ResellerRatings
Encyclopedia
ResellerRatings is a web-based business that solicits consumer reviews of online retailers and sells "Merchant Memberships" to those stores. Rated stores are given two scores - a lifetime score and a six-months score. As of 28 February 2011, the site claimed 691,411 user-submitted reviews for 27,423 stores.
The site also lists deals, special offers, and other sales currently being offered at listed stores, as well as a forum for discussion.
Although free to be listed and to post comments attached to reviews, stores may pay to join the ResellerRatings Merchant Member program regardless of the merchants' rating. Exact fees are no longer disclosed publicly and vary by merchant. Merchant Members can, among other things, receive notifications and detailed information about new reviews, view order numbers attached to reviews, contact reviewers/customers to resolve issues, use the ResellerRatings Checkout Exit Survey to generate reviews from customers one week post-sale, flag reviews for non-customers whereby a ResellerRatings account manager contacts the reviewer to obtain proof of their order and removes the review if no proof is obtained, use the ResellerRatings Customers Love Us Seal/badge, and receive syndication of ratings into Bing Shopping, Google Product Search, and Google AdWords.
"Shopping Review" websites like ResellerRatings or Angie's List are immune from civil liability prosecution for what its reviewers write due to the Internet Communications Decency Act protections which shields websites from what their users do or say.
Today, the site receives about 1.5 million unique users per month and about 1,000 new reviews are submitted to the site daily . 1,000 online retailers including HomeDepot.com, Newegg.com, Tigerdirect, and 1800PetMeds, are Merchant Members at ResellerRatings, and monitor customer reviews to help resolve any issues.
On 6/25/2010, Microsoft's Bing.com chose ResellerRatings as its first provider of merchant reviews.
Merchants and consumers discuss ResellerRatings in the Google forum.
The site also lists deals, special offers, and other sales currently being offered at listed stores, as well as a forum for discussion.
Although free to be listed and to post comments attached to reviews, stores may pay to join the ResellerRatings Merchant Member program regardless of the merchants' rating. Exact fees are no longer disclosed publicly and vary by merchant. Merchant Members can, among other things, receive notifications and detailed information about new reviews, view order numbers attached to reviews, contact reviewers/customers to resolve issues, use the ResellerRatings Checkout Exit Survey to generate reviews from customers one week post-sale, flag reviews for non-customers whereby a ResellerRatings account manager contacts the reviewer to obtain proof of their order and removes the review if no proof is obtained, use the ResellerRatings Customers Love Us Seal/badge, and receive syndication of ratings into Bing Shopping, Google Product Search, and Google AdWords.
"Shopping Review" websites like ResellerRatings or Angie's List are immune from civil liability prosecution for what its reviewers write due to the Internet Communications Decency Act protections which shields websites from what their users do or say.
History
ResellerRatings was launched in 1996 as a subsection of SysOpt.com (sysopt.com/resellerratings, at that time). Its founder sold SysOpt.com and ResellerRatings.com to EarthWeb in 1999 for several million dollars. EarthWeb went defunct and sold all of its properties (except Dice.com) to Internet.com in 2001. Then in 2002, Internet.com shut ResellerRatings.com down, and the founder of ResellerRatings.com bought the site back from Internet.com .Today, the site receives about 1.5 million unique users per month and about 1,000 new reviews are submitted to the site daily . 1,000 online retailers including HomeDepot.com, Newegg.com, Tigerdirect, and 1800PetMeds, are Merchant Members at ResellerRatings, and monitor customer reviews to help resolve any issues.
On 6/25/2010, Microsoft's Bing.com chose ResellerRatings as its first provider of merchant reviews.
Merchants and consumers discuss ResellerRatings in the Google forum.
External links
- US website
- Extension for the Firefox web browserWeb browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
- New York Attorney General Announces Partnership with ResellerRatings.com