Customer perception of your brand is your brand. Retailers failing to recognize that simply will not be successful, or as successful, in today’s current commerce climate. The following data points are repeated often, but they drive the point home:
- 44% of Millennials said they use social media to spread the word about products or services
- Only 1% of Millennials say they are influenced in any way by traditional advertising
- 33% of millennials rely mostly on blogs before they make a purchase
- 43% of millennials rank authenticity over content when consuming news
- 62% of millennials say that if a brand engages with them on social networks, they are more likely to become a loyal customer
- 60% said that they are often or always loyal to brands that they currently purchase
This data makes the argument that if you win a millennial’s purchase, you win their loyalty. Why does this matter? Because there are 80 million millennials in the U.S. alone and they represent about a fourth of the entire population, with $200 billion in annual buying power.
There are 80 million millennials in the U.S. alone, with $200B in annual buying power.
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You want the customer lifetime value of a millennial, but you have to earn it –– authentically. Ads aren’t your solution here. Pricing, while important to millennials (a generation which knows well how to search for online deals and the lowest price), doesn’t outweigh convenience or empathy. Loyalty is the currency in which millennials deal –– but you have to prove to them you’re worthy.
Brands demonstrate their value via social proof and customer reviews. Reviews have become so important, in fact, that some studies are showing millennials trust online strangers (i.e. reviews) more than their friends or family (i.e. traditional word of mouth marketing). That’s a huge shift in the way retailers think about marketing, loyalty and customer engagement. And, for many smaller retailers out there nipping at the heels of the bigger box brands, this is one aspect of the marketing game that is difficult to execute well.
Why? Because it takes time, and managing multiple selling channels, ensuring your inventory is properly accounted for and getting items out to customers in a way that competes with Amazon’s timeliness is hard enough.That makes it easy for customer engagement outside of social media and product delivery to fall through the cracks.
Brands demonstrate their value via social proof and customer reviews.
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This is where Yotpo comes in –– an ecommerce integration which automates the gathering of reviews process and then combines all reviews into a mini-site, giving your brand ample customer testimony and promotional content as well as increasing your SEO.
Just check out how Grand Slam New York uses Yotpo to power reviews, SEO and more.
In fact, Yotpo is one of the most popular ecommerce tools in the business, used by more than 15,000 online stores. It’s likely that if you’ve left a review for a product, assuming you bought from a brand rather than a marketplace, you’ve used Yotpo to do so.
Given the popularity of the app, we caught up with a couple Bigcommerce merchants using Yotpo to get the insights into how well it works, how it has helped their business and more.
Could you describe your experience using Yotpo with your Bigcommerce store?
Scott Gutschke, President at GTech Fitness: The ability to post product reviews from my store directly to Facebook and Twitter definitely helps create a social buzz about the product itself, as well as helping to promote the Gtech Fitness brand.
Many of our competitors do not utilize reviews, so Yotpo has been a very nice differentiator.
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Daniel Nunny, Owner at Golf Cart Garage: We’ve used the Yotpo app for Bigcommerce for about a year and a half. We originally started out with the free plan and in the past six months bumped it up to their premium plan. We’ve had great success with reviews and the Yotpo app. Many of our competitors do not utilize reviews, so it has been a very nice differentiator in our industry.
How do you use the Yotpo app to increase sales and better connect with your customers?
Daniel Nunny, Owner at Golf Cart Garage: We send a “Please provide your review” email 10 days post-sale, and then again 24 days post-sale, if they haven’t yet given a review. We’ve had very good participation from our customers. In addition, we include a “site reviews” section where customers can view reviews specifically about our store. This has been a nice feature that we’ve added to our homepage.
We’ve had very good participation from our customers.
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We also use the comment and Q&A features to really connect with customers. This allows us to connect directly with customers who provide reviews or have specific questions. Most importantly these comments/Q&A’s show up on product pages which give prospective customers more information and a view inside how we communicate/take care of customers. Awesome stuff.
Have there been any unexpected outcomes from using the app?
Scott Gutschke, President at GTech Fitness: I went back and forth with Yotpo for a while, not sure if I wanted to use them. They were extremely patient with me, responsive and great to work with, so I’m forever sold now.
They were extremely patient with me, responsive and great to work with, so I’m forever sold now.
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Prior to using Yotpo, getting customer reviews on a regular basis was almost non-existent. Yotpo makes it much easier for customers to actually review products. Plus, it is much easier on me as a store owner by taking the burden from me to try and collect reviews.
What advice would you give a business considering installing the app?
Scott Gutschke, President at GTech Fitness: Install it. If you are looking for an all in one solution to collect product reviews, Yotpo makes it simple.
Yotpo has been one of the most important CRO methods that directly increased sales.
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Daniel Nunny, Owner at Golf Cart Garage: Do it. At least for our business, it has been one of the most important CRO methods that directly increased sales.
Are there any other apps in the Bigcommerce marketplace you’d recommend?
Scott Gutschke, President at GTech Fitness: Order Desk. It helps me to keep orders organized.
Daniel Nunny, Owner at Golf Cart Garage: AfterShip. This app gives you the ability to let your customers know when products ship, when they are out for delivery and when they’ve been delivered. Many customers compliment us on these emails.
Bigcommerce customers can download the app here.
The post Bigcommerce + Yotpo: The Bottom Line Benefits of Customer Review Automation as Explained by Three Successful Retailers appeared first on The Bigcommerce Blog.
