Coremetrics Shows that PETCO’s user reviews boost customer spending and reduce product returns

San Mateo, CA – October 1, 2007 – Coremetrics, the leading provider of digital marketing optimization solutions, today announced that PETCO has increased sales through user-generated product reviews. Product reviews that were browsed by customers on PETCO.com resulted in:

• A five-fold increase in email click-through rates
• A 60% increase in order values
• A 135% decrease in returns

Using a solution from Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications, PETCO offers user reviews on almost all products except for live animals. Coremetrics marketing, merchandising and onsite search reports revealed that within two months of implementing Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews, PETCO’s consumers were quickly adopting the reviews, clearly demonstrating a positive return on the company’s investment in user reviews. The first email campaign featuring products that had achieved at least a 4.5 “paws” rating, a motif selected in place of stars, generated a click-through rate topping 300%, which is five times the average click-through rate.

“Customer reviews are a powerful Web 2.0 practice,” said John Lazarchic, vice president of E-commerce at PETCO. “Consumers are highly influenced by the experience of other consumers—far more than they are by marketing professionals. Coremetrics and Bazaarvoice have given us the tools we need to implement and measure the impact of user reviews, including our latest addition, customer-submitted videos.”

Since its initial email campaigns, PETCO has broken new ground by extending ratings and reviews to onsite search and offering user reviews as a site navigation option. The ability to refine onsite search results by customer rating and landing pages that feature top-rated products have led to 41% higher sales per visitor. Further, Coremetrics has shown that customers who navigate into top-rated products convert at a 50% higher rate, spending 60% more than people who do not browse that category.

More recently, PETCO has found that products with reviews moderated by Bazaarvoice have a significantly lower return rate than products without reviews, and the more reviews the product has, the more significant the impact. For example, products with 50 to 100 reviews have 135% lower return rate than those with one to five reviews.

To encourage reviews, PETCO originally offered incentives such as discounts and contests. Today, user reviews are so popular that no incentive is required; reviews are completely customer-driven.

PETCO’s innovative use of user -generated product reviews resulted in the WebAwards’ “Retail Standard of Excellence” award in September 2007. PETCO.com received accolades for its interactivity, a feature that differentiates the site and contributed to its award win.

About Coremetrics
Coremetrics is the leading provider of digital marketing optimization solutions. Its solutions generate high return on online marketing investment and continue to pay daily dividends in improved marketing performance. Over 1,000 online business sites, transacting over $15 billion this year, are now using Coremetrics’ Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to optimize online marketing efforts. Coremetrics’ solutions encompass advanced online analytics and precision marketing applications, including search engine bid management, email marketing and cross sell applications to acquire customers more cost effectively, increase conversion rates, and increase lifetime customer value. Clients have recognized over $300M in documented ROI and 87% of clients recognize ROI in 12 weeks or less. The company is privately held with funding from Accel Partners, FTVentures, and Highland Capital Partners and is headquartered in San Mateo, California. To learn more about Coremetrics, visit www.coremetrics.com or call 877-721-CORE.

Coremetrics has strongly supported online privacy since its inception. To learn more, visit www.coremetrics.com/privacy.

About Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice offers outsourced technology, services, analytics, and expertise to help companies enhance the online shopping experience with social commerce applications that drive sales. Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews and Ask & Answer deliver immediate success by minimizing implementation risk and maximizing the strategic impact of user-generated review content through complete customization, deep integration, community management, advanced analytics, search engine optimization, and syndication across the Web and to offline channels.

Bazaarvoice was named a Red Herring Top 100 company in 2006 and received the 2006 ClickZ Marketing Innovation of the Year award. Bazaarvoice currently serves over 90 eCommerce leaders including Bass Pro Shops, Dell, Macy’s, Overstock.com, PETCO, QVC, Sears, and ZipRealty. The company has headquarters in Austin, TX and offices in London, UK. For more information, please visit the company’s Web site at www.bazaarvoice.com or email info@bazaarvoice.com.