Argos collects over 20k reviews with Sampling program

Argos leverages product sampling to drive sales and insights for suppliers

Retailers succeed when suppliers can continuously improve their products and successfully launch new ones. Customer feedback plays a vital role in providing suppliers with the insights needed to fuel product innovation and ultimately increase sales in the retail channel.

That’s why Argos puts user-generated content at the center of its strategy. The major UK retailer partners with brands to increase suppliers’ review volume and coverage on the Argos website. Using Bazaarvoice Sampling, Argos helps suppliers get products in the hands of consumers as soon as possible by inviting customers to test new products in exchange for honest feedback. This allows suppliers to post new products with reviews already in place when they go live on the Argos website.

The sooner a supplier can collect customer feedback, the sooner it can identify opportunities to improve products or messaging. Sampling gives suppliers a head-start in understanding the customers want.

We really highlight the importance of products going live with reviews from day one, so with new products taking up to four weeks to acquire reviews unaided, the Sampling programme is a fantastic tool to help solve this issue and generate those all-important first reviews, said Joanna Steele, Senior Reviews & CGC Manager at Argos.

Customers invited to participate in the Argos Testers programme provide profile details that allow suppliers to target the right people to sample their products based on demographics, lifestyle, and interests.

The 5,200 Argos Testers have submitted more than 20,000 reviews across 3,500 products since April 2015, and the content collected via Argos Testers is richer and more useful to other customers. The reviews are twice as long as native reviews, and 40% of them receive helpfulness votes, compared to 28% of native reviews. Testers have shared hundreds of posts on social media using #ArgosTesters, which extends the reach of the reviews and helps other customers make the right buying choice.

Many suppliers are working with Argos to send products to the testers community, including Hoover, Groupe SEB, Leifheit, Logitech, Gibson, and Philips, and they’re seeing positive results.

We got early insight into what’s important to the customers, and these positives and negatives helped us greatly in terms of offering further information and enhancing the products, said Gavin Costello, Sales Manager at Baby Elegance, a manufacturer of nursery products. The Sampling Programme has helped in terms of sales, and this could be seen in a matter of weeks.

Group SEB, which counts Moulinex, Rowenta and Tefal among its brands, were motivated to participate in the programme because of the direct influence the quantity and quality of reviews has on customer conversion and site placement.

We choose mainly new products and particularly focus on the inclusion of innovative or more complex products in the programme. We experienced a sales uplift post an increase in reviews on a recent campaign with the Tefal Snack Collection, said Ian Watkinson, Channel Controller at Groupe SEB. It also definitely helps us with customer insight. The recent case of a new Tefal Steam Generator is a good example, where from a Testers review, we are now reviewing packaging and marketing messages.

Sampling campaigns are also driving the success of products already available.

We choose either new products that haven’t had any reviews to boost customer confidence, or existing products that were under-indexing with Argos due to having no reviews said Rachel Cox, National Account Sales Director at Beurer, a maker of electrical devices for health and well-being.

Four weeks after sending samples and increasing review volume of its products at Argos, the conversion rate of Beurer’s wireless heated seat cover, wireless heated cape and wireless heated belt increased significantly. The review programme had a clear impact on the sales performance.

Across an inventory of more than 60,000 products, Argos sees a 53% conversion uplift in conversion on mobile, 51% on desktop, and 45% on app among online shoppers who interact with UGC compared to those who don’t.

As Sampling proves to be a win-win for both Argos and its suppliers, the retailer plans to continue expanding the programme by partnering with additional suppliers and inviting more testers to the community. Argos also plans to encourage the social sharing of review content and feeding that back into its our own channels to create engaging and inspiring market-leading experiences.

We are very open to all brands participation no matter what the products or company size, the content the testers can give on their products is invaluable. said Steele. Set up is easy and as soon as you have stock available, campaigns can be turned around very quickly.