Sydney - March 18, 2010 - Bazaarvoice, pioneers in hosted social commerce applications, today announced the launch of their Australian and New Zealand operations. Based in Sydney, Graham Jackson will lead the office as managing director. Already, customers in Australia include Jetstar, DealsDirect, Vodafone Hutchison, Surfstitch, GraysOnline, and Dick Smith.

Bazaarvoice is a social commerce technology company with headquarters in the UK. Its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions drive sales by enhancing the online shopping experience. Bazaarvoice’s products allow consumers to review products, ask and answer questions and share stories online, to make more informed and rewarding purchase decisions.

Managing director for ANZ, Graham Jackson has considerable expertise launching companies in new markets and building revenues from scratch. A sales veteran of more than 17 years, he joined Bazaarvoice from Skinkers’ Sydney office. As director of Skinkers’ Australian operations, he considerably grew the market presence for the company’s direct to desktop / device communication and event delivery technology.

Jackson commented: “At Bazaarvoice, we partner with the world’s leading brands to help them harness the power of the customer voice. From our new Sydney office, we will further grow aggressively in the Australian and New Zealand markets. We expect adoption to be similar to the UK, where over 80 per cent of shoppers were expected to reference customer reviews last Christmas.”

Bazaarvoice’s international expansion to Australia & New Zealand, as well as Germany and Benelux, follows rapid growth in its overseas client base. The company already has offices in the UK, US, France and Singapore. The number of UK customers more than doubled last year (up 115%), whilst the rest of Europe and APAC saw explosive growth of 275 per cent and 400 per cent respectively.  The company plans to double the size of its international business in the next 12 months.

About Bazaarvoice

Bazaarvoice (www.bazaarvoice.co.uk <http://www.bazaarvoice.co.uk> ) is a social commerce technology company. Its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions have served more than 80 billion pieces of customer-generated content helping over 650 brands globally to harness and amplify customer online word of mouth. In the UK, clients include Argos, Boots, Halfords, Wickes, Thomas Cook, QVC and Boden.

Bazaarvoice’s products - Ratings & Reviews™, Ask & Answer™ and Stories™ - are social commerce applications that drive sales. They enable customers to review products, ask and answer questions and share stories online; enhancing the online shopping experience and allowing them to make more informed and rewarding purchase decisions. Benefits for the retailer include content ownership, seamless customisation, increased search engine optimisation impact, advanced analytics and syndication across the web. Retailers can also leverage the content generated across on and offline marketing channels.

Founded in 2005, Bazaarvoice has offices in the UK, US, France and Singapore. The company was named in 2007’s Red Herring Global 100 and received the Technology Vendor of the Year award from Retail Systems in 2009.
 
For more information and access to client success stories, visit http://www.bazaarvoice.com, read the blog at http://www.bazaarvoice.com/blog/, and follow on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/bazaarvoice.