Social Proof: Why It’s Important and How to Attain It

1. Social Proof: Why It’s Important and How to Attain It Online Reviews There are many ways to attain social proof for items in your Magento online store. One way is to have online reviews and ratings for your products that are written by actual buyers. Besides keeping eyes on your page longer, online reviews are a powerful form of social proof. An item with a lot of positive reviews will be very attractive to a potential customer and sway their decision. The more reviews the better. Testimonials Testimonials are another great form of social proof. They hold a lot of credibility since they come from a third party, rather than the brand itself. This makes them more powerful and people trust them more than statements made by the brand itself. Consider placing testimonials around your website where you know you will have lots of visitors, or on pages where they will be making a decision to buy--it will help to influence them. Someone recently purchased notification The Someone Recently Purchased extension can increase sales for Magento web stores with infrequent sales, by displaying the previous transactions. This pop-up can be customized to display without the date stamp if the last purchase was over 1 week ago Magneto web stores with a higher volume of sales can choose to keep the display on a constant refresh mode, confirming to customers the active and trusted nature

2. of the business. Without this extension, your Magento web store offers no real proof to your customers that you aren’t some “fly by night” popup site. Friends and Family Probably the most powerful form of social proof is the kind that comes from friends and family, in other words people you trust. If you think about it makes a lot of sense--you generally trust the advice of a friend if they recommend a purchase, right? The way to harness this powerful marketing force on your Magento online store is to enable social media sharing buttons. If people share their purchasing enthusiasm over social media with their friends, it can be very influential and result in increased sales for your Magento store. Social proof from celebrities and experts is also very powerful. Media Logos If your site, product or brand has been featured in the media, placing the logos of the various media outlets that mentioned you on your site is an effective use of social proof. You may have noticed sites that are littered with logos from CNN, The New York Times, or Forbes and such. The fact that the proof is coming from an ostensibly trustworthy third party can build trust in your brand among potential customers. Badges Similarly, badges and icons that represent certifications such as Safe Site, or Top 10%, Certified Merchant, etc should be put on your site where appropriate to leverage social proof. These badges and icons serve as third party verification for your brand, and just add another layer of influence to get people to trust your site and persuade them to buy. The above suggestions are just a few ways you can use social proof to enhance sales on your Magento ecommerce store. If you’d like help with your Magento store, contact Alinga Ecommerce, a Brisbane agency specialising in Magento ecommerce.