Every day, people write reviews and post photos and videos about the products and brands they love — and the one they don’t. And every day, shoppers turn to this invisible crowd, reading through product reviews and other types of consumer-generated content (CGC) to decide what to buy.
As an industry, we’ve gotten really good at figuring out the impact CGC has on online shopping, with study after study showing how consumers trust their peers over more traditional advertising and marketing. But what about brick-and-mortar sales? How do online reviews and other kinds of CGC impact what’s happening in the aisles? Inquiring marketers need to know.