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Online Shopping: A Social-Media Experience
As the proliferation of online shopping continues, vendors must come up with new ways to attract consumers amid all the online clutter. More and more, online retailers are relying on social media and user reviews to cut through the chaos and get the attention of would-be customers. Some companies even found ways to make the reviews themselves more interesting. For instance, WOMMA member company Bazaarvoice has created a customer ratings and reviews functionality for Overstock.com in which customers can upload videos or include content from video hosting sites as part of their reviews.
The added bonus of using customer reviews and ratings on online shopping sites is that a company can use the information from the postings to glean valuable knowledge about its customers, including what products they prefer and what features could be improved, as well as potential glitches in customer service, etc.