About Us
Buywise.com is an independent, professional, usability-based testing organization empowering consumers so they can shop smart!
Why buywise.com is the best
Purchasing Products Can Be Frustrating
We got fed up with purchasing products, only to find out after a purchase that a product didn’t meet our needs, or had not been designed for the environment we wanted to use it in (see some real-world examples at Why Customer Reviews Can’t Be Trusted). We want to know the good and the bad, before we purchase a product. This is why we created buywise.com!
Top 4 Reasons Most Customer and User Reviews Are Not Reliable
- User and customer reviews are good because they provide real-world feedback. But, the challenge is that customers typically only review products they love or loathe, which skews the reviews. In the industry, this common occurrence is called a “bi-modal review”. See the SmartMoney story “Rah-Rah Ratings Online”.
- Many reviews are written by bloggers, paid by companies to write positive reviews. See the SmartMoney story “10 Things Your Blogger Won’t Tell You”. We’ll leave it at that, so we don’t get into a rant about the ethics of this practice.
- Reviews are overly positive. The average book rating on Amazon.com is 4.2 of 5 stars (Smart Money). 80% of user reviews are positive. This is know as the “Rating’s J-Curve” in the industry. We created buywise.com with an open mind. We use scientific product testing methods to get the true rating of each product and service we test.
- The biggest challenge is that everyone is different! For example, the best stroller for a shorter mom that is only going to use the stroller at the mall, is going to be different the stroller recommendation for a taller dad that takes the stroller our on dirt trails. (We know, our families have been there… we remember trying to drag an umbrella stroller across the beach during a San Diego vacation!) This seems like common sense, but most reviews group every individual into one generic “customer” bucket. Each review needs to describe the different usage situations for a product and which customers will find the product useful. We include this type of information in our reviews.
Buywise.com Evaluates Product Use
As usability professionals, we come up with a set of potential uses and test the products in those scenarios. Read about our research methods in Product Testing.
Management Team
Brenton Elmore is a co-founder and CXO (Chief eXperience Officer). He has super product insights due to his backgrounds and education in industrial design, human factors, user interface design, and usability.
Kirsten Bjergarde, Ph.D., is a co-founder and strategic adviser. Kirsten brings a unique background of more than 15 years of success in research and management.
Maureen Erhardt, CPA, MBA, is the acting chief financial adviser. Maureen has 28 years of successful small business consulting and business development.
Location
Buywise.com is owned by Azinno, LLC, based in Tucson, Arizona. Our primary office is at:
University of Arizona Science and Technology Park,
In the Arizona Center for Innovation
9040 S. Rita Rd., Suite 1100-48
Tucson, AZ 85747