Argos has generated a massive volume of customer reviews after running an email campaign in January to encourage customers to provide feedback on the products they had recently purchased.

The retailer uses Bazaarvoice’s ratings and reviews service, and the service provider recorded more than 70,000 reviews by Argos customers within a 24-hour period. More than 90,000 reviews were posted in total as a result of the campaign. 63,232 reviews were received between 11am and midnight on one day.

Argos multichannel programme and operations manager David Tarbuck said that the retailer had contacted more than 2 million customers via the campaign.

He was unable to give figures for the potential increase in sales the retailer would expect to generate from the additional customer comments, but said: “Each review adds to the value other customers get from real product opinions. Since we introduced rating and reviews on the site we have seen volume and coverage of reviews increase substantially. The better the coverage of reviews, the greater the positive impact of the review information.”

Tarbuck added that the number of reviews looked at by customers had risen since the extra content had been posted and the majority of reviews were very positive.

He said that the feedback generated would also be used to inform decisions within the business. “Any reviews relating to product description errors are immediately investigated and when necessary, corrected. Where appropriate, review data is used to inform our quality control teams if customers have difficulties or issues with a product,” he said.

“The content also helps to proactively inform the buying teams on which products customers really like, which ensures that we keep in step with their expectations and continue to deliver a great product mix.”