In my previous post, I talked about how sociability was likely to be one of the reasons that the online ecommerce shoe store Zappos was a success. This got me thinking about ecommerce sites that have been popular among search engines and visitors by implementing features like user comments, reviews, and other user generated content.
Ecommerce stores, especially resellers, typically have a difficult time gaining search engine ranking. Why? Because often the products and the product descriptions are the same as the 999 other sites out there that are selling the same thing.
This duplicate content can kill a site in the search engine rankings. Also, when there is nothing different between one ecommerce site and another that is selling the same product, winning customers becomes all about offering the lowest price.
Adding some custom modules to your website that allow for sociability can make a huge difference in your search engine visibility and in your ability to attract and retain customers.
Need some ideas about how to make this work? Here’s a list of some highly successful ecommerce sites that win customers and rankings through user generated content:
Think Geek – (One of my favorites!) The customer comments and photos of customers enjoying the products are fun and way more interesting, enlightening, and addicting to read than the stock product info.
Trip Advisor – Every hotel looks awesome in the pictures and the descriptions sound luxurious. But what’s it really like? Customer ratings and reviews tell all.
Amazon – When I look for anything on Amazon, I scroll right past the publisher’s or manufacture’s description on down to the customer reviews – what about you? Other site’s may have cheaper prices (which they reveal), but I always buy from Amazon because by the time I’m ready to buy, I’ve invested so much time there and already have things added to my cart, that I might as well!
Threadless – This is cool – Users vote on designs and decide what gets printed. So much fun, you’ll forget that it’s an ecommerce site.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever purchased anything from Amazon – or if you’ve ever found yourself reading customer reviews on Amazon before making a purchase. Amazon has been wildly successful in the area of making shopping online easy, fun, and downright addictive through their highly intuitive related products search. 
