Beauty giant L’Oréal has placed significant importance on the power of the word of mouth with an investment into consumer review technology to increase sales of its products.

The company has teamed up with advocacy platform BzzReviews, created by BzzAgent, to drive online sales and build brand trust. This is done by creating customer reviews of experiences with the product and trials.

These are then broadcast through syndication partners such as Bazaarvoice onto brand pages and retail websites.

At present the company’s own website does not allow e-commerce therefore it is unable to benefit from email triggers after purchasing or creating large numbers of reviews.

Speaking to The Drum, Sam Crossman, Senior Digital Manager of L’Oréal Paris UK said, “We understand the value of reviews to both the online and in-store shoppers. Reviews reassure consumers and provide invaluable insight into product use and suitability.
“The insight we receive from running review panels feeds directly back into brand marketing campaigns, and could even influence product development.
“Reviews and other user-generated content are integral to our overall digital and ecommerce strategies… We know that peer to peer recommendation is a very important part of the consideration journey, whether directly through friends and family, or through peer group association.”

L’Oréal is looking to target consumers via age as well as other personal factors such as skin type or whether they have colored hair. The power of the reviews will be the brands most powerful route to increase sales, according to Crossman.