According to a recent LightSpeed Research study most consumers consult the Internet while researching products and services, with online reviews and referrals playing a vital role.
During the purchasing process price comparison may well be the most popular research activity online, with 75% of those surveyed by Lightspeed Research having compared prices online in the last six months, but the online opinions, referrals and experiences of other consumers play a vital role, too, for many (61%).
Consumers expect to find product reviews on shopping websites (72%) while around half (47%) seek them out on company websites (trusted referral pages) and 43% on price comparison sites. The majority use search engines to also find reviews and referrals.
So influential are the opinions of others that over two-thirds (67%) of consumers would be deterred from purchasing a product or service if they were to encounter two or three negative reviews, found Lightspeed's online survey.
In fact, a quarter (24%) said they had changed their mind about buying a product or service after reading two bad reviews while a further 39% said three negative reviews would deter them from making a purchase.
What are you doing to stimulate 'Trusted Referrals'?
At ShoppeSafe we know the incredible power of reviews and more importantly 'Trusted Referrals' as we've built our business around "Trusted Referrals". They are deeply integrated into every offer or content feed from our ShoppeHub merchant network pages and as such an integral part of our selling engine for both merchants and consumers. Why do we know how powerful 3rd-party 'Trusted Referrals' are? Because our ShoppeStats social and mobile analytic reporting metrics shares and supports our business model as each of our merchant shopping/content pages generate visitation from our website, email and Facebook merchant Power Buttons to their specific ShoppeHub pages which then generates higher order conversion, increased average order and enable new consumers to find merchants of their choosing.
How does all of this work so well? Well for the first time consumers are in total control of the offers and content that they want to receive and has given the merchant permission to reach them multiple times a day, 365 days a year wherever they are. They have opted-out of traditional Push-N-Pray marketing efforts and now opted-into the new world of Pull-Place-Buy-Share(tm) marketing.
Pull - consumers receive only the offers or content they want. They allow targeted and highly relevant offers of their choosing.
Place - your offers or content and in some cases your website goes where your consumers are. You only have to look at the growth of Facebook, Twitter, MyHome pages and mobile selling to know the world is no longer hanging out or exclusively coming back to your website.
Buy - through our ShoppeStats analytics we see consumers buying more from ShoppeSafe merchant posts and starting the program than they did and this has been confirmed by A/B split tests and at greater frequency of purchasing while also feeling better about your brand.
Share - Now with one click, consumers can easily move your offers and content to their friends/Likes on Facebook, Followers on Twitter, email their contact list, text their address book or print an offer and bring it into your store.
At ShoppeSafe all of these options are now easily and efficiently available to participating merchants and they provide new social and mobile sharing tools, which also immediately open up the opportunity for your business to engage in facilitating 'trusted referrals' with your consumers. Why wouldn't you want to further engage with consumers who are already stopping by your stores, sites, Facebook and email not to mention now also shopping with their smart phones. These are the next obvious waves of marketing opportunities for merchants.
And you know for yourself when you are in the market to buy, probably one of the first things you do is seek a "trusted referral". So influential are the opinions of others that over two-thirds (67%) of consumers would be deterred from purchasing a product or service if they were to encounter two or three negative reviews, found Lightspeed's online survey.
With these ShoppeSafe "Trusted Referrals" tools from ShoppeSafe's ShoppeHub along with the consumer's understanding that their shopping experience is safe, private and anonymous your business through the ShoppeSafe network will engage and have new levels of social and mobile conversations with not only your consumers but their friends and family as well. Imagine the exponential leverage of that marketing opportunity and its selling power.
So why not give The ShoppeSimple Network a try? Your ShoppeSafe business channel will be up and running on the ShoppeSimple Network including ShoppeSafe.com, your Facebook ShoppeFans Pages, your Twitter Store pages, new Personal MyHome pages on iGoogle, MyYahoo and MyMSN, email, mobile smart phones and your very own merchant ShoppeHub pages. You will get all of this up and running for your business in less then 10 days with zero implementation fees and at an affordable monthly rate based on your business size. Plus, we guarantee you must be successful or you don't pay us.
What could be more simple than that. Plus if you give me a call 612-249-2740 or email jeff@shoppesimplenetwork.com by May 30th, we will also provide a FREE social and mobile consultation for your business.
Best,
Jeffery
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