User-generated content service Stackla is rolling out its e-commerce service ShopSpots, which allows brands to connect user-generated images of a brand's product, direct to a purchase page.
The service will allow users who are browsing social images on a brand's website to buy a product right there and then, without having to leave the environment to search for a URL for an alternative website.
StyleMatch is a launch partner of the service and Stackla co-founder and chief product officer Pete Cassidy said that fashion is an obvious choice for the technology, however there are also other uses for the service.
“Essentially, wherever a Stackla customer wants to draw a direct link between a specific part of user-generated content and an external resource, ShopSpots fits the bill. In the StyleMatch use case it's a shopping cart, but it could just as easily be a location on a map for example,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy explained that integrating purchasing through user-generated content has the power to be a higher driver of sales than buy buttons across social.
“There are a lot of gains to be made in terms of conversions for e-commerce brands if they can increase their conversion rate by even a relativity small percentage. The benefit of doing that in many ways can outweigh throwing a lot of money at social advertising to get a relatively small audience, and, of that, a very small percentage of them actually converting,” he said.
“So our take is bringing social content, user-generated content, into the web environment that the brand owns and then connecting actual products with social content. It’s almost creating a social catalogue from user-generated content,” Cassidy said.
This story first appeared on our sister publication AdNews. Read its full story with Cassidy here.