Professional photography, influencer campaigns, paid ads, and carefully written product descriptions still have an important place in marketing. But when shoppers want to know whether a product is actually worth buying, they increasingly look to something more powerful: other customers.
That is where user-generated content (UGC) comes in.
Customer-created photos and videos can provide the authenticity, social proof, and real-world context that traditional brand content often struggles to deliver. And for ecommerce brands, UGC isn't just something to post on Instagram anymore. It can become a reusable marketing asset across product pages, paid ads, email, social media, TikTok Shop, Amazon, and more.
The challenge is getting enough of it.
That's why brands should start treating UGC as an ongoing content channel.
What is Customer-Generated UGC?
User-generated content is content created by customers who have purchased or used a product.
It can include:
Product review videos
Unboxing videos
Before-and-after photos
Product demonstrations
Tutorials and how-to videos
Lifestyle photos
Customer testimonials
Social media posts
"Day in the life" content featuring a product
Photos showing how a product looks in real-world environments
The key difference between customer UGC and traditional branded content is simple: the customer is the creator.
That makes the content feel less like an advertisement and more like a recommendation from someone who has actually used the product.
The Power of UGC
Research consistently shows that consumers place significant value on content and recommendations from other people.
For example, Nielsen research has found that 88% of global consumers trust recommendations from people they know more than other advertising channels.
Research from Stackla has also found that consumers are 2.4x more likely to consider UGC authentic compared with brand-created content.
The takeaway is clear:
Customers don't just want to hear what a brand says about its products. They want to see what real customers think, experience, and do with them.
Why Brands Should Collect UGC From Their Customers
UGC Builds Trust
One of the biggest advantages of customer-generated content is credibility.
A brand naturally has an incentive to make its product look good. Customers don't have the same marketing objective. When someone shows how they actually use a product, it can feel considerably more authentic.
A customer video demonstrating a product in their home, for example, can answer questions that a studio product photograph can't:
What does it look like in real life?
How big is it?
How does it work?
What does the packaging look like?
How do people actually use it?
What does it look like on a real person?
That real-world context can help reduce uncertainty before a purchase.
Helps Shoppers Make Purchase Decisions
Shopping online requires consumers to make decisions with incomplete information.
They can't physically touch a product, try it on, see it in their home, or watch someone use it.
Customer-generated content helps fill that gap.
Visual UGC can show products in real environments and provide examples of how customers use them. In research on visual UGC, shoppers said they primarily look at customer-created visuals to see what a product looks like in real life, understand its size or fit, and get a better sense of product quality and performance.
In other words, UGC can help answer the questions that sit between "I like this product" and "I'm ready to buy it."
UGC Gives Brands More Content Without Starting From Scratch
Creating high-quality marketing content is expensive and time-consuming.
Brands have to coordinate:
Creative concepts
Locations
Models
Photographers
Videographers
Editors
Scripts
Production schedules
Approvals
Customer UGC provides another source of creative material.
Instead of producing every piece of content themselves, brands can turn their existing customer base into a continuous source of authentic product content.
That doesn't mean eliminating professional creative. It means adding a complementary content engine that can produce a much wider variety of real-world creative.
How Brands Can Use Customer UGC for Marketing
Add UGC to Product Pages
Product pages are one of the most obvious places to use customer content. Consider adding customer photos and videos alongside traditional product photography.
A shopper might see the professionally produced hero image first, followed by videos showing real customers using the product.
This creates a combination of: Professional presentation + real-world proof.
For ecommerce brands, that can be a powerful combination.
Turn Customer Videos Into Social Content
Customer videos can become a steady source of Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, YouTube Shorts, and other social content.
Instead of constantly asking, "What should we post this week?", brands can build a library of customer-created content and select the most relevant videos for their social calendar.
The result is a social presence that feels less like a corporate content feed and more like a community around the product.
Use UGC in Paid Ads
UGC can also become part of a brand's paid media creative strategy.
For example, a brand could test:
Customer testimonials
Unboxing videos
Product demonstrations
Before-and-after content
"How I use it" videos
Customer problem/solution stories
Short product reviews
Different customers can also communicate different benefits, allowing marketers to match creative to specific audiences.
Use UGC on Amazon and Other Marketplaces
For marketplace sellers, customer-generated content can be especially valuable.
Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, Shopify, and other ecommerce environments increasingly rely on rich product content and social proof.
Customer videos can help brands show products in action and provide additional context beyond standard product photography.
Of course, brands should always follow each platform's specific content, disclosure, and usage requirements.
The Problem: How Do You Actually Get Customers to Create UGC?
This is where many brands struggle.
It's easy to say, "We need more UGC."
It's much harder to consistently collect it.
Brands often have to:
Find customers willing to participate.
Contact them.
Explain what content they want.
Coordinate submissions.
Collect the videos.
Organize the files.
Obtain the appropriate permissions.
Decide where each piece of content can be used.
Doing this manually doesn't scale very well.
And relying entirely on influencers or professional UGC creators can become expensive.
But what if your next content creator is already a customer?
Introducing GetReviews Social Proof Videos
GetReviews Social Proof Videos introduces a new way for ecommerce brands to turn their existing customers into a repeatable source of authentic product videos.
Instead of finding a new creator for every piece of content, brands can invite customers who have already purchased their products to create videos directly through the GetReviews flow.
The process is designed to be simple:
Customer receives the campaign → completes a short survey → records or uploads a video → brand reviews the content → content is ready to use.
Customers don't need to download an app. They can participate directly from their phones, making it easier to turn existing customers into content creators.
From Customer to Content Creator
GetReviews Social Proof Videos can help brands collect different types of customer content, including:
Product reviews
Unboxing videos
How-to demonstrations
Before-and-after content
Lifestyle videos
Real-world product experiences
The content can then be used across channels such as TikTok, TikTok Shop, Instagram, Amazon, product pages, paid advertising, email, SMS, and a brand's own social channels, subject to the appropriate permissions and campaign terms.
That makes the customer relationship much more valuable.
A customer doesn't have to be just someone who bought your product.
They can also become part of your marketing engine.
UGC Should Be a System, Not a Campaign
The brands that get the most value from UGC won't necessarily be the ones that run one successful UGC campaign. They'll be the brands that build a repeatable system for collecting customer content.
Think about it this way:
Every order represents a potential piece of content.
If you can consistently invite customers to share their experiences, you can gradually build an expanding library of authentic photos and videos.
That content can then feed your:
Website
Product pages
Social media
Paid advertising
Email marketing
SMS
Marketplace listings
TikTok Shop
Retention campaigns
The result is a flywheel:
More customers → more content → more social proof → more marketing opportunities → more customers.
Your Customers May Be Your Best Content Creators
The next generation of ecommerce marketing isn't necessarily about producing more polished brand content.
It's about finding the right balance between brand storytelling and customer storytelling.
Your customers are already using your products. They're already taking photos. They're already recording videos. They're already sharing experiences with friends and followers.
The opportunity is to create a simple, scalable way to collect and organize that content—with the right permissions—so your marketing team can actually use it.
With GetReviews Social Proof Videos, brands can turn existing customers into an ongoing source of authentic product content rather than constantly searching for their next creator.
Your next great marketing video might not need to come from a studio, an agency, or an influencer.
It might already be sitting with your customer.
What is GetReviews.ai?
GetReviews.ai is a tool designed for e-commerce sellers on Amazon, Walmart, and more to increase post-purchase customer engagement platform through QR codes, and survey flows and help generate more authentic, compliant product reviews and build stronger relationships with their customers after every sale.
Book a demo today to learn more: