Evaluating social proof is key for retailers' e-commerce future
Updated: Jul 7, 2022
The proof is in the social!
A customer's journey boils down to three basic stages if we can discount for a moment various other definitions of a marketing funnel. As per Brendan Hughes, a marketing expert and one of the speakers at the Ecom World conference, a need or want arises in a customer's mind, he then gathers information about the solution to his desire and finally, he makes a purchasing decision. In what ads work for each of the three buyer's journey stages? discussion, Hughes explains that marketing teams need to be there for the customer at each of these three stages.
A common denominator for all retailers in this customer's journey is the use of social proof. A customer's social proof shows how current users recommend a product or a service based on their experiences with a company's brand. If they rate a brand positively on a review site or praise a product on Facebook, they are social proofing it.
The fashion industry, for instance, relies heavily on social proof. According to the e-commerce fashion industry, revenues of e-commerce fashion alone will surpass $700 billion in 2022, up by 30% from 2018. Along with the expected sharp increase in sales, high social media feedback volumes are also being recorded and will rise even more, as shoppers continue to voice their opinions on clothes, accessories, cosmetics, and shoes.
In the How Fashion Brands Are Retaining Consumers Through Social Proof article, the importance of customer feedback is ever so dominant, as consumers seem sick and tired of bumping into sales pitches. A subtler approach is preferred, such as employing user-generated content. It seems buyers appreciate more seeing regular people like them wearing the new dress or watch, as they are looking for more authenticity. And this is just one approach to improve the brand's name, as discussed in the 9 charming ways to generate word of mouth.
But as volumes of customers' conversations grow, so does the need to take such unstructured data and turn it into a more cohesive and clearer general picture.
Affogata offers to take these huge amounts of non-stop consumer product conversations online, including posts and campaigns using social proof, track them from everywhere on the open web and deliver to companies a real-time data analysis on them. As trends come and go, and as huge investments in products and their marketing increase, learning how social proof efforts have resulted becomes more crucial.
Some examples of what Affogata's analysis can give companies answers to include:
Are customers complaining of being unable to pay or to add items to the cart? Is there a bug that is making the company lose money?
Did user-generated content continue to draw favorite responses? And how does it measure with other ads and sales pitches?
Does social proof contribute to a company's overall brand sentiment? And if so, in what manner?
How did the company's referral campaign work in terms of customers' feedback?
How does a company's reward loyalty program succeed in terms of customers' mentions?
How does the company's social proof efforts stand against competing brands?
With Affogata, companies can also reply to their customers in our all-in-one-place platform and increase engagements with their shoppers while also being able to attend to possible crisis complaints. And our analysis enables companies to learn how their brand sentiment is looking and how we recommend it to improve it.
As the Ecommerce world gets more competitive, so does the need to always understand the challenges and advantages companies must learn in order to thrive. Companies must remember that “every complaint ignored is 26 customers lost”, so every mention counts. It is imperative to never underestimate the power of customers’ voices.