Linus Gregoriadis, head of research at E-consultancy has just completed their Social Commerce Report 2007 (sponsored by vendor BazaarVoice).

Eight hundred organizations responded to the survey, including 360 classified as online sellers, the majority were based in the UK. I haven't read the full report but amongst the data points being talked about in Marketing Charts and The Retail Bulletin, are a couple of stats that support the value of user generated ratings and reviews... ie customer references.

In terms of the perceived benefits of adopting customer ratings and reviews functionality, from those who stated it was a major benefit:

• 79% cited higher conversion rates
• 73% cited improved retention
• 59% cited natural search benefits

So far, so good, for us evangelists of the voice of the customer.

However currently only 28% of respondents use customer ratings and reviews today. So the assumption has to be that many respondents were projecting what they expected to be the benefit, rather what they had themselves experienced.