Top-Rated Products: An Online Merchant’s New Best Friend

I have a special treat for the eTaildTail community to end the week.

Our friends over at PowerReviews and Buzzilions, most notably Jay Shaffer, have some great insights for online merchants using reviews to power customer trust and loyalty, which leads to sales.

There are some great references to what works and does not work, so I hope this read is helpful.

SPECIAL NOTE TO eTaildTail READERS:

The below commentary is part of eTaildTail's ongoing guest commentary series for 2008. If you would like to share you insights with the eTaildTail community, please email me at (chip at eTaildTail.com) and let's help online merchants grow their business. 

International folks are encouraged to share their thoughts as well!

Have a wonderful weekend and "God Bless" our troops, please remember them in your prayers.

-- Chip

Move over Best Sellers, a More Powerful and Proven Enticement Has Arrived!

"As a former merchant, (former VP of Marketing at Wine.com) I understand the power of merchandising and the important role that the merchandising of most popular and best selling products play in getting your customer’s attention. 

That’s why I am thrilled to be sharing with the eTaildTail community the latest “hidden gem” that comes from leveraging customer reviews on your websites:

I want you all to meet Top-Rated Products.

The marketing of best sellers, up to now, has probably been the surest and easiest way for merchants to generate quick sales.

Let’s face it, somewhere at the core of our buying public is the notion of “having what everyone else has,” so advertising what is most popular in the form of best selling items is a “no brainer” of sorts.  There are some inherent problems with this approach, however, as a product’s selling popularity can be due to a myriad of reasons, the most often being discount or sale pricing.  So while best sellers can often drive sales, they don’t often drive matching profits!

Now let’s meet Top-Rated, or as my friends at Mountain Gear say, "User-Approved Products" -- you have got to love that one!

These items all have one thing in common – customers rave about their off-the-shelf performance.  And one thing we have heard over and over, and over, again from our clients is that shoppers are willing to pay for guaranteed performance. 

These items, then, are often sold at full price with no need for coupon or discount incentives to drive heightened consumer interest.  They garner attention simply by being rated as standouts by the customers that use them.

Here are some interesting data points and/or general trends associated with Top-Rated vs. Best Seller email and website campaigns, as shared by clients including: Brookstone; Staples; REI; Onlineshoes; and Mountain Gear.   

Highlights of top rated merchandising include:

• Open rates with Top-Rated subject lines outperformed Best Seller campaign and open rates for email Equal and or increased click-thru rates for email campaigns
• Mountain Gear saw a 50% higher AOV with Top-Rated email campaigns
• For website merchandising efforts, REI saw their Top-Rated category outperform corresponding Best Sellers by a $20 higher AOV as top-rated items are often sold at full price (yea!)
• Top Rated as a presentation sort on category pages (dropdown menu choice) is becoming the preferred customer experience

The rate at which our clients are sharing these wins with Powerreviews is all the proof I need to say to the rest of you online merchants out there: "Let me introduce you to your new best friend – Top Rated Products."

I hope this helps get your Q2 ’08 off to a rousing start!"  -- Jay Shaffer

If you would like to contact Jay directly for more advice, please do. Also ask him about Buzzillions, a site that lists reviews and works in concert with Powerreviews.

Here is Jay's information and tell him eTaildTail sent you!

Jay Shaffer
VP Sales & Marketing
PowerReviews.com
(jay at powerreviews.com)

Comments

[Shell Smith]

I guess that shows that a good product does trump a bad product for less. I think it is great that merchants are trying to gain the trust of their customers. I recently did an online survey (www.mshare.net/aboutus-quiz.html) which I think was pretty interesting about customer service and loyalty. I think if companies would spend the money on existing customers - they could save a lot of money later on.