Partnership allows retailers and manufacturers to share existing consumer ratings and reviews with Google

Partnership allows retailers and manufacturers to share existing consumer ratings and reviews with Google

Hosted social commerce applications provider, Bazaarvoice recently announced it has partnered with Google to share product review content from Bazaarvoice client sites on Google Web Search, Google Product Search and Google AdWord Ads.

The deal is designed to offer retailers and manufacturers using Bazaarvoice to utlisie their product review content to drive more high-quality traffic from Google, as well as provide brand exposure to qualified shoppers. Consumers benefit from immediate access to opinions from other customers as they research and complete purchases, adding relevance and authenticity, the partners added. Bazaarvoice is Google’s first publicly integrated platform partner for product review content and is making the new capabilities available immediately to retailers and manufacturers as SyndicateVoice for Search.

Getting more from reviews and Google

SyndicateVoice for Search, Bazaarvoice’s social commerce platform supports product Ratings & Reviews, Ask & Answer and Stories modules on more than 800 e-commerce sites. Now, with client permission, Bazaarvoice can tap the power of the platform to easily and automatically feed full-text product reviews to Google on behalf of the retailer.

The company said the integration provides retailers and manufacturers the opportunity to boost brand exposure through full-length reviews with branding in Google product search. Retailers and manufacturers benefit from the opportunity to use reviews to gain greater visibility and brand recognition during key points in the shopping process. In addition, these reviews link back to the merchant’s product page.

Ratings information through web snippets in Google.com search results as a result of Bazaarvoice’s automated integration will allow review content to appear in Google’s natural search results. And merchants will also be able to aggregate product star ratings in Google advertising.

The data feed of full-text review content is available through Bazaarvoice’s new SyndicateVoice for Search offering. SyndicateVoice for Search lets brand sites capture purchase-ready searchers at every stage of the purchase process. User-generated content provides fresh content that relates directly to products in the customer’s language, using the same words shoppers would use to find products, boosting Bazaarvoice customers’ brand exposure and sales.

Giving customers more of what they want

Sameer Samat, director of product management at Google, commented: “Consumer reviews have become a driving force for online purchasing. If we look back five years ago, it was editorial reviews by experts. Now the internet has allowed ordinary people to have a voice and that voice is very influential. With this programme, we are reaching out to retailers and manufacturers and to use more of this content."

Jon Rudoe, Ocado head of retail, said: “Ocado successfully introduced product Ratings & Reviews at the start of the year. The service has given our customers a golden opportunity to swap recommendations on groceries and see the ratings and reviews of products that are popular when feeding friends and families. Google’s decision to integrate such review content is a smart one and highly welcome; for us, it should mean more people viewing online food shopping with an even greater amount of confidence. Google’s move compliments Ocado’s aim to make the weekly supermarket shop as convenient and accessible as possible.”

Andrew McClelland of Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) added: “This move will have huge benefits for both consumer and retailers alike. Google’s core business over the past decade has been about organising the world’s information and making it accessible over the internet. More recently we’ve seen an explosion in the volume of user-generated content online and that, coupled with the rise in social networking sites, has had a massive impact on the way retailers do business online. This is a logical step, for both Google and Bazaarvoice, to now make these consumer insights available through search.”