If a mobile device is the modern shopper’s
constant companion, what advice does it offer? Can it determine if a
person looks good in an outfit? Can it tell a browser whether an
impulse-buy is a good value? Can it help pull the trigger on that
big-screen TV purchase?
Likely all of the above, as consumers are increasingly turning to their
smartphones to research products, read customer reviews and make actual
purchases. For example, recent analysis by Bazaarvoice, whose software
helps brands host and analyze user-generated content (UGC) such as
product reviews, consumer Q&A and shared experiences, found mobile
users were far more active during the 2011 holiday season than they had
been the year before.
According to its January 2012 Conversation Index,
the percentage of users accessing user-generated content more than
doubled on Black Friday 2011 to 12 percent of total visitors, compared
to 5 percent in 2010. Moreover, mobile users have been generating
content at a higher rate than ever before, underscoring the need for
brands to optimize content submission for smartphones and tablets.
The reasons for this are clear: Consumers trust the online opinions of
fellow consumers, often more than they do information from any other
source. And the more digital the consumer, the more these online
opinions matter, and the more likely they may be to access that
information on a mobile device. In a January 2012 study from
Bazaarvoice, The Center for Generational Kinetics and Kelton, 84 percent
of Millennials indicated that UGC on company websites has at least some
influence on what they buy. For Boomers, that figure was 70 percent. In
fact, there are some purchase decisions—big and small—that Millennials
won’t make without UGC.
Read more here on Adweek

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