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Introduction
In a merchandising environment heavily affected by the Global Financial Crisis, Italian retailer Unieuro’s forward thinking approach to business has made it one of Europe’s largest retailers. Despite operating in a market where consumer confidence is low, Unieuro succeeds by offering customers a level of trust above expectations.
The challenge
Although the estimated share of online retail is only 5% of total retail in Europe*, emerging e-commerce markets such as Italy can be informative indications of customer sentiment. A smaller user base represents a valuable opportunity to observe shifts in the way people buy products. Recent retail trends have indicated that in tough economic times, the public becomes increasingly wary of larger companies. As a result, bringing people to physical stores is difficult; an insight Unieuro saw as an opportunity to expand its e-commerce offering.
Without being able to offer customer service at the same level as in its physical stores, Unieuro wanted to help its customers make informed decisions, which it felt would improve its conversion rates and the overall online user experience.
Customer demand also led to Unieuro implementing reviews. Prior to working with Feefo, its Facebook page, website and physical stores saw an influx of consumers wanting to know what other shoppers thought of the products they were selling. Being unable to provide an impartial view themselves, Unieuro began to investigate the best method to collect and display such content.
Unieuro saw the need to implement an independent ratings and reviews service into its new e-commerce platform as a way to build consumer trust. Once the decision was made to collect and display customer reviews, Unieuro began to look for a partner. It wanted to find a solutions provider who delivered a fully managed service, as an in-house solution would not allow an adequate and impartial level of moderation.
The solution
Feefo’s fully managed service provided the ideal solution for Unieuro . As its first foray into the Italian retail market, Feefo was eager to see how its methodology would penetrate a new region. Feefo pro-actively solicited, collected and published product reviews from authentic Unieuro purchasers with moderation of all content according to specified guidelines.
The integration began with the desktop version of the website. Unieuro was impressed with Feefo’s ability to adapt, fix and add value to the solution over the implementation period
In Italy it’s very easy to find fake reviews on some e-commerce sites. Our consumers are more informed now so it’s important for us to provide impartial reviews. This is why we chose Feefo.“
Marco Titi
Marketing Director, Unieuro Group
The results
The implementation of Feefo reviews on www.Unieuro.it was met with a great response from customers. Product pages with Feefo reviews had an 8.8% click through rate. What’s more, an impressive 20.8% of customers left a review of the product they purchased, higher than the 14% average seen across Feefo’s UK retail clients.
Having collected such rich data, Unieuro aims to use it in new and enterprising ways. Bringing reviews into its stores for promotional materials will increase customer engagement and build trust. Unieuro also plans to use review scores in catalogues, advertising and email marketing.
Using customer insight to improve its service is also an important factor for Unieuro. The company aims to use the feedback collected by Feefo to maintain a high standard of customer service and quickly rectify any issues that may arise. As part of Unieuro’s mission to be a leader in customer service, it has investigated the possibility of featuring Feefo Customer Experience Reviews on its website.
