PowerReviews Insider

A few months ago, evo (evogear.com) launched AnswerBox and their shoppers responded by posting hundreds of questions and answers right off the starting block. Shocked by the immediate engagement, we became curious…Why are shoppers asking so many questions? And why should retailers strive to answer them?

According to JupiterResearch, 42% of 1,179 consumers surveyed have left a site without purchasing multiple products because they couldn’t get a question answered about just one of the products in their shopping cart.

Today’s shoppers want answers, and they’re willing to leave a retailer’s site to find them. Product specs and descriptions do a pretty good job of educating shoppers about features, but today’s discerning shoppers require more – they’re demanding more detailed information and advice about the unique nuances of real life usage and performance. If manufacturers aren’t able to answer those very specific questions, who is? Actual product users and subject matter experts have answered the call of duty – and savvy retailers are reaping the benefits.

Since launching AnswerBox in July 2008, evo has now generated thousands of questions and thousands of answers. But it’s their proactive response to the incoming content that really is deserving of attention and applause. Seeing how similar questions were coming in for many of its products, evo assessed the newly discovered gaps in existing site content and quickly deployed category-specific sizing and fit guides throughout their site. Also, having answered industry jargon questions like what “Blem” means, and clarifying shipping policies, evo has seen a significant reduction in those types of questions. Congrats to Nathan Decker and his team at evo for providing their customers with the answers that matter most to them. To learn more about evo’s succes please download our case study.

While PowerReviews developed AnswerBox to help retailers provide the most relevant answers to their shoppers, we also wanted to avoid the potential shortcoming of other solutions which sometimes display too many questions without answers. Our product team therefore developed a multi-pronged approach to help answer posted questions quickly and accurately. Answers are collected from a number of sources including people visiting the retailer’s product pages, people reviewing that product, the Buzzillions.com community, staff experts and even designated subject matter experts from their vendors. And most importantly, unlike traditional ‘one-to-one’ support channels such as email, phone or live chat, AnswerBox maximizes the impact of incoming questions and answers by displaying them on the product detail page – for all future shoppers to see and benefit from.

Finding answers just became a lot easier!