New online product review service free to retail partners

Customers are encouraged to review products online, which in turn encourages other customers to make a purchase, improving conversion rates for online retailers. The new review service is designed to be easy to integrate into retail sites and at zero cost, which is a big plus in particular for SME retailers wanting to offer review functionality in the run up to Christmas.

 eBay owned price comparison site Shopping.com UK announces the November launch of a new customer product review service, free to its online retail partners and perfectly timed for the Christmas online shopping rush. The new service has been developed by Shopping.com as part of its ongoing drive to strengthen the value proposition to retailers and is particularly aimed at supporting small and medium sized retailers.

Designed to be easy to integrate into retail sites (by copying and pasting simple javascript code, downloaded from the Shopping.com UK Merchant Account Centre), the new service not only allows retailers to add product rating functionality to their web sites, but at zero cost - a big plus in particular for smaller retailers wanting to keep up with best practice, but finding that the cost of building this functionality directly is prohibitive. 

Mark Elwig, Head of Merchant Services at Shopping.com is leading the initiative in the UK and said, "We keep being asked what we're getting out of building this free service for our merchants. The truth is that the Shopping.com network has over 10 years of customer reviews expertise (we have 'Epinions' in the US) so the business has the background and knowledge to develop the very best technology. Product reviews are a positive addition for our merchants and for consumers, so we're looking to make it available to as many of our online retailers as possible within the next 6-9 months - especially the smaller companies that couldn't do it alone."

Third party research consistently shows that online shoppers want reviews and merchants benefit from higher conversion rates when they offer them*. The new Shopping.com UK service encourages customers to review products online, which in turn encourages other customers to make a purchase.

He went on to say, "The overarching plan is to create a richer experience for our shoppers, with both more content and richer content, so that we drive more sales, return visits and increase customer engagement."

Online retailers that integrate the review service are asked to share the new content on the Shopping.com main sites (Shopping.com UK and DealTime) in order to build their own product offering and UK community, improving SEO (search engine optimization) and adding further benefit to their retail partners.