#180: How to Seamlessly Boost Your User-Generated Content

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Claus Lauter: Hello and welcome to another episode of the e-Commerce Coffee Break podcast. As humans, we connect through stories. Stories make us relatable. People can relate to stories. The same applies if you're talking about e-commerce to customers. They we talking about user-generated content and one way to. Communicate stories is through videos, the fastest-growing part of the content in the interwebs and how can you combine this together?

That's one we wanna talk about today, and I have Sivan Baram on the show. She's the co-founder and CEO of Radd and an e-commerce intelligence platform that is an allowing online brands to boost customer voice via live and data-driven stories like video reviews. Sivan is a passionate entrepreneur with over 15 years of content marketing experience that has led large-scale brands, repositioning strategies, as well as CONT and marketing projects for a broad range of tech startups.

So Sivan is definitely the right person to talk to. Let's welcome her to the show. Hi, Sivan. How are you today?

Sivan Baram: Hi. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for that awesome intro. You know so much about us already.

Claus Lauter: Si. Stories, as I said, are something that connects us as humans. Obviously, we wanna bring this over, to the digital world.

What got you into user-generated content?

Sivan Baram: Yeah, I was actually a content marketer for over 15 years, so I've done a lot of content for startups, for accelerators. And I was also interested in finding a way to boost content in a visual way that's also, measurable. So that's something that I was, super eager to find a good solution to.

I wasn't sure which industry it would be a good fit for. At first, I thought I would be publisher. And then when I came up with the idea of combining, a new way to visualize and measure content. For e-commerce, it seemed like a perfect fit and a great, business opportunity. It has proven itself, so far.

We've done quite well, launching on quite a few, online brands, globally. That's how, uh, originally, the idea was born.

Claus Lauter: Okay. Now, as I said, the idea was born red does things a little bit differently than others. Tell me a little bit on what kind of approach did you follow to come to the solution that you have nowadays?

Sivan Baram: a completely new way for online brands to boost their U G C to boost their user generated content. So now they can actually allow their customers, To post product reviews, , in a video based format that is story like. So that's something that in the first, tra the first pilot is something that we tested out.

We weren't sure that it'll actually be a good fit for large companies or for even smaller, medium, large companies that a canal, use content in a completely different way. So we started out by, working with a few design partners, in Israel, where we are, located and in, other, locations in the uk, in the us.

We found out that, , online brands are super, super eager. To find different ways to boost their social presence. , they do sometimes have, a social presence on different, networks, but, to be able to boost their own online site in a way that is a social related and does not rely on the , social media, an independent solution where they can.

Individually give their customers a voice , we found out that was super exciting for them. The way we went about is to just, launch something that was super basic. But, with time it became from an app, an actual platform, which is what it is today.

Claus Lauter: Now you combined a couple of things, in a new way.

So we are talking about reviews, we're talking about videos, we're talking about a shoppable content, user generated content. All of this makes something new. tell me how it works

Sivan Baram: exactly. So it is a video-based solution that is redefining the way companies are allowing their customers to upload product reviews.

So the way it works is it's either the the brands can upload content themselves. It's just, a very, attractive looking, video solution. But our core business is when the brands allow their customers to upload the product reviews. that's , where the U G C part , comes in and , basically a new shopping experience is born.

Which is a win-win for both sides because basically the shoppers enjoy a new shopping solution, that's based on real people. And then the brands themselves, they get a dashboard where they can see the analytics behind the videos and they can enjoy measurable solution that is a combining.

Visualized solution, a measurable solution and they can even go live, which is something new that we just launched. That's the third way, to utilize our product. It's basically an independent, , live broadcast solution that's allowing the brands to hold live sessions inside the online store itself.

Claus Lauter: Okay, I wanna touch on that in a second. I wanna , take one step back. A lot of merchants and our listeners can properly rely to that. , always wondering how can they motivate someone to generate a review for them. It needs to have some kind of benefit for them to take some time out of their day to generate a video.

What's the best case scenario? How do you bring people to generate that content for you as a merchant?

Sivan Baram: Yeah, that's a really good point. So something, very cool that we have as part of our product is the option to incentivize the customers to upload, stories.

It's not only a reviewing tool, it's a new kind of reviewing tool that's video based. So we have something that's called in story promotion. Promotions that is allowing the brands to, offer customers an incentive. , if you upload this, review, then you enjoy, this, promotion, your next, purchase.

So that's something that the brands can enjoy. But there are few options , To allow the customers to upload reviews. There's also a newsletter option in our platform, so that's an option the brands can use if they wanna invite their customers to upload reviews that, relate to a certain con collection or a certain, opportunity that arises a holiday related, video.

You know, all kinds of, ways for the brands to, boost the customer voice. And then it's also a new opportunity for the customers to expose themselves to affiliate themselves for the brands. Those are just, two examples of how we allow that in our platform. Okay.

Claus Lauter: To make clear, these videos are shoppable.

So how do you connect a product to a video?

Sivan Baram: we're, , actually allowing the customers, , the option to tag them if they would like. It's super easy, and seamless process where they can just click. To connect video to a certain brand. It we're also soon launching a new version of the product where everything will be, , absolutely, automatic.

The brands can click to tag the customers can click , to tag. is something that we call tagging. To include videos that are completely shockable because now the customers can click the video to see exactly what the items are inside the video, and they could also add to cart directly from the video.

Claus Lauter: Yeah, I like that approach that, just one click away to get to the product. Now, where can I use these videos then?

Sivan Baram: any online brand, we have launched right on Shopify. Recently. We also launched on Product Hunt. So we created a bit of a buzz this year, because, we finalized the first, version of the product.

, if you are a Shopify brand, it's an easy plug and play solution for you there are almost , 2 million Shopify brands today. But, red is also available for any kind of brand. Of course, it's, one line of code integration. We're also looking into integrating with other e eco platforms.

To be honest, right now, Shopify is strategically our go-to market. That's a

Claus Lauter: nice fit because Shopify merchants are our listeners here. So just, , going back to the streaming version of it, how does that

Sivan Baram: work? It's super exciting. At a certain point we, came up with the idea to include a live option in our product.

We felt like it would be a good fit because, we're dealing with video-based content and, live content, you know, is kind of the hardest strength, today. we did some, AB testing with some, super interesting companies and we wanted to see if this is something they'd be interested in.

And it turned out to be a super powerful solution. It's now allowing them to, a video reviews inside their site , they review so they don't disappear within 24 hours. the way that they do on Instagram. And then they also have the option of hosting a live session, either of someone on behalf of the brand, or it can be some, influencer collaborating with the brand.

The influencer can also invite the followers from their own private, , page on Instagram, . And then with a few clicks, they start the session inside the store the viewers that join the broadcast can interact, they can engage, of course they can add modules or text message, can ask questions about the products, of course, they enjoy special promotion during that live.

That is only given during that live. Turning this into a super powerful solution. , increasing conversion, by crazy numbers, but over hundreds of, , percentages during that time slot. Because it's like a one-time opportunity to buy something from someone that you trust.

Claus Lauter: It's not exciting. It sounds a little bit going back in time and having a TV show, a shopping channel there, and, having your own show and having your followers who then than in the past can buy the products directly while they're still on the show.

Exactly. So that's a great idea there. Who's your perfect customer? What kind of industries or verticals are the most suitable?

Sivan Baram: So actually we're a multi-sector we have. Worked with quite a few makeup and fashion brands, but, I've seen, companies, contact us in all kinds of, sectors and we're super excited to consider new industries as well.

, we also have food related companies and retailers. It's actually a product that can be a good fit for any brand.

Claus Lauter: Okay. You already mentioned that the technical implementation through Shopify App Store is very straightforward. What kind of learning curve or how much time do you need people to invest to get up to speed or to get started?

Sivan Baram: It's super easy. So the way it works is a companies, find a rad when looking, , for a reviewing tool. The video, shoppable videos and so on. They just click, the app to download. They choose the plan that is best suitable for them. And then, immediately it's either that they can create stories in the same way that they create stories on Instagram.

, they can just create them inside our platform and upload them directly to the store. Or they can allow the customers to begin uploading their stories as post-purchase product reviews. And of course, if they choose the live plan, they can immediately start hosting live sessions inside the online store, inside the stories that are displayed on the brand site.

Claus Lauter: Okay. That sounds very straightforward. You mentioned the plans. What's the pricing for the solution?

Sivan Baram: So actually we're launching a new version in about a month. So I assume that may change just a tiny bit because we will be offering some, cool new features like , , the opportunity to customize, the customer stories and so on.

But right now the ranges are. Hundred dollars for the most basic plan and the $600 for, the most plans plan, which is allowing one live session for four month.

Claus Lauter: Okay, sounds great. Where can people find out more about red?

Sivan Baram: We have a website. gonna, launch a new one soon, you can also, see us on LinkedIn on Instagram.

And on Facebook, of course.

Claus Lauter: I will pull the links in a show notes as always, then you just won't click away. Sivan, thanks so much. I think that's an amazing idea. I like the streaming idea and I definitely wanna try that out at some point. I have never seen that before, so that's something I'm very curious about.

Thanks so much for your time. I'm giving us an insight.

Sivan Baram: you so much for inviting me.