In this guest post, Kate Musgrove (main photo), managing director of APAC at Bazaarvoice, shares why Australian consumers crave validation.
Shopping habits continue to evolve for Australian shoppers as they rely on fellow consumers’ voices and opinions to help make purchasing decisions.
Consumers crave validation and input from other shoppers, so it makes sense for those opinions to be available at every stage of the shopper journey, from research, to discovery, to purchase.
User-generated content (UGC) helps improve consumer shopping decisions and allows brands and retailers to utilise their customers to help inform other shoppers as they make their purchasing decisions.
So, what can your brand do going into the festive season and 2023 to maximise the potential of the customer’s voice?
To enable a seamless shopping experience from research through to purchase, they need easily and readily accessible information at all touchpoints. Brands need to be available at every stage of the customer journey. The key here is to be present.
When you purchase a product such as headphones, shoes or even new car tyres, do you check reviews, images, videos, compare prices and do your research?
Chances are you answered yes, if so, you are in the majority of Australians who research a product before purchasing.
Pre-purchase research has become so ingrained in purchasing decisions that 74% of Aussie shoppers who are buying online conduct research prior to purchasing, and 64% of Aussie shoppers use their smartphones to check product reviews when in-store.
What this shows us is that it is uncommon for a consumer to make a purchase without prior consideration.
Consumers are leaning on research and the customer voice’s ability to assist in making purchasing decisions, brands and retailers need to continue to emphasise the importance of having UGC across all touchpoints.
This flows into the omnichannel mix, businesses that utilise the voice of the consumer to their advantage by providing it online, on social media, and even in-store presenting research materials that shoppers crave, no matter where they are.
Aligned with this is the understanding that shopping should be less segmented than ever as customers can buy and research across multiple touch points and formats. Two-thirds (65%) of Australians prefer omnichannel (hybrid) shopping, so much so that 31% have bought something online whilst in-store.
In this, it is vital that organisations have an accessible omnichannel strategy that provides shoppers with helpful content to make a purchase be it online, in-store or on social media.
If you are reading this and your omnichannel marketing strategies do not consider in-store, online, hybrid or even social media channels throughout the customer journey, you need to challenge your brand to update its strategies to get in front of shoppers!
Looking forward at our Australian omnichannel market, shoppers are set to continue to utilise the customer’s voice both in-store and online as they harness the collective power of UGC to reassure and guide their purchasing decisions.
The need for shoppers to be able to access UGC at every stage of their shopping journey continues to progress as shoppers look for validation of their purchasing decisions through research and other consumers.
