Here at Retail Blog Marketing we have been talking for the last year about how blogs can be used to collect information and get feedback from customers and prospective customers alike. The blog essentially becomes a free focus group. Well, according to Business Week, a lot of large etailers are listening and are letting customers post feedback and information on their websites and blogs.

Macy’s is a good example. They opened up their sites to reviews from customers and they are now receiving over 350 reviews a day. Obviously, this does nothing but help Macys. 80% of these reviews are positive (surprise, surprise) and Macys has gained a definite competitive advantage. This move is also reflective of a broader trend to involve customers in marketing initiatives. According to Marketing Sherpa, by the end of 2005 23% of e-commerce sites had customer reviews and feedback. That had doubled by the end of 2006, and my prediction is that it will double again by the end of this year.

If you couple the obvious advantage of customer feedback with the search advantages of blog marketing, why on earth would an e-tailer not want to follow this trend, build a blog and involve themselves with viral marketing? Beats me.