Reviews reduce product returns 20%

PETCO teams up with Bazaarvoice to lower return rates

by Matt Hawkins | Marketing Data Analyst

The challenge

PETCO is a leading retailer of premium pet food, supplies, and services. They operate over 850 stores in 49 states and the District of Columbia. In an extremely competitive market the challenge for PETCO to decrease return rates was increasingly prevalent.

The solution

PETCO went live with the Bazaarvoice solution in October of 2005. PETCO has seen a great growth in review volume and customer awareness.This increase is directly related to how PETCO promoted ratings and reviews and the amount of content they were able to accumulate. Customers shopping on PETCO.com can view reviews other customers have written, helping them in their purchasing decision.

The results

By implementing the Bazaarvoice solution, PETCO found that products without reviews have a 20.4% higher return rate than those with reviews. Further analysis revealed that while PETCO has realized an increase in sales, they have seen an overall decrease in the product return rate since implementing ratings and reviews.

Possibly the biggest finding was that on average, products with 50+ reviews have a return rate that is half of those with less than 5 reviews. This is a huge success for PETCO as they continually strive to maintain the top spot as the leader in premium pet products.

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