In the beauty retail landscape, consumer buzz is everything. A 2024 survey by CardRates.com found that 99% of shoppers read product reviews before making a purchase, and 97% say those reviews influence their buying decision.

So, how do you harness what’s being said about your products? This is where Bazaarvoice can be a vital resource. The pioneering tech company offers brands and retailers a robust suite of software that collects user-generated content (UGC) about their products — then distributes that content so it reaches their target customers. Think of Bazaarvoice as an emcee; they direct the conversation and ensure consumers receive the most impactful and relevant information about a company and its products.

With approximately 13,000 of the world’s leading brands and retailers already in their global network, Bazaarvoice is equipped to help beauty brands both big and small use UGC to improve sales conversion and boost brand loyalty. Here, a breakdown of what they offer:

Bazaarvoice syndicates and amplifies the consumer’s voice.

Like a megaphone projecting positive customer feedback, Bazaarvoice’s technology takes any piece of UGC and sends it where people might discover a brand’s products. For example, if a customer leaves a positive review of a new mascara on the brand’s website, Bazaarvoice’s software captures that review and places it on other shopping websites within Bazaarvoice’s retailer network, including Walmart, Target, and Walgreens.

But it’s not just ratings and reviews that can be widely shared. Any type of UGC, from social posts to creator content, can be pollinated across Bazaarvoice’s vast network of shopping destinations and social media platforms. “You can take one review or one piece of social content and have it work for you at scale across multiple channels,” says Amy King, Vice President of Client Success, Content & Creators at Bazaarvoice. “All our solutions are centered around amplifying and elevating the consumer’s voice on a brand’s page, their social channels, and throughout our extensive retail network. We help brands and retailers inform customers’ decision making at every stage of the shopper journey, on every platform that their customers frequent.”

Bazaarvoice allows brands to track how UGC converts to sales.

The company’s software tools reveal the power of a piece of content and how it impacts sales conversion. “Our technology allows a brand to follow the journey of a consumer from the point at which they read the ratings and reviews to how and when they purchased the product,” says King. “The brand can see how that conversion follows that piece of content throughout the network.”

Bazaarvoice can optimize the shopper experience through its Contextual Commerce solution.

“When a shopper engages with an e-commerce site, Bazaarvoice Contextual Commerce AI delivers tailored messages, based on their real-time behavior, to motivate shoppers to make a purchase. Our AI tracks shopper behavior on every website that uses Bazaarvoice. This means it analyzes data from 2.3 billion monthly shoppers across 13,000+ brands and retailers, learning what motivates them to purchase. It sees where they click, what informs their decisions, and ultimately, what drives conversions,” says King.

Bazaarvoice helps power social commerce.

Social media is increasingly the gateway to product purchases, with 84% of consumers searching for brands on social media before making a purchase, and 71% of social media users saying they’re more likely to purchase products and services based on social media referrals, according to data reported by Porch Group Media. Bazaarvoice’s software can track and manage all the @ mentions and hashtags about a product and brand — both paid and organic — across social media platforms, including in-feed posts and video testimonials on TikTok and Instagram Reels. The technology can then aggregate the content for a brand to share across their platforms, as well as throughout Bazaarvoice’s retail network. “Just as with ratings and reviews, a brand can take one piece of social content and scale it across multiple different channels,” says King.

Bazaarvoice can help brands collect customer feedback ahead of a launch.

In 2019, Bazaarvoice acquired Influenster, a community of more than nine million consumers who post and share product reviews and participate in sampling programs. They are not paid influencers or creators — just regular shoppers looking to discover new products and offer feedback. “Bazaarvoice can tap into our Influenster community and give them early access to a new product, then collect the ratings and reviews to go live on the day the product launches,” says King, adding that the Influenster community continues to grow by the millions (it’s nearly tripled since 2021). “We can give brands access to a set of consumers that can help amplify their brand voice,” she says.

Bazaarvoice moderates UGC to ensure its authenticity.

“We are a company built on capturing the authentic consumer voice, and we are the industry leader in maintaining UGC authenticity,” says King. Bazaarvoice closely monitors the guidance from global trade commissions to ensure their software collects real consumers’ content and that reviews and UGC are properly identified, as helping brands build trust with their customers is central to Bazaarvoice’s mission. “We make sure the consumer knows whether they’re looking at content from someone who made a verified organic purchase, who received the product in exchange for a review, or who is a paid creator doing an ad,” says King. Leveraging proprietary machine learning, Bazaarvoice moderates content to help discern what is appropriate, fraud free and safe for public consumption.

Bazaarvoice can help brands gain deeper insight into consumer sentiment.

The large-scale retailers in Bazaarvoice’s network like Walmart and Target can have thousands of reviews of their sites. Bazaarvoice is using AI to help analyze those reviews and summarize the consumer sentiment for brands. “The technology can create a summary report of what consumers are saying about a brand, say, in comparison to a competitor, and that can save a brand valuable time and resources,” says King. In addition, Bazaarvoice is rolling out new programs that help consumers write richer, more insightful product reviews that offer more value to brands. “When the consumer is writing their feedback, the technology provides proactive and unbiased coaching for how to leave a more thorough review, asking things like, ‘What did you think of the texture? ‘and ‘How is the price point?’” says King.

Bazaarvoice’s newest offering boasts the first fully-integrated UGC marketing solution.

Launching this month, Bazaarvoice Vibe consolidates all the different tools and components used to track and utilize UGC into one program, so brands can manage everything on a single platform. “Bazaarvoice Vibe is the industry’s first full-funnel marketing strategy solution,” says King. “There are vendors who offer bits and pieces of what we’re doing, but no one has it all in one program.” Bazaarvoice Vibe includes social media management, social commerce, creator marketing, visual syndication and product sampling all in one interface.

Bazaarvoice can connect brands with the right creators for their campaigns.

In 2020, Bazaarvoice acquired social commerce company Curalate, which helps brands optimize UCG and creator content to sell their products on social channels. In 2023, Bazaarvoice acquired Affable.ai, a creator marketing platform that helps brands connect with influencers. With these resources now in their wheelhouse, Bazaarvoice can scale creator marketing initiatives, offering tools and features that link brands with the right creators for their branding, then help them execute campaigns in one seamless interface. “What previously took days, even weeks to source can now be done in minutes through Bazaarvoice,” says Courtney Keats, Team Lead, Creator Marketing at Bazaarvoice.

Bazaarvoice offers solutions for brands of all sizes and budgets.

While Bazaarvoice counts beauty titans like L’Oréal and LVMH among their clients, they offer solutions for every size brand, from small businesses and startups to the largest retailers in the world. “We can tailor solutions to any size client’s needs, and our new Bazaarvoice Vibe is a modular solution, so you could buy the full package or just certain components,” notes King. Bazaarvoice also hosts events all over the globe where companies curious about their offerings can mingle with current clients and hear thought leaders share insights about the consumer products industry and the latest developments in technology. “We want to bring more thought leadership to the market, in addition to sharing what Bazaarvoice can do,” says King. “Gathering folks together to share their thoughts and ideas is where we learn so much. Our business may be software, but it’s people who truly inspire our innovation.”

For more information, visit bazaarvoice.com.