Commentary

A Brand's Good Reputation Rings In The Dollars, Lego Store Ranks No. 1

Reputation.com released its Retail Reputation Report sentiment from 4.7 million customer reviews that about 30,000 store locations posted online and on Facebook.

Based on these reviews, social media sentiment, business listings accuracy and other factors that clearly reflect consumers’ opinions about their search and in-store experience, each chain was given a Reputation Score. The industry-average reputation score for retailers in 2018 was 538 on a scale of 1,000. 

The report found that retail stores with a high reputation score generated year-over-year store sales growth of 2.8%. Retailers with low reputation scores saw store sales decline on average by 1.1%.  

The LEGO Store, with a rating of 695, ranked No. 1, followed by Trader Joe’s with 690 and Nordstrom at 673. Barnes & Noble consistently ranked high in a number of categories this year.

Sephora, on the other hand, ranked among the lowest -- scoring an average 2.8 stars across eight out of nine categories.

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The platform, through machine learning, analyzed unstructured text from 4.7 million online consumer reviews that were posted on Google and Facebook. The reviews detailed in-store shopping experiences at nearly 30,000 locations owned by 88 retail chains.

This year’s report included reviews on big-box discounters, high-end boutiques, sports retailers, cosmetics stores, hardware merchants and a range of others. 

Zara showed major gains in service, jumping from 1.9 stars in 2017 to 3.1 stars this year. Aeropostale and Michael Kors also gained one star this year in service.

When it comes to value, retailers like Trader Joe’s ranked the highest with 4.7, followed by Costco at 4.5, and OshKosh B’Gosh with a 4.5 ranking.

The top 10 service leaders were The Lego Store, Trader Joe’s, Ace Hardware, REI, Barnes & Noble, Wegmans, Publix, Disney Store, L.L. Bean, and OshKosh B’Gosh.

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