Consumers are getting a chance to sound off more this year.
Shoppers have been able to review and rate purchases on online-only retailers like Amazon.com for more than a decade. This year, a number of traditional retailers like Federated Department Stores’ Macy’s and Home Depot Inc. have added the feature, while destinations such as Yahoo! Shopping have made customer reviews more central.
Are opinions worth dollars? We'll see.
Not everybody is jumping in head first, though.
Until now, many retailers balked at the challenge of building the technology and screening every review for obscenity or spam, according to Andy Chen, CEO of Bazaarvoice’s main competitor, PowerReviews. The formal launch of the two companies, which also have the manpower to screen reviews, has helped accelerate the trend.
"Old school" business models still have a fear of on line conversations. One place where reviews are readily used is Amazon.com.
Even Amazon saw hesitation from manufacturers worried about bad reviews at first, according to Patty Smith, a spokeswoman for the company. But, she said, “once people actually saw it in action, saw that people could have honest debate and dialogue about a particular product, manufacturers and publishers realized it was good for them as well.”
More companies are starting to dip their toes in the water.
Hewlett-Packard Co. started testing a reviews-and-ratings feature for its line of printers on Nov. 9. So far, thousands of reviews have been posted, and the company expects them to convert more browsers into buyers on shopping.hp.com.
Here's the truth of the situation. Consumers are already engaged in these conversations.
Shoppers were already writing HP product reviews on other sites, said Sam Taylor, senior vice president of HP Direct, so HP added reviews to make its own home shopping site the most complete source for product information.
At least now consumers can see both sides of the conversation in one place. Plus it's a great way for companies to gather valuable business information.
Taylor said negative reviews were hard to stomach at first, but they “give customers the confidence that these are unedited.” Plus, HP can use the direct feedback from real customers when it upgrades or redesigns products.
Ah, the beauty of the internet. And the truth is, it's turning out to be much less scary than many first thought.
In practice, retailers need not fear an onslaught of bad reviews: Between 80 and 90 percent are positive 4 or 5 stars, according to Bazaarvoice and PowerReviews executives.
As since it's the business world, success will breed success. Hopefully the consumer will end up the real winner.
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