Social Proof: Why It’s Important and How toAttain 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 byactual buyers. Besides keeping eyes on your page longer, online reviews are apowerful form of social proof. An item with a lot of positive reviews will be veryattractive to a potential customer and sway their decision. The more reviews thebetter.

Testimonials

Testimonials are another great form of social proof. They hold a lot of credibilitysince they come from a third party, rather than the brand itself. This makes themmore powerful and people trust them more than statements made by the branditself. Consider placing testimonials around your website where you know you willhave lots of visitors, or on pages where they will be making a decision to buy--it willhelp to influence them.

Someone recently purchased notification

The Someone Recently Purchased extension can increase sales for Magento webstores with infrequent sales, by displaying the previous transactions. This pop-upcan be customized to display without the date stamp if the last purchase was over 1week ago

Magneto web stores with a higher volume of sales can choose to keep the displayon a constant refresh mode, confirming to customers the active and trusted nature

of the business.

Without this extension, your Magento web store offers no real proof to yourcustomers 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 fromfriends and family, in other words people you trust. If you think about it makes alot of sense--you generally trust the advice of a friend if they recommend apurchase, right? The way to harness this powerful marketing force on yourMagento online store is to enable social media sharing buttons. If people sharetheir purchasing enthusiasm over social media with their friends, it can be veryinfluential and result in increased sales for your Magento store. Social prooffrom celebrities and experts is also very powerful.

Media Logos

If your site, product or brand has been featured in the media, placing the logosof the various media outlets that mentioned you on your site is an effective useof 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 froman ostensibly trustworthy third party can build trust in your brand amongpotential customers.

Badges

Similarly, badges and icons that represent certifications such as Safe Site, orTop 10%, Certified Merchant, etc should be put on your site where appropriateto leverage social proof. These badges and icons serve as third partyverification for your brand, and just add another layer of influence to get peopleto trust your site and persuade them to buy.

The above suggestions are just a few ways you can use social proof toenhance sales on your Magento ecommerce store. If you’d like help with yourMagento store, contact Alinga Ecommerce, a Brisbane agency specialising inMagento ecommerce.