Leading provider of product reviews and user-generated content (UGC) solutions, Bazaarvoice, has joined forces with Australian social marketplace for parents, Tell Me Baby, as consumer reviews continue to shape the next generation of digital marketing.
Tell Me Baby currently features more than 50,000 authentic consumer reviews of infant products. The partnership will enable Bazaarvoice’s Australian retail and brand customers to display Tell Me Baby’s review content on their own site, to enhance shopper engagement, boost SEO and increase sales.
The $2.9 billion Australian baby retail sector is booming with the baby vertical segment experiencing a 71% boost in online sales for the year ending 30 April 2020, according to Bazaarvoice data.
COVID-19 has accelerated ecommerce adoption and consumer reviews are the single most trustworthy source of information, ahead of recommendations from retail staff or reviews from influencers and bloggers, a recent survey from Tell Me Baby has revealed.
Nearly all Australian parents (98%) said consumer reviews influence their buying decisions when choosing baby products and 88% read three reviews, or more, before making a purchase. In addition, one in five Australian parents are reading more consumer reviews now than they were pre-COVID-19.
Bazaarvoice managing director for APAC, Kate Musgrove said the reliance on peers’ opinions is here to stay.
“When it comes to buying products for infants, parents ultimately want to hear from other parents. User-generated content has a profound influence on shoppers’ decision making. When shoppers engage with reviews our clients see an average of 138% lift in conversion,” she said.
Tell Me Baby CEO Mat Colbron added, “Our readers trust us to offer them insightful, useful reviews from other parents, and now our partnership with Bazaarvoice will allow us to offer brands the benefit of those reviews too, rewarding the makers and retailers of excellent products with the ultimate recommendation to their customers – an unbiased review from a fellow parent who has already been there and done it themselves.”