Another shopping trend that really boomed is the uptake in subscription businesses. In 2022, the subscription commerce market is valued at $26.9 billion and is predicted to reach $74.2 billion by 2028, according to global research. So if you hadn’t been considering a subscription business for your brand, it might be time to start.

Chapters:

1. What is subscription commerce?
2. Benefits of subscription commerce
3. Subscription commerce best practices
4. Subscription commerce FAQs
5. Personalize your subscription commerce experience

What is subscription commerce?

Subscription commerce is a business model where your customers pay a set recurring price to receive your products or services on a regular cadence. The three most common types of subscription commerce model:

1. The curation model: This popular model provides subscribers with pre-selected items based on their personal needs and preferences. This option offers an element of surprise with each subscription box and is particularly good for helping your customers discover new products!
2. The replenishment model: Commonly known as the “subscribe and save” model, this type of subscription allows customers to automate the purchase and delivery of everyday consumer products, such as vitamins, cosmetics, or hair products, for a discounted price
3. The access model: With this model, customers pay a regular fee to attain desirable member-only perks, such as select discounts and early access to new products. Subscribers to this model are often attracted to the exclusivity that membership offers

For consumers, subscription commerce offers convenience, high-quality products, reliability, and great value, while brands and retailers benefit from locking in higher recurring revenue — more on that to follow.

Benefits of subscription commerce

Subscription commerce is riding a high right now. When done well, this service provides brands and retailers with some wonderful advantages.

1. Recurring revenue: Subscriptions bring in consistent income that makes it easier to forecast sales and plan for the future — handy in a time when 77% of consumers have changed spending habits. And since you get paid upfront monthly, quarterly, or annually, you’ll be able to map out your fulfilment operations way easier
2. Higher customer lifetime value: One of the best things about subscription services is that retention is built into the business model. By offering personalized discounts and membership perks, you have a better chance of attaining long-term customer loyalty, which increases the lifetime value of your customer base
3. Lower customer acquisition costs: As we just mentioned, a higher CLV from subscription services means lower customer acquisition costs. All you have to do is keep your subscribers happy, and you’ll be able to significantly decrease your customer churn, lower your new customer acquisition costs, and watch your profit margins grow
4. Easier Inventory Management: Unlike the pay-once model, a subscription commerce model removes the uncertainty about how often you’ll need to replenish your stock. This tells you how many customers are going to buy specific products in any given period of time, making it way easier to assess your stock levels properly
5. Enhanced customer service: Shoppers love having control over their purchasing decisions. A subscription service offers this, plus the added benefit of discounted pricing. Toss in some personalization and incredible customer service, and you’ve got a recipe for an awesome subscriber experience.

Subscription commerce best practices

You can have the best products in the world as part of your subscription service but if it doesn’t come with the right criteria to wow your customers, it really won’t matter. To make a positive and lasting impression, you need a customer-first mindset.

1. Choose the right subscription model

An obvious starting point, but don’t trip up at the first hurdle. Depending on what you offer, select the subscription model that fits your e-commerce business best. It’s also worth testing two or more models with a select few of your shoppers so you can get a feel of what works and what doesn’t.

2. Figure out your USP

Any good subscription revolves around a very specific niche. Without a clear unique selling point, your brand won’t be well-positioned to spark curiosity around your subscription or deliver the tailored experiences consumers expect.

Ask yourself what makes your subscription different from your competitors. Next, ask what your customers stand to gain from your subscription instead of taking the more conventional course. Shoppers value specialized products and services. Being selective about what you choose for your subscription service will help you carve out your niche.

3. Make signing up easy

Once a customer decides to subscribe, signing up should be as simple as possible. Consider offering a streamlined registration process that asks for essential information only, like name, email address, and password.

Customers should also be able to sign up on your e-commerce website, app, or even through social media channels like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok.

You’ll also want to make sure subscribers can choose the frequency of their subscription deliveries, as well as the ability to pause or skip any they may not want. Studies show that subscribers who can skip an order last 135% longer than those who can’t.

4. Optimize the subscriber journey

When a subscriber visits your website, they should be welcomed with a seamless experience that provides valuable information, effortless navigation, and easy checkout. Focus your efforts on:

• Tailored subscription options. Provide different types of subscriptions for your different audiences so they can choose the service that fits them best. You could even include a quiz to help them uncover which option perfectly meets their needs! 
• Intuitive navigation. Ensure subscribers can find what they’re looking for easily by including distinct menus, logical categories, and a search functionality. Have people in your organization test user journeys, too
• Swift website speed. Maximize your website’s performance by minimizing page load times — nearly 70% of consumers say that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer
• Clear and compelling product information. Include detailed product descriptions and high-quality images. You’ll also want to feature any customer ratings and reviews — 88% of shoppers use them to evaluate products before making a purchase
• Streamlined checkout process. Simplify the checkout process by removing unnecessary steps, offering guest checkout, and providing a clear snapshot of the purchase summary. Include secure payment gateways and flexible payment options as well

5. AI-Driven contextualization

Subscribers are more likely to engage with content when it’s personalized to their specific preferences and needs. Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms help you deliver contextualized shopping experiences by leveraging customer data like browsing and purchase history to provide tailored product recommendations.

In turn, subscribers feel more valued and better connected with your brand.

6. Valuable incentives

Consumers love deals, discounts, or any other offer that saves them money. Who doesn’t? By offering this to your subscribers, you’ll strengthen their desire to save on their purchases.

Typically, subscription commerce incentives revolve around a monetary reduction, but don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to just that! Providing free products (or samples) or access to exclusive services or events are other great ways to increase subscriber loyalty.

7. Social proof

Social proof like customer reviews and other forms of user-generated content, can significantly impact purchasing decisions. To help build trust with your customers, encourage subscribers to leave reviews and share their positive experiences so you can highlight on your website, social channels and everywhere your shoppers are.

Influencers are another effective way to build loyalty with your subscribers — 71% of consumers are likely to buy products from an influencer they trust. Just make sure to find the right ones that fit your subscription niche.

8. Effective communication

Customer communication is a key element of a fantastic subscription commerce experience. Start by establishing a cohesive communication plan that helps you keep subscribers informed and excited about new products, special offers, and other related news. Just don’t overdo it!

Then make sure to correspond regularly and segment your subscriber audiences so you can tailor your messages according to specific preferences and interests.

9. Exceptional customer support

Subscription commerce goes far beyond selling products or services. It requires excellent customer service that addresses issues quickly and efficiently. 

91% of shoppers say they won’t willingly do business again with a company that left them unhappy. Avoid dissatisfied subscribers by prioritizing your customer support with these tactics:

• Offer multiple channels such as live chat, email, or phone to ensure customers can reach out through their preferred method
• Utilize chatbots for support during off-business hours or for commonly asked questions and pain points
• Include self-service resources such as a thorough FAQ section that encourages customers to find answers on their own
• Make every effort to reply quickly to customer queries by addressing their questions or concerns promptly
• Respond to negative reviews and turn negative experiences into a positive that creates advocates for life

10. Retain subscribers through customer feedback

Listening to customer feedback is key to enhancing the subscription commerce experience and ensuring customer retention. Analyzing data, reviewing ratings and reviews, and sending out regular customer satisfaction surveys to subscribers are all useful ways to understand their needs and expectations better.

Another way to retain customers is to ensure you’re surprising and delighting them with every package you send. Don’t let your subscriptions go stale. Continue to find new ways to impress people, like providing new brands and products you know they’ll love. 

Subscription commerce FAQs

Thinking of starting a subscription business for your products? Ask yourself these questions to determine if the subscription commerce model is a good fit for your brand. 

Personalize your subscription commerce experience

The subscription commerce opportunity is ripe for brands and retailers to truly understand shopping habits, adapt to consumers’ new ways of buying, and instill trust to create long-lasting relationships. Not to mention, the recurring revenue stream it will provide.

As shopping behaviors continue to change, you might have to alter how you get your products in shoppers’ hands, and a subscription commerce offers a great way to do that. If you aren’t already thinking about starting a subscription service for your brand, you certainly should be.

But the difference between an okay service and one that delivers a wow factor is personalization. You need to know your audience better than you know yourself. Bazaarvoice AI tools can help you deliver personalized experiences that drive repeat business and higher customer satisfaction. Get in touch below to learn more.

Shoppertainment is more than a buzzword. It’s an emerging method for boosting shopper engagement, driving conversions, and creating customer loyalty. 

What is shoppertainment?

Shoppertainment is the art of combining e-commerce (the “shop”) with engaging activities that surprise and delight consumers (the “entertainment”). It’s the digital equivalent of an in-store special event or, for those who might remember, the sign spinners that used to dot the side of the road.

And for smaller teams, shoppertainment can be a more cost-effective and rewarding approach to marketing, opening doors to innovative strategies that can significantly enhance the customer experience.

The value shoppertainment brings to e-commerce 

As most retailers and brands know all too well, online shopping is always changing. Finding ways to stand out and make the shopping experience more engaging for customers is a top priority.

Shoppertainment helps brands and retailers get more customers’ attention. It also creates customer loyalty and more personalized buying experiences. 

Even better, it can inspire consumers to create and share user-generated content (UGC). When you encourage people to share branded hashtags on social media or update followers on the results of an online competition, it creates organic word-of-mouth marketing, which is priceless when it comes to building trust. 

Shoppertainment examples

Set your shoppertainment strategy on the right path with these actionable examples.

Live shopping streams and real-time product showcases

Some might say shoppertainment’s roots go back to the 1980s and ’90s when TV channels like QVC and HSN were in their heyday. 

These channels aired live shows that featured engaging hosts talking about a product or service. Shoppers could call in with questions or share their experiences in real-time. Often, the products were incentivized with a sale that only lasted as long as the show. 

Today, livestream shopping streams that showcase products in real time offer the same experience on a more modern channel: social media. Consumers can watch live streams of brand ambassadors promoting their favorite products, from anywhere they are. It’s what they want to see too, with 51% of consumers saying live shopping is the shopping experience they’re most excited about.

Instead of calling in with questions or recommendations, consumers leave their feedback in the comments. Brands and retailers can then use those comments to guide other consumers’ purchasing decisions.  

Shoppers can buy directly through links provided during the livestream, using coupons that expire when the livestream ends. Like QVC and HSN of yore, these live shopping streams and real-time product showcases are engaging and interactive. They put the “entertainment” in shoppertainment. 

Virtual try-ons 

Virtual try-ons tap the power of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to allow consumers to “try on” clothes, accessories, and makeup before making a purchase. 

This form of shoppertainment is also popular in the home decor and furnishing space, where consumers can virtually see items like couches and tables in their homes before making a major purchase. (And, for anyone who’s ever bought the wrong couch knows, a major regret.)

As the above chart shows, 74% of consumers are excited that brands are enhancing online shopping experiences with AR and VR

The immersive shoppertainment experiences that VR and AR offer are practical — maybe bright orange isn’t the best shade of lipstick for you. They’re also fun. Who doesn’t want to see what a green velvet sofa would look like in their living room?

Virtual try-ons can create an emotional connection with consumers, boost sales, and drive brand buzz. When consumers interact with products linked to AR experiences, brands can see 94% higher conversion rates.

Gamified shopping

Gamified shopping is a form of shoppertainment that encourages consumers to participate in branded contests for a chance to earn free products or discounts. These experiences can range from “spin to win” pop-ups to sophisticated video games.

Like other forms of shoppertainment, gamified shopping is fun — and an effective channel for boosting brand loyalty. 

• 70% of shoppers want gaming elements incorporated into online shopping
• Gaming features also help attract younger shoppers — over 80% of Gen Zers play mobile games often, and 70% of millennials play daily

The key is to give shoppers a reason to play. Based on our research, the top driver for participation is the opportunity to unlock a discount or reward. Other shoppers want to join and engage with communities that share their interests or connect directly with the brand.

Gamification marketing is great for getting consumer attention, but it also delivers valuable data that can be leveraged throughout your marketing efforts. You can offer an exciting reward in exchange for a customer’s name and contact info. Shoppers’ feedback about your products is also powerful UGC that can be used throughout the buying cycle. 

Interactive quizzes and personalization

A quiz funnel asks website visitors to answer questions relevant to a brand or retailer’s product line. The answers then generate personalized results based on the shopper’s needs.

A vitamin brand, for example, might ask shoppers about their health concerns and goals. The final result could be a list of product recommendations — and maybe a coupon code. 

For customers, the product recommendations deliver personalized content, which is important to today’s shoppers. (More on that in a minute.) For brands, the quizzes are an affordable way to collect valuable data that can be used to segment customers, guide future campaigns, generate better leads, and increase conversions. 

Shoppertainment collaborations

In this form of shoppertainment, brands and retailers bring their customers and brand ambassadors into the content-creating experience. 

This can include letting a select group of influencers take over your social media channels for the day. You could also interview customers and feature their insights on your blog and social media. 

If you think you need to join forces with a big-name celebrity, think again. Keep reading to see why you don’t need to partner with a major influencer to have a major impact.

4 shoppertainment ideas for small teams

Shoppertainment works for all marketing teams, but here’s some ideas for those on leaner budgets.

Curate and showcase existing UGC

UGC is unique in that it goes beyond just shoppertainment to deliver engaging content that helps people make better shopping decisions. 

Almost 90% of consumers read reviews when shopping online, and 78% say reviews are the “most influential” factor in their purchasing decisions. According to our Shopper Experience Index:

• More than half of shoppers say they’re unlikely to buy a product that doesn’t feature any type of customer opinion-sharing content
• Over 75% of consumers say reviews and Q&As affect their purchase decisions 
• 69% agree photos of products taken by other shoppers have an impact on their purchases 

This content can be used throughout the funnel to build trust and improve engagement. What’s even better, your customers are creating content for you, making it a relatively low-cost investment. 

So how do you get UGC?

Sampling. Establish a user-friendly program for customers to receive samples and provide reviews. Encourage customer engagement and gain insights by offering free products for honest feedback. This builds a community of brand advocates, amplifying your brand’s reach

Reach out to recent customers. Email customers who’ve recently purchased your products and invite them to share their feedback. We’ve seen brands increase their review volume by as much as 50% with these simple email requests. Emails are also the perfect opportunity to thank customers for their purchases and build brand loyalty

Share content that already exists (with permission, of course). If people are already posting about your brand on social media, you can comment or message them to ask for permission to use their content in your marketing. More than a quarter of shoppers report that companies have done this — so you’re not alone

Host UGC-driven contests

Another way to increase your UGC collection? Make it a game. Tapping into the power of gamified shopping makes it easy to build a stockpile of user-created reviews, photos, videos, and more. 

You could host contests on your social media channels to get customers to create content in exchange for free products or discounts. Boost your exposure and engagement further by incentivizing shares and reposts. 

Work with micro-influencers to create shoppertainment content

As we mentioned earlier, in today’s influencer marketing world, you don’t need to partner with big-name celebrities or people with massive social media followings. These types of influencers don’t resonate with shoppers like they used to. 

Instead, consumers tend to favor the opinions and advice of real people, who are often more open to participating in campaigns with smaller budgets.

• 64% of people want brands to partner with everyday social media users more than anyone else 
• 33% of consumers say their trust in regular social media users has increased over the past five years

Use UGC to create personalized shopping journeys

Personalization is leveraging customer data to deliver tailored messaging about the products and services they care most about. 

Shoppers have become more willing to share their information in exchange for deals and exclusive offers. Consumers appreciate that brands and retailers take the time to learn about their needs — and then take steps to meet them. 

• 25% of consumers say they’re interested in personalization in shopping

What kind of personalized experiences are shoppers looking for? Loyalty programs, discounts, and free samples all go a long way in turning customers into repeat customers. 

Shoppertainment: Helping small teams do more with less

UGC-driven shoppertainment helps small teams create experiences to stand out from the competition and build customer engagement. In addition to boosting customer satisfaction, these experiences also help reduce return rates, increase sales and conversions, and drive customer loyalty.

Best of all, because many of these experiences leverage content created by your customers, they’re also more affordable — and sustainable — for teams with small budgets. 

More sales for less money? Win-win. 

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Higher e-commerce return rates are a problem for your business because returns reduce e-commerce conversion rates and decrease your profit margins. Every time a customer returns an item, you either need to resell it or mark it as a loss. Not to mention the cost of paying to have the item returned.

Plus, you run the risk of having an unhappy customer that may not choose to shop with you again. The customer already spent a lot of time opening several tabs from different stores trying to find the one product that would fit their needs, and they chose yours. Even if you offer free, easy returns, customers still have to initiate the e-commerce returns process, which can be a hassle. 

The workaround? Reducing your e-commerce return rate, which can be easier said than done. Otherwise the average return rates in e-commerce, which sit at about 20-30%, would be a lot lower than they actually are. But that’s where user-generated content (UGC), like reviews and social media posts, comes in.

Chapters:

1. What is e-commerce return rate?
2. 7 ways to reduce e-commerce returns
3. Make e-commerce returns a thing of the past with UGC

What is e-commerce return rate?

Your e-commerce return rate is the number of total products ordered from your e-commerce site that are returned back to you, either for a refund or store credit. It’s calculated as a percentage of number of e-commerce sales within a specific timeframe.

To calculate your e-commerce return rate, divide number of products returned by the number of products sold, and times the answer by 100.

Say you wanted to figure out your return rate for March 2023. During the month you sold 8,500 units, of which 900 were returned. It would be 900 divided by 8,500, then multiplied by 100 — giving you an average e-commerce return rate of 10.5%.

While it’s estimated that for every $1 billion in sales, the average retailer incurs $165 million in e-commerce returns, average return rates vary by industry.

Unsurprisingly, apparel is the highest. According to research, “item doesn’t fit fit” is one of the main reasons for e-commerce returns. The same research states the other top reasons are:

1. Item doesn’t match description
2. Don’t like the item(s)
3. Ordered multiple items/sizes

The trick here is to tap into the voice of your customer and let them do the selling for you through authentic UGC. Seeing products being used in the real world on real people ensures they better match product descriptions and customers have a better idea of whether they like an item or not. Making a more confident e-commerce purchase means less chance of a product being returned.

7 ways to reduce e-commerce returns

The bad news is that returns will always happen within e-commerce, and you can’t get rid of them entirely. But don’t despair, there’s good news too. There’s several ways to reduce your e-commerce return rate. Here’s the top seven.

1. Collect ratings and reviews 

Bazaarvoice research found that 88% of shoppers use reviews to discover and evaluate products. People rely on user-generated content like reviews to evaluate if a product/service is a good fit for them. Learning about their peers’ experiences with the product builds trust and inspires more confident purchasing decisions. And more confident purchases lead to fewer returns. 

So how do you get more reviews for your products to inspire those future shoppers?

• Ask past customers to leave them via review request emails or a customer satisfaction survey
• Run a sampling campaign and send a free product sample in exchange for an honest review
• Incentivize customers to leave feedback with a discount or voucher

According to a BrightLocal survey, 35% of consumers have left a review at least half of the times they were prompted to do so by a business. The moral of the story? It doesn’t hurt to ask. 

We have found that consumers trust the opinions of other consumers more than advertising claims

For example, in a bid to reduce return rates, clothing giant GANT implemented a UGC program to collect more customer reviews that contained product size and fit information. “We have found that consumers trust the opinions of other consumers more than advertising claims,” revealed GANT’s Head of E-Commerce. As a result, the brand was able to achieve a 5% reduction in return rates.

2. Show how your products look in real life with visual UGC 

Visual UGC sourced from social media can increase conversions by 150% and average order value by 15%. Visual UGC can be particularly impactful for apparel, home, and beauty brands because these are also the categories that have the highest e-commerce return rates. Using UGC here gets shoppers closer to seeing what these product look like in real life situations.

For example, Maybelline includes its fantastic brand imagery on its Lash Sensational Sky High mascara product detail page, but it also has galleries of visual UGC from real customers so shoppers can see how the product looks on a regular person (not a model). 

The galleries on Maybelline’s product pages are also shoppable, with tagged products in each image so customers can complete the look with other Maybelline products if they choose to.

3. Provide comprehensive size guides  

Narvar found that about 48% of customers buy multiple sizes of the same apparel item to figure out what fits at home, and then they return the rest of the order. If you’re an apparel brand looking to help your customers cut down on this, look at the sizing information on your product pages. What are you telling the customer about how the product fits?

Every person’s body is different, so offering information about how the product fits on users with similar body types is critical. 

For example, when a shopper clicks on “Size & Fit” on one of clothing brand American Eagle’s product pages, they’ll see a scale that shows how an item fits based on what other reviewers have said. 

Then, if the user scrolls down to the reviews, they’ll see more information about how all reviewers found the item’s fit. They’ll also be able to filter product reviews by size, height, and weight, so they can discover what reviewers most similar to their body type have said about the clothes. 

Another option is to harness the augmented reality marketing trend. AR is coming in to save the day and reduce global e-commerce returns. Well-known brands like ASOS and Sephora use AR tools to show how clothing looks on different body types, or how a certain shade of lipstick would look on you. All without ever having to leave the house.

4. Put the “detail” in “product detail page”

When’s the last time you reviewed your product detail pages (PDPs)? Take a look at them with your team and ask yourself, “If I knew nothing about the product, what does this page tell me?”

To reduce returns, you have to give customers a rich PDP with as much information about what they’re buying as possible. Selling clothes? Don’t just tell them what fabric the T-shirt is made of. Tell them what it feels like and what they can wear it with. 

You should also incorporate UGC into the “detail” portion of your PDPs. Reviews don’t have to live at the bottom of the page. Beauty brand Lush leverages awesome testimonials from customers and displays them higher up on product pages. 

Find reviews that tell other shoppers exactly how the product will make them feel. This is especially beneficial for beauty, apparel, or home brands because shoppers can’t see and feel the products in person.

5. Answer customer questions

So you’ve provided great sizing guides, added more detail to product pages, and have collected UGC in the form of reviews and images from customers. But what if shoppers still have questions about your product? You don’t want them leaving your site to get the answer, which is why many retailers are adding question and answer modules to their online stores.

Our own research found that brands and retailers who respond to questions onsite see a 98% average conversion lift. 

It’s pretty simple — if a shopper is unsure about a product, they likely won’t buy it. But they’ll ask the seller a question about it. Ignoring the question means the shopper either won’t purchase it, or if they do it may not be right for them. Thus, will be returned. If you do answer the question, the uncertainty is cleared up and it’s more likely to be a successful purchase, reducing your e-commerce returns rate.

Plus, you can also use questions and answers to improve product pages. If you notice the same questions coming up repeatedly, consider incorporating information that answers that question into the product description to give customers the answers they need even faster. 

6. Respond to customer reviews 

Collecting reviews isn’t enough. Your company must take an active role in review management in order to provide as much information about products to potential customers as possible before they make a purchase. This means responding to reviews, both positive and negative. Our own research tells us that 87% of customers expect brands to respond to negative reviews, and 72% expect responses to positive reviews.

For negative reviews, offer support and a solution to make it right with the customer. This will prove to the customer (and browsing shoppers) that you listen to feedback and can be trusted as a brand. Just don’t ignore them. 35% of customers say they wouldn’t keep purchasing from a brand that ignored their complaints.

For positive reviews, thank the customer first and then find a detail from their review that you can comment on to show that you read the review and take what customers say to heart. 

7. Use insights to improve products

Is there a certain product on your site that just keeps getting returned? If you have a good review collection strategy, your brand can leverage customer insights found in this UGC to figure out what customers don’t like about the product so you can improve it and reduce future returns. 

Take the fashion brand Vertbaudet as an example. The brand noticed consistent customer feedback through product reviews that one of their maternity dresses was too small.

Vertbaudet responded by improving the measurements of the maternity dress and fixed the cut, leading to a reduction in returns to their e-commerce site and an increase in profit.

Make e-commerce returns a thing of the past with UGC

UGC is a powerful tool when it comes to reducing your return rates, both e-commerce and in-store. By providing information from other customers, you’ll help shoppers buy the right product for their needs the first time, which will improve customer satisfaction and your bottom line. 

Not only that, but brands that utilize UGC in e-commerce can see a 22% increase in average order value and a 150% increase in conversion rates. Learn the different ways you can use UGC for e-commerce, from reducing return rates to boosting conversion rates, in this comprehensive guide to UGC for e-commerce.

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Finding ways to stand-out and make the e-commerce shopping experience faster and more convenient for customers should be a key priority for brands and retailers in years to come. Because if you aren’t focusing on this, your competitors are. 

4 ways to make your e-commerce shopping more convenient

It can be tricky to get your e-commerce shopping strategy right with so many factors at play. Price, experience, convenience — there’s multiple factors shoppers need. Here’s the best ways to meet those consumer demands.

1. Make e-commerce shopping convenient

With an abundance of e-commerce options available today, shoppers have distinct preferences that impact what makes it into their shopping cart.

According to our Shopper Experience Index, price and convenience continue to be the two most significant factors when deciding between products or trying out new shopping habits. There’s a variety of convenient order fulfilment options for brands and retailers today.

a) Buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS)

E-commerce meets brick-and-mortar. Our Shopper Experience Index found that shoppers’ biggest pain points when online and offline shopping are long checkout lines in-store and slow online order fulfilment. BOPIS is the solution to those issues. 50% of consumers base their shopping decisions on whether they can buy online and pick up in store or not.

During the pandemic, BOPIS became essential to businesses. It helped keep shoppers and retail employees safe by reducing in-person interactions, it allows businesses to continue selling despite store closures, and it enables people to conveniently secure groceries, toiletries, and essential must-haves.

And since the pandemic subsided, consumers realized all of the above should be the benchmark for shopping going forward.

That’s why BOPIS has now been embraced by major retailers like Target, Walmart, Home Depot, and Tesco. 90% of retailers are expected to offer BOPIS, according to Digital Commerce 360. 

b) Delivery

Delivery is another fulfillment option that has seen a sharp rise in popularity, when customers sought safe, low-contact ways to get their purchases. OptimoRoute, a route planner for delivery and field service, found that their monthly retail delivery orders grewg by as much as 65% during April 2020 and haven’t slowed down. 

According to a Good Eggs Inc. survey, 68% of consumers ordered groceries online for home delivery between March and late August 2020. Of those shopping online for groceries, 81% plan to continue doing it once the pandemic is over.

E-commerce shopping and product deliveries offer consumers the convenient way to purchase goods that they want. 

c) Carside delivery

Carside delivery or curbside pickup has also seen a recent surge in popularity. This option feeds consumers’ need to research and purchase products online but still pick them up without paying shipping fees, which they’re slowly cracking down on.

About 59% of customers say they’re more likely to continue curbside pickup and that number is only expected to rise. Case in point: the rise of Deliveroo and GrubHub users selecting “pickup” orders only to avoid extortionate delivery fees.

2. Shopping on social media

Social media is no longer a place for pretty pictures. Shopping on social media is now the raison d’etre. Our Shopper Experience Index found that 52% of shoppers have made a purchase on social media, and 69% have been inspired by social media to make a purchase on another channel. The reason being the ease for the consumer, so the fewer steps the customer has to take from discovery to purchase, the better.

By making social media channels shoppable, brands can provide consumers with another faster, more convenient way to buy products. In the same study, 1 in 5 consumers said it’s important or very important to be able to discover and purchase products directly from social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.  

Even TikTok is jumping on the in-app shopping trend. Recently, TikTok began testing a feature that allowed select users to put links to e-commerce sites in their profile bios and also let some users send followers directly to shopping sites.

If you aren’t already, make sure your brand uses “item tagging” when posting content. You’ll be able to tag the products in your posts, and customers can easily click tags for the items they like and get linked straight to your website to purchase them in mere seconds. 

The other benefit of social media shopping is that it provides brands and retailers with copious amounts of customer data, to better target shoppers in the future and personalize the overall shopping experience. (Which is something Bazaarvoice would be happy to help you with.)

Social media will continue to grow as a channel for online shopping and the popular apps will keep testing more and more new social commerce features. If your brand can offer a seamless, immediate shopping experience on the platforms your customers are using, you’ll continue to see more conversions and repeat customers.

3. Offer easy product comparisons

One Bazaarvoice study found that almost half (48%) of brick-and-mortar sales start with online research. This particular consumer behavior is often called Research Online, Buy Offline (ROBO). 

According to more research by Deloitte and Touche LLP, commissioned by Bazaarvoice , 88% of shoppers use reviews to discover and evaluate products.. 

By filling your product pages with user-generated content (UGC), you’ll help consumers make more confident purchase decisions in-store and online. But it’s not enough to have some reviews here and there. Consumers want to see authentic reviews (they know when a review is fake) and they want to see more visual and social content to help them understand how products will fit into their lives. 

Nearly 25% of shoppers say they won’t purchase products without looking at customer videos or photos, according to our research. Visual content, paired with reviews influences purchases, increases product discoverability and offers a more engaging shopping experience.

4. E-commerce shopping as entertainment

One of the newer trends that’s permeating through e-commerce is gamification marketing. Gamification takes traditional loyalty and reward programs one step further and helps brands and retailers get more customer attention and engagement. 

According to Reflectdigital, 91% of UK consumers aged 16-24 said they would be open to playing games with brands, 84% said they would buy from a brand they enjoyed playing a game with, and 61% said they would keep buying from that brand.

One of the most popular forms of gamification today is “prize wheels.” This is when a brand or retailer sends a consumer an email or shows them a pop-up with a wheel on it. The customer then spins the on-screen wheel to reveal their discount code or a free item with purchase. 

Another popular type of gamification is “points programs.” Points programs, are similar to traditional loyalty programs but offer customers various activities that allow them to get more points for certain behaviors, like purchasing a specific product, leaving a review, or buying something on a particular day. 

One of the most famous examples of this type of program is Starbucks Rewards. They encourage coffee drinkers to return to the store over and over again by offering extra stars for a certain number of purchases in a week. (How many times have you been tempted to buy three lattes in one week for 45 extra stars?)

Give consumers convenient e-commerce shopping they crave

Brands and retailers today must evolve their shopping experience or risk getting left behind. Pay attention to how your consumers want to shop with you and offer them more ways to make the e-commerce buyers’ journey convenient and easy. 

Finding the technologies and platforms they’re using and understanding their social and shopping behaviors is the key to producing convenient customer experiences that revolve around them.

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Masterclass: Where e-commerce is headed next

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Over the past 60 years, we’ve seen advertising evolve to include new channels and capabilities ranging from direct mail to social media to hyper-targeted smart TV promotions. Today though, there’s a new way of connecting with your customers: conversational commerce.

Chapters:

1. What is conversational commerce?
2. Conversational commerce use cases
3. Conversational commerce examples
4. How to win at conversational commerce

What is conversational commerce?

Conversational commerce harnesses the power of messaging apps and voice-activated technology to sell products and services. While we may be used to interacting with chatbots for customer support, these new apps and services are using generative artificial intelligence to build trust throughout the buying cycle.

The phrase “conversational commerce” was popularized by Silicon Valley product designer Chris Messina in a 2015 Medium post. (Fun fact: Messina also invented the word “hashtag.”)

In his post, which came out a few months after the launch of the Amazon Echo smart speaker, Messina said the rise of voice assistants and messaging services would change the game for how brands interact with their customers. He predicted that more brands would use specialized apps to deliver, “convenience, personalization, and decision support while people are on the go.“

He was right. 

Today, e-commerce brands big and small are using interactive tools to help engage and influence customers. And customers are loving it.

In one Facebook survey, almost 70% of respondents said being able to message a brand makes them feel more confident about the company. In another survey, 75% say they’re likely to spend more with a brand if they can message rather than call them. 

The conversational commerce market was valued at almost $6 billion in 2019. By 2027, it’s predicted to grow to $30.45 billion.

Conversational commerce use cases

Part of the success of conversational commerce is its ability to meet customers where they are, rather than forcing them to visit a website or their inbox.

But it’s not just the convenience of conversational commerce that makes it such a successful strategy. Like the name implies, these tools turn the shopping and buying experience into a two-way conversation.

Instead of blasting your target market with ads, emails, and promotions, conversational commerce platforms encourage dialogue and interaction. Just like a helpful store assistant checking in on an in-store shopper, they allow brands to use technology to foster a friendlier experience, make online shopping more personal, and give shoppers the advice and insight they need to make the best purchase.

Here’s several examples of how your brand could use conversational commerce throughout the customer journey.

Awareness 

The average business person sends and receives a whopping 126 emails per day. When trying to drive more awareness about your campaigns and special promotions, conversational commerce tools can be an excellent alternative to email marketing. They allow for better engagement, as users can set the alerts to come in at a schedule that works for them.

Giving your customers more control can reap major benefits for your brand. In one study, the open rates for in-app messaging were close to 75% — that’s more than 45 times higher than the average email open rate. 

In addition to in-app messaging, you can also use chatbots and live chat to drive interaction on your site. For example, look at what we do at Bazaarvoice.com to increase awareness about the benefits of working with us. You may have seen it pop up in the bottom right of your screen.

If the user clicks “Sure!”, the bot asks a series of questions about their needs and then directs them to the appropriate landing page. This helps us better engage potential customers while increasing awareness about our programs and services. 

Research and consideration

When shopping online, it can be hard to sort through all of the options to find just the right product for your needs and preferences. And while advanced filtering tools can do a lot, conversational commerce platforms can make the research and consideration stage more interactive, fun, and human-like for shoppers.

For example, H&M positions its chatbot as a personal stylist. The bot uses a series of questions to get a sense of the shopper’s tastes and style. It then presents different options and lets the user pick the item they prefer. Based on the user’s feedback, the bot continues to help the shopper find what they need and then offers products for them to save, share, or buy. 

The tool also allows customers to preview the latest fashion trends, see outfits that have been created for other users, and browse items based on their tastes. 

Purchase

Dominoes was a conversational commerce early adopter, allowing customers to order a pizza simply by typing “” in a text. The dream.

Another is the coffee giant Starbucks, which uses conversational commerce to improve the purchasing experience. Customers can use the brand’s barista bot to order and pay for their tall caramel frappuccinos and grande vanilla lattes. Once their drink is ready, customers receive a notification and can skip the line to get their caffeine fix. 

The app is voice-activated, making it even easier for users to order their favorite coffees and snacks. The tool also allows customers to track their rewards points and redeem special offers.

If you don’t have time to build an app, consider adding a chatbot to your checkout page. In a recent HubSpot poll, 47% of respondents said they would consider buying products and services through a chatbot. The chatbot can also help consumers understand your shipping and returns policy. 

Post-purchase

In addition to answering questions during the sale, chatbots can also help automate your post-purchase customer engagement. 

The office supply store Staples is well known for its “easy button” promotions. In these ads, the store says finding and purchasing whatever you’re looking for is as easy as pushing a big red button.

Staples brought the easy button to life with its “Easy System” customer support messaging app. Built in partnership with IBM’s Watson, the bot can handle most customer support questions. It also makes repeat orders a breeze for procurement teams.

Conversational commerce tools can also help with your upselling and cross-selling strategies. Let a chatbot reach out to customers when the product they most recently purchased is likely running low and remind them to reorder.

In addition, you could use live chat to make recommendations based on past purchases or highlight complementary products.

Brand loyalty

We also love the idea of using conversational commerce tools to build brand loyalty.

For inspiration, check out Casper’s Insomnobot3000. The site uses a chatbot to “hang out” with customers who are having trouble falling or staying asleep. It loves talking about popular TV shows like Seinfeld and Stranger Things, as well as the merits of pizza and waffles.

Sure it might be a bit too Black Mirror. But Casper’s Insomnobot3000 is so engaging it was nominated for several awards and has been featured in multiple marketing publications. 

Conversational commerce examples

When it comes to engaging your customers, there’s multiple conversational commerce platforms and tools for you to choose from.

1. Chatbots

A chatbot uses software to mimic the natural cadence and context of a human conversation. These vary from tools that can answer common customer queries to advanced “digital assistants” that make the user feel like there’s a real-life agent on the other side of the screen.

They can be used on your website and in the messaging platforms your customers already use every day. Since they’re fairly quick and easy to implement, chatbots are a popular choice for brands just getting started with conversational commerce. 

2. Live chat

Many consumers are familiar with using live chat for their customer support inquiries. But these services can be valuable throughout the buying journey, allowing customers to quickly find the information they need to feel more confident about their purchases.

3. Messaging apps

Apps like Messenger and Telegram are becoming increasingly popular conversational commerce platforms. They allow consumers to engage with brands privately, at their convenience. Users also appreciate the ability to use common messaging icons like emojis, GIFs, and memes.

4. Voice assistants

Voice assistants like Siri and Alexa use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing to allow users to run internet searches and conduct simple tasks with the sound of their voice.

The hands-free convenience empowers users to multitask. For example, when you’re baking you can ask Siri how many teaspoons are in a cup — without having to wash the flour off your hands.

Getting starting with conversational commerce

Like anything new, it can be difficult knowing where to begin. Here’s the best practices to follow for getting started with your conversational commerce strategy.

1. Identify your needs

Conversational commerce can do a lot, from helping you reduce shopping cart abandonment to improving the customer service experience. Before you start your journey, think about the goals you’d like to achieve and the areas of your business you want to support. 

After your brainstorming session, prioritize your goals and needs. Depending on your budget and bandwidth, you might have to start slowly. Knowing which priorities to focus on first can help ensure you move forward more confidently and strategically.

2. Do your research

The goal is to meet customers where they are. To achieve that, you need to do your research to find out which apps and services your customers are already using. 

According to Zendesk, which helped popularize customer support automation, 45% of consumers prefer to use embedded messaging to interact with brands. A little more than 30% said they prefer social media messaging apps like Facebook’s Messenger. 

3. Don’t focus just on selling

The most successful brands use conversational commerce tools to support their customers throughout the buying journey. You want a solution that can harness the power of data to continue the conversation on every touchpoint. If a customer reaches out on your website chatbot then tries to continue the conversation via Messenger, you don’t want them to have to repeat themselves or go through the frustration of listing all of the steps they’ve already taken to resolve the problem. 

4. Ask for demos

There’s so many conversational commerce platforms for you to choose from. To help you find the best solution for your needs and your customers’, sign up for demos, free trials, and webinars. You want to find a solution that will work with your current technology setup and capabilities. For example, if you’re short-staffed, 24/7 live chat may not be the best option. 

5. Decide what success looks like

The goals you set before starting your conversational commerce should shape the KPIs you use to measure its success. Look for a tool that offers real-time visibility into metrics like conversion rates and customer satisfaction scores. These can help you understand what’s working and what needs to be improved so you can pivot as necessary. 

6. Make sure your mobile experience is up to snuff

With many conversational commerce interactions taking place on smartphones, you want to make sure your mobile website is modern and adheres to best practices for user experience.

This is vital even if you’re not ready to dive into conversational commerce. Today, just shy of 73% of online sales take place on a mobile device.  

How to win at conversational commerce

The best way to get started with conversational commerce is to work with a platform who can do it for you. Our Questions & Answers portal allows you to quickly implement and manage a conversational commerce strategy that works for your brand, team, and customers.

With Questions & Answers, you can quickly and easily reply to customer questions on over 1,750 retail sites, increasing brand awareness and allowing you to respond to customers wherever they shop. Our clients have seen as much as a 98% increase in conversions thanks to Questions and Answers, as well as a 50% decrease in support center costs.

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Whether it’s due to poor user experience or a lack of trust in the product, shopping cart abandonment is an all-too-common complaint in the world of e-commerce.

The good news: Data on digital shopping cart abandonment is vast and can help you determine ways to reduce abandonment and increase your sales. Here’s how.

Chapters:

1. What is shopping cart abandonment and why is it a problem?
2. How to prevent shopping cart abandonment
3. Reduce shopping cart abandonment with social commerce

What is shopping cart abandonment and why is it a problem?

Shopping cart abandonment is when an online shopper adds one (or more) of your products to their online basket, but then quits the process before completing the purchase. The products that entered the basket but were never purchased are considered “abandoned” by the shopper.

If you were online shopping on Amazon and you click “add to basket” on a new blender you’ve been eyeing up, but then for whatever reason you close the window without buying it, that blender is abandoned. Obviously this is a problem for many reasons (more on this to come).

Biggest of all, that’s missed revenue. Losing out on the sale of one blender might not particularly worrisome, but that same scenario can happen hundreds of times a day. And that adds up — yearly losses from shopping cart abandonment are $4.6 trillion globally.

It’s estimated that of this, around $260 billion is recoverable. Even if you’re only able to recover a small percentage of this figure, that can still add significant sums to your total revenue. Here’s how to do it.

How to prevent shopping cart abandonment

Below you’ll find reasons why your customers may be abandoning ship on your shopping carts and what you should be doing to bring them back on board.

Problem: People don’t trust your product or brand

If you aren’t sharing information about your brand and your products transparently and authentically, you won’t be able to gain consumer trust. Accenture Strategy’s Global Consumer Pulse Research revealed that in the last few years, regardless of age, customers care a lot more about the ethics behind a company.

For example, they found that those aged 55-74 years old were attracted to companies that reduced the use of plastic. And Gen Z-ers especially care more about social mobility, immigration, and poverty. 

Use this consumer insight to find opportunities where your company values or your product offerings align with these beliefs.

Once you’ve figured out your message, focus on a target market so you can create a shopping experience that builds and increases trust in your customer/business relationship. Create brand messaging that resonates, product descriptions that address pain points, and a customer service team that is easily accessible.

Improve confidence in your brand by making information readily available

Before making an online purchase, 81% of customers conduct online research. If your customers are searching for product solutions, your online presence and the team behind it should be easy to find and understand.

This means your product pages should have ample convincing (and transparent) information. From the descriptions to the product images and specs, customers shouldn’t be left with any lingering questions. However, if they are, your customer service team should be ready to answer them.

One online retailer known for its excellent customer service and customer-centric attributes is Zappos. Zappos makes it very easy to find its contact information. Once you get in touch with someone, you speak with a real human who doesn’t follow a script. Zappos is also very active on social media, where it answers customer questions and engages with its audience in a conversational and relatable tone.

Lastly, Zappos displays product videos in which its products are reviewed and modeled by real people. Videos can dramatically help businesses increase their sales. Over 60% of consumers are more likely to purchase an item after having watched a video. Zappos’ videos give the customer a clearer idea of the product they’re considering purchasing, and clarity is key for conversions.

All these factors contribute to the higher levels of trust customers feel toward Zappos. Plus, the incredible net revenues of the company. In 2020 alone, Zappos global net sales reached $629 million. Woof. But that’s what you get with less shopping cart abandonment.

Embrace user-generated content to fuel faith in your brand

User-generated content (UGC) — customer reviews, images, questions, etc. — will help you harness the power of social proof, a key ingredient to increasing confidence in your brand. According to our research, 81% of shoppers say written reviews are an important part of the decision making process

Moreover, social media and influencer marketing also play a big role in consumer behavior. When it comes to getting advice, 81% of consumers trust their friends and family over businesses.

UGC should be incorporated into your marketing strategy in order to build trust with your customers. UGC can appear in the form of social media content, reviews, and testimonials.

For example, when the fashion brand GANT was experiencing a critical return rate, they turned to UGC. The brand worked to increase their product and customer reviews and allow future customers to ask questions. 

As a result, GANT’s return rate was reduced by 5%, which led to an increase in revenue. Customers trust the reviews and opinions of other customers, especially when they have the option to ask each other questions.

Test and analyze conversion stats to meet your customers’ needs

Your customer’s behavior gives you insight into where in the buying process your customer loses faith in your products or brand. By following and tracking customer data, you can spot patterns in what makes them convert and then implement a strategy to increase trust and maintain loyal customers.

A/B testing is a great way to determine what works best for your target consumer. According to Business Insider, 45% of U.S. e-commerce sales are done on mobile devices. If these mobile users have a negative experience, they’re 62% less likely to be a repeat customer. Other examples of A/B testing include multi-page testing, photo and text swapping, search bar size and location, and using a chatbot. 

you can also regularly run a customer sentiment analysis to learn your customers feelings towards your brand. By regularly testing and adjusting your store’s online presence and features, you ensure your customer will view you as a reliable place to purchase from.

Netflix and Amazon are excellent examples of companies that use A/B testing to ensure their audience never gets bored. Amazon uses creative and updated product descriptions to entice shoppers. They also include related items their customers may be interested in purchasing. And Netflix will frequently A/B test the images used for each title to determine which images generate more views.

Problem: Consumers’ online shopping experience is less convenient than in stores

People shop online for various reasons, the top one being convenience. If your customer’s online shopping experience is less convenient than shopping in a store, consider making changes to the user’s experience to ensure excellence.

Emphasize free, quick delivery and an easy return policy

If you’re an e-commerce store, free and quick delivery is key to reducing your shopping cart abandonment rate. According to research from Oberlo, the number one reason people choose to do their shopping online is free delivery. So unsurprisingly, the number one reason people choose to abandon their shopping carts is due to high extra fees.

Almost half of online shoppers abandon their carts due to high shipping rates, taxes, or other fees. Long delivery times and return policies can also affect customer decisions. And 33% of consumers turn to online shopping for a convenient return policy, according to the same research.

The right quick commerce strategy can ensure you meet these customer wants, improving the e-commerce experience along the way.

Promote online-only discount codes

The second most popular reason to shop online is the opportunity to use a coupon or discount code. 41% of online shoppers look for deals online. Incorporating special promotions into your marketing can capture the customers who are “just browsing.”

Ensure customers have a smooth checkout process

Nobody likes waiting in line for anything, let alone to check out. That’s why 30% of people who shop online do so because of the convenient checkout process. However, 18% of people abandon the checkout process when it’s too complicated.

To optimize your conversions, it’s important to offer common and popular payment methods and options. This includes the option to check out as a guest rather than being forced to create an account with your e-commerce store.

Problem: Customers aren’t being reminded of shopping cart abandonment

Treat shopping cart abandonment as you would a flaky friend. Everyone has that friend who needs consistent reminders (and sometimes incentives) to join the party. When it comes to shopping cart abandonment, customers are just like your flaky friend. Through frequent reminders and an automated omnichannel sequence, you’ll be able to reel your customers back in.

Send automated emails and push notifications

It may seem like you’re a nuisance to your customers, but reminders about abandoned carts with creative calls to action actually work. The average open rate for abandoned shopping cart follow-up emails is at 42%. This is much higher than the average email open rate of standard marketing emails, which stands at just 18%.

It’s pretty likely your customer is regularly inundated with marketing emails, so it’s important to get inventive with your abandoned cart emails. Whether you use humor, urgency, a discount incentive, or offer more information, try to pique your customer’s interest creatively.

Use text messaging

Another channel you can use to reel those customers back to their shopping carts is SMS marketing. This is another marketing tactic that may seem intrusive. However, according to Omnisend research, SMS campaigns are 48% more likely to result in conversions.

For example, the wig retailer Divatress decided to start using SMS in their marketing campaigns, which contributed to $123,000 in sales and a higher click-through rate (8%) to their website than email subscribers (3%).

Reduce shopping cart abandonment with social commerce

Can’t have shopping cart abandonment if there’s no shopping cart. Consumers are turning to social media more and more to do their shopping. According to Hootsuite, each month over 130 million Instagram users tap on a shopping post.

Instagram has made it incredibly easy to purchase a product straight from the accounts users trust the most. According to our research, 69% of consumers have been inspired by social media to make a purchase and 54% would be more likely to buy a product on social media if they could purchase directly.

To make social shopping even more convenient for your customers, your brand can set up your Instagram account so users can shop directly in-app. Shoppers want to find what they’re looking for in three clicks or less. Rather than using Instagram as a way to get leads to your site, why not reduce the number of clicks it takes for a purchase to occur?

That’s just one more opportunity to prevent another shopping cart from total abandonment. Read more about it here.

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But that’s only one decision on the buyer’s path to purchase. 

What is the consumer buying process?

The consumer buying process, or the consumer purchase decision process if you’re fancy, is the series of decisions a consumer makes on the path to purchase before becoming a customer.

Understanding how a consumer makes each decision in the buying process is essential for brands and retailers who want to convince shoppers to hit that add to cart button.

The stages of the consumer buying process

Let’s take a look at each of the six stages of the consumer buying process. We’ll discuss ways to optimize the buyer journey and ultimately boost conversion in today’s commerce landscape. 

1. Need recognition

A sale officially begins when a customer realizes they have a need or a want.

This recognition can happen because of internal or external stimuli (grocery shopping because you need food for dinner vs. ordering takeout because you just saw an Instagram ad for pizza). 

And the causes of these stimuli can be functional (purchasing a new computer because the old one doesn’t have enough processing power for Zoom calls) or social (buying new Zoom shirts to look good on your call). 

Regardless, the results are the same. A want now exists.  

At this stage, building brand awareness is key. You want your target market to already know and trust your business. Especially in today’s world where consumers don’t just want to shop, they want to support businesses that reflect their own values and beliefs. 

So much so, that 82% of shoppers say they’d avoid using a brand again if they lost trust.

2. Information search

Once consumers are aware they have a want, they’re now ready to find out how to fulfill it. And so their search begins, predominantly on search engines or social media. This is where casual browsers are inspired to become buyers.

In this stage in the consumer buying process, it’s imperative to optimize your brand or retail site for search engine optimization (SEO), so you show up in search results. And given that 70% of shoppers use Instagram for product discovery, you’ll want to focus on your Instagram SEO too.

How consumers search and what information they’ll need is based on how much they already know, and what details they find from fellow shoppers. Commerce today is always-on and consumer-to-consumer orientated, where consumers are your best salespeople.

That’s why most brands and retailers turn to user-generated content (UGC), which is any content (reviews, images, Q&As) created by unpaid individuals rather than a brand.

Customer ratings and reviews get your brand seen and help usher people to your site through keyword-rich and relevant content. Search engines reward sites that talk in the same language as customers. So when your shoppers are actually the ones creating the content, your brand is more likely to pop up first in the search. 

UGC is also a way to authentically build trust (there’s that T word again) with shoppers, as 79% of consumers say online reviews have as much of an impact as recommendations from friends or family. 

3. Alternative evaluation 

At this point, shoppers are making a list and checking it twice. They’re aware of your brand, have been brought to your site, and are now evaluating whether to purchase from you or a competitor. It’s crunch time, and they want to make the best choice. No regrets. 

So what can you do to build confidence that you have what they want? The answer again is UGC.

Ratings, reviews, Q&As, and customer photos are what consumers are turning to first to make buying decisions, and it inspires them at every step of the path to purchase. 53% of consumers say UGC makes them more confident in purchase decisions, according to our survey of over 7,000 global shoppers.

The need for authenticity is only getting stronger. And this trend is expected to flip the future of product display pages with content and opinions from real consumers already replacing professional product information. 

4. Purchase decision 

The shopper has read your product reviews, scrolled through the Q&A, and decided you’re the chosen one — the vendor they’ll trust with their purchase. They’ve arrived at your digital shelf. You’re in the homestretch now, right? Not so fast. You can still lose a customer at this crucial stage of the consumer buying process.

Here you should refer back to the need recognition and remind consumers why they’re buying the product in the first place. Use visual UGC on checkout pages and social channels showing products in action and pain points being solved. And make this content shoppable too. In the modern e-commerce funnel, shortening the buying process is the easiest way to drive a sale.

But should a customer leave at this stage, send out email reminders or offer slight discounts to lure them back

5. Completing the purchase

According to a study by Baynard Institute, nearly 70% of shopping carts in the e-commerce industry were abandoned before checkout. This comes alongside an increase in analysis paralysis brought on by COVID-19. Simple decisions feel heavy now. Deciding what to order for dinner can feel as stressful as switching careers. 

It’s up to you to alleviate this stress by making the purchase decision as simple as possible for consumers. Areas of opportunity for brands and retailers here include:

• Make your social content shoppable
• List total prices upfront so there aren’t any surprises
• Create an option for guest checkout to give shoppers an alternative to creating a personal account
• Optimize your e-commerce site for speed and reliability
• Showcase positive testimonials from reviews on the checkout page to build reassurance 
• Offer quick commerce services to save shoppers the hassle of in-store pickups

6. Post-purchase evaluation

Congratulations! You’ve optimized each stage up to this point, and the product has been purchased. The consumer buying process is complete. But there’s still one more step. You now have the unique opportunity to turn the buyer into a repeat customer by keeping them engaged with your brand or store. After all, customer retention is easier and cheaper than new custom.

Asking your customers for feedback on their purchases or using consumer insights found in product reviews is one of the best ways to build brand loyalty. It shows you care about their opinions and the overall experience they had with your business.

Retail giant Électro Dépôt, for example, collects UGC to encourage future buyers in their purchase decisions. The brand consistently analyzes customer feedback for areas of improvement and has since seen a 2x increase in conversion rate. 

Customers are sharper than ever. And they look to their peers for unbiased opinions when making purchasing decisions — an impressive 78% of shoppers globally trust online reviews. 

Understanding the consumer buying process at every stage

By considering each stage of the consumer buying process (the consumer purchase decision process), you can implement smart strategies for your business at each point along the way — building trust and keeping shoppers engaged at every step. 

User-generated content is the powerful tool that ties the path to purchase together. When paired with a healthy mix of branded and owned media, they combine to accelerate conversion by dominating search, inspire shopper confidence, and upgrade product sentiment. Learn how you can create a 5-Star, personalized customer journey in our new on-demand masterclass.

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As economic times get increasingly tough, beef up your product detail page with user-generated content (UGC), like customer ratings and reviews and social imagery, and functionality that converts. Make it easy for shoppers to find the information they need to make an informed and confident purchase fast. Whether they discover your product through search or on Instagram, customers should have a wealth of written and visual content available to them. 

5 ways to boost product detail page conversion rate

From enabling review translation to turning your Instagram into a storefront, here’s five product page optimization tactics retailers can use to drive greater conversion on product detail pages. 

1. Display shoppable visual UGC on your site

What’s better than lots of visual content across your e-commerce site or your product detail pages? Lots of shoppable visual content. Placing galleries on your product detail pages can result in:

• 250% increase in time spent on site
• 150% increase in conversion rates
• 15% increase in average order value

So compile beautiful visual content on every inch of your website — homepage, product page, you name it. Build beautiful galleries chock-full of visual user-generated content that helps people discover new products. 

The best place to find impactful visual UGC is on social media. Shoppers will often tag your brand when they post one of your products. You can easily syndicate these powerful visuals (and other forms of UGC) from your brands to build gorgeous product detail pages. The visual content will help both you and your brands convert more sales. 

2. Turn Instagram into a storefront

According to the 2022 Shopper Experience index, 54% of shoppers would buy a product if they could click a post and get product info directly there. Win over these shoppers by shortening the path to your product detail page for consumers who discover your products on Instagram. For example, Like2Buy turns Instagram into a storefront, where shoppers can click the link in your bio and get redirected to a site where the content they just saw on your feed is highlighted and easy to buy. 

Like2Buy also extends beyond Instagram — you can make any visual content shoppable. For example, now when you post a photo on Facebook, you can easily include a Like2Buy link that directs consumers to buy the product. Product page optimization made simple.

3. Leverage customer sentiment

Leverage customer sentiment analysis with Review Highlights. Allow customers to easily filter through the most important sentiments in reviews and allow them to easily navigate reviews in a much quicker way by highlighting pros and cons of each product from the sources they trust most — other customers. 

Review Highlights uses sentiment analysis to show consumers specific pros and cons of a product based on reviews. It also highlights certain features of the product, based on what past shoppers have said they enjoy the most. It gives consumers a quick overview of the most important sentiments in a review, allowing them to navigate reviews quicker. 

Review Highlights works best with products that have a lot of UGC — at least 10 reviews or more. It’s a powerful tool to leverage, increasing conversion on product detail pages by 3.5%.

4. Enable review responses and Q&A

Don’t ghost potential customers. When they ask you a question, give them answers. Last year, over 4.4 million consumers submitted questions to brands. We know responding works — according to our research, there’s a 98% conversion lift and a 120% RPV lift when shoppers engage with Q&A. 

And responding to reviews — especially negative reviews — matters, too. A third of shoppers don’t just want to hear from brands, they expect it. In fact, 87% of shoppers agree that a brand has to do something in response to negative reviews, and 72% of shoppers say the same for positive reviews. Responding to all UGC builds brand trust and encourages shoppers to give your brand a chance, even after reading a negative review. 

5. Translate reviews

72% of shoppers are more likely to buy a product with information in their own language. Expand into new countries with confidence and without starting from scratch with UGC. The right translations provider enables you to translate reviews effortlessly to display UGC in multiple languages.

Review translations allows your consumers to easily translate reviews from one language to another on the fly, syndicating content across the globe. 

Optimize your product detail page

We’ve offered five best practices based on works best for our clients, but even implementing one of these will do wonders for your product detail page conversion rate. Once your shoppers have all the information they need about your products at their fingertips, buying your products will be a no brainer.

And by using all five of these product page optimization tips, you’ll see your conversions rate soar as you build trust with customers and make it easier than ever for them to feel confident in your products. Learn more about how to optimize your product pages. Or request a demo below to get started with Bazaarvoice.

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A friend encourages you to accessorize your outfit because they want you to look good, not because they want you to spend more money. Likewise, you should focus on being helpful as a brand and curating the shopping experience for individual customers.

Research shows that average order value is tied to making customers feel recognized and understood. A Motista survey of over 100,000 U.S.-based consumers across 100+ brands found that customers who have an emotional relationship with a brand have a 306% higher lifetime value and will spend double the amount or more with their preferred retailers.

Increase average order value by presenting customers with thoughtful offers and recommendations they’ll genuinely love, and you’ll build trust and brand loyalty in the process.

What is average order value?

Average order value is the average amount of each transaction from purchases made on your e-commerce store.

Your average order value is one of the most important key performance indicators in e-commerce because it informs your strategy for increasing profits. Compare the metric to your customer acquisition cost (CAC) and you can determine which types of shoppers and purchases are especially valuable for your business.

You’ll also be able to evaluate whether you want to invest more in acquisition to encourage more high-value transactions.

The average order value formula

The average order value formula is monthly total revenue divided by the number of orders in that month. The same can be applied to any other set time frame.

Average order value = monthly total revenue / number of orders per month

Calculating your average order value also provides insights into what price points are most popular across your products. You can use this information to manage your inventory and create a pricing strategy around high-value orders.

How to increase your average order value

There’s a wide range of approaches to increase average order value that will intrigue customers without being pushy. Here’s the 15 top tactics to test out and help you find what resonates most.

1. Email marketing

Turn a passive customer into an active one with personalized email marketing. Increase average order value with methods like special offers and exclusive discounts. A few options include:

• Subscriber-exclusive offers: Incentivize subscribers with exclusive, email-only promotions and offers. These can include promo codes and access to early-release products and discounted products and packages
• Abandoned cart retargeting: Capture customers who didn’t complete purchases by sending abandoned cart emails that encourage them to finish the transaction. These messages could entice a second look and, ideally, a final purchase
• User-generated content: Leverage the power of user-generated content (UGC) in emails with reviews and social media posts from real people using your products. In a Stackla report, 79% of 1,590 consumers and 150 B2C marketers surveyed said UGC guides their purchasing decisions 
• SMS messaging: Okay it isn’t email, but 96% of 400 retail and e-commerce marketers credit SMS marketing with boosting revenue

Whatever email you send, use A/B testing to determine which messaging works best for your customers.

2. Shoppable social posts

Social media isn’t just for memes, food pics, and FOMO anymore. With the rise of social commerce, it’s now also for shopping — 76% of consumers have been influenced to shop on social media. And that’s not changing anytime soon. Business Insider projects that U.S. retail social commerce sales will soon increase by 34.8% to $36.09 billion.

Reap these benefits by making your social media posts shoppable. When Instagram or TikTok followers tap on featured products in posts linked to product pages, they can instantly make a purchase.

Case in point — Oliver Bonas. This fashion and home goods retailer uses Bazaarvoice Like2Buy to make their social posts shoppable on platforms like Instagram.

Now that customers engage with UGC on the Oliver Bonas homepage and product display pages, the brand has seen a 188% lift in conversions and a 26% increase in average order value. 

3. Rewards and loyalty programs

According to Accenture, 57% of shoppers spend more when they feel a sense of brand loyalty. So your existing customers their value by offering rewards and loyalty programs.

The best loyalty and rewards programs are easy to use and understand. Here’s a look at how some brands are making their customers feel special and connected to their products:

• Points system: Points-based loyalty programs have come a long way since the days of the paper punch card. No brand does this better than Sephora — their Beauty Insider loyalty program makes up 80% of their sales. With Beauty Insider, shoppers earn a point for every dollar spent, redeemable for available bonus products at any given time
• Tiered rewards: Taking another cue from Sephora, the beauty brand offers three levels of increasing rewards. Insider is the free, entry-level tier, VIB is for shoppers spending $350+, and Rouge is for $1,000+ spending members
• VIP program: Amazon Prime offers members a number of exclusive benefits — including free 2-day shipping across all Amazon products, access to TV shows and movies, and discounts at Whole Foods Market

Build strong relationships with your customers. Give something extra back and you’ll soon have loyal fans of your brand, willing to spend that bit more.

4. Customer ratings and reviews

Ratings and reviews have a powerful influence on shoppers and are a proven way to increase average order value — 88% of shoppers consult reviews before making a purchase. The power of reviews depends on their recency, positivity, and quantity. According to Womply, businesses earn 52% more revenue than average if they have nine current reviews and 108% more if they have over 25 current reviews.

Show off current positive reviews wherever you can: product pages, emails, social media, and paid ads. Tools like Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews can help you collect more reviews, respond to them, and spread them across the web. 

For example, with the help of Bazaarvoice, the Australian ever-channel retailer Officeworks acquired over 250,000 qualified reviews and product ratings to post throughout their website — leading to an increase in website traffic, conversions, and average order value.

5. Item and package bundles

Why just show a plate when you could show the whole table setting? Group multiple items in bundles and packages so customers can “shop the whole look” or create a gift box with all the accoutrements. Discounting these bundles is also a great way to move existing inventory while increasing average order value.

When shoppers have more chances to discover items, they’re more likely to have higher average order value. A study by Statista found that customers are driven to buy online purchases when they have a greater product range (47%), can compare more products (43%), or are given added product information (38%). 

Nurtured 9 knows this strategy well. While they sell individual items geared toward new and expectant mothers, bundles and gift boxes are their bread and butter.

With a preselected or curated gift set that includes four or more items, customers receive free gift wrap and a personalized, hand-written gift card.

6. Visual UGC on product pages

When shoppers land on a product page, it’s because they’re considering a purchase. Visual UGC from social media could seal the deal because it provides social proof. Aka, what real people like and buy, and how products look in the real world. Customers are more inspired to make a purchase when they can see pictures and videos of your brand in action. Creating galleries that feed social media content is an easy way to do this.

For Feelunique, Europe’s largest online beauty retailer, UGC drives more than $10M in annual sales. Through visual and social UGC on their product pages, the company was also able to increase average order value by 32%. Win-win.

By asking their followers to tag pictures of their products with #feelunique or upload their pictures to the website for a chance to be featured, the beauty powerhouse has simultaneously built brand awareness and engagement.

7. Cross-selling similar items

Cross-selling is a natural way to encourage higher-value purchases. It nudges customers toward items similar or complementary to the ones in their shopping cart. Implement this strategy by displaying products your customers would be interested in based on their shopping behavior on product and checkout pages.

What’s one of the best ways to encourage cross-selling purchases? UGC. Share authentic content from users and influencers. Display it on your site with gallery pages that feature product tags and encourage shoppers to discover new products. You’ll also show existing customers love by sharing their content. Hello, customer retention! 

But don’t just take our word for it. Apparel brand Tuckernuck experienced a 140% conversion rate increase and a 62x ROI by showcasing UGC on their home, gallery, and product pages. 

8. Live chat

Live chat is one of the best ways to personalize the online shopping experience and quickly provide informed recommendations to multiple customers at a time.

It’s one of the fastest and easiest ways to provide customer service. While chatting with customers, you can look up their profiles in your system to review past orders. You can also quickly send helpful links to encourage them to explore your website further and discover even more products.

Better yet, marketing automation tools make this really simple and do the hard work for you, leaving you more time to focus on the other ways to increase average order value from this list.

9. Upselling

Not to be confused with cross-selling, upselling is recommending an upgraded version of an item. The key to upselling is offering enhancements or superior products that will truly add value and improve the customer experience. Examples include:

• Product-specific add-ons: This involves upselling bonus items like warranties and product protection, batteries for electronics, refillable products like ink cartridges, and gift wrap
• More storage space: Tech companies like Apple implement this tactic by charging more for additional iPhone gigabytes (GB)
• Larger sizes: This strategy is very effective for products like televisions where bigger is, in fact, better

When you help customers win by suggesting premium products and showing them all their options, they’ll keep coming back for more.

10. Promo codes

Promo codes apply percentage or dollar discounts to purchases. They’re an easy way to execute storewide sales, holiday sales, and product-specific discounts for e-commerce brands. The beauty of promo codes? You have control over how they’re used.

Send out promo codes to email subscribers or display them on website banners and pop-ups. You might use these codes to target first-time buyers, reward guests who sign up for emails, or even promote a product launch.

11. Free shipping on minimum orders

Free shipping is a common, widely used practice these days, and for good reason. Customers have come to expect it, and it’s an easy way to increase average order value.

Engage customers and keep deliveries cost-effective by promising free shipping on orders over a certain amount. To calculate the free shipping threshold formula, take the proposed minimum order value and subtract average order value. Then, take the difference and multiply it by the gross profit margin and subtract the average shipping cost.

The shipping threshold should be above your average order value to encourage higher purchases but not outside the reasonable spending realm. For example, if your average order value is $50, a $200 minimum for free shipping is well outside the normal purchase.

12. Gamification

Gamification marketing is a fun and engaging way to attract customers and learn more about them. Requiring customers to fill out a survey for a contest entry ensures future marketing efforts are relevant and valuable. After the contest, you can follow up with targeted offers — increasing the chances of conversion.

Product discovery quizzes are another underutilized way to increase average order value. For example, coffee company Trade prompts website visitors to take a quiz for customized coffee subscriptions. The quiz asks shoppers about their coffee preferences, then recommends the perfect brew supplies for their tastes.

Consider offering contest prizes that involve your product, like gifting six months of free service or a free product. When you trust your products will sell themselves, winners will see the value of your brand.

13. Volume order discounts

Volume order discounts are for items typically purchased in larger quantities, like office supplies, stamps, toiletries, and alcohol.

“Buy X, get X free” deals are a common volume order discount. So are case discounts — like 10% off a carton of wine. These offers can easily persuade shoppers to go from 9 bottles to 12, or 3 packages of printer paper to 4. Strengthen your case by showing how much customers could save by purchasing more.

14. Trial periods and flexible return policies

Inspire emboldened purchases with flexible trial and return policies on products, especially for items that customers typically like to try out or see in person before they commit.

For example, mattress brand Casper’s risk-free trial gives customers 100 days to test out their mattresses. They accept returns within that period and even offer return pick up and packaging.

And with Warby Parker’s clever home try-on program, online shoppers can select five frames to try on at home for free before making their selection. Warby Parker turned this initiative into a marketing campaign that generates UGC and brand awareness, prompting customers to tag their home try-on photos with #warbyparkerhometryon.

Generous trial periods and return policies show confidence in the quality of your product. And this confidence transfers to the customer.

15. Innovative virtual services

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses had to pivot and go virtual to keep up with quarantine regulations. Companies that typically conducted business in person had to modify their services for the digital space.

Some businesses — like custom furniture and design company Interior Define — found this move allowed them to not only maintain sales but also boost them. When the company extended their Guideshop storefront services to the online marketplace, their average order value increased by 40%. 

Experiential marketing efforts like augmented reality, the metaverse, and livestream shopping are all fun, unique ways to innovate and win over shoppers. To adopt this concept, offer virtual versions of your services and create alternative ways to make purchases.

Increase average order value with authentic UGC

You may have noticed that UGC is a common theme throughout this list. That’s because authenticity drives results. And what’s more authentic than UGC — real people showing the real value of your products? 

To really increase average order value and win over customers, you need to master UGC best practices. Ready to build a winning UGC strategy, have a better grasp on your average order value and smash your marketing goals?

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How to build a best-in-class user-generated content strategy

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Here’s the problem: most product landing pages really are product detail pages (PDPs) and are focused on the hard sale. Out goes inspiration, browsing, and the thrill of discovery — and this is where most customers bounce. Instead of opening a door into your store, you’re showing them the exit.

Fortunately, there’s ways you can improve your product landing page experience and turn your online store into a place customers actually like to shop.

4 common issues with product landing pages

There’s a disconnect between what consumers see at their first point of engagement versus what they see on a PDP. Visitors who land on PDPs convert at 1.5%, while visitors who arrive on other pages of an e-commerce site convert at 2.9%.

Below are the most common problems with product landing pages.

1. Your product landing page doesn’t allow customers to shop

As convenient and seamless as navigating the web is, it’s not easy to be inspired if you’re hunting for something new.

Think about brick-and-mortar shopping. Shoppers are in a mall, and a window display catches their eye. Maybe it’s a jacket being showcased. Maybe there’s mannequin sporting the latest sneakers. Or maybe they just appreciate the overall look and feel of a carefully crafted display. Either way, they’re tempted to go in and maybe even buy something they didn’t even know existed five minutes ago.

By contrast, the e-commerce discovery process is non-existent on most sites.

You search for the item you’re already intent on buying, and you’re given a list of slight variants on that item. You click on the product and get taken to a list of details and an “add to cart” button. If the price is right, you buy. E-commerce isn’t shopping in a mall, it’s ordering from a catalog.

Online customers rarely get that shot of joy that comes with stumbling upon a product they didn’t even know they needed — the product that has nothing to do with why they came in the store. And your store misses out in the long run.

Customers who enjoy their experience and are encouraged to browse will come back. Customers who stumble upon a treasure they didn’t know existed will remember your store.

2. PDPs are focused on one type of shopper

Ideally, an e-commerce product landing page should accomplish the following three things:

1. Fulfill the promises you made in your ad or social media post
2. Help the user understand your brand
3. Inspire a visitor to take the next step in becoming a customer

However, when PDPs act as e-commerce landing pages, they often fall short of these three rules. And that’s a problem.

PDPs ignore all customers outside the bottom of the funnel

Almost 25% of online shoppers who arrive on e-commerce sites land on a PDP. And those who arrive on a PDP are 72% more likely to bounce than those who land on any other page of the site, according to research by Monetate.

Why? Because PDPs are primarily built to help a customer validate whether a product is one they’re looking to purchase. A PDP’s goal is hyper-focused on driving conversions at the bottom of the funnel. It’s not focused on helping customers find what they’re looking for or learn more about a brand or its ethos.

PDPs are critical for nurturing prospects who are close to making a purchase, but they ignore all customers who aren’t in the bottom of the funnel. For marketers, this is a challenge — you need your PDP to be easy to find, but it isn’t always the best foot to put forward.

New leads arrive on an e-commerce site looking to make a discovery, be inspired, or better understand a brand. But what they’re met with is a sterile page with information about one particular product. By redesigning these pages, you can improve engagement — as well as your bottom line.

3. Your product landing page doesn’t fulfill a promise

Users often arrive on a PDP via a lifestyle photo on social media or in an email that showcases various products. If that photo leads them to a PDP that focuses on only one item, the customer will likely be confused and may abandon the page.

Let’s say an image catches a customer’s eye on Instagram, and they want to learn more about the featured product. When they arrive on the PDP, they’re not greeted by the same photo. This erodes trust and creates confusion: “Is this even the same product I clicked on?”

To put it simply, when customers aren’t presented with similar imagery, a customer is less likely to convert. So it’s no surprise that social visitors who land on a PDP bounce 52% of the time.

4. Your product landing page doesn’t allow for exploration

Shoppers who land on PDPs view 42% fewer pages than visitors who arrive on other pages of an e-commerce site. They also view 8.8 pages per session. Visitors who land on any other page of the site average 12.5 page views.

While a PDP may suggest additional, related, or complementary products — a practice known as cross-selling — these recommendations may not sufficiently engage a customer. After all, the suggestions are typically narrow in that they’re only related to the item featured.

What’s worse? PDPs are meant to encourage purchases from customers at the end of the journey — and yet they’re less likely to convert.

How to improve your product landing page

When PDPs function as e-commerce landing pages, they need to pull double duty. They must provide enough info to persuade shoppers to click “add to cart” AND be engaging enough to accurately introduce your brand.

But you can rethink e-commerce landing pages entirely. Here’s how you can create pages that encourage store exploration from customers at every stage of the funnel.

Add lifestyle visual and social content

High-quality photos are important to capture shoppers’ interest. According to Google, 50% of online shoppers say imagery inspires them to make a purchase. However, high-res pictures of the product itself aren’t enough.

What PDPs need in order to draw consumers in is authentic visual and social content — and not just of models. Engaging product pages should include user-generated content from users and influencers alike, and should showcase real people actually using the product. Photos that show people using a product are 67% more likely to drive offline conversions, according to Pinterest.

Customers are more likely to interact with brands that fit their lifestyle. You can share your unique take on lifestyle by featuring engaging user imagery on product landing pages.

Create a continuous experience with consistent imagery

Feature the same or similar photos on the PDP that you utilize in the marketing materials that led users to the page. This creates a familiar, seamless experience and assures shoppers they’ve arrived on the correct page.

Let’s go a step further — say you click on a lifestyle image on Tuckernuck’s Pinterest page, like in the screenshot below:

When you arrive on the PDP, you’re greeted by the same photo that originally caught your eye.

According to research from Pinterest, this is a pro move. Pins that go to landing pages with similar imagery have a 13% higher online sales lift.

As noted above, pins that link to product landing pages with the same or similar imagery are more likely to convert. And once the shopper is on the page and viewing the product that initially drew them in, they have the opportunity to recreate this exact look for themselves with a purchase or browse related items that may also interest them.

Encourage browsing by highlighting more than just related products

While a PDP should include information about the specific product being sold, invite shoppers to make discoveries by providing other items they may be interested in. The PDP could prompt users to “shop the look” and link to other items featured in the photo, or to view “more like this.”

Highlighting multiple products in lifestyle imagery invites shoppers to browse. You could even allow users to shop within the specific image that first grabbed their attention to create continuous browsing experiences from social to product pages. In the image below, a shopper can click on the “rowingblazers.com” link in the center of their social image and go right to the item.

And a tool like Showroom shows the customer related products they may also be interested in, not just the products in the image. Showroom can easily be used in Instagram Story swipe-ups, paid ads, or linked to literally anywhere else a link can go, like emails and other webpages.

Personalize the experience

Brands can also encourage product discovery through page personalization by making product recommendations responsive to a visitor’s location and device type, as well as whether they’re a new or existing customer. A personalized shopping experience makes consumers 110% more likely to add more items to their cart and 40% more likely to spend more than originally planned.

Also consider deploying solutions that allow you to answer customer questions before they ask them. By leveraging data from past customers, you can create compelling and visually appealing pop-ups and page elements that answer questions about the product or service the shopper is looking at right now.

You’re even able to use these answers to point shoppers toward relevant or related products that they might otherwise have missed.

Engage customers from every possible angle

It’s imperative that your brand’s PDPs engage visitors during all aspects of the customer journey — whether they are just being introduced to the brand or are already close to making a purchase.

Redesigning your product landing pages to create a more consistent, engaging customer experience may seem daunting, but the time is well, well worth it.

Product detail pages have become a critical battleground for consumer attention and conversion. You need a 5-point audit for perfecting your product pages, covering key topics like organic search, social commerce, user-generated content, and insights. Find out what that means for you in our on-demand masterclass.

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