Veteran direct marketer QVC Inc. recently added user-generated reviews to its e-commerce site in an attempt to build a stronger community and to grow its multichannel experience.
Shoppers at www.qvc.com can voice their opinions about the retailer’s array of beauty products, apparel, jewelry and home products and share them with other customers. The feature builds on the pre-existing t-caller segment, in which customers call in during live infomercials and give testimonials about products that are being advertised.
“We did this because we wanted to encourage QVC customers to communicate about our products,” said Ivy Chin, vice president of online architecture, design and video at QVC.com. “We believe that this will increase trust and will enhance the experience, because customers trust other customers.”
QVC reaches more than 160 million homes worldwide and reports annual revenue of more than $7 billion. The West Chester, PA-based retailer has shipped more than a billion packages in its 20-year history.
The retailer partnered with Bazaarvoice, whose platform lets marketers incorporate ratings and reviews into the e-commerce site.
To promote the reviews, QVC sent out e-mails to customers who purchased items. In the first month, 65,000 reviews were posted to QVC.com with an average of more than 2,100 reviews posted a day. This busy posting traffic represents the largest daily review volume of any Bazaarvoice client to date during its first week of soft launch.
The QVC site includes product reviews for all of its products, but the top three categories for reviews are jewelry, women’s apparel and beauty.
In addition to the user-generated reviews, QVC is using its television content with online video on its Web site.
For example, QVC will take a television clip of Laura Geller demonstrating how to apply her line of make-up and run it on the site after the clip has aired on television. This way, customers can return to the site after buying the product and see a demo on how to use it.
Expect QVC to focus on its customers and create more user-generated content on its site.
“We are looking into other user-generated content that customers might like in order to increase the existing community,” Ms. Chin said.
