Elevate your UGC With REVIEWS.io

July 2, 2019

3 min read

The way your customers shop is changing. Are you changing with them? REVIEWS.io's new feature uses user-generated content to cater to the modern customer for the most engaging shopping experience yet.

We've all seen McDonald's advertising. An impossibly juicy beefy patty sits atop a fluffy, cloud-like bun, a scattering of symmetrical seeds adorning its golden-brown crust. A perfect sunshine-yellow triangle of cheese oozes down its side and delicate, jewel-like blobs of shimmering ketchup peek out from within. Eat me. It says. Eat me.

Of course, we're wise enough to know that a real life Big Mac looks more like a burger thrown together in 10 seconds flat, and then sat on by a medium-sized child. Just like how we know the message that skinny tea will make us skinny overnight probably shouldn't be taken at face value, nor should we expect the post box flowers pictured online as full and luxurious to arrive as such.

But if the modern day customer knows not to buy into traditional marketing, what is it they buy into? User-generated content. Of which, Instagram leads the pack. In fact, Instagram now influences almost 75% of user purchase decisions.

Whilst this might be great for Instagram, it's not particularly beneficial for your eCommerce store. If only there was a way to get all the benefits of Instagram images on your site...

Introducing: UGC

Our Instagram features go hand in hand to bring user-generated content and all its benefits to your eCommerce store. Forget spending thousands on product shots - take existing Instagram images and turn them into your next best marketing tool.

Engage with your customer

We help you manage all your user generated content in one place. Identify new opportunities and take ownership of them at the click of a button.

How it works

We provide you with a real-time feed of all the Instagram posts you've posted yourself, been mentioned or tagged in. You can also choose to include posts featuring specific hashtags in this list.

The list can be filtered to show only those posts you've been tagged in to easily identify your user-generated content.
See something you like? Click to request permission to use this image as your own. There's no need to write anything - we've got it covered.

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When ownership is granted, you'll be able to interact with the image.
Tag products from your product category in the image to make it shoppable. You can choose to insert these images into a shoppable widget by toggling on/off.

Publish content

REVIEWS.io enables you to take all of your favourite user-generated content and pull it into a customisable widget to use on your site.

How it works

All of the Instagram Images you've toggled 'on' will be pulled into your widget.

You can choose from 'Carousel', 'Full-Page Grid' and 'Full-Page Collage' layout options.

There are loads of other elements you can customise in the next steps too, including background colour, spacing and CTA button style. You can also choose the details you wish to have on display, such as date, Instagram caption and username.

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Authentic & engaging shoppable Instagram galleries

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It's no longer enough to create beautiful product pages. When it comes to building trust with your customers, user-generated content is key.

In the same way that reviews are trusted much more than marketing messages, Instagram images carry much more credibility than professionally-shot product photos.

Using UGC on your site may at first be scary. Without retouching, your products might not look so picture-perfect - that cheese might not be a perfect triangle, and your buns might look a little flat. But hey, Big Macs don't tend to match up to their marketing counterparts, and none of us ever seem to mind.

The truth is that customers are not really expecting to receive postbox flowers that look as full as those on your site. But if those are the only images you choose to showcase, it's going to backfire regardless. After all, who would be happy with a nightlight when they've been promised the stars and the moon?

Authentic images help your customers develop realistic expectations. There are no surprises, there's less disappointment and you'll have more happy customers in the long run.

It's time to get real. Stop hiding behind your 6k camera, and allow real people to showcase your products in their most authentic light. Ditch the food stylists, the photo editors and give your customers what they really want - marketing they can rely on. Give them UGC.