all to see these experiences for themselves and play around and watch the magic happen.

Oh, and one final note. There are those out there that are saying that their site offers social navigation just because they integrated the rating level into their navigation – such as shop for items that are 4 Star or higher. While this “technically” can qualify as social navigation, it certainly does not capture the spirit or experience that the term suggests. In fact that is like referring to a Vespa as a motorcycle! So beware out there – make sure you know what you want and don’t settle for less!

I’m on top of the world – Omniture Summit ‘08

In the world of marketing there is “impressive” and then there is IMPRESSIVE. I can honestly tell all of you that of the dozens and dozens of trade shows and conferences that I have attended, I have never seen one so well managed, organized, empowering, inspiring and well, impressive, at this year’s Omniture Summit ‘08 in Salt Lake City.

Leaving the opulent and grand setting of the Grand America aside for another discussion, the show’s content, professionalism mixed with the “family” culture of the Omniture Organization makes this event a never to be missed. This culture, the caring of an entire organization that every customer achieves the highest level of success by using their products and services, is undoubtedly why this company – recently chosen as one of the Top 50 Most Innovative companies in the world – attracted the throngs of people it did with 2,000 people in attendance. In fact, it was the largest EVER user conference for online marketing and web analytics professionals in the world.

Now take all that information and technology and applications and mix it with inspiring key notes from Lance Armstrong and Seth Godin and you leave wanting to change the entire world – your world at home, work and play. At the end of his talk, Lance was presented with a $50,000 check from Omniture for his foundation on behalf of all us attendees as well as another $100,000 pledge by the entire Omniture executive team. In closing, Lance challenged everyone in the partially teary-eyed audience to get involved, make a difference and be part of the cure – for whatever aspect of life or community that you see is ailing.

That next morning, Seth Godin entertained, dazzled and as always awakened the crowd with lots of new ideas from his new book Meatball Sundae which “explores the 14 trends that are changing the world and how organizations can either embrace them or be punished by them.” On a more personal note, I had the chance to re-introduce myself to Seth after these many years since first engaging with him when he served on the Board of Directors at Ofoto.com. Some of you might recall that my very first Internet job was as Ofoto when I joined that incredible start-up as employee #20! I had the very distinct pleasure at that time to meet Seth a few times back then and be schooled by the master himself. I credit much of the success I have achieved these past many years to those times when he would he openly shared his Internet perspectives with our management team. So do make sure to read his newest book Meatball Sunday as it is yet another “must read” from this industry genius.

So what do you do next when you have been to the top of the technology mountain these past few days, well you go climb – or ski – a mountain of your own. And so I did, I skied the slopes at Snowbird all day with my dear friends at Omniture, Derek Bryce, David Blake, and Todd Trippany, soaking in the unparalleled vistas, great conversations and fantastic friendships.

Before I sign off, I must say how great it was to see the enormous success that all my friends at Omniture have achieved these past five years, since I first became a client of theirs while at Wine.com in 2003. So hats off to Josh James, John Pestana, Mark Dillon, Mark Stock, Don Cash, Chris Harrington, Brett Error, Mike Herring and the rest of the incredible team there. But special recognition must be made to Gail Ennis and Stuart Gold who put on one heck of a show!

Mind the Gap!

If any of you have ever traveled the London Underground – or the “Tube” as they refer to it here, they you know what I am talking about. For those of you that don’t, then let’s just say it is the sometimes WIDE distance between the car and the platform. And trust me on this one friend, there are times when this gap is best kept in mind when departing.

And if you really want to take the pulse of London, or any metro area for that matter, just ride public transportation and you will see and hear all that is afoot especially in terms of media advertising. So what did I immediately see while looking around the Tube, well lots and lots of dot.com advertisements!

Besides the overabundance of broadband service, there was the familiar Match.com as well as these: lastminute.com that caters to last minute travelers in search of deals, there was confused.com, insureandgo.com, both about insurance needs.

Why I am blogging about dot.coms and Mind the Gap, you see, is that the gap in offline and online behavior in the U.K. has significantly lessened or “shrunk” since my last visit in March 2007. Last March, before joining PowerReviews, I had the distinct honor of serving on Mercado’s Customer Advisory Board. And it was at that time that they sponsored a brief speaking tour for me here in London to address a few crowds of their customers and prospects. It was then that I took a significant inventory of the online business in the U.K. as well as made some projections of my own in terms of how fast this metro would further embrace the online world of ecommerce and “catch-up” to the U.S. pace and adoption.

And from what I have seen since my arrival, this capital city is now on par with the best that the U.S. has to offer in terms of awareness, penetration and adoption of online shopping. Besides the mini-billboard type advertisements in the underground, every fun and trendy shop I have passed these past days has their URL firmly painted and planted on their storefront windows.

So while there will always be a gap between tube trains and their platforms, the gap in online shopping adoption between the U.K. and the U.S. has notably changed for the better. Now, I guess I better just Mind the Doors as this train is ready to depart.

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!

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!)