Research from Bazaarvoice, the leading provider of product reviews and user-generated content (UGC) solutions, reveals visual and social user generated content is driving online retail purchases. The new report, ‘A picture’s worth a thousand purchases’, finds that in addition to social media, almost three quarters (74%) of consumers prefer to see previous customers’ photos and videos on brand and retailer websites, rather than professionally shot images.
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The findings, based on responses from 8,000+ consumers across Australia, Canada, France, Germany, UK and US, also reveal 62% of consumers are more likely to buy if they can view both photo and video content from previous customers.
Joe Rohrlich, CRO, Bazaarvoice comments, “Relatable voices commenting on and reviewing a product instill trust in a brand and product amongst other consumers online. The more realistic and authentic audiences feel the review content is, the more confident they become when deciding to make a purchase.”
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Visual driving social commerce
As the most used social media network globally, Facebook is also the most popular destination when it comes to influencing purchases (25%) and the most likely social platform for consumers to purchase a product on (26%). Amongst 18-34 year-olds, however, Instagram is the most popular destination, with 31% using it as their main source of inspiration and 27% saying it is the most likely place for them to buy.
Younger shoppers demonstrate a particularly strong preference for visual UGC on social media, as 73% of 18-34 year-olds prefer it when brands use visual UGC for social media outreach compared to an average of 64% across other age groups.
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