UGC for BigCommerce Stores: Ultimate Guide

by | Oct 25, 2024 | UGC: Customer Photos and Videos

User-generated content is one of the biggest tools for building trust and driving more sales in ecommerce. Over time, buyers have sought authenticity in the reviews and experiences of other real customers to help them make purchase decisions.

As a store owner in BigCommerce, integrating UGC into your marketing can increase engagement, conversions, and customer loyalty.

This article will explain why UGC matters for your BigCommerce store and provide actionable strategies for collecting, curating, and showcasing this valuable content.

Why UGC Matters for BigCommerce Stores

Here are some of the obvious reasons why collecting user-generated content for your ecommerce business is important:

Social Proof and Trust

UGC is vital in helping potential customers feel confident about their purchase decisions. Exposure to customer photos, reviews, and videos gives customers a very realistic view of how exactly the product performs in real life.

This kind of authentic content serves as social proof, which is usually more persuasive than the marketing a brand creates. UGC communicates that real people use and enjoy your products, which builds credibility with your brand.

Positive reviews and experiences shared by already satisfied customers reduce prospective buyers’ hesitation and make them more willing to make a purchase.

Building Customer Loyalty Through Authenticity

UGC will not just attract new buyers but also help create a lot of loyal customers for your brand. It is quite certain that loyal customers will share their experiences and propagate your brand across all their networks. By showing them your feedback and customer testimonials, you are also rewarding them for their loyalty, strengthening the bond they have towards your brand.

Moreover, UGC drives community: when people see others interacting with products, they, too, feel connected and continue to make repeat purchases that enhance long-standing relationships with customers.

SEO and Visibility Benefits

UGC also contributes to search engine optimization (SEO) on a practical note. Each time a review is left, or a comment is made about a product, you bury another needle of fresh content that the search engines index. This will serve to improve your store’s ranking in places like Google and make it easier to find by potential buyers.

Reviews with specific product keywords, together with customer descriptions and details, enhance your content and fix your rank in search engines. All this content flow strengthens not only your SEO but also increases the credibility of your store.

How to Collect UGC: Best Practices for BigCommerce Stores

Encourage Customer Reviews and Ratings with Post-Purchase Emails

Capturing customer reviews does not have to be complicated. One of the best ways to effect this is through a post-purchase email once the product has just reached the customer. This little nudge will make them provide feedback while still fresh in the minds of customers. 

You could employ this kind of automation in email marketing to make it as smooth as possible to get customers to share their opinions. Make an offer of incentives, like discount codes or loyalty points, upon receipt of the reviews. These small gestures can go a long way in multiplying positive reviews and user reviews coming your store’s way.

Using Social Media to Collect UGC

Social media platforms are ideal for collecting visual UGC photos or videos shared by customers, which can be overwhelming in number. Create keywords, in the form of hashtags, related to your products, and ask your audience to use them while sharing their posts.

Here’s how you can collect UGC for your ecommerce business on social media:

  • Create a branded hashtag for your store or product lines.
  • Run contests or giveaways for UGC submissions.
  • Repost user-generated content to feature your happy customers and keep engagement levels high.
  • Continue to interact with posts that mention your brand to let your community know you appreciate them.

Encouraging UGC Submissions

The other effective way of collecting more UGC is by offering incentives. This can be in the form of discounts, exclusive offers, or at least recognition in the form of a shout-out on your website and/or social media.

By incentivizing customers to share their experiences, you build a mutually advantageous environment where they feel valued, and you come out with content that may help scale your brand.

These are four ways to incentivize UGC:

  • Early access to new products for customers showing frequent UGC.
  • Incentivize sharing of a review, photo, or testimonial with discounts or special promotions.
  • Feature your top contributors on your website or social media channels and reward them with brand loyalty.
  • Team up with content creators or influencers to produce professional UGC that speaks to your brand’s voice.

Tools like RaveCapture can facilitate this process by automatically following up and collecting this content in an easy, seamless manner so that you have customer photos and reviews, with their testimonials, to display throughout your store.

Curating UGC for Maximum Impact

Moderating and Selecting Quality Content

While it’s great to gather a lot of UGC, the real value comes from curating the best content to showcase in your store. Not every review or photo may be appropriate for public display, so it’s important to moderate content carefully. Select customer reviews and images that highlight the key features and benefits of your products.

To curate the most effective UGC:

  • Focus on reviews that provide valuable insights about product usage.
  • Highlight visual content that showcases your products in different contexts.
  • Prioritize content from satisfied customers who offer detailed feedback.
  • Balance positive reviews with occasional constructive feedback to build trust.

Make sure the content is clear, well-composed, and aligned with your brand’s voice. Focus on UGC that not only praises your products but also offers helpful insights to prospective buyers.

custom questions for beauty reviews

Organizing UGC by Product Categories or Themes

To make UGC more impactful, organize it in a way that resonates with your audience. Group content by product categories or themes to help customers find the most relevant information. For instance, if you sell clothing, you can create a gallery showcasing customer photos for each product category, allowing shoppers to visualize the fit and style.

Ways to organize UGC effectively:

  • Group reviews and photos by product categories (e.g., clothing, home goods, electronics).
  • Use themes, like seasonal trends or customer favorites, to showcase UGC during specific campaigns.
  • Create dedicated UGC galleries for special collections or limited-edition products.
  • Tag content with product identifiers to ensure it’s linked to the correct products in your store.

This makes the shopping experience smoother and more engaging, giving your audience more confidence in their choices.

Streamlining UGC Curation with Tools

BigCommerce offers several apps and integrations that can simplify UGC curation. Platforms like RaveCapture and Yotpo provide solutions to collect, curate, and display UGC in a seamless way.

These tools can automate the process of gathering reviews, photos, and social media posts, saving you time while ensuring a constant flow of fresh content.

UGC curation tools help by:

  • Automating the process of collecting UGC from social networks and email campaigns.
  • Allowing you to filter and organize content by relevance and quality.
  • Offering integration with BigCommerce product pages to display the best customer-generated content.
  • Providing analytics to track how UGC impacts your marketing efforts and conversions.

Integrating UGC Across Product Pages

Featuring Customer Reviews and Photos on Product Pages

Your product pages are prime spots for integrating UGC. Displaying customer reviews, photos, and even videos alongside your product descriptions can provide the reassurance that prospective customers need to complete a purchase. Seeing real people enjoying your product helps build trust and demonstrates its quality.

You can feature star ratings and customer testimonials directly below product descriptions or even include a gallery of user-submitted images. These small touches make your product pages more engaging and informative.

Implementing UGC Photo Galleries

UGC galleries are another effective way to leverage content from your customers. If you sell physical products, a gallery showcasing real-life use cases can drive engagement. For instance, a home decor store could feature photos of customers using the products in their homes, offering inspiration to potential customers and encouraging them to make a purchase.

With tools like RaveCapture, you can easily automate the process of collecting UGC and displaying it on your social media and website, ensuring that your gallery always features fresh content.

AI-Powered Widgets for UGC Display

BigCommerce allows the use of AI-powered widgets that dynamically pull UGC from sources like social media or product reviews.

These widgets automatically display the latest content, keeping your site looking fresh without manual updates. This real-time approach keeps customers engaged and offers up-to-date social proof as they browse your store.

Amplifying UGC on Social Media and Email Campaigns

Display UGC in your Social Media Posts

Your social media profiles are great avenues for showcasing UGC. Sharing customer photos, reviews, and testimonials on your social channels helps your audience relate more personally to your brand. Content from real customers is much more relatable and trustworthy; hence, your followers are more likely to engage in it. 

Platforms like Instagram and Facebook are ideal for including UGC, especially through stories and posts featuring your most avid customers. This approach encourages more people to join the brand conversation and talk about it.

Including UGC in Email Campaigns

User-generated content can be aptly included in email campaigns. Adding customer testimonials or product reviews to your promotional emails can surely help improve open rates and click-through rates by showing content relevant to the recipient.

Whether you run a promotion or announce new products, including a few lines of UGC can make your emails more impactful—essentially, it’s easy to add much-needed credibility to your email marketing efforts.

Cross-Channel Amplification of UGC

Amplify your UGC by deploying this content across various marketing channels. A customer photo placed on Instagram can be showcased in your email newsletter too or can be hosted on your website. Cross-channel promotion of your UGC creates a cohesive brand experience that speaks volumes to the authenticity of your products.

By implementing UGC practices on both your website and social media, you get closer to the audience in reality and make them relate much better to the shopping experience. From review collection to showcasing customer feedback, in all major kinds of contributions, UGC could play an essential role in the success of your store.

Tools like RaveCapture make the process easier by collecting, curating, and showcasing your UGC in your store. If you’re ready to take your UGC strategy to the next level, drive loyalty and growth in your BigCommerce store with social proof experienced by your customers.