Press Release
Lillian Vernon Launches PowerReviews’ Tag-based Customer Reviews
Lillian Vernon selects PowerReviews to power its next-generation Customer Reviews and Social Merchandising solutions to increase customer loyalty and site conversion
MILLBRAE, Calif. and VIRGINIA BEACH, VA. – June 4, 2007 – PowerReviews™ (www.powerreviews.com), a leading provider of customer review services and social merchandising solutions for online retailers, announced today that Lillian Vernon Corp. (www.lillianvernon.com), a 56-year-old multi-channel merchant celebrated for unique gift items and free personalization on hundreds of products, just launched PowerReviews’ unique tag-based customer reviews on lillianvernon.com to help its customers make the best purchase decisions for their individual needs and uses.
“By engaging customers to give us their feedback with reviews, we gain valuable insight into both our products and our customer,” said Kristen Montella, Vice President of Lillian Vernon Online. “PowerReviews gives us an additional ‘touch point’ to our customers with a friendly, post-purchase invitation to review the product ordered. As a company, we learn what our customers like and how to improve our offerings. Customers in turn embrace the opportunity to interact with us as more than a purchaser because we have actively solicited their opinion and are responsive to it. At its core, this is simply a 21st Century take on the time-honored concept of ‘word-of-mouth’ as the best form of advertising. It’s an easy way to make the customer a permanent part of the Lillian Vernon family, virtually assuring us a higher conversion rate on our products and increased customer retention. We chose PowerReviews because they offer a tag-based review solution. Additionally, PowerReviews creates keyword-intense pages for each of our products, perfect for natural search optimization, thereby increasing our demand from search engines.”
PowerReviews provides a fully-managed customer review solution that offers online retailers, such as Lillian Vernon, best-in-class product reviews with minimal effort. PowerReviews utilizes its patent-pending tag-based approach to offer “at-a-glance” Review Snapshots™ that make it faster and easier for shoppers to reach a confident purchase decision. PowerReviews delivers more credible reviews by clearly identifying the reviews that are written by “Verified Buyers”. Utilizing these unique features, consumers preferred PowerReviews 2-to-1 over Amazon reviews for making informed purchase decisions in research conducted by Keynote Systems in Oct 2006.
In addition, PowerReviews’ provides far-reaching Social Merchandising capabilities that utilize the tag-based review content to power Social Navigation™ – assistance from actual product users to help shoppers narrow product selection – and Affinity Recommendations –recommendations from “people like them” to help shoppers make the right decision for their lifestyle-specific needs.
“We are pleased to bring the PowerReviews customer review solution to Lillian Vernon to help further strengthen their commitment to customer satisfaction and personalization,” said Andy Chen, CEO of PowerReviews. ”By utilizing PowerReviews’ tag-based approach to reviews, Lillian Vernon is one of the first catalog and online retailers to help its customers get feedback and advice from existing product owners with the same lifestyle and uses as them.”
About PowerReviews
PowerReviews is an enterprise solutions company that provides customer reviews and social merchandising solutions to multi-channel retailers, driving higher conversion and increased purchase satisfaction. PowerReviews’ patent-pending PowerTags™ technology captures customer opinions in their own words, making reviews more useful for shoppers, empowering them to make more informed and confident purchase decisions. Its customers include Staples, ToysRus, Ace Hardware, Ritz Camera, The Sports Authority, over 100 more. With the introduction of Buzzillions.com, the company has entered the consumer shopping portal market, leveraging its tag-based technology to introduce social navigation and affinity recommendations into the shopping research process for consumers. Based in Millbrae, California, PowerReviews is a privately held company with funding from leading venture capital firms Menlo Ventures and Draper Richards. For more information on the company, visit www.PowerReviews.com To experience the shopping benefits from Buzzillions, visit www.Buzzillions.com.
About Lillian Vernon Corporation
Lillian Vernon Corporation is a leading American catalog merchant and online retailer that sells household, organizational, children’s and fashion accessory products. A pioneer in customized merchandise, Lillian Vernon offers 14 different kinds of personalization and personalizes 5.3 million products a year. With one of the largest personalization departments in America, Lillian Vernon offers a wide variety of products that allow customers to make a personal statement at a low cost. In business since 1951, the company publishes two catalog titles: Lillian Vernon and Lilly’s Kids. Lillian Vernon’s corporate headquarters and distribution center are located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Lillian Vernon has been owned by Sun Capital Partners, Inc. since 2006.
About Sun Capital Partners, Inc.
Sun Capital Partners, Inc. is a leading private investment firm focused on leveraged buyouts, equity, debt, and other investments in market-leading companies that can benefit from its in-house operating professionals and experience. Sun Capital affiliates have invested in and managed more than 140 companies worldwide with combined sales in excess of $33.0 billion since Sun Capital’s inception in 1995. Sun Capital has offices in Boca Raton, Los Angeles, and New York, and affiliates with offices in London, Tokyo, and Shenzhen, China.
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Editor's Contact:
Lisa Tarter
TidalWave PR
415-440-4278
lisatarter@yahoo.com