How to Leverage Social Proof on a Shopify store: 7 Easy Options

No matter how amazing your products are, convincing customers to actually buy them can be more complicated than it seems. 

The majority of consumers today don’t just visit a website and buy something the minute they see it. They need time to learn more about your company, and develop a sense of trust in your brand. This means ecommerce retailers need to be constantly searching for new ways to showcase their credibility. Adding social proof to your store could be an ideal way to generate results. 

After all, while we don’t always trust what retailers have to say about their own products and solutions, we do trust the opinions of others. Insights from likeminded consumers, seals of approval from regulatory groups and even recommendations from influencers all push us to purchase.

So, how do you embed social proof into your Shopify site?

What is Social Proof

Before we look at some of the best ways you can add social proof to your Shopify store, it’s worth defining what this term actually means, and why it’s so important. 

Social proof is one of the original “principles of persuasion” outlined in a famous book by Robert Cialdini, called “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”. Essentially, it suggests that human beings tend to base their behaviors on the opinions and actions of others. 

If we believe that other customers already trust a website, love the products they sell, and support the company, then we’re more likely to buy from that site ourselves. The chances are you’ve already been influenced by social proof at some point in your life already. 

How to Add Social Proof to your Shopify Store

There are a few different ways you can leverage social proof on a Shopify store. One option is to simply allow comments on your product pages, which can act as reviews or feedback for your items. The easiest option, however, is to take advantage of the numerous apps on the Shopify marketplace, which allow you to collect and showcase social proof more effectively. 

Here are some great ways to get started. 

1. Showcase UGC and Influencer Insights

User-generated content, whether it’s produced by everyday consumers, or influencers and minor celebrities, is more trustworthy and credible than virtually any other content you can produce for your store. Showcasing people wearing your clothing, using your products, or unboxing your goods is an excellent way to convince your customers you’re trustworthy and reputable. 

So, how exactly do you do this? The best strategy is to leverage a Shopify app which allows you to add a social media feed to your website. There are various great options to choose from, such as Juicer, which allows you to highlight posts based on a specific campaign or hashtag, or the Instafeed app, specifically designed for Instagram-based shoppable feeds. 

Use your social feeds to draw attention to all of the positive comments you get from influencers and everyday consumers, related to your products and solutions. You can embed your feeds anywhere, including on your product pages, home page, or on a dedicated social media wall. 

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2. Show off your Best-Sellers

Highlighting your top-selling products isn’t just a great way to draw attention to some of the most popular items on your store. It can also be a fantastic form of social proof. Showcasing your top sellers throughout your Shopify website essentially tells your customers that people are already actively buying your products. 

You could create a product carousel showcasing your most popular products at any given time, or use personalized recommendations to showcase trending products to customers who click on certain items. You could also just add a “best seller” badge to some of your product pages. 

Once again, there are tons of excellent tools to help you accomplish this on the Shopify Marketplace, such as the “Flair product badges” app, and the “Best Seller Insights” addon.  

3. Announce Recent Sales

Similar to highlighting your best-sellers, sharing information about recent sales also helps to show customers that your company is already actively serving people like them. Displaying recent sales activity not only shows that your store is active and legitimate, it can also generate urgency in your customers, as it makes them want to purchase a product before you run out of stock. 

There are various apps on the Shopify marketplace which can allow you to create handy pop-ups and push notifications announcing recent purchases. For instance, the FOMO app allows you to showcase recent sales, reviews, and live visitor counts on your Shopify site. Plus, you can add extra urgency and scarcity with cart counters and low-stock nudges. 

Alternatively, the “Recently” app also offers a fantastic way to automatically display messages about recent purchases in your customer’s native language. 

4. Use Social Buttons

Another great way to utilize social proof on your Shopify store, is with social buttons. You can add these directly to your Shopify page, to give customers access to information about how many followers you have, as well as how many likes, tweets, or pins your product has received. 

Social buttons can also be created to allow customers to automatically share information about a product they like with their contacts, or announce information about a recent purchase. If you’re confident editing your theme files, you can add social buttons to product pages and checkouts pretty easily. However, there are apps to help you if you’d prefer. 

For instance, the Zotabox app allows you to add social buttons from more than 20 sites to any page you like, and even customize them to suit your style. Alternatively, you can use the “Get Social” app, to show buttons for over 30 networks on your website. 

5. Collect and share product ratings and reviews

Ratings and reviews are probably some of the easiest, and most powerful ways to leverage social proof on a Shopify store. Essentially, they give your shoppers a behind-the-scenes insight into what customers actually think and feel about a purchase. The best reviews are in-depth, authentic, and shared by real people, so it’s worth looking for apps that allow you to show off a customer’s name, their photo, and any other details they might want to share. 

The good news is that adding reviews to your Shopify store is pretty simple. Shopify even has its own dedicated free app, “Shopify Product Reviews”, which allows you to collect and share reviews with easy customization options. 

Alternatively, you can opt for solutions from companies like Yotpo. The Yotpo app not only makes it easy to showcase photos, video, and written reviews, it also assists you with collecting reviews too, through SMS, loyalty campaigns and more. 

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6. Showcase stock data

As mentioned above, highlighting the number of items you have in your inventory can be a good way to capture the trust of your target audience, while increasing urgency and scarcity. Showing customers how much of a specific item you have, and alerting them when your stock number goes down, tells them that there are people out there actively buying your products.

Keep in mind, it’s important to be honest and authentic when showing your stock numbers. Telling everyone who visits your store you only have one item left is likely to cause distrust in the long-term. Apps like “Sold Count” and “Scarcity” will help you to highlight your product numbers. 

You can even add another app to your site which allows customers to request an alert when products come back in stock too, to reduce your risk of lost sales. 

7. Use Trust Badges

Finally, trust badges are an excellent way to add simple social proof to your online store. You can showcase icons like “verified by visa” or “McAfee secure” badges on your website product pages and checkout, to let customers know that you’ll be keeping their data safe. 

You can also show these badges in the footer of your store, to provide any customers looking for extra information about privacy and security with extra guidance. Keep in mind, it’s not enough to just add the picture of the badges to your store, you do need to ensure you’re adhering to the guidelines of the certification, by defending customer data and verifying transactions.

You can find some great options for trust badges from TrustedSite, and Avada Trust Badges on the Shopify App Marketplace. 

The Power of Social Proof

Social proof is powerful, and it’s becoming increasingly common in the ecommerce landscape. 

If, like 91% of shoppers, you read reviews before making a purchase, you’ve been exposed to the power of social proof. If, like 80% of customers, you seek out recommendations before making a purchase, you’ve encountered social proof too. 

Adding social proof to your Shopify store is your way to capture the trust of your target audience, by validating the value of your solutions, and championing your customer’s experiences. 

If you need assistance making your store appear more professional and trustworthy, reach out to Storetasker today to find out how one of our Shopify Experts can help you. 

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