Hosted social commerce application provider Bazaarvoice has launched BrandAnswers, an application designed to directly connect manufacturers with shoppers in the retail channel and fill the information gaps that create unnecessary barriers to purchase. more

Major consumer brand Bigelow Tea (www.bigelowtea.com), eco-friendly LaCense Beef (www.lacensebeef.com), and sports card giant Dean’s Cards (www.Deanscards.com), recently launched new websites built on the TELLUS Commerce Platform that works with the 3Cs of user engagement – Content, Community and Commerce. These retailers wanted to engage their users in conversations and commerce and found what they needed from Cincinnati-based webfirm TELLUS. more

Mall Networks, the leading provider of loyalty shopping solutions, today announced the release of Version 5 of its multi-channel loyalty shopping suite. This 5th generation solution features integrated, enterprise-class email marketing and an advanced analytics platform that drives business insights. The shopping solutions have been enhanced with social marketing and Web 2.0 features for a superior shopping experience and improved offer management and targeting capabilities to improved conversion.

Mall Networks Version 5 offers loyalty programs a unique, personalized shopping experience for members to earn bonus rewards by shopping online, in brick-and-mortar stores and through catalogs. Powered by a world-class merchant network and optimized by expert managed services, Mall Networks loyalty shopping solutions drive tremendous return on investment by enhancing loyalty programs and increasing customer engagement.

Highlights of Version 5 include:

* Advanced Analytics Platform: New analytics platform links together Web click-stream, email, and transactional data to provide rich behavioral analytics that drive site and program optimization and strategy

* Integrated, Enterprise-Class Email Marketing Platform: New email marketing platform leverages self-learning personalization and supports advanced targeting for effective and relevant emails based on events, customer lifecycle, and segmentation

* Social Marketing Capabilities: New social bookmarking and networking features enable users to share favorite offers and products with friends via email, Facebook, My Space, and Twitter

* Web 2.0 Enhancements: Modern user interface technologies like AJAX deliver new features for a rich interactive shopping experience and allow users to view new offers in their My Yahoo or Google homepages

* Enhanced In-Store Targeting and Offer Management: New analytics platform, enhancements to the promotions module, and a more powerful targeting approach support the full range of in-store program models and lead to higher customer engagement and increased merchant participation

“Mall Networks Version 5 clearly extends our product leadership in loyalty shopping and reflects our commitment to innovation, investment and client success,” said Tom Beecher, president and CEO, Mall Networks. “By leveraging our world-class merchant network, expert managed services and superior shopping experience, our clients can differentiate their loyalty programs and provide unique and compelling value to their members.”

PowerReviews (www.powerreviews.com), a leading provider of customer reviews and social commerce solutions, announces BrandConnect, a new suite of relationship-building products that drives deeper customer commitment, stronger word-of-mouth and greater overall sales for consumer brands.

According to recent findings from the 2009 Community and Social Media Survey by eTailing Group and PowerReviews, brands are more focused than ever on leveraging social tools to connect with their customers. In fact, 75 percent of respondents said that brands in their categories have been much more or somewhat more aggressive in their use of social media in the past six months. The study also found the number one reason marketers are aggressively adopting social media is for “greater customer engagement”, followed by “building brand loyalty” and “mobilizing their advocates to drive word-of-mouth”. Interestingly, the study found the number one concern of marketers in regards to social media is “people can trash my products in front of large audiences” which is a major driver in their wanting to get out in front of this issue.

“What’s compelling about social media is it presents a real-time opportunity to manage reputation, engage with customers and connect consumers with similar interests,” said Andy Chen, CEO of PowerReviews. “BrandConnect captures this opportunity for brands – and the retailers that sell them – and as a result, enables them to turn their customers into a powerful word-of-mouth sales force.”

The BrandConnect Suite consists of two offerings: Listener and Megaphone. Listener is a social listening and analytics tool built on broad-based consumer feedback that enables brands and retailers to track, understand and act on fast-rising issues and opportunities coming out of customer communities. Unlike other social listening tools on the market, Listener is the only product that utilizes Structured Listening to aggregate consumer feedback resulting in highly accurate trend and comparative analysis. Structured Listening is based on PowerReviews’ tag-based capture technology, which drives the aggregation of structured social feedback for maximum accuracy, weighting and insight.

Key features of Listener include:

• Segmented consumer insight using product-specific consumer lifestyle segments in more than 2600 categories.

• Head-to-head competitive product assessments, and brand category assessments, from the consumer’s perspective.

• Real-time tracking of “Detractors” to minimize the impact and velocity of negative word-of-mouth.

• Real-time “Watch List” and alerts for tracking key products and programs.

• Keyword-based alerts to track fast-rising product issues, topic-specific marketing/merchandising copy opportunities and suggestions for product improvements.

The second product in the BrandConnect Suite is Megaphone. According to a survey of 112,000 people by Powered Inc in 2009, 65 percent of users are more likely to purchase products they learned about through social media. Megaphone harnesses a brand’s customers – and their followers - to quickly and effectively spread the word on the Brand and its products. Specifically, Megaphone encourages consumers - at the time they’re most likely to share their opinions - to publish their product reviews on Facebook, Twitter and blogs.

For example, Megaphone’s Facebook sharing feature works in the following way:

• Reviewers are notified of the opportunity to share their review on Facebook while they are actually writing the review on the Brand’s website (in effect, encouraging them to write a more complete and helpful review).

• Once the review is submitted, the user clicks on the “Connect with Facebook” button and logs into Facebook (utilizing Facebook Connect functionality), if they are not already.

• After connecting to Facebook, the user can preview the post and add a short comment introducing the review. The user then clicks “Publish” and the review is immediately posted on their Facebook wall.

• Importantly, the review is posted as a “snippet” – just the first line or two of the review – with a “read more” link that takes the friend directly to the product page on the Brand’s website with the full review on top.

As a result, in addition to engaging existing customers with an option to publish their opinions to friends, Megaphone drives traffic and sales for the brand or retailer that initially sold the product.

About PowerReviews

PowerReviews (www.powerreviews.com) provides customer reviews and social commerce solutions to retailers and brands. The company’s innovative tag-based approach to collecting, organizing, structuring, and moderating reviews significantly boosts product sales, driving the highest sales uplift in the industry. PowerReviews works with over 800 retailers and brands on over 2600 websites, including Staples, REI, Drugstore.com, Gardener’s Supply, Diapers.com, Callaway and Jockey. In addition to its Enterprise solution, PowerReviews offers an on-demand solution for small- and medium-sized businesses called PowerReviews Express (www.powerreviewsexpress.com). PowerReviews also operates a product reviews and recommendation site for consumers, called Buzzillions.com (www.buzzillions.com).

Shopzilla, Inc, a leading global comparison shopping site and pioneer in user generated ratings and reviews content, announced today that it has partnered with PowerReviews, a leading provider of customer reviews and social commerce solutions, to distribute PowerReviews’ product review solutions in Europe. The strategic partnership will enable Shopzilla to provide merchants of all sizes access to consumer generated review content via PowerReviews Enterprise and Express Solutions.

By expanding the breadth of ratings and reviews content, Shopzilla continues to improve the online shopping experience for merchants and their community of online shoppers. “At Shopzilla, our vision is to champion the voice of consumers and foster their relationships with retailers. By adding PowerReviews’ innovative product review capabilities to our existing research platform we believe we can ensure consumer voices are heard while providing value-added services to retailers to help them understand their customers and maximise their sales,” said Scott Macon, Managing Director, Shopzilla Europe.

A recent survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation indicates that 83% of shoppers say that online reviews influenced their purchase decisions, and a survey by Nielsen Research found that 80% of all consumers read reviews prior to making an online purchase. By providing powerful yet easy-to-use review platforms to retailers of all sizes, Shopzilla will enable consumer access to pertinent buying information at the point-of-purchase, resulting in higher conversion for participating merchants. Additionally, the search engine friendly content will provide an added boost to organic search listings and increase free traffic for participating retail sites. Overall, the PowerReviews solutions have proven to increase sales on retailer and brand sites by up to 50%.

“We are pleased that Shopzilla has entrusted PowerReviews to provide our tag-based reviews and social commerce solutions in Europe,” said Andy Chen, CEO of PowerReviews. “Retailers will reap the benefit of Shopzilla’s ability to provide local support to its established retailer base with the ROI-proven PowerReviews tools.”

Shopzilla plans to offer the complete suite of PowerReviews solutions to its online retailers. This includes:

• Review Snapshot® – an at-a-glance review summary that streamlines the research process for consumers.

• Verified Buyer – a feature that builds consumer confidence with more credible reviews.

• Affinity Views – the ability for consumers to find reviews from people just like them.

• In-Line SEO™ – the ability to easily provide the user-generated content in a search-engine friendly way to increase traffic and sales from organic search.

• Content Moderation Services (for the merchant) – Each review is read by a moderator and screened for inflammatory and non-product-related content.

About Shopzilla, Inc.

Shopzilla, Inc. is one of the largest and most comprehensive online shopping networks on the web. Through our leading comparison shopping sites, BizRate.com, BizRate.co.uk, Shopzilla.com, and Shopzilla.co.uk, Shopzilla helps shoppers find the best value for virtually anything they want to buy from thousands of online retailers. Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA with an international office in London, Shopzilla operates sites in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany. Shopzilla, Inc. is owned by Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (NSYE:SNI), which include national lifestyle TV networks such as HGTV, The Food Network, Fine Living and more.

About PowerReviews

PowerReviews (www.powerreviews.com) provides customer reviews and social commerce solutions to retailers and brands. The company’s innovative tag-based approach to collecting, organizing, structuring, and moderating reviews significantly boosts product sales, driving the highest sales uplift in the industry. PowerReviews works with over 800 retailers and brands on over 2600 websites, including Staples, REI, Drugstore.com, Gardener’s Supply, Diapers.com, Callaway and Jockey. In addition to its Enterprise solution, PowerReviews offers an on-demand solution for small- and medium-sized businesses called PowerReviews Express (www.powerreviewsexpress.com). PowerReviews also operates a product reviews and recommendation site for consumers, called Buzzillions.com (www.buzzillions.com).

CREATETHE GROUP, the digital commerce leader for elite global brands, today announced that Juicy Couture has implemented its CTS/SOCIAL platform, enhancing the brand experience on JuicyCouture.com. By utilizing CREATETHE GROUP’s social shopping platform, Juicy Couture fosters a unique online community, strengthening the brand’s relationship with consumers and generating measurable engagement results.

CTS/SOCIAL, part of CREATETHE GROUP’S digital commerce software platform, enables Juicy Couture to leverage unique Web 2.0 community features along with powerful e-commerce delivery to create a branded social shopping experience. Since implementing CTS/SOCIAL, Juicy Couture has experienced dramatic site results including 162 percent increase in conversion rates, 141 percent increase in page views per visit and a 150 percent increase in the average time spent on their site.

Juicy Couture’s site now directs shoppers to Club Couture, an exclusive online portal that contains social shopping elements including:

• Create a Look – Shoppers can mix and match outfits and accessories in a virtual dressing room and browse through “looks” created by other members

• Rate My Juicy – Shoppers are encouraged to upload photos of themselves in their favorite Juicy looks, sharing how they “do Juicy” with the rest of the community

“Juicy Couture understands that peer recommendations are far more powerful than brand marketing and, as such, have given their consumers a place to connect with the brand and interact with one another other by creating and sharing new looks. By fostering a sense of community, this online retail experience becomes more than just a transaction,” said James Gardner, founder and CEO of CREATETHE GROUP. “Social shopping creates an emotional connection to the brand and shoppers are more likely to stay on the site longer, make repeat visits and spread the word to their peers, which is evident in the early success of the Juicy community.”

“It’s important for Juicy Couture to have a central hub where our customers can interact with each other, as well as members of our Juicy team,” says Frances Pennington, VP of Global Marketing at Juicy Couture. “We’ve seen a significant increase in traffic and repeat visitors since implementing social shopping and believe that this community atmosphere has been integral in bringing the fun, Juicy shopping experience online.”

About CREATETHE GROUP:

CREATETHE GROUP is the digital commerce leader for elite global brands. The company delivers luxury experiences online through its unique combination of interactive agency services, a flexible e-commerce platform, and premier fulfillment and customer service solutions. Headquartered in New York City with offices in London and Milan, CREATETHE GROUP’s clients include Burberry, Bottega Veneta, Calvin Klein, David Yurman, Donna Karan, Dunhill, eLUXURY, Fendi, Juicy Couture, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Movado, New York Times, Oscar de la Renta, Tom Ford, Stella McCartney and St John. For more information, please visit www.createthegroup.com or email info@createthegroup.com.