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Laithwaites Wine launches new website with ratings and reviews to enrich customer experience

UK’s largest independent wine merchant adds Bazaarvoice’s social commerce technology to its newly-launched site

UK - January 18, 2010

Laithwaites Wine, the UK’s largest independent wine merchant is re-launching its website, and will be incorporating ratings and reviews to enrich the customer experience – offering peer to peer recommendations of over 1,300 products.

Social commerce technology company Bazaarvoice has been appointed by Laithwaites to implement its hosted Ratings & Reviews solution.

The wine merchant, which was founded 40 years ago, positions itself away from the discount-intensive supermarkets; instead working directly with winemakers and vineyards producing smaller volumes of high quality wine. Laithwaites Wine also stocks exclusive brands, which allows it to pass quality and value onto its customers.

Executive quote

“Laithwaites Wine customers are passionate about wine and they rely on one another for personal suggestions and wine education,” said Sam Decker, Chief Marketing Officer at Bazaarvoice. “Allowing peer to peer recommendations online via ratings and reviews is a natural fit.”

Customer quote

“We wanted to find a better way to engage with our customers – allow them to hear what other shoppers think and pass on valuable information to each other,” said Niki Freer, Multichannel Development Manager at Laithwaites Wine. “We’re about real people and real wines, so the addition of user-generated content is a reflection of our brand values.”

Laithwaites Wine will also utilise the benefits of user-generated content in its search engine optimisation (SEO) activity. “The benefits will be noticeable – shoppers’ recommendations are a lot more valuable as people search in the language they speak, rather than marketing talk,” continued Freer.

About the company

About Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice (www.bazaarvoice.com) 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, the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, and Australia. 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.bazaarblog.com/, 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

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