foresee

Online Shoppers Give Thumbs Up to
Customer Product Reviews, According
to Study By ForeSee Results

Internet Pure Plays Lead Adoption of Customer Product Reviews

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (January 10, 2007) – Retail websites that offer customer product reviews have a competitive advantage, while sites that don’t are missing an opportunity to drive satisfaction and loyalty, according to an analysis of the Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index.

The Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index produced by ForeSee Results surveyed over 10,000 online visitors to one or more of the top 40 online retailers by revenue during the 2006 holiday shopping season. The study found that almost half of the online shoppers that recalled seeing customer product reviews cited them as the primary factor in their holiday purchase decision-making.

Among the key findings on customer product reviews:

  • Customer product reviews drive satisfaction and loyalty and provide a competitive advantage for sites that offer them;
  • Customer product reviews are a powerful influencer of the purchase decision for the critical group of first-time buyers;
  • Internet pure plays lead adoption of customer product reviews, providing a competitive advantage online over multi-channel merchants;
  • Shoppers on sites with customer product reviews were 5% more likely to buy online, 5% more likely to buy from the retailer the next holiday season, and 4% more likely to purchase from the retailer the next time they are in the market for similar merchandise.

“Shoppers looking for product information often turn to online product reviews. E-retailers that don’t offer reviews run the risk of losing business to sites where shoppers can both read reviews and buy the product, ” said Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee Results and an online customer satisfaction expert. “This gets a little tricky for manufacturers’ sites because there’s always the risk that consumers, in their brutal honesty, will pan a product. But it’s gotten to the point that companies that want to sell online have to offer customer product reviews to be competitive.”

About ForeSee Results

ForeSee Results is the market leader in online customer satisfaction management and converting satisfaction data into user-driven web development strategies. Using the methodology of the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), ForeSee Results scientifically quantifies the elements that drive online customer satisfaction and predicts future behaviors such as purchase, return site visits or referrals. A partial list of retail clients includes Best Buy, Blair, Cabela’s, Danskin, Eileen Fisher, Fashion Bug, Gateway, Lane Bryant, Newegg, Overstock, Restoration Hardware and Tower Records. ForeSee Results, a privately held company, is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan and on the web at www.ForeSeeResults.com.