Bazaarvoice and iPerceptions Team With CompUSA to Analyze Shoppers' Use of Ratings and Reviews.Data Gathered From Over 2,000 Shoppers Show That Over 80% Consider Ratings and Reviews "Important" in Researching or Planning a Purchase AUSTIN, Texas -- Bazaarvoice, an innovator in helping brands use online word of mouth to build their businesses, and iPerceptions, a leading web-focused attitudinal analytics provider, today announced that 81% of surveyed CompUSA shoppers consider customer ratings and reviews important when they are researching or planning a purchase. The findings are based on feedback and comments gathered by iPerceptions from over 2,000 CompUSA online shoppers during the month of August 2006. CompUSA is one of the nation's leading retailers and resellers of technology products and services. "CompUSA offers over 20,000 products online," said Al Hurlebaus, Sr. Director of eCommerce at CompUSA. "Customer ratings and reviews are absolutely critical to helping our customers choose the right products from this assortment assortment /as·sort·ment/ (ah-sort´ment) the random distribution of nonhomologous chromosomes to daughter cells in metaphase of the first meiotic division. as·sort·ment n. - and for attracting new shoppers to our site. We've seen the great data on ratings and reviews from the analysts this year, and we are now able to develop an understanding of how ratings and reviews influence the decisions of our own customers." A recent study by JupiterKagan found that the number of online buyers who cite customer ratings and reviews as the most useful shopping site feature has more than doubled from 2005 to 2006. JupiterKagan also found that online shoppers who find user-generated product ratings and reviews useful are heavier online spenders than average online buyers. In addition to measuring the overall importance of customer ratings and reviews for consumer electronics purchases, the CompUSA study provides new insights into the conditions that influence the importance and relevance of other consumers' opinions: * Surveyed shoppers indicated that both positive and negative reviews helped them make the right purchase decision for their needs. Some shoppers even stated that they consult ratings and reviews before making every online purchase. * Repeat customers considered ratings and reviews more important (86%) than one-time buyers (82%), underscoring the value of ratings and reviews in fostering customer loyalty and repeat purchase behavior. * Highly qualified shoppers - those who indicated that they were "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to make a purchase - considered ratings and reviews more important (85%) to their decision process than those who were unlikely to purchase (70%). * Younger shoppers consider ratings and reviews more important than older shoppers do. Importance was highest (88%) for the "less than 18" segment and lowest (70%) for the "45 and older" segment. "Our findings for CompUSA represent a significant advancement in measuring the impact of customer word of mouth on both online conversion and branding," said Jerry Tarasofsky, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of iPerceptions. "With ratings and reviews, CompUSA has managed to transform thousands of customer voices into a very tangible and strategic marketing advantage. Harnessing customer word of mouth is critically important for companies that want to build their businesses in the always-on and always-connected online environment." "CompUSA understands that customer ratings and reviews are strategic to their customer acquisition and conversion efforts," said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. "Online word of mouth and user-generated content The production of content by the general public rather than by paid professionals and experts in the field. Mostly available on the Web via blogs and wikis, user-generated content refers to material such as the daily news, encyclopedias and other references, movie and product reviews as is gaining more and more momentum and merchants who consider ratings and reviews to be just a site feature are at risk of missing out on a huge multichannel marketing Refers to using several methods to sell products and services. The term has become popular since the advent of the Web, because it adds a prominent new channel to storefronts and catalog sales. One consideration of multichannel marketing is that each channel reinforce the other. opportunity." About Bazaarvoice Based in Austin, Texas, Bazaarvoice offers outsourced technology, community management services, analytics, and syndication to encourage and harness word of mouth marketing, and bring it closer to a company's brand and customer experience. The company's flagship hosted and fully managed customer ratings and review service allows businesses to enable, encourage, and analyze customer ratings and reviews on their website. With Bazaarvoice, companies can empower empower verb To encourage or provide a person with the means or information to become involved in solving his/her own problems their customers to share honest opinions and influence each other to make more informed and rewarding purchase decisions. Clients like Bass Pro Shops Bass Pro Shops is a privately held sporting goods and outdoor goods store headquartered in Springfield, Missouri. The original Outdoor World store, referred to as the "Grand Daddy" is located at the corner of Sunshine and Campbell in Springfield. , CompUSA, Macy's, Overstock.com, and PETCO benefit from a credible and reliable customer-to-customer community, without having to delve into complex IT work or the laborious la·bo·ri·ous adj. 1. Marked by or requiring long, hard work: spent many laborious hours on the project. 2. Hard-working; industrious. process of community management. Bazaarvoice is a winner of the "Red Herring Red Herring A preliminary registration statement that must be filed with the SEC describing a new issue of stock (IPO) and the prospects of the issuing company. Notes: 100 North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. " award by Red Herring magazine. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.bazaarvoice.com or email info@bazaarvoice.com. About iPerceptions iPerceptions is one of North America's leading web-focused attitudinal analytics providers. Its webValidator Continuous Listening solution and its Proprietary Satisfaction Index (iPSI) turn thousands of data points into easy-to-understand strategic and tactical decision support for web site marketers. Based in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , iPerceptions' clients include such well known brands as InterContinental in·ter·con·ti·nen·tal adj. 1. Extending or taking place between or among continents: intercontinental exploration; intercontinental cooperation. 2. Hotels, General Motors, Dell Computers, Hyundai, CompUSA, LG Electronics, Toshiba, Choice Hotels International, BMW BMW in full Bayerische Motoren Werke AG German automaker. Founded as an aircraft engine manufacturer in 1916, the company assumed the name Bayerische Motoren Werke and became known for its high-speed motorcycles in the 1920s. and Hilton Hotels
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