Everyone has a story to tell. For retailers, letting customers share their stories online can provide an opportunity to attract more shoppers to their websites, spend more time there and, ultimately, increase Internet sales.

When cosmetics and beauty products retailer philosophy approached Austin, Texas-based Bazaarvoice last January, it was looking for a platform that its online customers could use to rate and review products they had purchased on philosophy.com. Bazaarvoice executives introduced philosophy to the Stories program.

With Stories, customers can share their experiences with other shoppers. The stories are typically related to the types of products sold on a website, but are not related to the promotion of a specific product. For example, customers at a hardware site can discuss home repair or remodeling experiences; apparel-store customers can discuss how their new dress or suit went over at a party.

Sarah Superfon, director of interactive marketing and direct response for philosophy, says the Stories concept was a natural fit for the company that describes itself as “a lifestyle brand that celebrates feeling well and living joyously.”

“The idea of letting customers share their stories struck a chord with us,” she says. “It was a great platform for our customers.”

philosophy began using Stories as part of its Mother’s Day sales promotion. Customers were encouraged to tell stories about their mother-and-daughter relationships and share a little about their mothers’ personal philosophy; participants could post pictures with their entries. Customers then voted for the best story among the more than 1,000 entries, and the winner received a $1,200 online shopping spree.

In addition to promoting the contest on its website, philosophy sent e-mails to customers in its database; some of the retailer’s co-branded partners e-mailed their customers to tell them about the promotion, as well.

To tie the promotion to sales, customers at the Stories page could click back and learn about Mother’s Day gift ideas. The promotion was “not about sales directly, but rather about increasing our website traffic,” Superfon says. And it did just that: philosophy found that 39 percent of all website traffic during May came via the Stories page. More important, perhaps, 33 percent of all new visitors arrived via the Stories page, and those who came via the Stories page spent more time on the website than did other customers.

philosophy is investigating other types of stories its customers can tell. “We’re still in development with this and testing different campaign ideas,” Superfon says. The retailer is looking at both seasonal-related story campaigns, such as the Mother’s Day one, as well as ongoing story opportunities that are not related to a specific season. “We’ll test it both ways and learn which works best.”

One benefit of tying the stories to a specific holiday or event: Having natural start and end dates “often generates more excitement about the project and seems to draw more traffic,” Superfon says.

Positive brand image
Besides the direct benefits of increased traffic and longer visits, Superfon says the Stories page “presents our brand in a positive image. It is consistent with our company, which puts a personal philosophy on every jar we sell. Telling stories about important people in your life lends itself to our brand.”

Indeed, the names of the brands in the philosophy product line reflect its commitment to personal philosophy. Skin creams, for example, are named “Hope in a Jar” and “When Hope Is Not Enough.” Its fragrance line has products named “Amazing Grace” and “Pure Grace.”

Bazaarvoice hosts the Stories offerings on the client’s website. As part of its hosting duties, Bazaarvoice screens the submissions. “We have our people read the stories to make sure they are appropriate and not offensive or irrelevant to the topic,” says chief marketing officer Sam Decker. “Our guidelines are clear. We don’t edit the copy; either it is approved or it is rejected.”

Typically, the Stories page feature can be added to a retailer’s site within 30 days, Decker says.

philosophy’s story page is integrated into its ratings and review section. Even the title of the ratings and review section reflects the philosophy brand and image. It’s entitled “When we spread the word, we spread the happiness.” Both the Stories and ratings and review sections have gotten positive feedback from customers, Superfon says.

“Our objective was to engage the customer and we feel we did that,” she says. “Visitors who came through the Stories page had 80 percent more page views and they spent more time looking at each item.” Customers who came through the Stories page had average tickets that were 20 percent larger and purchased 19 percent more items, she says.

Another Bazaarvoice client, David’s Bridal, allows customers to talk about their weddings and submit photos that show the wedding party, the bride in her gown — even the wedding setting. On a travel site, customers can tell about a specific cruise or a vacation experience; at a financial site, a customer who took out a business loan can talk about opening her own business.

Next