Whether it’s in-store or online, apparel companies are always changing and adding inventory to offer consumers (every day, every week, every month, or at the very least, every season). While it’s great for consumers to have access to new products, the short shelf lives of fashion items poses a challenge for companies that want to quickly collect and display valuable user-generated content (UGC) from their consumers to help improve their conversion rates.
Consumers have come to expect UGC during their shopping journey. In fact, 86% of consumers say reviews are an essential resource when shopping. But with new items constantly getting added to shelves and sites, it’s difficult to collect high volumes of relevant content from consumers.
For traditional reviews (star rating, tags, and comments), it’s a best practice to send a write-a-review request to a consumer who bought a soft good 14 days after a purchase to give him time to receive the product and use it. At some clothing retailers, however, certain apparel items will only be offered for 2 weeks before it’s a new season or the items go on the sales rack.
Apparel companies know reviews and UGC are essential to consumers, but how can they collect more content and increase product coverage when inventory is constantly changing?
Check out the 4 reasons every apparel company should be using PowerReviews’ new Why Did You Buy offering on their websites.
1. You’ll collect and display content faster.
According to recent research with Northwestern University, new products benefit most from UGC. With new items constantly getting added on apparel brand and retailer sites, it’s important to capture content on the newest products, as quickly as possible. Why Did You Buy does not use a post purchase email to ask consumers to write a review. Instead, when a consumer is on the purchase page, they’re prompted to leave a short sentence about why they chose to buy a product. Because the content is collected at the point of purchase, you’ll be able to display the content quickly for your future consumers to see.
2. You’ll collect more content.
Why Did You Buy is designed to not only help you collect and display content faster, but also to enable higher content collection rates. Why Did You Buy complements your current review collection efforts by collecting additional content from your consumers immediately after purchase. Because the form is easy to use, you’ll be able to collect more unique pieces of content, helping you increase product coverage across your site.
3. You’ll reduce return rates.
A quarter of consumers say they return products because they are not what they expect (2015). Why Did You Buy allows you to capture specific information from purchasers about why they chose to buy your product. This content helps consumers make better informed decisions and increases their confidence when they’re on your site looking to buy a product.
4. You’ll collect content from purchasers who bought your product as a gift.
When you collect traditional reviews from your consumers, sometimes it doesn’t make sense for a gift buyer to write a review because they aren’t the end user. However, with Why Did You Buy, you can still collect relevant content from gift givers.
Interested in learning more about how Why Did You Buy can work for your business? Contact us for a demo. Or, if you’re an existing PowerReviews client, reach out to your Client Success Director to learn more.
