On a digital shelf where you’re constantly competing for consumer dollars, every element of your product detail page matters, including user-generated content.
There’s always risk involved with online retail purchases. Shoppers don’t have the privilege of in-person evaluation, so they lean on PDP content to inform their purchase choices. The right UGC at the right time helps shoppers confidently tackle this risk and make informed buying decisions that result in high customer satisfaction ––not a bad experience or product return.
Read on to learn more about how to integrate conversion-driving UGC content on your PDPs.
UGC: the Key to Earning Trust and Driving Sales
The product detail page is typically a shopper’s last stop before purchasing your product. The content you include on PDPs is critical to your marketing strategy. You want to showcase all relevant information a customer could want as they evaluate your products, and you want to arrange it in an easily digestible, engaging manner.
Quality, relevant content drives sales. And user-generated content is the most influential content type affecting online purchase decisions. Research from PowerReviews found that ratings and reviews are the top factors driving e-commerce conversions:
- 99.75% of consumers consider reviews an essential resource when making purchase decisions
- There is a 108.3% lift in conversions when visitors interact with ratings and reviews
- 82% of consumers rely on ratings and reviews to determine which products to further explore when they first land on a website.
Product ratings are the key determiners of a shopper’s purchase choice, more than price, shipping and return policies, and even word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family. Add another element of UGC to reviews, like a photo or video, and the conversion impact is even more profound.
UGC is the best way to earn trust, engage shoppers, stand out and increase sales.
Integrating UGC on Your PDPs
Effectively integrating UGC on your pages is the key to optimizing your PDPs. Let’s explore practical ways to maximize the use of UGC.
1. Create a UGC-Friendly Space
UGC is invaluable. You can’t create content that cultivates the same level of trust and confidence that ratings, reviews and customer photos can. Ensuring customers provide honest feedback is critical to your business’s success.
Creating a UGC-friendly environment helps collect feedback, images, videos and other information foundational for your online sales. Customers with unmet expectations are often quick to leave reviews, but shoppers who are pleased with their product and service level usually need a nudge to share their experience.
Make sharing UGC easy for your shoppers. Send an email or text after delivery that includes a simple link to leave a review. Put the pen in their hands and let them share their thoughts.
Include clear calls to action on your website, socials, marketing emails and other touchpoints. Make leaving reviews the norm, not the exception, and get consistent feedback from all your customers, not just those who had a bad experience with their purchase.
2. Curate UGC Selection
You know that UGC varies in quality. Some reviews are challenging to comprehend, leave out relevant information, and include low-quality product imagery. The content on your PDP directly reflects your brand, UGC included. Intentionally highlighting specific UGC allows you to showcase your product in its best light while earning consumer trust –– and sales.
As you choose UGC to publish on your PDP, curate content that aligns with your image and values. High-quality UGC is authentic, well-written, visually appealing and addresses customer wants, needs and pain points.
3. Give Customers Content Diversity
Ensure your PDP contains a variety of product content types so consumers can see and evaluate your product from different angles and contexts. Product imagery, how-to videos from users, photos of the product in use, verified customer reviews, etc. Diversity in UGC provides potential customers with a comprehensive understanding of what to expect when they click the buy button.
4. Engage Shoppers with Interactive UGC
Including UGC on your PDP increases conversions by 8.5%. But get users to interact with that content, and the conversion lift significantly grows: companies with interactive UGC on their PDP see a 100.6% increase in sales.
For example, publishing an interactive photo gallery allows shoppers to actively participate in browsing your UGC. With each click, they discover more about your product and can visualize themselves benefitting from it. These elements keep customers curious about your product while helping them better understand how it can enhance their lives.
5. Answer Customer Questions with Content
The PDP content you provide should answer many basic product questions shoppers might pose. For example, they should easily find specs, color choices and shipping information on your page.
However, some questions are more challenging to answer. And that’s where user-generated content fills the gaps. UGC answers qualitative questions you can’t always list in a comparison chart. For example, a customer-generated video of a shopper wearing a dress conveys infinitely more about how the clothing makes them feel than what you could communicate in the product description. UGC allows you to connect with readers emotionally, cultivating trust and brand loyalty.
Quality, thoughtful UGC can answer the following questions from the shopper’s perspective:
- Who (and what kind of shopper) uses the product?
- Where is it used?
- How is it used?
- How does the product make the user feel?
- What does the product look like in “real life”?
- How does this product enhance or improve the customer’s life?
6. Implement a Ratings and Reviews System
Customer ratings and reviews are the most impactful UGC on your PDPs. Research from PowerReviews found that page visitors who interact with ratings and reviews convert at a rate that’s 108.3% higher than average.
With reviews doubling conversions, it’s crucial that you implement a management system that maximizes the impact of your customer reviews. A conversion-focused UGC strategy helps you collect the data shoppers want and need when evaluating your product.
Review collection and management isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Your product and your target audience require nuanced data collection. Your management system should allow you to ask the following questions:
- What relevant information converts your shoppers?
- What questions can you ask to acquire that information?
- How can you collect and present verified UGC that best showcases your products?
Having reviews on your PDPs isn’t enough. You need to know which information, opinions and experiences will drive shoppers to purchase, and then you must include that data in a format built for consumers. Choosing the right review management platform ensures you optimize review collection and structure that information to optimally engage shoppers.
Optimizing Product Pages with Content that Converts
What you publish on your PDPs matters. And how you curate, integrate and disburse that content is equally important.
1WorldSync’s suite of solutions for e-commerce store operators has been proven to increase PDP engagement, conversions and basket size. Our tools empower you to collect and display the most relevant UGC for your audience. Reach out to upgrade your content and sell more with 1WorldSync starting today.