May 7, 2020 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS— Mizuno USA today reveals how it has, since 2016, been leveraging PowerReviews’ ratings & reviews and analytics capabilities to drive increased sales and product improvements.
Mizuno USA, a leading sporting goods company has been able to reach new audiences by increasing review syndication volumes by 89% and optimize product launches, while analyzing customer review feedback to drive key service and product improvements and streamline communications between consumer and brand.
Whitney Conner, Director of Customer Support at Mizuno USA, comments:
“Reviews are critical for our product launches. Whether a product is in its early stages or in need of enhanced visibility in the market, PowerReviews’ collection capabilities ensure that the reviews are always available, ready for consumers who are looking for product feedback.”
“The ability to syndicate reviews across a wide range of retailers helps us reach more customers than ever. This is vital to increasing consumer confidence in their buyer journey.”
“The PowerReviews team is always proactive in helping us explore new ways to reach and connect with customers. With their ease of use, fantastic support and valuable insights, PowerReviews has been critical in improving how we provide customers with the information they need to guide them to purchase.“
Saarah Shaikh, Senior Director of Customer Success at PowerReviews, said:
“With PowerReviews’ unique syndication capabilities, clients that share customer-generated content through our platform generate an average 52% increase in product coverage across retailer sites compared to our competitors. So quality brands like Mizuno experience tons of value by getting their customer content in front of buyers, no matter where they shop.”
This information is taken from a newly-published case study, which can be accessed on the PowerReviews website here.
ABOUT POWERREVIEWS
PowerReviews (PowerReviews.com) is a software and data company that works with 1000+ leading brands and retailers to bring authenticity and transparency to commerce. The PowerReviews Customer Content Platform has three solutions that help our customers collect and manage customer-generated content to improve the product and customer experience across the customer journey. We help clients meet the evolving need for social proof, accelerating the path to purchase and brand advocacy.
PowerReviews is known for innovation, consultative partnership, and actionable insights, supported by our open platform and approach. Our dedicated team of experts provides thoughtful analysis and turn-key service. PowerReviews is headquartered in Chicago, IL, USA.
ABOUT MIZUNO USA
Mizuno USA (mizunousa.com), a global sporting goods company, offers high- performance equipment, apparel and footwear for a wide range of sports, including golf, baseball, running and more. With hundreds of products aimed toward a diverse audience of sporting enthusiasts, it’s important for Mizuno to provide new and existing customers with the information they need to make an informed purchasing decision.
May 27th, noon CST
In this 30 minute webinar, we will discuss creative ways to curate content and capture the customer voice for alcohol brands. Learn how to generate consistent and robust review content organically on retailer websites, like Drizly, and results in optimal SEO performance.
At the webinar, we will explore:
How reviews drive traffic, increase conversion, and create actionable insights
How to drive more sales digitally and specifically on retailer sites, such as Drizly
How to best re-purpose and leverage your review content
And much more
Webinar Speakers
Michelle Paul, Enterprise Account Executive at PowerReviews
Michelle is an experienced Account Executive who helps businesses to increase conversion & drive sales through world class UGC collection & display. Michelle passionately works with brands and retailers in the alcohol industry to best capture the voice of their brand advocates and leverage their reviews to influence shoppers and drive product awareness.
Peter V.S. Bond, VP of Retail & CPG Strategy at PowerReviews
Peter V.S. Bond is Vice President Of CPG/Retail Strategy at PowerReviews, focused on enabling commercial success within the Consumer Packaged Goods/Retail vertical. Peter’s prior experience includes having directed category and brand omnichannel personalization for the retail business unit of CVS Health and roles at dunnhumby and IRI, working with large enterprise CPG and Retail clients like Kroger, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Campbell Soup and others.
Last month, we released our first monthly snapshot (summary here). This is our May edition of the same report, analyzing consumer activity across more than 1.5MM online product pages from more than 1,200 retail/brand sites.
This time, we focused on a two-month period (starting February 24 2020 and ending April 24 2020). We specifically looked at review submission levels, review length and sentiment, overall conversions/sales and review consumption.
Given this has been quite possibly the biggest disruption to retail and ecommerce since people started shopping online, the results continue to be extremely revealing.
The surge in online traffic and sales volumes have been well documented but the data is still breathtaking.
Key ecommerce market trends
01
Digital sales increase 210% between February and April
02
Review submission levels and length rise in April, while overall consumer sentiment remains steady
03
Review engagement up 105% between February and April
Order transactions surge as online traffic also rises
Unsurprisingly and as reported widely elsewhere, our data reveals that digital consumer transactions have surged during these times of self-quarantine and “stay at home” orders. However, the numbers are still staggering. Online sales volumes leapt 210% between February 24 and April 15. This continued the trend we saw in last month’s snapshot, when we reported an increase of 101%. That seemed a massive increase but proved to be a sign of what has subsequently followed.
While product page traffic had been relatively stable in March, this also began to climb in April. However, these increases have not been at the same rate as order volumes – meaning shoppers are becoming even more decisive as conversion rates have also continued to increase. We again attribute these trends to consumers buying lower consideration products so spending less time browsing and comparing products.
Online shopping volumes continue to climb
Traffic also begins to rise in April after staying steady through March
Review submission levels and review length increase in April, while average rating steady
After initially staying relatively steady in March, review submission levels actually rebounded in April topping out at 36% higher on April 20 than they were at the end of February. Given the huge growth in online shopping volumes, this actually is a decline in real terms. This is possibly because much of the growth in order volumes is likely coming from consumers who typically shop offline.
In the same way, review length did increase in April from what we saw in March, but overall reviews submitted remain shorter than before the impact of COVID-19 hit fully. However, a higher volume of reviews are still being submitted right now than in more “normal” times, meaning this still represents a good opportunity for brands and retailers to generate increased CGC levels.
Sentiment – in the form of average rating – remains flat, which makes sense given the products themselves are unlikely to have changed significantly in this period.
Review volumes begin to rise steadily after initial fall
Review submission volumes rise, peaking at 36% higher on April 20 than at end of February
Review length begins to rebound after initial fall
Review length up around 10% since low at end of March but accompanying rating stable
Engagement with consumer reviews surges
Reviews become even more important in the COVID-19 era. Consumers that convert are still engaging with review content (sorting, filtering etc) at as much as double the rate they were before the epidemic fully hit the U.S.
Given our data is based on review engagement as a proportion of consumers who buy (and, as we see above, this has jumped significantly), total review engagement is way up on “normal” levels and has climbed in line with increased sales volumes.
Shoppers are heavily relying on review content to make purchase decisions, perhaps because low inventory levels are forcing them to buy products they hadn’t previously before.
Review engagement remains skyhigh
Consumer interactions with online reviews more than doubles in COVID-19 period
Summary
The big story is the sheer increase in online sales volumes over the past two months, having more than tripled in this period.
Consumers continue to rely on ratings and review content to justify purchase decisions, providing the validation and social proof necessary to drive sales. Review engagement continued to be at around double the level of more typical times and total review engagement has soared over the past two months.
Review volumes are also starting to increase, which is to be expected given review submissions lag behind time of purchase. With sales levels at such high levels, we would expect this figure to continue to climb over the next one to two months. With this being the case, this period represents an excellent opportunity to generate deep and impactful review content from your customers.
For a deep dive into these findings, including a specific look at ecommerce trends across health and beauty, view the recording of our webinar.
Stay up-to-date on the latest data and insights.
MAY 1, 2020 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS— PowerReviews reveals the staggering changes in consumer behavior and interaction with online ratings and reviews over the past two months in its research published today.
The May edition of the PowerReviews Market Trends Snapshotis based on analysis of consumer activity across more than 1.5MM review product pages from the websites of more than 1,200 brands. It reveals:
Skyrocketing digital sales levels, with an increase of 210% in order volumes between February 2020 and April 2020
A leap of 63% in eCommerce web traffic between February 2020 and April 2020
Consumer engagement with reviews up 105% between February 2020 and April 2020
Review submission levels and length rise in April 2020, while overall consumer sentiment (in the form of average product rating) remains steady
Carol Krakowski – Director, Insights at PowerReviews, states:
“Unsurprisingly and as reported widely elsewhere, our data reveals that digital consumer transactions have surged during these times of self-quarantine and “stay at home” orders. However, the numbers are still staggering. Online sales volumes surged 210% between February 24 and April 15. This continued the trend we saw in last month’s snapshot, when we reported an increase of 101%. That seemed a massive increase but proved to be a sign of what has subsequently followed.
“While product page traffic had been relatively stable in March, this also began to climb in April. However, these increases have not been at the same rate as order volumes – meaning shoppers are becoming even more decisive as conversion rates have also continued to increase. We again attribute these trends to consumers buying lower consideration products so spending less time browsing and comparing products.
“Consumers continue to rely on ratings and reviews content to justify purchase decisions, providing the validation and social proof necessary to drive sales. Engagement with reviews among consumers who purchase continues to be at around double the level of more typical times, while total review engagement has soared over the past two months.”
Online shopping volumes continue to climb relentlessly
eCommerce web traffic also begins to rise in April after staying steady through March.
Review engagement remains skyhigh
Consumer interactions with online reviews more than doubles in COVID-19 period
NOTE: This chart outlines review engagement of consumers who purchase. Given online order volumes are up 210% in the past two months, total review engagement has also increased significantly
PowerReviews research is based on analysis of activity across more than 1.5MM product pages from more than 1,200 retail/brand sites between February 24, 2020 and April 24, 2020.
PowerReviews (PowerReviews.com) is a software and data company that works with 1000+ leading brands and retailers to bring authenticity and transparency to commerce. The PowerReviews Customer Content Platform has four solutions that help our customers collect and manage customer-generated content to improve the product and customer experience across the customer journey. We help clients meet the evolving need for social proof, accelerating the path to purchase and brand advocacy.
PowerReviews is known for innovation, consultative partnership, and actionable insights, supported by our open platform and approach. Our dedicated team of experts provides thoughtful analysis and turn-key service. PowerReviews is headquartered in Chicago, IL, USA.
Michelle Paul, Enterprise Account Executive at PowerReviews
Peter V.S. Bond, VP of Retail & CPG Strategy at PowerReviews
