The e-commerce site of beauty brand Urban Retreat is introducing customer ratings and reviews as part of a plan to make the site into a beauty portal.

Urban Retreat, which has salons at sites including Harrods in London and Harvey Nichols in Manchester, is using the Bazaarvoice customer feedback service on its site Beautique.com.

It is also introducing Bazaarvoice Stories on its corporate site Urbanretreat.co.uk. The service allows customers to share stories related to their purchases and experiences of the brand.

“Our ultimate aim is to build a community,” said Beautique.com general manager Jason Russell. “The content from these stories will build brand engagement and loyalty while helping to drive salon sales.”

He added: “We want to make Beautique.com and Urban Retreat online seamless as brands. Introducing Bazaarvoice’s services to each site will allow customers to review products and share experiences in both environments.”

Beautique.com sells high-end luxury beauty brands.

Russell said: “Christmas is our busiest time of year and we want to capture as many reviews as possible to get the service off to a good start.

“In 12 months’ time, we want to more than double our customer base.”