Motivate Shoppers with a Social Proof Notification

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Playbook Theme: Demand Notifications
Business Goal: Conversion
Effort: Low-
Prerequisite: Synced product feed

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The fear of missing out is real – shoppers are motivated to purchase when confronted with the knowledge that an item is only available on sale for a limited time, low in stock, or in high demand. Brands can capitalize on this by incorporating demand messaging into their eCommerce strategy, highlighting important information to keep visitors in the loop. This can take shape in the form of product badges, notifications, push notifications, messaging, and more. In a reality where presenting a perfect value proposition isn’t always enough, grasping the psychology behind consumer decisions is key to driving sales and increasing conversions. 

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Before you begin creating your social proof notification, we encourage you to consider how you would like to leverage the data. Here are a couple of popular conversion motivation strategies: 

Increasing The Product Perceived Value 

Use shoppers' behavior to lend credibility to your product and reduce the barrier to purchase.

  • “You’ve got great taste! {number of viewers} shoppers are checking out this same item”
  • "Trending product. One of the hottest picks this week"
  • "Customer favorite. Over {number of purchasers} people have been purchased just this week"

Generate a Sense of Urgency  
Use shopper behavior to induce a sense of scarcity and urgency

  • "Going fast! {product purchases} orders this week" 
  • "Don’t wait. {Product views} shoppers are checking out this same item
  • Trending product {product purchases} orders this week. Don’t wait because stock is
    limited"

Step 1: Creating a Notification Campaign

There are different site Campaign types to choose from when creating a personalized experience on your site. Since in this case we want to trigger a subtle message, we'll use a Notification Campaign. 

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  1. Go to Site Personalization › New Campaign and click Notification.
  2. Name to the campaign (e.g. "Social Proof Notification"). A clear name will allow you to manage the campaign later. You can also add Notes and Labels for the same reason.
  3. Select the Notification's position on the screen. 
  4. Select 'once per pageview' as the Notification's Frequency. That is, how often you would like the visitor to see the notification. 
  5. Click Next to add a targeted Experience

Step 2: Adding a Targeted Experience

All campaigns are comprised of experiences. Each experience can target different visitors with different content. In this case, we will set the targeting to meet page popularity thresholds to ensure we are not prompting social proof notifications on unpopular products. 

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  1. Assign a Name to the experience. Use a name that clearly defines this experience (e.g. Product Views). 
  2. Define the targeting conditions:
    • Who. Maintain the default value of 'all users'. 
    • Where.  
      • To make certain we displaying the notification for products with strong performance add a condition of either:
        'Product Popularity Views › is at least X. or 'Product popularity (purchase) is › is more than X.
      • To make certain we are only displaying social proof for products in stock, add a condition of:
        'Product page' › product with property › in stock › true. 
    • When. Unless you want to limit the exposure of the banner to a particular date and time, you can leave this with its default value: ‘All the time’.

Step 3: Designing the Notification

A variation is the actual content you will be serving for in each experience. You can create a single variation or multiple variations and test or optimize which variation most resonates with your audience. 
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  1. Click on New Variation
  2. Expand the Dynamic Yield template collection and select the 'Social Proof' Template. 
  3. Assign a Name to the Variation that describes the content (e.g. Urgency). This name will be shown in the reports and will allow you to quickly distinguish between the success of one variation over the other. 
  4. Every Dynamic Yield template is comprised of variables to allow you to quickly make changes without a developer’s intervention. Customize the Variable fields to your preference. Make sure your content corresponds to the selected targeting rule. Meaning, if you chose to target by product views, make sure your product performance and the notification's text are talking about views as well. 
  5.  Click on Save Variation. 

Note: Looking for a different design? Feel free to edit the HTML, CSS, and JS of the Dynamic Yield template, adjust it, and save your own template.

Step 4: Measuring Uplift by Activating a Control Group

Establishing a Control Group is essential for measuring uplift generated by any Dynamic Yield Experience, as the control group represents visitors who either receive no variation or a random variation.

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  1. Select the A/B Test Allocation method to test between the variation and a control group. 
  2. As the Primary Metric, use "Add to Cart". This is the most immediate user interaction that we would like to affect. Don't worry, you will be able to see revenue per user, AOV, and purchases per user in the report as a secondary metric.