E-commerce: the importance of UGC

Implementing an effective marketing strategy is essential to attract consumers and increase your sales. You must adapt it to the evolving needs and behaviors of customers in order to offer them an optimal purchasing experience. UGC or User Generated Content are increasingly popular, because they allow customers to become involved in promoting your products. What are the advantages of UGC? How to integrate them into your marketing strategy? How to encourage customers to create UGC?

UGC: what types of content?

E-retailers use advertising to make themselves known, promote their products and stand out from the competition. However, it is possible to reduce advertising costs by opting for UGC. UGC or User generated content designates the various contents concerning you, shared on the web by consumers. The sharing media can be diverse, ranging from blogs, social networks and forums to online sales sites or review platforms. This is indirect advertising carried out by Internet users for your benefit. They can be considered a word of mouth system, based on recommendations posted by your customers.

UGC can take different forms of content:

• reviews posted on your site, comments shared on different social networks, articles written on your products and offers,
• Internet users can also share visuals to give their opinion on your products, this sharing of personal experience is a real guarantee of reliability for other consumers thanks to their authenticity,
• a rating using tools integrated into your site,
• content present on various touchpoints.

Unlike traditional advertising, UGC is posted voluntarily by consumers. They are therefore not paid, but what are the advantages?

The advantages of UGC for your e-commerce

THE UGC for your e-commerce are advantageous on several points. Proximity to consumers has become an essential point to improve your notoriety and credibility to your targets. The authenticity of content shared by customers creates trust among Internet users. In fact, 90% of buyers rely on recommendations and reviews from other customers to trust a brand or not. This customer-centric concept is therefore an effective way to humanize your brand and prove your transparency. Quite simply because not all reviews posted will necessarily be positive.

UGC also allows you to learn more about your target audience and their needs. The reviews they publish about your products allow you to improve your offers and thus boost the conversion rate. Consumers become actors in the creation of your offers. In addition to this co-creation with consumers, it is possible to invite your customers to become ambassadors for your brand. This allows you to gain visibility, once they share content on their own social media. The natural referencing of your e-commerce site will also be improved thanks to these shares.

Of course, allowing customers to express themselves helps improve customer satisfaction. Internet users have a maximum of information concerning your products thanks to shared content of your brand. They will therefore be able to choose them with full knowledge of the facts, and have an idea of ​​their effectiveness. This is why you should not hesitate to use the content and reviews sent, by integrating them into your product sheets or on your site.

How to encourage your customers to create UGC?

Reaping the benefits of UGC starts with encouraging customers to share their experiences authentically. To do this, you can plan the implementation of a suitable tool on your e-commerce site, to allow Internet users to leave their opinion more easily. Promoting customers to visitors to your site and your community is also an effective way to generate UGC. We advise you to share content published by consumers on the homepage of your site, on product sheets, in your advertisements or on your various social networks. This allows you to highlight your consideration for your customers, to attract others to join your community.

Different platforms on the web also allow you to collect opinions. This software has been designed to optimize your customer centric strategy. You can thus obtain important data on your targets, and better understand their needs to adapt your offers. Exploitation of shared content by your customers will not only improve your brand image, but also your sales and your natural referencing. Please note: you must ensure that you obtain the rights required to use content posted by consumers.

How to integrate UGC into your marketing strategy?

As you can see, the benefits of UGC are multiple. The question is how to integrate them into your marketing strategy. Many actions allow you to encourage Internet users to generate UGC. With a hashtag specific to your brand, you have every chance to boost your visibility. This is an effective tip for creating a connection in your community, and encouraging the creation of content around your brand.

Organizing challenges in exchange for reward distribution also works to promote your brand through UGC. You can gain visibility and notoriety thanks to participant shares. Test calls can be scheduled to obtain qualified reviews from users. Finally, your packaging can also arouse the desire to test your products, notably thanks to the unboxing strategy which is increasingly widespread. Just seeing a customer unbox a box of your products can be enough to make other consumers want to do the same.

E-commerce: other tips to boost your sales

Other techniques can complement UGC to effectively boost your sales. Consider optimizing your e-commerce site to provide a satisfactory shopping experience. In addition to the intuitiveness and ergonomics of the site, also consider facilitating payment methods and improve the quality of customer service. Your ranking on search engines will be based on the quality of the content on your site. To put all the chances on your side and generate traffic for sure, nothing beats using a professional web agency.

We advise you to promote the best products in your online store. Just like a store window, you can personalize the home page of your website to attract customers. Customer retention strategies can help increase your sales : free delivery, reductions, sales, gifts… Finally, do not neglect customer feedback, because it is of great help to you in rethinking your offers.

In short, your marketing strategy must be developed according to the evolving needs and behaviors of consumers. Exploiting UGC allows you to gain notoriety quickly and efficiently, while reducing advertising costs. Thanks to the content shared by customers, the high conversion rate will increase your sales. These recommendations without influence from your brand will be a guarantee of reliability and quality for other consumers. So remember to use them and highlight them on your various communication media. They are more convincing for Internet users, compared to traditional advertisements.