Nowadays technology and e-commerce offer an incredible range of possibilities for brands that recognize the opportunities of user-generated content.
Nowadays technology and e-commerce offer an incredible range of possibilities for brands that recognize the opportunities of user-generated content (UGC).
Indeed, shopping behaviour are strongly affected by a customer’s social media network, as studies confirm. With the high amount of time spent on social media like Facebook and Instagram, those are the virtual places where consumers find what they want. Thanks to UGC, brands have access to a positive display of their products providing a trustworthy and engaging experience.
So the question must be; Once the brand is showcased by their customers, how do new possible customers find the exact product they want from a posted picture?
Here comes into play the shoppable feature, which allows consumers to find the wanted item with a click on the picture. This brings marketing to a whole new level, giving the possibility to purchase through online content posted by a network of actual customers. Brands’ goal is to provide their customers with a unique shopping experience that’s custom-made and smooth. UGC shoppable content is a simple way to provide uncommon purchasing experiences, which is also easy and practical for the final customer.
Online purchasing is about reducing the time consumed to a minimum, but often it can end up to be a cold de-touch journey for the customer. Through online shoppable content there’s time saved in the transaction but it adds an intriguing, unique and sentimental experience, which is necessary to establish loyalty with the customers.
Knowing that visual communication and commerce is the preferred choice by today’s consumers, engaging in visual marketing and UGC leads to increase conversions. Taking into account the case of Panasonic: since they introduced UGC they had a 121% increase time on site spend and 179% of consumers are more likely to revisit Panasonic.com.
Another case worth mentioning is Gaiam brand, which goal is to make accessible the yoga and fitness world. Through the use of UGC they found that consumers were 2.2X more likely to buy and the average order was 6.3% higher. Similar is the example of Glossier, which is a beauty company creating products “for real life” owes 90% of its profits through Instagram fans as the CEO stated.
These are just few cases and many more could be mentioned. UGC is an easy accessible marketing strategy that leads company to increase revenues while allowing consumers to get an engaging and efficient way to purchase. Users’ pictures become product endorsements from one customer to another, while the shoppable option makes it easy to access the necessary information for the purchasing decision.
By integrating visual content from actual consumers, brands bring personalities and identities into their products reconstructing their value from just objects to relatable and aspirational styles of living.