Product development has been a major focus for us over the last 12 months. Against a backdrop of political and economic instability, we’ve listened to the problems our customers face - the cost of acquisition, privacy vs. personalization, breaking through the noise with authentic content - and we’ve built tools to address them all.
Here’s a look at five key product developments we’ve rolled out and how they can help you smash your goals for 2023.
2022 saw some pretty big changes to consumer privacy. The iOS 14 and 15 updates, along with the (still pending) death of third party cookies have put a block on easy access to customer data and ramped up the cost of acquisition.
As a result, many merchants shifted focus to retention and the collection of zero-party data.
To help, we introduced Surveys, a lightweight onsite tool that gives you more access to valuable customer feedback. You can roll out surveys at various touchpoints to collect different data sets, from Net Promoter and Customer Satisfaction Scores to customizable post checkout surveys.
What this means is you can easily gather actionable data on your products, services and customers - and the experience you offer. You can gain a competitive advantage by using that data for development, and you can boost a customer’s commitment just by asking their opinion (52% of consumers say they become more loyal to a brand if it asks for feedback).
Essentially, the Surveys feature helps you keep your existing customer base happy and leverage their insight to make sure that, when a new customer does come along, they’re more likely to convert.
The exponential growth of eCommerce throughout the pandemic means the marketplace is more crowded than ever before. But that growth has now ebbed, and as well as competing with each other, merchants are having to deal with a return to the high street (not to mention a looming recession).
Enter retention marketing and the launch of Influence.io - our very own loyalty and referral solution.
Loyalty programs are proving increasingly profitable, with studies showing they can boost conversion by as much as 30%. Influence.io is a flexible platform that lets you run a simple points based program, loyalty tiers and referral campaigns.
There’s even greater value to be had by combining loyalty with a subscription based model, which is why we’ve built a seamless integration with subscription platform, Recharge.
Then of course there’s loyalty data. Our integration with Klaviyo means you can leverage this for smarter segmentation. It also allows you to slot loyalty comms directly into Klaviyo flows, keeping all your communication in one place.
Changes to data protection aren’t just affecting acquisition. They’re also presenting a significant challenge in an age where consumers demand a personalized experience. Our response to this was to improve the functionality of our Review Attributes feature.
This is now a source of zero-party data with endless potential. You can add completely customizable questions to review requests to gather very specific details, then feed that data into platforms like Klaviyo, Dotdigital and ActiveCampaign for personalized marketing.
Segment customers by dietary preferences, favorite sport, skin tone - whatever works for your brand. All you need to do is ask the relevant questions when you ask for a review.
It’s not just customer data that’s available here either. You can ask additional questions around products and company to create a better shopping experience and inform development.
If there’s one trend that’s plowed straight into eCommerce, it’s user generated content. It’s what consumers want, evident by the fact it drives more on and offsite engagement, increases conversion and boosts email click through rates. And not only do customers want to see it, they love to create it.
We’ve offered tools for UGC collection for some time, so this year we focused on distribution - giving you more ways to turn authentic content into sales.
First we introduced our UGC Gallery and Publishing feature. This allows you to combine UGC from customer reviews with Instagram tags and mentions, and publish it all together as shoppable galleries - both onsite and in email campaigns through our dynamic Klaviyo integration.
Then we launched our Multi-Version Widget Editor. This means you can now create, manage and publish variations of the UGC widget to suit different pages across your store. For example, you might install a UGC Collage with a mix of images on your homepage, and then a UGC Carousel on a product page, featuring content specific to that product.
Review collection is by far the best source of UGC. Combine this with our powerful publication tools and you can create an authentic, visual and accessible experience of your brand and products.
Data and UGC may have dominated product development in 2022, but we haven’t neglected good old fashioned word of mouth marketing - i.e. the written review. What we have done is added more value to it with the Review Nuggets feature.
This tool lets you take the best part of a review - be it a word, phrase or short sentence - and publish it where it’s likely to have the biggest impact. Like right next to the ‘buy now’ button, or as a sticky element on product pages with the Nuggets Bar Widget.
We’ve also made it super easy for you to manage nuggets. Under the ‘Opportunities’ tab you’ll see a list of how many reviews and nuggets a product has, so you can maximize content. And with ‘Suggestions’ all the work’s done for you. Our AI system analyzes new reviews and suggests snippets that could be turned into persuasive nuggets.
It’s yet another way of making your review content - and your investment in REVIEWS.io - work that bit harder.
You may or may not have caught our big announcement back in November - that REVIEWS.io is now part of the clearer.io ecosystem.
We joined the eCommerce enablement platform in a strategic acquisition to support our continued growth. It’s a partnership that brings added value through combined knowledge and experience - and we can’t wait to apply that value to the REVIEWS.io product. Try out our platform free for 14-days with our trial!
Other than our CEO Callum joining the clearer.io board, nothing changes. We’re still the same friendly review platform, with the same team and the same dedication to our customers. Something we’ll be carrying through to 2023 as we support more brands with their own strategic growth.
