By GUURU News -
User-Generated Content in eCommerce: Navigating AI, Trust and eCommerce Success
Customers trust each other more than brands – and that’s not changing any time soon.
However, what user-generated content (UGC) looks like today, and how brands leverage it in eCommerce, has evolved a lot over the last few years.
AI is now widespread in content generation, including user-generated content; fake reviews have created concerns about the credibility of UGC; and shifting consumer needs have led brands to rethink their content strategies.
In this article, we look at an up-to-date overview of UGC and how it’s best used in eCommerce in 2024 to build trust and boost purchasing confidence.
Here is what we will cover:
- An updated definition (2024) of UGC in eCommerce.
- UGC’s current impact on eCommerce KPIs.
- Types of UGC and their effectiveness in 2024 eCommerce.
- Community-Content: The new way of effective UGC
What User-Generated Content looks like in eCommerce in 2024
User-generated content (UGC) in 2024 includes digital content—text, videos, images, and reviews—created by individuals rather than brands. Unlike the largely organic UGC before 2020, today’s creators often use AI tools for conceptualizing, creating, and editing. Many now leverage tools like ChatGPT to brainstorm, edit, and write content; MidJourney to generate unique visuals; and AI features on social media to craft posts. Here an example of an AI writing prompt used by LinkedIn in 2024 encouraging its users to use AI to create UGC.
In eCommerce, UGC remains authentic and unpaid, reflecting real customer experiences, but now includes AI support. In eCommerce, UGC should ideally be authentic and unpaid, reflecting real customer experiences. The problem in 2024 is that, due to the rise of synthetic content, it’s hard to prove its authenticity. Furthermore, it’s hard to get customers to create content without incentivizing them.
How does User-Generated Content impact eCommerce in 2024?
While consumers consistently trust their peers more than brand content, the real challenge is whether they trust the user-generated shared by brands.
User-generated content has long been a powerful force in eCommerce, enhancing purchasing confidence, brand credibility, and customer loyalty. Authentic reviews, images, and videos highlight why products are valued and often outperform traditional ads in engagement, retention, basket size, sales conversions, and reducing returns.
Consider these insights:
- UGC increases the Average Order Value: 83% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that share real customer content (Entribe).
- UGC enhances the Customer Experience: 93% find UGC very helpful for making buying decisions (Merkley & Partners).
- UGC boosts Conversion Rates: Add-to-cart conversions increase by an average of 161% when UGC is present (Bazaar Voice).
In 2024, the effectiveness of UGC hinges on how well brands can validate its authenticity. Genuine customer experiences that build trust can significantly enhance various eCommerce KPIs.
Types of User-Generated Content (and their effectiveness in 2024 eCommerce).
UGC can take many forms. When committing to a user-generated content strategy for your brand, the type of content you focus on makes a big difference in the effort needed, but also the results. Some common types, and their pros and cons in eCommerce, include:
1. Customer Reviews and Testimonials
These are personal endorsements shared on social media, websites, or review sites.
Pros: Most shoppers seek out customer reviews while making purchasing decisions. They provide valuable social proof and significantly impact customer’s buying decisions.
Cons: Collecting relevant customer reviews consistently is challenging without incentives, which are now regulated or prohibited by many countries’ consumer laws. Moreover, the credibility of UGC is often questioned, as some companies employ ghostwriters or bots to generate synthetic positive reviews. This has led many brands to rely on third-party reviews and community-driven platforms to establish their authenticity.
Cupshe is a Canadian fashion and apparel online store. It’s a good example of how you can implement reviews in your product pages. They even include descriptions of the people who write reviews like fit, typical size, body type, weight, and waist. This makes it even more valuable for buyers as they can find someone with similar attributes as them.
2. Photos
This type of UGC includes photographs by customers who use your products. These images are often shared on product pages or social media.
Pros: Customer photos build credibility, showcase real use, and boost organic traffic, leading to higher revenue. They enhance trust in product quality and are less likely to be seen as synthetic content.
Cons: Convincing customers to share product photos on social media is challenging because it requires more effort than writing a review, and many consumers value their privacy. Companies often need to offer incentives to get relevant photos, but as mentioned, incentivizing reviews is increasingly regulated or prohibited by consumer laws in many countries.
Molekule is an air-purifying D2C company that implements clients’ photos successfully on their product pages. Here you can see a review with a photo posted by a verified buyer reviewing their product, Air Pro.
3. Videos
Video UGC is created by customers and includes unboxing, tutorials, or review videos. Videos are particularly impactful as they provide a dynamic and detailed look at your products. It also proves beyond any reasonable doubt how your product is being used and loved by real people.
Pros: Video is one of the most persuasive types of UGC for convincing customers to buy products. Most customers trust video content more than other forms of UGC. Video UGC is personal, providing a unique and creative glimpse into your products and their role in customers’ lives.
Cons: Videos are highly effective but extremely time-consuming. User-generated video content can range from a quick 10-second clip to a polished 10-minute tutorial, but it requires more effort from customers than other types of UGC. Building a brand that inspires customers to naturally create video content is challenging. Most brands, therefore, pay influencers to produce recent and relevant videos, which, while effective for marketing, lack the authenticity of true UGC. Plus the rise of deepfake videos may increase in the future as AI video tools become better and better.
GoPro uses customer videos to sustain its YouTube channel. Some of the most popular videos on their channel are created by customers, showcasing the capabilities of GoPro cameras in real-world scenarios. The thing that makes it successful is that GoPro has a large YouTube account so people have a natural incentive to film and edit these videos to get featured there.
4. Comments
Comments is a type of UGC that includes opinions and feedback that customers leave on your branded content on social media or on your website. Comments can be highlighted to show active engagement, boosting the trust new customers have in your brand.
Pros: Unlike reviews, photos, or videos, comments require minimal time from customers, making them easier to obtain. However, they typically require a strong marketing team that has already built an engaged, content-creating community.
Cons: The credibility of comments is often questioned due to the prevalence of synthetic content generated by bots and fake accounts. Additionally, social media is rife with negative and hate comments, which can affect even great products.
Nike has a large and active Instagram following. Their posts attract plenty of people who add their thoughts on the products that Nike highlights. This type of interaction shows other potential customers why customers love and talk about Nike’s products.
Community Content: Low-effort User-Generated Content that customers trust
Genuine user-generated content (UGC) that customers trust packs a punch in eCommerce 2024. However, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to get this type of content – especially consistently. Another challenge that eCommerce businesses are facing is to prove the authenticity of the UGC that they manage to acquire.
That’s why, at Guuru, we developed Community Content —a game-changer for your UGC strategy.
The power of real-time community conversations in User-Generated Content
How does it work? Our AI-powered UGC solution scours the Community Advice chat, a dynamic platform where online shoppers can connect with your passionate customer community for a meaningful conversation.
This isn’t just any conversation; it’s an authentic customer experience between like-minded people, where loyal customers share their first-hand experiences with your products, as well as their brand love, with shoppers who need assistance.
Our AI solution automatically extracts valuable content from live conversations between the community, turning them into UGC that truly resonates and boosts sales conversions.
Each piece of UGC is connected to verified customers, ensuring transparency and credibility. Visitors can interact directly with these customers, reinforcing the authenticity of the content. Our AI efficiently integrates this valuable content into your product pages, keeping your pages updated with advice that your visitors actively seek out.
Community Content continuously delivers content sourced from knowledgeable individuals. While it operates through our Community Advice chat, the real power of our community approach lies in bringing passionate customer voices to various touch points on your eCommerce website.
Implement User-Generated Content in your eCommerce Business in 2024
Ready to enhance your eCommerce strategy with authentic, high-impact, and low-effort User-Generated Content? Take advantage of a pioneering approach to UGC. Schedule a personalized 1:1 meeting with our head of marketing, Jutta, and learn exactly how we would implement it in your business.
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