GOMINGA, the Munich-based start-up and ECC club member, enables product evaluations of e-business platforms to be analysed in real time and answers evaluations and questions directly. As part of our series “ECC Club Members in Conversation” we talked to Christian Driehaus about the relevance of product evaluations and information management.
Our eKIX results in June showed that only 34 percent of small and medium-sized online retailers rely on customer ratings in their online shop. What would you advise the remaining 66 percent to do?
Christian Driehaus:Â In addition to price, customer ratings are the most important criterion in consumers’ purchasing decisions. Feedback from other customers is now central both online and offline. In this respect, small and medium-sized retailers in particular should make sure that their webshops have a technological evaluation functionality and that this is also used. Not to forget product questions including an answer option. This is the only way to really interact with the end customer.
We see again and again that product evaluations – especially at Amazon – have a clear influence on the purchase decision. As a brand, how can I benefit from user-generated content without losing information sovereignty over my products?
Christian Driehaus: For brands it is essential to finally take the reins themselves and not leave the field to others – for example third party dealers. From the customer’s point of view, I buy a brand on Amazon (to stick with your example), so I don’t care who sells to me in a particular case – whether it’s the brand itself, third party dealers or Amazon. Brand manufacturers must take direct action here. This is the only way they can come into direct contact with their end customers and thus benefit from the data. This, of course, requires a rethink in many companies and professionalisation in the direction of digitisation.
How is feedback from reviews actually used? Are there examples where retailers or manufacturers have drawn consequences for improved offers from poor ratings?
We see numerous examples of our customers using feedback from ratings and questions. For example, a customer used our tool to analyse which questions and problems occur most frequently and improved the product description from text and images accordingly. Actually trivial, but in this case a real conversion driver. In general, the data show us that an active interaction with the end customer on the respective e-commerce platform meets with an extremely positive response from the end customer. The customer experiences an appreciation by the manufacturer and appreciates this. This in turn has a positive effect on every additional customer who looks at a review in the future. One has thus positive effects on conversion and image.
What do you appreciate most about the ECC Club?
As a new member of the ECC-Club we hope for an exciting exchange with other members and new insights from the studies of the ECC Cologne and IFH Cologne.