Bazaarvoice is launching a new program named Bazaarvoice Radius today. The program solidifies an ecosystem of partner companies (interactive agencies, email marketing, ecommerce platforms) that are certified to integrate with Bazaarvoice products. The current product lineup for Bazaarvoice includes Ratings & Reviews, Ask & Answer, and Stories.

Becoming part of the Radius program gives companies access to the web services API’s and XML data feeds so that they can use them for their client’s sales and marketing programs. For example, here is a mock-up of a potential ad that is not static, but dynamically updated by live ratings and reviews. The mythical client here would generate the ad content by pulling information out of the Bazaarvoice database using web services.  This is a rather simple example of how the data might be used.

To take it a step further, here is a screen shot of a Rich Internet Application (RIA) in development that uses the data in a way that provides a highly interactive shopping experience for a customer. This program is really a formalization of the work that the company has been doing with the interactive agencies and other service proviers. Companies that are part of the program at launch include R/GA, Resource Interactive, ATG, IBM, CheetahMail, CoreMetrics, Omniture, WebTrends, and Endeca to name just a few.

Strategically, this is a brilliant move by Bazaarvoice, as it creates some pretty high switching costs for the customer base. We’re not sure what the exact metrics are, but premium retail shopping sites will certainly see better conversion rates by leveraging the voice of the customer into the buying experience. With rich amounts of information exposed via the API’s it’s a wide open field for Radius members to implement really cool marketing programs for Bazaarvoice customers.

Sphere: Related Content

Technorati Tags: Austin, bazaarvoice, radius, social commerce, Startup, WOM, WOMM

Filed under: Launch, Uncategorized