a case study on customer reviews · improved organic search traffic • more than 100% increase in...

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A Case Study on Customer Reviews


Customer reviews gives iconic department store a fresh look, drives traffic and conversion Dillard’s Inc. is one of the nation’s largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishings retailers. The company focuses on delivering high-quality brands at a great value, complemented by exceptional customer

Case Study: Dillards

increase in traffic over the 2011 holidays

compared to the same time period in 2010

increase in review volume after launching Review

Accelerator

search results for “Dooney & Bourke”

during the holiday season

100% 133% 1st Page

service. Dillard’s e-commerce site offers a broad selection of merchandise, including online exclusives in addition to products that are available in-store.


Why PowerreviewsDillard’s found an aggressive, effective SEO solution to meet its goals of increasing search engine visibility and organic traffic. The PowerReviews solution enabled Dillard’s to index the rich, relevant keywords contained in Customer Reviews that were located directly on the product page.

Another draw was that the PowerReviews solution was easy to implement, with very little effort from Dillard’s, and PowerReviews’ cloud-based platform allowed Dillard’s to continually innovate moving forward.

Goals: Dillard’s carries many popular fashion brands, so the primary goal was to get customers to buy those products from Dillard’s rather than from a competing retailer. To do that, Dillard’s needed to increase search engine visibility and organic traffic. With improved SEO, customers searching online for particular items and brands would be directed to the Dillard’s site.

Dillard’s also needed to increase conversion on individual products once customers were on the site. Finally, the company hoped to generate customer insight that would ultimately enhance product development.


“With fashion, particularly, the ability for customers to upload pictures with reviews is huge because it humanizes the content

and increases customers’ confidence to buy.”

—Kevin Moffitt, Director of E-commerce


ResultsAfter a launching a new website with the PowerReviews solution in May 2011, Dillard’s has seen a steady increase in both organic search and conversions. Some highlights of the first 12 months include:

Improved Organic Search Traffic• More than 100% increase in traffic over the 2011

holidays compared to the same time period the year before.

• A Dooney & Bourke bag that was the #1 reviewed product on Dillards.com had more than 40 reviews and a perfect 5-star rating. As a result, It climbed to the top of the first page in Google results for “Dooney and Burke” during the 2011 holiday season.

Increased Customer EngagementAfter launching Review Accelerator™, PowerReviews’ automated email follow-up tool, Dillard’s increased review volume by 133% in just one month. As a result, Dillard’s started to see more reviews with images or videos. One customer even posted a picture of herself wearing a Michael Kors dress that she wore for her high school prom, personalizing content like no other solution can. Dillard’s was also seeing higher engagement from customers using mobile, so much so, that they optimized their mobile site for Customer Reviews.

Product FeedbackDillard’s was also able to improve product offerings based on customer feedback. Products that consistently received negative reviews were improved or discontinued. One example came from a glass drink dispenser that was getting a significant number of 1-star ratings. Dillard’s passed this information along to the manufacturer, who was able fix the problem based on the customer feedback.

Next Steps:Taking a cue from customers who are eager to share their experiences with products they purchase, Dillard’s is continuing to make the site more engaging and personalized. The company also plans to expand review generation techniques so that customers can write reviews in-store and through other channels, not just online and through follow-up emails. Finally, based on the popularity of mobile, Dillard’s plans to enable customers to write product reviews while using the mobile site on their smartphones.



“Organic traffic to our website increased substantially soon after PowerReviews

was implemented.”—Kevin Moffitt,

Director of E-commerce

a case study on customer reviews · improved organic search traffic • more than 100% increase in...

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