‘Austerity gadgets’ top poll as UK consumers rate their favourite appliances, toys and gizmos

‘Austerity gadgets’ top poll as UK consumers rate their favourite appliances, toys and gizmos

Austerity is the nation’s new favourite brand for appliances, gadgets, gizmos and toys as the reality of reduced personal incomes starts to hit

London, UK – May 30th 2011 - The UK’s love affair with gadgets, toys and gizmos shows few outward signs of running out of steam. But over the last 12 months, ‘austerity gadgets’ – appliances, toys and gizmos from less well-known manufacturers – have become the nation’s new must-haves, according to new statistics from Europe’s largest social commerce company, Reevoo.

In eight out of the 19 gadget and appliance categories that it monitors, Reevoo found that the product rated most highly by real owners in the last 12 months is a budget version of a product from a leading manufacturer, or a model from a less well-known, less-expensive brand.

London-based Reevoo, founded and run by successful British internet entrepreneur Richard Anson, develops social commerce technology. Its software enables online retailers including Best Buy, Jessops, Dixons and Tesco to invite real customers to rate products they have actually bought, so that other potential buyers can read real reviews before they, too, decide which product to buy.

Reevoo trawled and analysed all of the reviews it has collected for all of its partners during the last 12 months – some 650,000 reviews – to determine which electrical appliances and gadgets are rated most highly by real people that actually bought and own them.

The eight categories in which the best-rated product is not from the obvious brand leader, or is a budget model, are: Compact camera (Casio Exilim EX-H5), Coffee maker (Essentials C12FCB10), Cooker/oven (Beko OIF22300XR), Dishwasher (Beko DFN1000X), Fridge/freezer (Daewoo FRNY22D2W), Mobile phone (Nokia 2323 Classic), MP3 player (Apple iPod Shuffle 4th generation), Printer (Brother HL3070CW), Vacuum cleaner (Numatic Hetty).

“We’ve been running this analysis for several years, and these results are quite unprecedented,” said Reevoo CEO Anson. “There are only two plausible explanations. Either the brands that people previously perceived as being less desirable have suddenly become very good, and very cool to own. Or, more likely in these increasingly straitened times, value has become the most important criteria by which people measure how good their purchase is – as or more important to them than functionality, style, design or cool-ness.

“Who would imagine that the best-rated mobile phone would be a three year old Nokia [the Nokia 2323 Classic] available SIM-free for just £40? It’s incredible to say it but, with everyone poorer yet no-one wanting to go without ‘toys’, we’re into an era of austerity gadgets,” he added.

One of the less well-known appliance manufacturers, Beko, consistently rated well with Reevoo reviewers. Overall, owners rated products from Beko most highly in two categories – for dishwashers and ovens/cookers – while its products were also rated as the ‘best value for money’ in four categories washing machine, dishwasher, fridge-freezer and ovens/cookers.

One or two obvious favourites do make the list. Apple may not usually be lauded for good value for money but, in the MP3 player category, its iPod Shuffle is at the bottom of the range in specification and price. Its high rating suggests shoppers recognise it as a great-value, entry-level MP3 player, providing all the usual usability and style that people have come to expect from Apple but at a much more affordable price.

Ratings and review sites like Reevoo often enable consumers looking for a great deal to find premium products at low prices by displaying current prices from multiple retailers and allowing the consumer to choose which retailer’s site they want to visit. Reevoo also offers discount voucher codes, enabling customers to reduce the price they pay still further.

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All company or product names mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Notes to editors
1. Best-rated products were calculated by examining the scores (out of 10) from all published reviews written by UK consumers in the 12 months from April 2010 to March 2011, and refer to the product with the highest overall rating in that category. Best value products were calculated from the “value for money” ratings for the same body of reviews.

2. Using Reevoo’s proactive reviews collection strategy, only verified purchasers of a given product are able to leave a Reevoo review for that product, the retailer from which it was purchased, and the item’s manufacturer – eliminating the problems of ‘fake’ reviews and ensuring the validity of Reevoo’s statistics.

3. The full results of Reevoo’s research can be found at http://shopping.reevoo.com/pages/press_best_and_value_products