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Andy and Jake are pretty excited that WalMart.com, as of Thursday, is allowing customers to rate and review all the products it sells. That's right, all of them. The feature was rushed into implementation after a testing-phase produced twice the number of expected customer submissions.
This is an interesting move that puts the pressure on everyone else. Other retailers will be pressured to follow Wal-Mart's lead, and add the same ability at their sites, if they haven't already.
And Wal-Mart can use low customer ratings as leverage against suppliers to dump products that aren't well-received. According to Reuters, "In the future, [Walmart.com Chief Marketing Officer Cathy] Halligan said Wal-Mart could interact with customers who post reviews and the reviews could be used to make decisions on which products Wal-Mart sells."
Call me a cynic, but I think that's more of the motivation for Wal-Mart to adopt a ratings system, than wanting to "empower" its customers.
But either way, its "blog" still sucks.
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Comments
Mack, regardless of motivation, it's a step in the right direction.
Posted by: Paul Barsch | 07.20.07
I agree that it's a move in the right direction. People looking to buy things, even if not at Walmart, might go to the site to see what people are saying about a product. And I'm not sure how much customers' ratings will impact whether or not they cpontinue to carry a product. Sales will. But feedback from customers can help alert them to possible problems.
Posted by: David Reich | 07.20.07
Consumer feedback is always a good thing.
But truly -- I've always thought that this concept would *really* be useful on a dating site -- like eHarmony or Match.com. Now THAT would put some pressure on!
; )
Posted by: Ann Handley | 07.20.07
Paul I agree, the end result is that the customers should have more input, which is always a good thing. Will be interesting to see how/if competitors respond.
Posted by: Mack Collier | 07.20.07
The interesting thing will be how Wal-mart's private label line performs compared to branded products, and how the rating system affects those products. And, for that matter, what happens when no one rates an item. Is that worse than a bad rating? It could be better...
I can see Wal-mart buyers now: my product got a 4 star rating but your branded product only got a 3 star. We are no longer paying you a premium price over our products, effective today.
Posted by: JD | 07.26.07