Ben Sprecher

Kmart Adds Shopper Reviews to Store Shelves

July 14, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Consumers are interested in what others have to say about the products they are thinking of buying, apparently part of the premise behind Kmart's decision to post reviews of various video games next to products in its stores. Is there room for customer product reviews in stores?      [more...]

I think this could be a positive move, but whether it's a boon to sales or a bust will depend entirely on execution.

Shoppers are very good at sniffing out a rigged system, and if only the shiny, happy, positive reviews make it through, then consumers will ignore them. If, on the other hand, Kmart publishes both positive and negative reviews, then the reviews (and Kmart) will gain the credibility to influence shopper decisions at the shelf. By way of example, Amazon's reviews are extremely influential in shaping customer purchases, primarily because they are perceived as being honest and (largely) unfiltered.

As an aside, wouldn't it be neat if, some day, we could take another cue from online retail and apply a "search filter" at the shelf to get some sort of highlighting of those products that are, say, rated 4+ stars and are between $25 and $35? I don't even know what that would look like (maybe LED indicators light up under all the matching products?), but it would certainly be a new way to animate the store shelf.