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To echo a quote Sucharita Mulpuru of Forrester recently attributed to one of her past professors, “metrics are like bikinis…what they reveal is interesting, but what they hide is essential.”

Because Buzzillions.com acts as a consumer facing testing-ground for innovative new services and features, we are in a unique position to observe how shoppers use and interact with reviews. And as we gather those critical insights, our clients benefit both from the high quality traffic we send from Buzzillions and from the enhancements that we develop for our clients.

Measurable Results

With online shoppers becoming savvier and demanding more thorough and objective product information, many have turned to Buzzillions for honest reviews and answers to their most pressing product-related questions. Despite the tough economic climate this year, we have seen an increase of more than 300% in site visits over last year, and the affiliate traffic we send converts at a site-wide-average of over 3% (significantly higher than the retailer’s normal conversion rate) – with some retailers consistently receiving traffic that converts upwards of 18%.

But the real reason consumers are visiting Buzzillions and clicking through to our affiliate partners is because of the large number of high quality reviews – in 2008 we grew site content from 1 Million to more than 4 Million reviews.

Seeing how Buzzillions sends highly qualified traffic to more than 350 retail publishers, several retailers outside of the PowerReviews solution network (those with in-house reviews solutions as well as BazaarVoice clients) have approached us with the goal of featuring their products and reviews on Buzzillions too. We are now proudly featuring review feeds from several marquee clients including Walmart, Sears, Best Buy, Home Depot and Macy’s.

Media Coverage

In addition to increased attention from leading online retailers searching for a proven affiliate partner, major media publications are noticing Buzzillions too. Walt Mossberg and his associate Katherine Boehret of the Wall Street Journal gave Buzzillions a very positive and surprisingly long (1/2 page) review: WSJ Article. And ABC News reported that “Buzzillions” was a top rising search term in Google: ABC News Video. To see a more comprehensive list of media coverage, please visit the media center page on PowerReviews.com.

Behind the Numbers

While these metrics, client signings and media attention are indeed interesting (and encouraging given the economic climate), essential are the driving forces behind these accomplishments. Allow me to give you a behind-the-numbers look at Buzzillions (according to actual users).

In our recent Buzzillions site re-design, we introduced new tools and functionality designed to engage shoppers and empower them to buy confidently at our affiliate partners’ stores. To hear whether our efforts were successful, we reached out to several lifestyle blogs and invited their readers to visit Buzzillions and share their honest opinions in the public sphere for a chance to win some holiday cash.

Needless to say, people were anxious to share their opinions about Buzzillions and we were anxious to hear them. Here are a few interesting comments from those blogs, but I encourage you to visit the blogs and view all of the comments:

“…They even categorize reviewers, ie. if the review was done by a first time parent, a working parent, a parent of two or more children. Very cool. Terrific site that will save shoppers a lot of time.” Read all comments here.

“I like the review format which gives large picture of what’s good and what’s bad and groups them by like categories (Pros, Cons, Best Uses) so you don’t HAVE to read every single review of a product.” Read all comments here.

“It’s a great review website. I love how the pros and cons are very clearly listed…” Read all comments here.

Through our consumer-centric focus, we were able to learn, design and implement major new features on Buzzillions that both enhanced the shopping experience for shoppers and drove significant traffic and conversion growth for Buzzillions and its affiliates. And we’re really pleased to be getting the attention from bloggers and the press as well.

Thanks for a great year, Happy Holidays and please stay tuned for more great sucesses in 2009!