Consumer Reviews and Retail Success
Shopping seasons guide consumer demand and shape consumer conversation across many different categories, but at what time of the year are consumer reviews the most in-demand, and how can analyzing customer conversations and reviews help marketers learn more about specific shopping seasons? Bazaarvoice, an agency focused on monitoring reviews, analytics and targeted media, recently released a report analyzing over 100,000 pieces of consumer-written content and traffic trends, and the results show engaged shoppers who are reading reviews are more likely to buy.
Back-to-school season
The Bazaarvoice report shows back-to-school shoppers who read reviews on consumer electronics 
or office supplies are 37 percent more likely to make purchases than those who don’t. And the back-to-school shopping season is beginning earlier than might be commonly expected.
When shoppers were asked when they planned to do their back-to-school research, respondents indicated that research would peak in mid- to late-July. But the impressions of customer-written reviews and product question and answers (Q&A) across consumer electronics and office supplies show differently.
Shoppers were actually researching back-to-school purchases as early as mid-June. And research peaked in the first week of July – weeks earlier than predicted. The Bazaarvoice report concludes that it’s likely the market research was skewed by response bias, and that shoppers didn’t actually predict their own behavior.
During the back-to-school season in 2013, visitors who reached a consumer electronics or office supplies product page were 37% more likely to convert if they interacted with reviews. Similarly, revenue per visit in consumer electronics and office supplies increased 28% and 48%, respectively, when site visitors read reviews.
Bazaarvoice suggests beginning back-to-school promotions earlier in the summer to reach more shoppers while they’re making decisions, promoting reviews and customer Q&A in stores and online during the back-to-school research period and equipping sales staff with mobile devices to help in-store shoppers check customer feedback while in stores.
Holiday consumer research
Consumer research and reviews are also key in the crucial retail holiday season. In 2013, review pageviews for the months of November and December exceeded that of all other months by 38% and 48%, respectively.
Drilling down further, Bazaarvoice discovered that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the most review-trafficked days of the year, beating the November daily average review pageviews by 77% and 84%. Cyber Monday review traffic hit its peak for the entire year at 2PM CST on December 2, and again later that evening at 8PM. The report deemed that it’s likely some shoppers browsed deals during the day, perhaps while at work, and then again later at home.
Bazaarvoice suggests that retailers make reviews especially prominent during these heavily shopped days. For example, display “top rated” gift lists on home pages and in marketing content. Load up on review volume before the holiday shopping season kicks off and make an extra effort to gather reviews on predicted holiday bestsellers early to make sure there is a good volume of content on those products as the season heats up.
