In what can only be applauded as a  very smart move, Salmon partner Bazaarvoice has just announced a strategic partnership with Google which will see shopper reviews surfaced on Google web properties.

What this means is that brands and merchants will be able to deliver trusted and valuable content – reviews written by customers – far earlier in the buying cycle than ever before AND on the most popular search engine in the world.  And bearing in mind the increasing relevance of user generated content it is clear this will help attract the most qualified shoppers to a site.

Despite announcing review integration a year ago, I think this new service is a step forward.  Called SyndicateVoice for Search, brands and merchants will be able for the first time to provide Google with full-length product reviews for inclusion on Google properties.

Brant Barton the Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Bazaarvoice outlines here four reasons why this is a big deal.  Here they are in short:

1. Shoppers trust customer word of mouth more than any other type of marketing
2. 61% of all shoppers use search engines
3. More people use Google Product Search than any shopping portal
4. User-generated content is becoming increasingly dominant in search results, with over 25% of results for searches of the world’s top 20 brands linking to UGC (4).

I can’t fail but be impressed.  Its a perfect match up.  And because the partnership is focussed on providing what customers want (and not the vendors themselves) I think this will be a big success.

For more information, you can read Google’s blog post on the partnership, find out more on the Google Product Reviews Program site, or read Bazaarvoice’s formal announcement.

There is no longer any doubt that leveraging UGC (user generated content) is a valuable eCommerce and digital marketing discipline. You just need to go here and here to see the conversion and influence statistics for themselves – provided by two leading vendors Bazaarvoice and Power Reviews.

But to build on these raw statistics, here are two new blog posts that go into a bit more detail and they may be of interest because they are specifically related to two Salmon clients and eCommerce engagements.

Salmon’s client Halfords uses Bazaarvoice’s Ratings & Reviews and Ask & Answer to optimise UGC and give their customers the information they need to make the best purchase decision.  Read an interview on the bazaarvoice blog with Jon Asbury, Halfords’ Channel Development Manager as he talks about the value and need for user-generated content on the site [disclosure: as I mentioned we implemented this - more here.]

Additionally, Kiddicare have just been given a glowing reference from e-consultancy.com for their implementation of Power Reviews [disclosure: we replatformed Kiddicare back in July explicitly to enable them to leverage leading technologies like Endeca and PowerReviews for intuitive search, guided selling and Web 2.0 navigation techniques such as tag clouds - and you can read more here.]

So following on from this post, why do I think what has been achieved on Halfords.com is a vast improvement on the Halfords customer experience?

Bearing in mind that the following innovations were borne out of customer research and insight, here are 11 reasons:

1. Brand New Visual Design – supporting key customer journeys more effectively – namely research, search, browse & navigation and guided sales
2. Better Search – Customers can now search on car registration or make, model and year of their car for such items as oil, batteries, car bulbs and blades.
3. Guided Navigation – For customers who may not know which product to purchase but have a list of requirements and intended uses, a new guided sales offering is now available.  The customer can complete a series of questions which filter a list of product options relevant to the requirements identified
4. Multi Channel Support – Introduction of a call-centre support site to assist the customer through advice, ordering, payment and store reservation
5. Introduction of social commerce features – enabling consumers to read/write product reviews and contribute user-generated content, helping customers benefit from authentic customer opinions ( Bazaarvoice technology integrated)
6. Complimentary editorial – added to provide better product attribution for browsers.  DirectNews is the leading provider of tailored news feeds for websites and their solution has been seamlessly integrated
7. Provision of Dynamic Imagery – Allowing customers to quickly and interactively view high-resolution product details providing an engaging, informative shopping experience.  Scene7 technology has, again, been seamlessly integrated
8. Better demonstration of Product Expertise – website now enables customers to buy vehicle specific parts (e.g. oil, bulbs, blades, batteries) based on the make, model, year of their exact car.  Integration ITIM Zygon Product Information Management seamlessly integrated.
9. Customer Friendly urls – Integration of IBM Omnifind to give customers a better search engine experience as a result of the development of SEO friendly URLs
10. Quicker access to relevant ‘help’ – Introduction of a better online ‘Advice Centre’ which now dynamically displays relevant content based on search results.  In addition better integration with call centre, which now allows CSRs to support customer inquiries and facilitate purchases more effectively
11. Better support for channel hopping shoppers – the provision of “Quick order forms” that allow shoppers to input Catalogue Numbers for fast online product selection

The result is an eCommerce website where the  customer experience is optimised as a direct result of the seamless integration of  data, systems and third party solutions.