Sales ‘driven by reviews’

14 December 2007

Consumer reviews are driving web sales, according to new research.

A report from eMarketer claims that word-of-mouth advertising – always an important tool for marketers – is especially influential now the internet has made view-sharing so easy.

Social networking websites, blogs and videos mean that user-generated content is proliferating on the web, with recommendations from other consumers increasingly forming the basis of purchase decisions.

Research from eMarketer found that 17 per cent of adults use social networking websites in order to participate with their favourite brands – although most do so to gain a sense of community.

The Wispa campaign is said in the report to be one example of the influence that can be exerted by consumer-generated campaigns.

“From brands’ point of view, consumer word-of-mouth is extremely valuable,” the report states.

It emerged this week that Facebook is opening its development architecture to third-party developers, with Bebo the first rival website to take advantage of the new offering.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 15th, 2007 at 15:27 and is filed under Consumer Information, Customer Service, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.