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SailingREVIEW.com has announced a partnership with
West Marine to provide online shoppers with consumer reviews of marine
products.
Under the agreement, SailingREVIEW.com will provide
shoppers on West Marine's e-commerce site at www.westmarine.com
with thousands of product reviews written and submitted by boating
enthusiasts. SailingREVIEW.com belongs to the family of vertical sites
that comprise ConsumerREVIEW.com, a leading source of quality
consumer-generated reviews.
SailingREVIEW.com is the only site of its kind to
offer access to more than 20,000 unbiased reviews and photographs of
boating products, in addition to free classifieds of sailing gear,
reports of marine conditions, weather forecasts and hundreds of links
to manufacturer sites.
"We're thrilled to be teaming up with the
nation's largest boating retailer," said Max Mancini, CEO of
ConsumerREVIEW.com. "The Internet is changing the face of
commerce for the boating industry. West Marine is the first nautical
e-commerce site that will enable customers to tap reviews of the
latest sailboats and boating products written by fellow enthusiasts,
the majority of whom have at least 10 years of boating experience.
"This partnership is also a feather in our
cap," he continued, "as we continue to build awareness of
the ConsumerREVIEW vertical brands as an essential buying resource for
enthusiasts in dozens of product categories."
West Marine.com will draw from SailingREVIEW.com's
extensive data base, which holds reviews of electronics, maintenance,
plumbing and apparel products.
By integrating consumer-generated reviews into the
on-line shopping experience, West Marine will arm its on-line shoppers
and customers from more than 220 retail outlets with purchase
information based on the experience of other sailors. Each product
review on the West Marine site will be rated on a one-to-five scale,
in keeping with the ConsumerREVIEW model.
The provision of reviews to West Marine by
SailingREVIEW.com marks the first phase of what the two companies
expect will be a long-standing partnership in an industry that has
only begun to leverage e-commerce. According to the National Marine
Manufacturers Association, the U.S. marine market includes 75 million
active boaters who spend more than $20 billion annually on boating
products, with 60 percent of these consumers connected to the
Internet.
"The Online boating market is virtually
untapped," said Tony Gasparich of West Marine. "Few unbiased
resources exist on the Internet that assist consumers in their
purchase decisions. Our alliance with ConsumerREVIEW.com will enhance
West Marine's ability to differentiate itself in a market that's soon
to explode. We're looking forward to building on our alliance with
ConsumerREVIEW for the benefit of boating enthusiasts around the
world."
Using the SailingREVIEW.com model, boaters who visit
the West Marine site will be encouraged to submit their own reviews of
the latest boating products and sailboats in order to create a more
extensive database of reviews for sailing enthusiasts on both sites.
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