Customer reviews support multiple forms of marketing as well as boosting sales

[mandy]

Further, customer-generated reviews present powerful new opportunities in marketing and product development, industry experts say.

“This is one of the most exciting things that we’ve had come down the pike in a long time,” says David Seifert, director of operations and direct marketing at Bass Pro Shops, where reviews are driving conversion rates up 20% to 30%. “Customers really have an affinity for this, because they would rather believe other customers than the retailer any day of the week. There are very few things like this that we can implement this easily and quickly, get this kind of response from customers, and make this kind of money off of it.”

The power of persuasion
Customer-generated reviews, however, pose challenges for retailers, the first of which is persuading shoppers to write them—and with usable content. Although HP reports a fast response from review contributors, many retailers resort to incentives. To kick-start their programs Bass Pro Shops enticed contributors with chances to win e-mailed gift certificates in values of $100 and $200, a tactic that has helped the retailer amass some 14,000 reviews so far...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=20944