Software to "Rate a Product"?

[jen_90069]

Does anybody out there know of any software packages that would allow customers to "rate" or "review" products, and easily integrate into existing shopping cart software? I currently have an online store using Kurant's StoreSense shopping cart. I probably get at least 10 requests per week from customers who would like to read other customer reviews of items I sell. Unfortunately, Kurant will not support this functionality as soon as I need it... they specified that it's "on their list" but probably at least 2 years away. I sure need this soon to stay competitive!

Thanks in advance!

Jennifer

[walterweeks]

Since I have not yet implemented a project using Amazon.com's Web services, that could be an option. From my understanding, you have XML access to their data possibly including customer product ratings.

Amazon.com has a free API (application programming interface) that is freely downloadable.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/103-6972254-6563862?node=3435361

The only real issue with the API is the end user licence agreement; the data obtained from Amazon.com might have to be used in conjunction with selling actual items. In other words, you might not be able to get the rating information without selling their wares.

Also, if the programming side of things isn't in your area of specialty or interest, you could hire a Web developer or firm to implement the rating features you need. (Disclaimer: The company I work for provides this sort of work as one of its many IT services.) That way, you can avoid the legal issues surrounding the Amazon.com Web services APIs. Another benefit: you could have your own specific customer rating solution fit to your exact needs that is possibly even better than Amazon.com.

But having all of those user ratings ready-made by Amazon.com would be so nice. :) I'm sure they wouldn't like people taking their data without having an opportunity to make a sale. However, it is probably worth a little bit of investigation.

[GIS1]

Hi Jennifer,
I am looking for the same type of software, and I have found nothing specific to rating and reviewing products. I know that osCommerce - an open source powerful ecommerce package - allows users to write reviews, but I don't know of any stand- alone software that does this (www.oscommerce.com). You might want to consider using a different ecommerce package. I want to set up a "review" site (no purchasing of products), so if you find something that does what you are looking for please post it here. Good Luck.
-GIS1

[DMuse]

I know Nexternal, one of the better (I think) store-building services, provides that feature.
http://www.nexternal.com/eCommerce/features.htm

I'm sure there are other storefronts and shopping cart products that let you allow your customers to add reviews or ratings. Here are a couple I stumbled upon just through a quick Goggle search, so I can't vouch for how well they work.
http://www.shop-script.com/f-discuss-products.html
http://www.baskweb.com/features.html


Also, some of the larger hosting providers (e.g., Interland, Verio) may be able to provide that through a partner.
--Dan

[site-report]

To help answer the question, there's some additional information that may help us decide the best course of action. What shopping cart are you using at the moment? What paltform are you using? ASP/PHP? Do you have coding experience?

In reality, adding a review system yourself wouldn't be too difficult if you had some ASP or PHP experience. Assuming that your cart uses a database that you have access to, you could add an additional table, Reviews, with the following fields:

- ID integer autoincrement
- ProductCode - reference to the product being reviewed
- ReviewTitle - the title of the review
- ReviewDetail - detailed of the review
- RatingValue - 1 star, 2 stars, etc
- DateSubmitted - date the review was submitted
- EmailAddress - email address of reviewer
- Status - whether the review has been approved

You would then need a form for visitors to enter this information, a page to process it and store it in the database and a page (or page snippet) to present the reviews for a particular product. You would also need a password protected admin interface to edit, approve, disapprove and delete reviews.

Hope that helps a little.
Kind Regards,
James