We were onsite with a client last week delivering our findings from a site analysis exercise when an interesting debate broke out.  We provided the feedback that we didn’t like how their customer reviews utilized the “out of the box” stars from Power Reviews.  Typically, we make this argument from an aesthetics and branding perspective, but this client disagreed.

His take was that utilizing the PowerReviews branded “star system” gave customers a greater sense of trust because they recognized this review feature across sites.  From a design perspective, we maintained our point of view.  However, the bigger conversation prompted the questions what is the purpose of reviews and how much does it matter that they maintain their own identity in order to provide better reassurance versus fitting well within the site design.

Fast forward to this week and Google’s announcement regarding their deal with PowerReviews and the option for users to now select Ratings and Reviews as a filter when searching for products.  Internet Retailer estimates that PowerReviews currently works with approximately 1,000 online retailers and almost 3,500 websites.  With this type of adoption and now with everyone’s favorite search engine giant jumping on board, the question becomes should retailers stick with the “star system” PowerReviews provides and maintain a slightly separate identity from their site, or continue to try and brand these product review systems as their own?

Now take this back to the client we were discussing.  Does his average customer find this review system more credible because they recognize the PowerReview system on his site from other online stores and therefore finds these reviews more credible?  How does this help or hurt the overall branding of the site?  Does the online shopper really care?

As we have seen, eCommerce remains a constantly evolving experience.  But, despite the nature of change in this business, maintaining some familiarity is the key to adoption.  Just as we would never encourage someone to change the colors of some of the top assurance badges (because users recognize them), maybe there’s an argument to setting aside brand with Product Reviews and Ratings as well.

Sounds like a great testing opportunity if you ask me…