Update: Consumer Generated Content (CGC) for Online Shopping Sites

A few weeks ago I posted an article about the consumer generated content (CGC) on travel web sites. Well I’m back from vacation and in my inbox I came across this latest survey on CGC and online shopping.The results of an opinion poll survey released today** by Bazaarvoice, a company that provides social commerce applications and Vizu Corporation, a leading market research company shows that CGC like ratings, reviews, and other consumer generated feedback are becoming more and more crucial for brands advertising and selling on the Web.

The results are telling:

• 80 percent of US shoppers place more trust in brands that offer customer ratings and reviews.
• 3 out of 4 shoppers stated that it was extremely or very important to read customer reviews before making a purchase, and they prefer peer reviews over expert reviews by a 6-to-1 margin.
• 44% of US Shoppers polled consider ratings and reviews to be the most useful eCommerce site feature.

The survey confirms both the trend towards Web 2.0 tactics on e-commerce web sites and the growing preference of consumers to base buying decisions on peer feedback.

In a quick informal review of major consumer brand web sites, I was somewhat suprised to find that Sony, Apple, Motorola, and Ikea did not offer customer review and/or ratings features within their storefronts. I thought for sure that these companies would want some level of customer dialogue.

Of the sites I did find that offer customer feedback features, they seem to break down into two categories; those companies with only online storefronts like

• Shopping.com (offers a twist in that customers can enter reviews on companies),
• Amazon.com (one of the earliest online companies to offer customer reviews - check out the reviews for Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows), and
• Zappos.com.

Online storefronts for brick-and-mortar superchains like

• Petco.com,
• Target.com, and
• Walmart.com (the latest company to bow to pressure for customer review features - just added July 19th.)

Petco.com Customer Feedback Feature

So why can’t I tell Apple what I think of the new Video iPod? In part, it may be that the stores I mentioned above are companies selling numerous brands from their storefronts and customer feedback aids shoppers in product comparison. Or perhaps, brands like Apple and Motorola do most of their business from other shopping sites rather than the ones maintained on their web sites. Or, maybe it’s just that these brands don’t want to navigate the waters of negative feedback.

One exception I found to major brand sites using customer reviews was Dell.com. In this example that I found you can see a bit of what Motorola and Apple might be anxious to avoid.

Dell.com Customer Feedback Feature

In either case, I suspect that the rise in popularity of customer reviews and feedback features shows that online shopping is moving towards open marketplace dialogue between companies and consumers (something a bit akin to how eBay functions). This would mean that buyers will no longer purchase products solely based on the advertising and marketing efforts of a brand or company, but will instead rely more and more on the opinions of other peer consumers and shoppers - all of which are easily accessible online. In turn, to remain competitive consumer brands will continue to feel the pressure to include CGC and other social tools on their sites.

**Results of the survey were collected via Vizu Answers online market research network from May 16, 2007 to June 6, 2007. Multiple votes were restricted, no artificial incentives were employed and a geographic audit was performed to ensure unbiased and valid results.

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