Monday, June 25th, 2007 by Greg Howlett

19

Four Things You Should Know About Collecting User Reviews

At Internet Retailer 2007, I was impressed with a presentation presented by Geoffrey Robertson, VP of eCommerce at JC Whitney. JC Whitney is the largest direct marketer of automotive aftermarket parts in the world, and is also one of the largest e-tailers.

Robertson discussed the recent addition of user reviews to their site and gave great information about the impact on sales. Here are the highlights:

1) User reviews have a huge impact on sales. JC Whitney reviews utilize a five star rating. Products that rated five stars saw a 16% increase in revenue, while products that rated four stars saw a 8% increase. However, products that rated three stars saw a 10% decrease in sales. Two stars resulted in a 23% decrease and one star resulted in a 31% decrease in revenue.

2) Companies need to aggressively solicit reviews. JC Whitney drove substantial reviews through an initial sweepstakes, and subsequent spikes in reviews were tied to post-sale emails. Do not expect reviews to come in without some effort.

3) User reviews do not necessarily improve customer loyalty. JC Whitney saw no correlation between the introduction of reviews and repeat business.

4) User reviews do not necessarily drive more organic search traffic. JC Whitney found no increase in natural search traffic because of their user reviews. (I would normally have been surprised to learn this, but at Vitabase, we have noticed the same thing.)

JC Whitney has greatly elevated the visibility of user reviews on its site, with a special focus on products that earn at least four stars. Interestingly, they feature the reviews all the way into the shopping cart.


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19 comments on “Four Things You Should Know About Collecting User Reviews”

  1. Jaan Kanellis Says:

    June 25th, 2007 at 2:35 pm

    “4) User reviews do not necessarily drive more organic search traffic. JC Whitney found no increase in natural search traffic because of their user reviews. (I would normally have been surprised to learn this, but at Vitabase, we have noticed the same thing.)”

    Maybe not directly, but the additional content to each page has to help with relevance.

  2. Cavan Moon Says:

    June 25th, 2007 at 2:58 pm

    Nice write up Greg, the impact of customer reviews seem to be a hotter topic of late. I’m surprised that the reviews don’t directly drive organic traffic, but I would think there are ancillary benefits. In addition to Jaan’s note, I would think the regualar addition of content (via reviews) to individual product pages would be beneficial to the ranking of the page itself.

  3. Andy Beal Says:

    June 25th, 2007 at 5:18 pm

    Wow, it’s amazing that user reviews have the potential to harm your revenue more than they can help.

  4. rick gregory Says:

    June 25th, 2007 at 6:37 pm

    Greg,

    Three questions…

    1) Did overall sales rise for them? Or did the same number of sales simply rebalance existing volume toward 4 and 5 star products?

    2) Did they require a minimum number of reviews for a rating to appear? I’d hate to have one or two reviews move sales dramatically, esp when the 3 star reviews have a significant negative effect.

    3) given that, did they feel that a 5 step scale was working or are the considering a half star increment, etc.

    4) and finally, how did they deal with issues of gaming the reviews? It must be tempting to spike your sales by putting a five star review up or conversely to hurt competitors by giving them a 2 star review. I’m not commenting on the ethics of this, but if these results are typical and they become widely known it’s going to be very tempting for people to game reviews.

  5. Greg Howlett Says:

    June 25th, 2007 at 10:45 pm

    Rick,

    They said that reviews improved sales, but did not give specifics. I do not remember them addressing your second issue or third issue. Regarding the gaming of reviews, they as well as other companies believe that quantity overcomes the gaming. Obviously, gaming reviews is a big problem that already exists, and is probably the biggest challenge that we face when using user generated content to increase sales.

    It is quite possible that gaming user generated content will become the new “spam” of the internet.

  6. rick gregory Says:

    June 25th, 2007 at 11:16 pm

    Greg,

    thanks for the reply… during the dotcom era the company I was with bought a consumer review site and they also subscribed to the quantity overcomes gaming view… they just didn’t show scores until a product had five reviews…. they did other things, but that and watching IPs worked pretty well.

    Nice posts the last couple of weeks btw… thanks for diving into this issue.

  7. More About Online Reviews Says:

    June 26th, 2007 at 12:11 am

    [...] Check out this  great followup to my last post. It is by Greg Howlett at Marketing Pilgram, Four Things You Should Know About Collecting User Reviews. Greg reviews a presentation that was recently given about how online reviews have impacted sales at JC Whitney, the largest direct marketer of automotive aftermarket parts in the world. I won’t steal Greg’s thunder, so head over a take a peak. [...]

  8. dotnetnuke Says:

    June 26th, 2007 at 8:25 am

    Greg, nice article.
    The third is an object to review.

  9. Noah Says:

    June 26th, 2007 at 9:41 am

    Maybe I missed this but, was there a difference in new customer sales vs. repeat customer sales with the rating system?

  10. Greg Howlett Says:

    June 26th, 2007 at 9:44 am

    Noah, JC Whitney did not give specifics about increase in revenue, but hinted that it did happen. Since they said the reviews made no impact on repeat business, that means they may have seen the growth with new customers.

  11. Four Things to Know About User Reviews » eCommerce Cache :: Varien eCommerce Blog :: A blog focused on the design, marketing, and implementation of online commerce Says:

    June 26th, 2007 at 12:48 pm

    [...] As longtime readers of the eCommerce Cache know, we’re often advocates of user reviews on shopping sites of all shapes and sizes. They’re an easy way to create a social shopping atmosphere, and good reviews almost always result in higher overall conversions. Because of this, we’re always excited to offer you any tips we find around the web that can help you improve your own store’s user-generated content and help you decide if user reviews are right for your site. Yesterday, Marketing Pilgrim posted notes on what must have been a fascinating presentation at the Internet Retailer Conference outlining “Four Things You Should Know About Collecting User Reviews.” Below are the first two facts to keep in mind when considering user reviews for your site, but for the rest, you’ll have to check out the post. 1) User reviews have a huge impact on sales. JC Whitney reviews utilize a five star rating. Products that rated five stars saw a 16% increase in revenue, while products that rated four stars saw a 8% increase. However, products that rated three stars saw a 10% decrease in sales. Two stars resulted in a 23% decrease and one star resulted in a 31% decrease in revenue. [...]

  12. Steven Bradley Says:

    June 26th, 2007 at 3:45 pm

    I wouldn’t have expected the decrease in sales for the three star reviews, at least not a 10% decrease. It’s interesting that a three star review which is essentially a non-positive and non-negative vote would have more effect than the positive four star review.

    It makes me wonder how a 10 star review would be received. Would the increase in sales begin with a rating of six or would it take an eight to generate an increase.

    On the other end would a three star system work better with both two and three ratings seeing an increase in sales and only a one star review lead to a decrease.

    I’d think there would be an ideal rating division to get the most sales increases.

  13. Ed Kohler Says:

    June 27th, 2007 at 3:46 pm

    Reviews really help breathe some life into a site. It makes it feel like you’re not the first person who’s ever been there. Reassurance is good.

  14. This Week In SEO - 6/29/07 - TheVanBlog Says:

    June 29th, 2007 at 10:46 pm

    [...] Four Things You Should Know About Collecting User Reviews [...]

  15. Friday Night Link-o-rama » Small Business SEM Says:

    June 30th, 2007 at 2:02 am

    [...] I’m hoping to put together a little post soon on user reviews, and I’ll probably borrow some of the data from a couple Marketing Pilgrim posts this week: Four Things You Should Know About Collecting User Reviews, and the follow-up: Five More Important Facts About User Reviews in E-tail. [...]

  16. 1001 Lists To Read Before You Die | Terabell - technology, law, programming and a laugh Says:

    August 11th, 2007 at 5:31 am

    [...] You to Know 755.  The six things you can’t say in Silicon Valley 756.  Four Things You Should Know About Collecting User Reviews 757.  Eight Things You Can’t Do with Premise-Based Call Center Hardware [...]

  17. Jay Virdy Says:

    September 1st, 2007 at 9:22 pm

    I would like to point out that a 3-star average review doesn’t necessarily mean a non-positive or non-negative vote. In many instances it means the users either loved the product or hated it.

    Here’s a short study discussing this topic on our web site:
    http://www.summize.com/review-fatigue.html

  18. Adding Reviews and Testimonials To Your Website Is Content Gold - Jaan’s Search Marketing and SEO Blog from Cincinnati, Ohio Says:

    February 20th, 2008 at 8:50 am

    [...] Four Things You Should Know About Collecting User Reviews [...]

  19. #49. Read ‘The 1001 List Of Quality Reads’ « 6ixx Says:

    June 16th, 2008 at 2:57 am

    [...] Doesn’t Want You to Know 755. The six things you can’t say in Silicon Valley 756. Four Things You Should Know About Collecting User Reviews 757. Eight Things You Can’t Do with Premise-Based Call Center Hardware 758. Five Journal [...]

 
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