Managing your syndication program

Learn how to manage and attribute content in the Bazaarvoice Network.

Product launches

If new items are added to a sender's product feed, such as for the launch of a new product, and the sending party wants to make sure that Bazaarvoice conducts the matching within a specific time period, a case should be opened with Bazaarvoice support. Bazaarvoice recommends 2 to 3 weeks of advance notice to provide time for matching and to address any gaps in the receiving parties' product feeds that may be discovered.

Note: Bazaarvoice cannot guarantee 100% product matching success as matching is dependent on the quality and timeliness of uploaded product feeds from both sender and receiver. Makes sure you've finished ingesting data before product matching takes place.

Up-to-date business and technical contacts for syndication program

Companies participating in the Bazaarvoice Content Network must maintain a business contact and a technical contact to help manage the program. Bazaarvoice will work with participants to identify contacts during the onboarding process. Network participants shall inform Bazaarvoice of personnel changes and provide up-to-date contact information as needed.

Syndication senders and receivers

Syndication senders send to the entire Bazaarvoice Content Network: The content sent by a syndication sender may be sent to all eligible syndication receivers in the entire Bazaarvoice Content Network where a valid product match is found. The eligibility of syndication receivers is based on the type of syndication the senders and receivers have purchased or otherwise opted-in for. This means that senders cannot select subsets of syndication receivers to whom their content will be sent.
Syndication receivers receive from the entire Bazaarvoice Content Network: Likewise, where a valid product match is found, syndication receivers will receive content from all eligible syndication senders in the Bazaarvoice Content Network. Eligibility is based on the type of syndication the senders and receivers have purchased or otherwise opted-in for. This means that receivers will not be able to select subsets of the syndication senders from which they receive content.

Intra-site review syndication

In addition to these general guidelines for review syndication, Bazaarvoice has defined the following guidelines for intra-site review syndication. This is the syndication of content between two related companies, such as between the web properties of two related brands or retailers in the same geographic market, or between the web properties for a brand or retailer in two different geographic markets.

To be eligible to send content, the sender is required to:

Purchase or otherwise opt in for intra-site syndication.
Ensure the same product identifier is present in the source and destination product feeds. There is a Bazaarvoice requirement for intra-site syndication to auto-match based on one of the following identifiers: UPC, EAN, ISBN, and typically External Product ID.

Cross-region syndication

Bazaarvoice has defined these regions for content syndication as common markets:

EU—Bazaarvoice treats the European Union as a single region.
North America—Bazaarvoice treats North America as a single region.
APAC—Bazaarvoice treats Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand as a single region.

When sending review content, by default, Bazaarvoice will enable the same language across countries and regions to increase the amount of content that can be sent and received on the network.

There is a Bazaarvoice requirement for cross-region syndication to auto-match products based on one of the following identifiers in the product feed:

UPC
EAN
ISBNs

The purpose is to maintain review accuracy by preventing review syndication to products that are not the same. For example, many products will have different active ingredients or components within different markets, even though they may have the same name. Additionally, some cultures value different things within products, making a review in one market or country unhelpful in a different market.

For retailers:

You will receive product reviews (in languages you display) from other countries. For example, French retailers will receive French language reviews from Belgium and US retailers will receive English language reviews from Canada.

For brands:

Reviews you collect will more easily syndicate to retailers in other countries if they display the language the review was collected in.

Syndication of reviews in multiple languages

Syndication senders can send content in multiple languages. However, only content in languages supported on the syndication receivers' properties will display. For example, a brand could send content in English, French, and Spanish to retailers that sell its products. If the retailer supports only French, then only the French language content will display. If the retailer later adds support for English and Spanish, these additional languages would display as well.

Content is syndicated for all products

For a syndication sender, content will be sent for all products that are part of a syndicated brand. This includes both active and inactive products. This means that senders are not allowed to choose to send only some products from a product catalog. The purpose of syndicating content for inactive products is that they may still be carried at the retailer after the brand has stopped offering them.

For a syndication receiver, content will be received and displayed on all products. This includes both active and inactive products. This means that it is not possible to choose to receive only some products from a product catalog.

Authenticity standard for Bazaarvoice Content Network

All content sent to the Bazaarvoice Content Network must meet Bazaarvoice's Authenticity Policy. As the operator of the Bazaarvoice Content Network, Bazaarvoice maintains control of the Authenticity Policy. Bazaarvoice will halt syndication from syndication senders if content is found to violate the Authenticity Policy. Device fingerprinting must be included with submissions in order for content to syndicate, unless it falls under an exception in the Authenticity Policy.

The Authenticity Policy is enforced using industry-leading fraud detection technology and a team of analysts. This team monitors submissions to ensure that content is approved for publication and syndication only if it is free from fraud and spam and contains all appropriate disclosures and badges.

Moderation standards for content in the Bazaarvoice Content Network

In addition to the requirements of the Authenticity Policy, all content sent to the Bazaarvoice Content Network is moderated for appropriateness and relevance. To be eligible for syndication, content originating from brands or suppliers must meet Bazaarvoice's Network Content Moderation Guidelines in addition to the moderation standards of the syndication sender. This means that some content may be approved to appear on a syndication sender's property, but may not be approved to syndicate to receivers.

Because syndicated content will appear in multiple locations, the network moderation guidelines are frequently stricter than the customized standards put in place by individual syndication senders. For example, references to price, sales or promotions, or the location of purchase, are grounds for rejecting content originating from a brand site in the Bazaarvoice Content Network. Depending on the syndication sender's moderation guidelines, this content may still be available for the client that originally collected the content.

Content originating on a retailer's site is not re-moderated according to the network moderation guidelines.

As the operator of the Bazaarvoice Content Network, Bazaarvoice maintains control of these standards and may change them from time to time as needed to ensure the quality of content syndicated to the network and deliver the best experiences possible to consumers.

Display and content treatment

With the exception of the required content attribution to the syndication sender (explained below), syndicated review content will be treated identically to native review content in any location that reviews are displayed. This means that syndicated reviews may not be displayed in a separate location from native reviews, nor can they be filtered or sorted in some way to be treated differently. For example, it is not permissible for a syndication receiver to display all of their native content before the syndicated content. Both must be treated consistently.

Review response may be syndicated and displayed per the request of the syndication sender.

Content attribution

Note: Bazaarvoice's attribution statement policy is influenced by mandates and guidance from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Many of our policies and the requirement for transparency are based on FTC guidelines and rules.

Content syndicated through the Bazaarvoice Network must be attributed to the syndication sender. The purpose of the attribution statement is to be transparent and avoid misunderstandings, such as a consumer thinking a review originated on website Y when it really originated on website X.

The standard attribution statement for desktop websites includes the sender's logo and text that discloses the content was collected at another location, as shown in the following image. The logo is optional if the text clearly indicates the source of the review.

For mobile properties, a text-only attribution is sufficient.

The attribution statement is required for all syndication types. However, link usage in the attribution logo and text statements varies depending on the type of syndication:

Standard syndication—Inclusion of a link from the syndication receiver back to the syndication sender is at the discretion of the receiver.
Reverse syndication—Inclusion of a link from the syndication receiver back to the syndication sender is at the discretion of the sender.
Intra-site syndication—Inclusion of a link back to the original location is at the discretion of the syndication sender and syndication receivers.

All links must be implemented as no-follow links.