Social Media Portal

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bazaarvoice, the worldwide leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today announced that skincare leader Murad is successfully extending the reach of Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews™ by incorporating user-generated review content throughout its site and in catalog and direct mail communications. Murad launched Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews on www.murad.com one year ago to provide a best-in-class shopping experience for prospects and customers. Today, anyone interested in the Murad product line can easily access authentic, unbiased product feedback from customers with skin concerns similar to their own before making a purchase. A selection of top-rated “Customer Favorites” are also immediately available via the Murad.com homepage and promoted through email, catalog and postcard mailings to help shoppers make the best selections and purchases.

“In an online environment, customers don’t have the ability to ‘try before they buy’, and Ratings & Reviews can provide the peace of mind a customer needs to make a purchase decision,” said Katherine LaFranchise, Murad’s Senior Director of Web Marketing. “In particular with skincare products, customers want to be sure the product works before they buy it, and who better to trust for an authentic opinion than other people who have already experienced the products? Whether a Murad customer is buying our products online, in a salon, via a catalog or at retail, they’ll now be able to get valuable, non-biased product information from other customers – before they buy.”

Murad, which rolled out Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews in June 2007, encourages shoppers to rate products on a 1 to 5-star scale. Reviewers provide their age and gender alongside review content, as well as an answer to the Ultimate Question: Would you recommend this to a friend? To date, over 70% of the reviews are 5-stars, as shoppers give rave reviews to products such as Murad’s Intensive Wrinkle Reducer, Age Spot and Pigment Lightening Gel, and Renewing Eye Cream.

“Numerous studies have shown that shoppers often read reviews before purchasing offline – and then go back online to review their purchases, contributing to an ever-growing feedback loop,” said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. “Ratings & Reviews provides Murad with a digital archive of feedback impossible to capture in salons or stores – and they’re clearly using it very intelligently to improve products and processes. We look forward to working hand-in-hand with Murad to maximize the value of user-generated content across the brand and for its customers.”

Murad selected Bazaarvoice for its superior technology and personalized client services that maximize the impact of user-generated content. The company has already realized several business benefits from its Ratings & Reviews implementation. First and foremost, Ratings & Reviews have had a significant positive impact on Murad’s natural search rankings. As part of its comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, Murad created separate product landing pages fueled by the user-generated content created by its customers. What’s more, Murad leveraged Bazaarvoice SearchVoice, which brings together these individual pages to create an inter-linked area where customers can find all reviews across all product categories. Murad also uses review content to drive its multichannel marketing strategy – placing customer reviews not only online, but also in catalogs, emails, mailings, and in stores. And because Murad prides itself on incorporating its customer’s needs into new products, the company also shares user-generated review feedback directly with its new product development team, so they can better create new products that solve consumers’ most important skincare problems.

“Our vendor selection process was easy once we experienced the richness of the Bazaarvoice product offering, combined with its exceptional client services,” LaFranchise continued. “We’ve been very pleased with how the contribution of reviews to our site has dramatically boosted our natural search rankings. Bazaarvoice is a perfect fit for Murad, because we’re a brand that has always been based on a 'problem-solution' approach to development – and Ratings and Reviews just makes the customer feedback collection process that much easier!”

About Bazaarvoice

Bazaarvoice offers outsourced technology, services, analytics, and expertise to help companies enhance the online shopping experience with social commerce applications that drive sales. Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews™, Ask & Answer™, and Stories™ deliver immediate success by minimizing implementation risk and maximizing the strategic impact of user-generated review content through complete customization, deep integration, community management, advanced analytics, search engine optimization, and syndication across the Web and to offline channels.

Bazaarvoice was named to the 2007 Red Herring Global 100 and 2006 Red Herring Top 100 lists and received the 2006 ClickZ Marketing Innovation of the Year award. Bazaarvoice currently serves over 225 eCommerce leaders including Borders, Dell, Macy’s, Office Depot, Inc., Overstock.com, PETCO, P&G, QVC, Sears, and ZipRealty. The company has headquarters in Austin, TX, and offices in London, Paris, and Singapore. For more information, please visit the company’s Web site at www.bazaarvoice.com, read the blog at www.bazaarblog.com, or email info@bazaarvoice.com.