- The average documented basket abandonment rate is 70.22 percent across 50 studies. Most of the stated reasons are about cost and checkout, so UGC works best on the doubt that comes earlier, on the product page.
- In Bazaarvoice's research, 74 percent of shoppers said user photos make them more likely to buy, and 42 percent would buy without professional photos if user photos were there.
- The placement most brands skip is the product page itself, right beside the buy button, where doubt is resolved at the moment of decision.
- Ecommerce UGC should map to the funnel: cold adverts, warm retargeting, product page proof and post-purchase content that turns buyers into your next reviewers.
- In the UK, a briefed video is an advert, not a review. Since 6 April 2025 fake or undisclosed incentivised reviews are banned, so keep creator content and customer reviews apart.
What is UGC for ecommerce and DTC brands?
UGC for ecommerce is short, creator-style video and photography, unboxings, reviews, demonstrations and everyday use, made for an online shop to run in adverts, on product pages and in email. If the term is new to you, our guide on what UGC is covers the basics. For an online brand, it exists to answer the one question every shopper is silently asking: is this really as good as the listing says?
Ecommerce has a trust gap that a shop on the high street does not. A shopper cannot pick the product up, and the listing photographs are, by definition, the brand's best case for itself. UGC closes part of that gap by showing the product used by a person in an ordinary room, in ordinary light, the way the shopper would use it. That evidence works at every stage: a scroll-stopping advert, a product page video that settles the last doubt before checkout, and post-purchase content that becomes the next buyer's reassurance.
Two kinds of content travel under the same name, and it helps to keep them apart from the start. The first is content your real customers make on their own: photos in reviews, tagged posts, unboxings they film because they want to. The second is commissioned content: a creator, or a team like ours, filming your product to a brief, for a fee, with agreed rights. Both are useful. They do different jobs, and in the UK they are governed differently, which we cover further down.
Why ecommerce brands cannot skip UGC
The figures below come from checkout research and from the companies that run reviews and visual content for large retailers. Where a figure comes from a company that sells UGC tools, we say so, because it is fair to read it with that in mind.
Two of those numbers come from vendors whose business is UGC, and neither publishes its full method, so treat them as direction rather than promise. Your own test, described in the measuring section below, is the only figure that should decide your budget. The Baymard figure is the most solid of the three: it is an average of independent studies, updated year after year.
Put together, they point at two separate jobs for UGC in ecommerce: winning the click cheaply, and then winning the sale once the shopper lands. Most brands only solve the first. The second is where revenue sits unclaimed.
The trust gap in online shopping
Every online category shares the same problem: the shopper is asked to commit money to something they cannot touch, on the strength of photos and words the brand chose. Professional product photography is not dishonest, but it is the brand's best case, shot in perfect light, on a model or in a studio, with every flaw edited out.
That has become harder to solve with photography alone. Shoppers compare listings across several tabs in seconds, and polished images are now the minimum rather than a difference. When every competing listing looks equally professional, the deciding factor moves to whichever page offers proof beyond the studio shot, and that proof is what UGC supplies.
Bazaarvoice's shopper research puts numbers on it: 74 percent of shoppers said user photos increase the likelihood that they buy, 42 percent said they would buy a product without professional photos if user photos were present, and 53 percent named UGC as the most important thing that makes them confident in a purchase (Bazaarvoice). Those are 2022 survey answers, so read them as attitudes rather than measured behaviour, but they match what we see in the work.
A customer photo or video shows the product in an ordinary kitchen, on an ordinary desk, in an ordinary hand. That is why it carries weight with the next shopper: it looks like proof, not marketing. The gap between "the brand says this is great" and "a person who already used it shows you" is the reason UGC exists, and it is widest in ecommerce, where the shopper has no other way to check before buying.
Five UGC formats that convert for ecommerce
Every e-commerce package we sell can be filmed in any of these, and you name the one you want in the brief. Most product ranges end up using two or three of them across the year.
- Unboxing and first useThe moment someone opens the box and uses the product for the first time mirrors what the next buyer is about to experience. It answers packaging, size and first impression questions a listing cannot fully cover, and it is one of the strongest formats for a new launch with no reviews yet.
- Problem and solutionA creator names a specific, relatable problem, then shows the product solving it on camera. It works because it mirrors the shopper's own thought, "will this fix my problem", answered by showing rather than claiming.
- Honest review and comparisonA verdict after real use that mentions a minor downside alongside the upsides reads as far more credible than uniform praise. Comparison content, this against what I used before, is persuasive for considered purchases. We compare with the old way of doing the task, never with a named competitor.
- Everyday useThe product in a normal routine, not staged and not a special occasion, helps the shopper picture owning it. It works well for home, kitchen and everyday goods, where the real question is whether the thing will actually get used.
- Results and before and afterWhere the product allows it, a visible outcome, a task done faster, a problem plainly solved, is the strongest proof of all. It is the closest thing to a case study in a format built to run as an advert. Any result shown must be one you can stand behind, which is why we film only the claims you have approved.
A sixth format is worth knowing: the product page cut. It is a shorter version of any of the five, made to sit above the fold of a product page, with no hook aimed at a cold audience and the product on screen from the first second. Every Standard e-commerce package includes one.
UGC and professional product photography
Most ecommerce brands already invest in product photography, and that still matters. The two are not competing. They solve different parts of the same problem.
The strongest product pages use both: a clean studio image so the shopper knows exactly what they are buying, and UGC directly beside or beneath it so they believe it will work for them. Remove either and you leave a gap the other cannot fill.
Brands sometimes ask which to fund first when the budget is tight. If the studio photography already exists and looks professional, the next pound is usually better spent on UGC, because the trust gap tends to be the larger problem on most product pages today. If there is no clean product image at all, fix that first: a shopper must be able to see what they are buying before they care how it feels to use.
See e-commerce UGC in action
Tap a video to play it. Nothing loads from YouTube until you do. There is more on the e-commerce work page.
Mapping UGC to the ecommerce funnel
The same shoot can, and should, feed every stage, from the first cold impression to the moment after purchase that turns a buyer into your next reviewer.
- Cold advertsHook-led UGC introduces the product to people who have never heard of the brand. This is where the click-through effect shows most clearly, because the format earns attention a polished studio advert often does not.
- RetargetingWarm shoppers who added to the basket but did not buy respond to a review or results video that answers the doubt holding them back, rather than the same product shot again.
- Product pagesThe highest-value placement and the most often skipped. A short video or customer photo gallery beside the buy button gives proof at the moment of decision, when doubt is highest and the chance of losing the shopper is greatest.
- Email and after purchaseExisting customers respond to seeing other real customers, which supports upsells, cross-sells and repeat orders. It is also where you invite happy buyers to leave a review with a photo.
Treating UGC as a tactic for adverts only leaves the product page and post-purchase value on the table, one of the most common and costly mistakes ecommerce brands make with it.
For paid placements, the two big platforms now let a brand run creator content in a way that keeps the creator's name on it. On Instagram and Facebook these are partnership ads, managed through Meta's partnership ads permissions. On TikTok they are Spark Ads, where the creator generates an authorisation code for a single post, for 7, 30, 60 or 365 days (Leadsie guide, October 2026). Our Premium package includes adverts from Velena's handle: Whitelisting means your ads run from a creator handle rather than from your brand account, so they carry a real person's name and following instead of a logo..
The most overlooked placement: the product page
It is worth being precise about what UGC can and cannot do for abandonment. Baymard's survey asks shoppers why they left during checkout, and the top answers are about the checkout itself: extra costs such as delivery and fees (40 percent), delivery too slow (20 percent), not trusting the site with card details (19 percent), being made to create an account (18 percent) and a checkout that was too long (17 percent) (Baymard Institute). No video fixes a delivery charge. If those are your problems, fix the checkout first.
What UGC does fix is the doubt that comes before the basket, and the hesitation that sends a shopper off to compare. A shopper close to buying is usually stopped by a question the listing did not answer: does this look like the photos, does it work as described, would someone like me be happy with it. A short video or a gallery of real photos placed beside the buy button, not buried in a reviews tab several scrolls down, answers that question at the moment it is asked.
Where it sits on the page matters almost as much as whether it is there. Content above the fold, or right next to the price and the button, is seen by every visitor. Content at the bottom of a long page, past the specifications and the delivery information, is only seen by the few who scroll that far, who are usually the ones who were going to buy anyway.
Keep the page fast, too. A video that loads before it is asked for slows the page down, and a slow product page loses shoppers on its own. Show a light still image with a play button, and load the video only when it is tapped.
If you only run UGC in adverts today, putting the same finished videos on your top product pages is very often the fastest, cheapest improvement available to an established shop.
High and low consideration products
Not every product needs the same UGC plan. The right approach depends on how much thinking a shopper does before buying.
Our own brand sits in the third group. HoneyBee & Co. sells honey on subscription from a WooCommerce shop we built and run ourselves, so we see these questions from the inside, from the product page to the email after the order. The HoneyBee & Co. case study shows what is running there.
UGC for your own store, Amazon and other retail platforms
Where you sell changes how UGC is used, although the content you need is much the same.
The practical rule is simple. Commissioned video belongs in the parts of a listing the brand controls and in your advertising, never in the review section. Reviews must come from real customers, unprompted by payment.
If you sell in both places, the same video assets can usually serve both channels with small recuts, so one batch of UGC goes further than it would on either alone. And because a platform moderates its own reviews, you have little control over which customer content is shown first. On your own shop you choose exactly which videos and photos are featured and where, which is one more reason a strong product page of your own is worth the investment as sales on other platforms grow. If your shop needs work before it can carry content well, our WooCommerce work starts with an audit.
The UK rules on UGC, reviews and adverts
Ecommerce UGC sits close to two sets of UK rules, and both have tightened recently. Getting them right protects the trust that UGC is meant to build.
None of this makes UGC harder to use. It makes it clearer: real customers write reviews, creators make labelled content, and the two are never confused. Shoppers can tell the difference, and the brands that keep the line clean are the ones whose reviews keep their value.
How to brief ecommerce UGC
Product-led UGC needs a different brief from lifestyle or beauty content, because the goal is usually to answer one practical question rather than to build an aspiration.
- The one doubt to resolveName the single biggest hesitation a shopper has, size, durability, ease of use, and ask for it to be answered directly on camera.
- Real useAsk for the product used the way a customer would use it, at home or in a routine, not on a studio set.
- Specific, not general, praise"It fixed my exact problem" beats "I love this product". Brief for specifics, not enthusiasm.
- Format for the placementA 30 second cut works for adverts; a 15 second version often works better on a product page, where the shopper is already close to deciding.
- The approved claimsList what can be said and what cannot. It is quicker to agree that before filming than to reshoot after.
With our packages you send the brief and your approved claims after ordering, we hold a short call to agree the angles, and we write the script for you to approve before anything is filmed. For a wider view of finding and briefing creators, see how to find UGC creators in the UK.
Common mistakes ecommerce brands make with UGC
Most of the brands we speak to have tried UGC before. When it did not work, it was usually one of these six, and each one is easy to fix.
Notice that none of the six is about the quality of the filming. The video itself is rarely what fails. What fails is where it is placed, what it is asked to do, and how long it is left to run.
UGC for product launches and seasonal peaks
Launches and busy shopping periods each put a different demand on your supply of UGC, and planning for both in advance beats reacting to either.
For the UK calendar, the peaks most shops plan around are Black Friday and Cyber Monday at the end of November, Christmas, the January sales, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day in March and the summer holidays. Count back four to six weeks from each one, allow for delivery of the product to us and the delivery time of the package, and you have your briefing dates for the year.
How to measure ecommerce UGC
Treat ecommerce UGC like performance marketing from the first day, tracking each stage on its own rather than judging the whole programme on one blended number.
- Click-through rate and cost per clickThe first signal in paid social. UGC should show a clear lift over your standard adverts within the first test cycle, or the hook needs changing.
- Add to basket and product page conversionCompare pages with UGC against similar pages without it over the same period. This isolates the product page effect from the advert effect.
- Abandonment on those pagesIf product page UGC is working, abandonment from those pages should trend below your shop's average over time.
- Return on advertising spendThe number that decides whether a batch earns more budget. Track it per video, so the winners are scaled and the rest retired.
One trap is worth naming. A UGC video can lift product page conversion without ever showing as the last click, because a shopper often watches, leaves, and comes back later by a direct visit or a search. Where you can, compare conversion on pages with and without UGC over a matched period, rather than relying only on last-click attribution, which undercounts the effect.
Three free tools help. Tag every link with the UTM link builder so you know which video sent which visit, estimate production budget with the UGC rate calculator, and model the payback with the social media ROI calculator.
How we make ecommerce UGC
We build ecommerce UGC around the doubt your product needs to settle, not a general showcase. Our team films and edits every video in house, and you choose who is on camera: Velena, Dragos, both, a voiceover with no one on camera, or no preference, at the same price. We write the script from your approved claims, you approve it before anything is filmed, and each shoot is cut for both adverts and the product page, so one project covers both jobs.
Rights are part of the package, not an extra to negotiate. Basic is for your own channels and product page. Standard adds a 12 month paid media licence on Meta, TikTok and Google, with two opening hooks to test. Premium adds a third hook, the raw footage, all platforms and adverts from Velena's handle. The Bundle is three Standard videos, so you can test three ideas at once.
Selling something that fits another range better? The same four packages exist for unboxing, testimonials and paid adverts, among twelve ranges on the UGC portfolio. New to UGC? Start with the benefits of UGC, or see what the formats look like in twelve UGC examples.
Add monthly social media management
Once you have the videos, keep the channel moving. Our social media management plans have your content planned, posted and reported on every month, month to month, with 2 months notice.
Ecommerce UGC: questions
What is UGC for ecommerce brands?
Short, creator-style video and photos, unboxings, reviews, demonstrations and everyday use, made for an online shop to run in adverts, on product pages and in email. It answers whether the product is really as good as the listing says.
Does UGC reduce basket abandonment?
It helps with one part of it. The average rate is 70.22 percent, and most reasons shoppers give are about cost, delivery and checkout, which no video fixes. UGC on the product page settles the doubt about the product itself, before and during the decision to buy.
Which UGC formats work best for ecommerce?
Unboxing and first use, problem and solution, honest reviews and comparisons, everyday use, and results or before and after. Most brands use a mix depending on the product, plus a short product page cut.
Where should ecommerce UGC be used?
Cold adverts, retargeting, product pages, and email after purchase. The product page is the most valuable and most often skipped placement.
Does UGC outperform standard advert creative?
Often, though not always. Yotpo reports up to four times the click-through rate for Facebook adverts with customer photos. Run your own test against your current adverts and let the result decide the budget.
How much does ecommerce UGC cost?
Our e-commerce videos start from £150 for Basic, with Standard from £225, Premium from £350 and a Bundle of three at £595. The price depends on the length you choose and the rights included. See our UGC rates guide for the wider market.
Can I post a UGC video I paid for as a customer review?
No. In the UK, presenting commissioned content as a genuine customer review risks breaching the ban on fake reviews in force since 6 April 2025, and Amazon prohibits incentivised reviews outside its Vine programme. Use commissioned video in adverts and on the product page, labelled as yours.
How often should I refresh ecommerce UGC?
Treat it as a steady supply rather than a one-off. Adverts tire with repeated views, so brief the next batch before performance drops. The UGC Monthly Plan delivers three new videos every month.
Who appears in the videos?
You choose: Velena, Dragos, both of them, a voiceover with nobody on camera, or no preference. The price is the same. Our team films and edits every video in house.
Can the same content work on Amazon and my own shop?
Yes. The same videos can serve the brand areas of an Amazon listing, your own product pages and your paid social, often with only small recuts. Keep them out of the review section.
How should I plan UGC for a product launch?
Lead with unboxing and first use, since it mirrors what your first customers are about to experience and builds confidence before reviews accumulate, and add a problem and solution video to explain why the product exists.
- Baymard Institute, cart abandonment rate statistics, updated September 2025
- Bazaarvoice, Shopper Experience Index, 2022
- Yotpo, customer photos in Facebook adverts
- CMS, the DMCC Act bans fake reviews
- Lewis Silkin, ASA report on influencer transparency, May 2025
- Retail Dive, Amazon bans incentivised reviews, October 2016
- Instagram Help Centre, partnership ads permissions
- Leadsie, TikTok Spark Ads and authorisation codes, October 2026
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