User-generated content is the photos, videos and words your customers create about your products. For most Shopify brands, the richest source of it is reviews. This guide covers why UGC works, where it earns its place and how to build a program that keeps it coming.
Why UGC works
Shoppers have spent years learning to check other buyers before they trust a brand. A photo from a real customer, in a real home and in real light, answers questions a studio shot cannot: how the color looks outside, how the fit sits on a different body, how big the product really is.
It is not about production quality. It is about the source. Shoppers know a brand chose its own photos, and they know a customer had no reason to flatter the product.
Where UGC earns its place
Product pages
A carousel or grid of customer photos near the buy box gives shoppers proof at the moment they decide. Quoli shows photo and video reviews in the product reviews widget, in a photo grid and in the photo wall and video reel styles of the Home Carousel. See them all in the widget library.
Ads
Customer photos with a short review quote often feel more credible than polished brand creative, especially to shoppers who have never heard of you. Quoli UGC Ads builds image and video ads from your reviews that keep the customer's own words, ready to download in story, portrait and square sizes.
Email and landing pages
Post-purchase, welcome and abandoned cart emails all have room for a customer photo and a line from a review. A homepage hero built on a customer quote is also worth testing against your brand hero.
How to build a UGC program
Make adding photos easy
Every extra step loses uploads. Quoli's review form lets customers add photos and video straight from the review request, without creating an account.
Reward the content you want
If a short text review and a video earn the same reward, you will mostly get short text reviews. Quoli rewards can differ for text, photo and video, so customers see that a photo is worth more.
Ask again for photos
Quoli's photo request asks customers who left a text-only review to add a photo or video. Ask for video by name too, since few customers think to record one unprompted.
Settle permission before you advertise
Showing a review on your own product page is different from putting a customer's photo in a paid ad. Decide how you will ask customers for permission before an ad goes live, and keep a record of who agreed.
Use every asset in more than one place
The same photo can work on the product page, in an ad, in an email and on a landing page. Build a simple habit: each week, someone on the team picks the best new photos and decides where each one goes.
Common mistakes
- Treating UGC as a side project with no owner. Make it someone's job and track how many photos and videos arrive each month.
- Paying the same reward for every review type.
- Keeping UGC with the brand team only. Paid media and email teams should be able to find the best assets quickly.
- Never asking for video.
Where to start
If your review requests do not ask for photos and video, start there. Make sure your request email mentions photos, set a higher reward for media and enable the photo request. Then measure how many reviews arrive with photos or video each month.
Read the CRO guide for where UGC fits in conversion testing, or see how brands run their programs in our customer stories.
Install Quoli free from the Shopify App Store. The free forever plan covers the core widgets, and paid plans start with a 14-day trial.