JustShops, a collection of specialist e-commerce pet stores, is to add social commerce to all its online stores, using the Reevoo ratings and reviews solution.
JustShops runs 11 specialist web sites, which provide pet owners with a wide range of pet products. Sites include www.justdogbeds.org, www.justrabbithutches.co.uk, www.JustGuineaPigHutches.co.uk and www.ukparrotcages.co.uk. The company is investing in social commerce in the form of product reviews and feedback in order to build greater trust, improve on-site conversion and make its sites more interactive and engaging so pet-owner keep returning.
JustShops will be deploying the Reevoo Mark service across all of its product categories, to help customers make the right purchase decision. The Reevoo Mark service uses proactive harvesting to solicit reviews from verified product purchasers only, collecting and aggregating them, and then displaying reviews and Reevoo scores for all products directly on the product page.
One of the ways in which JustShops customers will be able to interact with each other is via the Reevoo ‘Ask an Owner’ service, which transforms customer reviews from a broadcast medium to a conversation. ‘Ask an Owner’ enables would-be purchasers to ask questions of already verified purchasers of that product, and to get a speedy response. Currently 55% of all ‘Ask an Owner’ questions are answered within 24 hours, and response times can be as little as 12 minutes from question to answer.
Robbie Reddy, manager of e-commerce at Forward Internet Group Ltd – parent company of JustShops – said: “Social commerce is about building trust, raising brand awareness and adding value for our consumers. We want to encourage our customers to interact with us and with each other so that users can enjoy a more social, community experience on our sites. Word-of-mouth, peer-to-peer advice and recommendations are incredibly important to consumers, especially when they’re buying something online; we think it’s vital to bring this interactive quality to our sites so that users can get reassurance from other pet owners.”
JustShops will measure the success of its social commerce solution by tracking review response rates, monitoring feedback on its products and services and, ultimately, by measuring the uplift in conversion rates that comes from providing impartial reviews to customers. Recent research by Reevoo shows that consumers are now more strongly influenced by consumer reviews (92%) than by friends’ or family recommendations (87%).
