Main News Desk

Bazaarvoice hires country heads to accelerate global growth

appointments support launch into Benelux, Germany and Australia

UK - January 15, 2010

Bazaarvoice, pioneers in hosted social commerce applications, has made a number of key appointments to drive its worldwide expansion plans.

Bazaarvoice has just opened offices in Germany, Benelux, and Australia following rapid growth in its overseas client base. The number of UK customers more than doubled last year (up 115%), whilst the rest of Europe and APAC saw explosive growth of 275 per cent and 400 per cent respectively. Select customers signed in 2009 include Debenhams, ASDA, Sephora, Conrad, Neckermann, Jetstar, and Ticketmaster.

The company plans to double the size of its international business in the next 12 months.

Former Google account manager, Marc Rüsing, is tasked with launching Bazaarvoice in Germany. A retail veteran, Marc has over six years’ senior sales expertise behind him. Based in Düsseldorf, he aims to replicate Bazaarvoice’s success with US, British, and French online retailers within the German market.

Bazaarvoice has additionally recruited Joël Kremer, also from Google, to head up its Benelux operations. Kremer was responsible for building Google’s presence in the retail, entertainment, and education sectors during his six years with the company. He has worked with many of the region’s major retail brands and is an expert at generating sales in this sector. Kremer will be based in Amsterdam, with a focus on further developing Bazaarvoice’s European presence.

Rounding out the strategic global appointments, Graham Jackson from Skinkers has been recruited to spearhead the company’s expansion into Australia. A sales veteran, he has considerable expertise launching companies in new markets and building revenues from scratch.

Executive quote

“Opening these new offices allows Bazaarvoice to continue to partner with the world’s leading brands to help them harness the power of the customer voice,” said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. “ I am very excited about continuing to rapidly expand our business internationally. Over 80 per cent of UK shoppers were expected to reference customer reviews last Christmas, and we expect adoption to be similar throughout the rest of Europe and Asia. Our new country heads will provide us with strong foundations in each of these very important markets.”

About the company

NOTES TO EDITOR
About Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice (www.bazaarvoice.co.uk <http://www.bazaarvoice.co.uk> ) is a social commerce technology company. Its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions have served more than 80 billion pieces of customer-generated content helping over 650 brands globally to harness and amplify customer online word of mouth. In the UK, clients include Argos, Boots, Halfords, Wickes, Thomas Cook, QVC and Boden.

Bazaarvoice’s products - Ratings & Reviews™, Ask & Answer™ and Stories™ - are social commerce applications that drive sales. They enable customers to review products, ask and answer questions and share stories online; enhancing the online shopping experience and allowing them to make more informed and rewarding purchase decisions. Benefits for the retailer include content ownership, seamless customisation, increased search engine optimisation impact, advanced analytics and syndication across the web. Retailers can also leverage the content generated across on and offline marketing channels.

Founded in 2005, Bazaarvoice has offices in the UK, US, France and Singapore. The company was named in 2007’s Red Herring Global 100 and received the Technology Vendor of the Year award from Retail Systems in 2009.

For more information and access to client success stories, visit http://www.bazaarvoice.com, read the blog at http://www.bazaarvoice.com/blog/, and follow on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/bazaarvoice.

Contact details

For further press information and photography please contact:
Patrick Hussey at LEWIS, the PR agency
Tel: +44 (0) 161 457 2056
Fax: +44 (0) 161 601 7741
Email: bazaarvoiceUK@lewispr.com
Website: www.lewispr.com

Recent Press Releases

2010 Archive

2009 Archive

2008 Archive

2007 Archive

Jump to:

Main News Desk

Bazaarvoice hires country heads to accelerate global growth

Executive quote

About the company

Contact details

Related links