Sometimes when you’re browsing for a product online, you look at the image and go through a series of questions in your head. How big is it? What is the quality like? Does it really look like that?
You’ve probably seen the stories before of people buying a beautiful china tea set online, only for it to arrive miniature size because it was meant for a doll’s house. As customers, we put so much faith in the images that we see online, expecting everything we purchase to be true to the image the retailer has provided.
However, Google has recently revealed they will be rolling out a new feature that will allow customer photos to be displayed in shopping ads. Let’s face it, taking Amazon as an example, you’ll read the reviews for a product but ultimately if a reviewer has left an image to reinforce their review, you’re more likely to trust their opinion.
This will work in the review section, similar to Amazon. Once a customer has left a review for a product, they will have the opportunity to upload a photo of the product. But the question is, will this work for increasing sales in Google shopping?
The retailer will have the choice to display the customer photos, which may encourage more sales due to their realistic nature. As customers, we trust other customers and their experiences with the product. Because they are deemed as unbiased, having customer photos displayed in shopping ads instead of a promotional photo could be very influential to a potential buyer.
However, in order for retailers to be able to display these customer photos, they must work with one of a select number of third-party review platforms. Some of the platforms that are currently participating in this include; Yotpo, PowerReviews and Influenster.
