As you may know, Google has launched new sharing feature for the +1 button, essentially turning it into Google+’s version of Facebook’s “like” button. Before, clicking +1 told Google that content would make for good search results. Now, it allows users to share content with their circles of friends too.

Google is already pushing the potential benefits this can have on online retail.

“We’re excited about the +1 button because it brings these personal recommendations to a place where many purchase decisions start — the Google search results page,” says Google Strategic Partner Manager Brian Lam. “Adding +1 buttons to your product pages makes it easy for your customers to recommend the products they love on your site with a single click. And thanks to recent improvements to the +1 button, they can take the conversation even further by sharing your products right away on Google+.”

“We’ve worked with Bazaarvoice and PowerReviews to make it even easier to get the +1 button on your pages. Both companies have extensive experience in social commerce, and can help you develop the right strategy for implementing +1 buttons on your site,” says Lam. “Looking for a couple examples of retailers using +1 to help their products stand out on Google search? Jockey (working with PowerReviews) and Golfsmith (working with Bazaarvoice) have already added +1 buttons to the product pages on their sites.”

Bazaarvoice is enabling clients to implement the +1 button through its social platform.

“The next evolution of social brings our friends and peers into every decision we make, and we’re excited to partner again with Google to allow consumers to interact with leading brands through search in ways never possible before,” said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice.

Google’s +1 button is available to PowerReviews customers as part of its core ratings and review product.

“Google’s +1 represents an important step in the evolution of social commerce, because it gives retailers a way to capture the enthusiasm their customers have for their products and broadcast it across the web,” said PowerReviews CEO Pehr Luedtke. “Perhaps most importantly, this isn’t social simply for the sake of social, it’s a way for retailers to drive real business results by leveraging the power of recommendations made between friends and peers.”

Of course you don’t have to go through either Bazaarvoice or PowerReviews to implement the button. You can simply install the code yourself, but for those using these platforms, it should be even easier.

"PowerReviews has experienced record growth this year, reporting a 51% increase in clients, a 40% increase in employees and a 28% increase in demand for PowerReviews Express," the rep says. 

Retailers and brands will be able to do things like group together, and show the history of, reviews written by a single Facebook user,  offer "Comment on Facebook" links after each review on the their product page, and post all review comments to a user’s Facebook newsfeed. 

The enhancements build upon Facebook Connect and Facebook’s Like Button capabilities. 

A couple months ago, PowerReviews partnered with Google, providing product reviews for Google search results, Google Product Search, and Google ad programs. 

Ratings and reviews will be displayed in Google search results, Google Product Search, and Google advertising programs.

"Clearly, many consumers depend on search for shopping — from conducting initial research to making the final purchase. Providing high quality product review content within Google gives our clients opportunities to enhance search listings, increase brand awareness and drive sales through every stage of the shopping process," said Pehr Luedtke, CEO of PowerReviews.

"With this new offering, we continue to help retailers and brands leverage their product reviews by increasing traffic and exposure from Google."

PowerReviews is giving retailers the ability to automatically feed full-text product reviews to Google, with the aim of increasing brand exposure for the retailer and offering users access to opinions from other shoppers as they do research and make purchases.

PowerReviews operates Buzzillions. Com, and works with over 1,000 retailers and brands on over 3,500 websites.
 

The 2010 Social Shopping Study surveyed over 1,000 consumers who shop at least 4 times per year and spend $250 or more annually online, to understand their motivations and preferences about online product research and customer reviews.

A contrast in research style was found with consumers being either light or heavy researchers (29% conduct just a few hours of research prior to making a purchase decision while 60 % research for a week or more). Very few consumers (11%) fall in between, research for just a day.

According to respondents, online research is preferred for three reasons: its ability to save time (79 % report saving somewhat to much more time doing their own online research), increase confidence (83 % are somewhat to much more confident about making a purchase decision when doing their own research) and provide credible information (82 % are somewhat or very satisfied with product information available online).

When surveyed about where consumers are doing research online, the study found:

*More than half (57%) of shoppers begin their research with a search engine

*The top three places for finding information online when researching products were retailer sites (65%), brand sites (58%) and Amazon.com (33%).

*Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter ranked as the place where consumers were least likely (6%) to research.

Lauren Freedman
President of E-Tailing Group

"Whereas once online product research was left to the technology savvy looking to make a major purchase, it is now part of the mainstream shopping experience for all product categories as consumers have taken control powering their own product research," explains Lauren Freedman, president of the e-tailing group.

"These heightened consumer demands must be met with comprehensive product and category content to ensure elevated conversion rates and return visits."

Other highlights from the study include:

*Shoppers today are spending more time reading reviews before making purchasing decisions. 64 percent take ten minutes or more (as compared to 50 % in 2007) and 33 percent take one half hour or more (as compared to 18 % in 2007).

*Consumers today are also reading more customer reviews in order to be confident in judging a product. 39 percent read eight or more reviews (as compared with 22 % in 2007) and 12 percent read 16 or more reviews (as compared with 5 % in 2007).

*Following poor product content (72 %), lack of customer reviews (49%) was ranked as the number one reason a consumer would leave a site when conducting product research.

"The findings of the 2010 Social Shopping Survey validate what we are hearing from retailers and brands – that customer reviews have become a critical piece of the marketing puzzle, based not only on consumer demand but also on the sales they deliver," said Pehr Luedtke, CEO of PowerReviews.

"The next step for retailers is to now find new ways to maximize the impact and reach of these reviews – such as optimizing them for search engines through products like our In-Line SEO solution."

PowerReviews, which adds user review functions onto retailers’ sites, is in a pretty strong position.  Its clients include huge businesses such as RadioShack, Toys “R” Us, and Brookstone, and 37 others are listed on the official site.  That $15 mil won’t hurt, either.

“Lehman Brothers Venture Partners took the lead on the round, and previous investors Menlo Ventures and Draper Richards invested more, as well,” notes VentureBeat’s Dan Kaplan.  While it’s a pretty standard practice for firms to give money more than once, consider that an extra vote of confidence.

More positive news comes from StartupSquad’s Vivek Puri, who names PowerReviews “[o]ne of my favorite startups.”

All in all, everything’s looking pretty cheery.  PowerReviews hasn’t given any real clues as to what it plans to do in the future, but it’s a good bet that a great deal of expansion will be involved.  PowerReviews’s work is on display at Buzzillions, by the way.

The reviews on Staples.com cover products including printers, laptops, ink, paper, furniture, office supplies, shredders and more.

"Staples is always looking for ways to make it easy for our customers, and we see product reviews as a key step in making their buying experience faster and better informed," said John Giusti, vice president of Staples Business Delivery, a division of Staples that delivers to small businesses.

"We chose to work with PowerReviews because we believe they offer the most helpful, informative and personalized customer reviews for our diverse customer base."

PowerReviews uses a tag-based approach to provide "at-a- glance" Review Snapshots that make it easier for users to find, compare and make a purchasing decision. PowerReviews identifies reviews written by "Verified Buyers."

Staples is the second major retailer to add customer reviews to its Web site, last week Wal-Mart launched customer reviews for its Web site using Bazaarvoice.

"We are excited to be working with Staples to harness their customer’s voice to help provide a more credible, more personalized shopping experience, and engender greater trust and confidence in their purchase decisions," said Andy Chen, CEO of PowerReviews.