Bazaarvoice, a leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today introduced MobileVoice, a new service that delivers authentic product reviews directly to shoppers’ phones in the store or mall. With MobileVoice, Bazaarvoice clients can now easily provide reviews to mobile users in order to help shoppers narrow their choices and buy the right product. Shoppers can easily browse reviews by category or look up a specific keyword or SKU to immediately access the opinions of their peers, adding value to the in-store experience and building confidence in purchase decisions.

“Reviews have become a core part of the shopping experience — Nielsen reports that 8 out of 10 shoppers read product reviews this holiday season, and we served over 1.2 billion review impressions over the course of Thanksgiving week,” said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. “Now, with MobileVoice, shoppers don’t need to research online before their shopping trip. Instead, they can access reviews in real-time, in the store, to make sense of their choices and ensure a considered and careful purchase.”

“We want to deliver the best client experience to our shoppers, wherever they shop,” said Julie Bornstein, SVP Sephora Direct, which is launching MobileVoice this month at m.sephora.com. “MobileVoice allows us to amplify the voice of our clients by making reviews easily accessible through iPhone, Blackberry, and other mobile devices at m.sephora.com. In-store shoppers can simply read the reviews written on any product, or use top-rated products as a guide, to select the right lipstick or blush.”

For retailers and manufacturers, MobileVoice extends the proven benefits of a Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews implementation into the offline channel. MobileVoice clients gain sales by improving customer satisfaction, increasing brand authority, and further leveraging their word of mouth investment. They can also offset some of the most significant challenges associated with in-store merchandising, including the limited opportunity to message product information beyond the package, a potentially overwhelming multitude of product choices, and the perception of store reps as biased or commission-driven.

“Last year, almost 50,000 consumers reviewed TurboTax products with an average rating of 4.7 stars through Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews. MobileVoice puts the collective power of those customer reviews right into the store, and into the hands of people as they are shopping for tax software,” said Kerrie Foss, Senior Marketing Manager with Intuit. “We know that recommendations from ‘people like me’ influence a consumer’s purchase decision.” Intuit is making TurboTax reviews available at m.turbotax.com.