DAZ product reviews/video reels
Hello. After purchasing many products from the shop, I can say that the quality and accuracy of the products and their descriptions has been great. The only real issue that I feel DAZ should address regarding animation products, is each have a demo reel (a video clip) showing the animation in action. Some of the animation products are better than others, and at $25+ for some simple packages, it would be much easier for me to commit to more sales if I could see the animation working beforehand. I am fine with making adjustments where needed to smooth out the frames, but some of the packs are far superior to others in their quality. I am further frustrated with the fact that there is nowhere for consumers to leave feedback on the product pages. Is DAZ the only online retailer in 2014/2015 that shuns customer feedback because of a few who would abuse it? It's kind of like a form of product feedback DRM....
Other users have responded in the past on other forums with 'well, you can just go to other websites and see the customer comments.' Isn't it counter-intuitive to suggest to customers that they leave a company's purchase page, just as they are almost ready to buy, for another website to see if they can find some consumer reviews elsewhere? I can't tell you how many times I've left DAZ to go elsewhere to find reviews and never came back, because by the time I got around to finding and reading the reviews, good or bad, I was onto something else. I don't know whose job it is to decide who can leave comments, but it's apparent that there is some real concern about the ability to sell some of the products at DAZ if they allow customers (who have purchased the item) to leave feedback. Just for the record, I would have left some wonderful feedback over the past year for about 90% of the products I have purchased over that time. Is that not a key, driving sales tool which completely overwhelms the few 'bad reviews' that would be posted here and there?
Anyway, I have a lot of good feeback and no where to directly communicate that with new and existing users, other than on forums like this, and... other websites. Argue all you like, it is NOT a good approach to consumers who are used to having that simple freedom on all other sites that sell products. Yes, I do see DAZ plans to have 'top rated' and 'popular' product lists that should 'reflect' the overall reception of products in the shop, but this is not the same thing. You don't even need the status quo 'stars' ratings or anything like that. Just a simple comment section. Otherwise, the message from DAZ is: 'Anyone is free to purchase our products, but not to speak of them to anyone, at least not here. Your feedback is not important to us, or even relevant. In fact, it's so unimportant, that we do not allow it on our product pages.'
I realize that the company does not actually feel that way, and understand that DAZ is only trying to avoid an Amazonian comment section nightmare that can ruin a great product's chances quickly. However, the cream always rises to the top and customers aren't as cruel as you may be imagining us to be. It would also help to cull some of the inferior products taking up virtual eye-space on your expanding shelves. Why not just sell the best of the best?
Happy holidays everyone!
Comments
I agree, if the product is an animation, then a video of said animation should be included on the product page. There is nothing better than a well informed customer.
It's a simple matter of adding an iframe line that users can add video links to. You could even just have a link-grabber in the upload section so that artists could upload a link to their own Youtube/Vimeo product demo videos and help them establish more viewers to their channels.
Anyway, animations should all have a clip on the product page. I believe it would also help promote DAZ overall with all these other videos showing-off what can be done with their software. : )