On Wednesday 29th April, Ciao’s UK team-leader of
e-commerce Tom Hyde presented to a full house of delegates at the
Internet World expo, talking about how user generated content can help retailers
drive sales. Tom discussed some of the main reasons why this has become such a
key issue to e-tailers and offered delegates tips on how best to engage with UGC
moving forward.
The main theme of the presentation was ‘Trust + Information = Conversion‘.
Tom urged etailers to recognise that consumers trust the reviews of their
peers more than ever in the current economic climate and that their importance
should not be underestimated. He noted that a wealth of information clearly
presented to the consumer will help with purchasing decisions: where the
consumer trusts the information they’ve received when comparing potential
purchases, they feel more empowered to make the correct choice, and the
likelihood of purchase increases.
Comments from
the floor were a particular highlight of the session. One delegate raised the
question of the difference between an expert/journalist review and that
produced via user-generated content. Tom replied that reviews written by
experts or journalists act as a useful guide to technical specifics, whereas a
thorough review by an amateur will answer more practical questions e.g. whether
the product is pocket-sized and what their personal experience was like.
Another question
raised by delegates was how to detect reviewers plugging their own products
rather than offering unbiased advice. Tom suggested a number of tips which
included looking to see how many reviews they have written and on how frequent
a basis – ‘fake’ reviewers often give themselves away through the tone and
periodic nature of their posts. The community itself also detects unusual
reviews and reviewers and thus helps the community to improve the reliability
of the content generated on the site.
We will be
uploading a video of some of the highlights of Tom’s speech soon, so watch this
space for more!
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