If you are looking for new techniques that can bring in more sales for your eCommerce store, you should consider adopting "social proof marketing."
Social proof is so strong that recent research has shown that over 92% of buyers would trust a suggestion from their friend, 70% would trust the customer reviews, but only 40% would trust a paid advertisement.
So, it's clear that social proof is essential in marketing your product, but what are the best ways to effectively use social proof? Today we will be going through 10 excellent examples of great social proof that you can use for your e-Commerce store.
Displaying Recent Purchases
Display recent purchases
The first example of great social proof for your eCommerce business is displaying recent purchases. Showing how many times the product has been bought recently is an exceptional way of utilizing social proof. This is a lot more interesting and stronger rather than simply just stating the total number of purchases. What was trending a month ago may not be as engaging right now.
A great example of a successful company that demonstrates how this is done is Booking.com. When scrolling through various accommodations, you can't skip through the red-colored and bolded statement pointing out how many customers have booked that room or stay in the last 12 hours. So when the tourist is searching for a hotel in their favorite location and sees that a specific room has been booked many times recently, they may feel an urgency to book that room quickly so they won't miss out on it.
Presenting the Number of Users that Currently Want to Buy a Product
Showing the Number of Customers that Want to Buy Something
Similar to the first example, showing the number of users that are watching a particular product at that exact moment is also an excellent way to promote social proof on your eCommerce website.
Etsy takes it a step further by displaying the number of people that have a particular product in their shopping carts. This is a great way to use social proof and reveals that people saw the product and decided that it is good enough to consider purchasing it later on. Suddenly, everyone with the product in their shopping cart is a competitor, and people sense an urgency to buy it before it goes out of stock. It creates a FOMO (fear of missing out) moment and feeling.
Displaying Numbers of Customers
Displaying the Number of Students Watching This Class
Another efficient way to use social proof is to show the number of customers that are actively using your product or services. This is exactly what Skillshare does!
To get you interested, they will show the large number of users that joined a particular online course. Those big numbers quickly grab people's eyes and make them believe that if so many people have chosen to join this course, this surely must be unique.
The second way that Skillshare also attracts people is by presenting the average score on the course. By simply revealing that your products or services have received a ton of positive ratings is the best way you can make them stand out. People will always follow the actions of a group!
Showing a Product is Low in Stock
The concern of missing out can have a strong effect on buyer's decisions. So when you show them that the supplies are low or sold out, it creates a sense of urgency among your website visitors. When they see a low in stock sign, most people will buy immediately, and the others will be thinking about it the whole day.
John Lewis uses social proof efficiently by revealing there are “only 3 products in stock," therefore pushes their customers to buy before the product is no longer available.
Showing a Product is Low in Stock
Reviews and Ratings
Customer reviews and testimonials are among the most powerful forms of social proof worldwide, and Amazon provides another incredible example of how they can be used.
On each specific product page, customers can leave detailed reviews, give a 1 to 5 stars rating, and other users can give a thumbs up to the reviews that they find valuable. Amazon focuses on having tons of customer reviews for the many products they sell and tries to display them as a breakdown of all the ratings.
Customer reviews are everywhere on the internet as they are a strong form of social proof. Most buyers read the reviews first before making the final buying decision.
Showing Customer Reviews and Ratings
Celebrities' Endorsements
Celebrities' endorsements are a great way to establish authority, credibility, and bring value to your business. Depending on your eCommerce business, you can get celebrities' endorsements by paying or naturally. Most of the time, big corporations like Pepsi and Apple use formal contracts where they pay a public figure to represent a product or service of their brand.
What's one of the best parts about getting celebrity support? Since they typically have a huge following on social media, a celebrity endorsement can skyrocket your public awareness. When the fans see their favorite celebrity drinking a can of Pepsi - they will go crazy about it and will definitely want to drink one too. Think Beyoncé when she was the spokesperson for the Pepsi brand.
However, finding popular stars to do brand endorsements can be a pretty expensive task, especially if you are a beginner. So what we suggest you do is focus on getting endorsements from social media fan pages, influencers or local celebrities.
Celebrity Endorsements
Social Media Following
The amount of followers you have on your social media account isn't the most important thing, and it surely isn't enough to cover a business' worth. But if you have a big following, then showing that on your eCommerce site can be a fabulous way of showing social proof.
As we mentioned, people love to follow a crowd – when they see a big group of people doing something, they're more inclined to join in.
On The Verge, they display the number of social media followers they have across multiple platforms and include links to allow their visitors to easily join.
Social Media Following
Displaying Customer Logos
Having credibility is one of the key things to focus on when selling online.
No matter how good your item or service may be, if buyers don't see your business as trustworthy, they won't make the purchase.
An unbelievable way to build trustworthiness is by using a client's logo on your business's site as strong social proof. SEO shows us a magnificent example of that by showing logos of some of the biggest brands that use their service. They've also placed them on their home page so that people can see it up first.
Any business that sells products or services should be proud of the companies they work with and display their logos not only as a point of pride but also as a strong marketing tool to attract more customers and give them confidence.
Display Logos of Your Well Known Customers
About Us Page
The "about us" page is one of the most valuable pages on your website, but many businesses forget this part. It's usually one of the first stops that buyers make when visiting your site. The main goal of your About Us page is to give your guests an impression and understanding of your eCommerce business. Therefore, by making the page interactive, appealing, and informing, you can make visitors feel like they are building a relationship with your brand.
An outstanding example of this is on Toy Fight. The page changes as you are interacting with it and gives you a sense of the personalities of the co-founders Leigh and Jonny.
Another method to use social proof on your About Us page is to include all your members of your team and their positions in the company.
About Us Page
Case Studies
One of the major reasons many stores fail to increase sales conversion rates is because their potential customers don't know if that particular product will fit their needs. Case studies are great examples of social proof because you will not only show how happy your clients are but also demonstrate how your product works and what the benefits are.
Widder Funnel does a splendid job of using case studies to display social proof. They even have a dedicated page on their site where visitors can go and read other customers' success stories.
Case Studies as Social Proof
Conclusion
As you can see, social proof can do wonders for increasing your sales conversions, and it comes in many different forms. As we’ve shown, there are many types of social proof that you can use as an eCommerce business; many of which are used by popular online businesses.
If you want to build social proof for your eCommerce business, then you might need some help from a third-party app. Fera.ai has all the features that you need to try out the examples above and help you achieve big results.
If you have any more questions, then be sure to leave them in the section below. We will try and happily answer all your inquiries or problems!
