Villeroy & Boch increases average order value with Bazaarvoice Social Commerce

Villeroy & Boch is one of the world’s leading premium brands for ceramic products. The family business, which was founded in 1748 and is headquartered in Mettlach/Germany, stands for innovation, tradition and exceptional style. As a renowned lifestyle brand, Villeroy & Boch offers products from the sectors Bathroom & Wellness and Dining & Lifestyle, and is active in 125 countries.

The brand had already been using user-generated content (UGC) to connect with customers on social media for several years, but realized finding new ways to integrate this content into its online store would provide better visuals for shoppers and increase conversions.

“User-generated content is one of the most trustworthy types of content a brand could show to their customers,” said Sabine Kaufmann, Head of eCommerce Operations Dining & Lifestyle at Villeroy & Boch.

A picture’s worth 1,000 words

Villeroy & Boch worked with Bazaarvoice to bring its vision of an online shop full of UGC to life. It had already been using some of Bazaarvoice’s tools to gather UGC and knew additional products could provide the brand with the functionality to optimize results even more.

The company’s primary aim was to use UGC to showcase its products in real-life to inspire shoppers and show how its unique products can be used in various situations.

For example, the company’s iconic La Boule product is a 7-piece table setting for two in a stackable, space-saving centerpiece. The set includes two flat bowls, two regular bowls, two universal plates, and one serving platter. The La Boule product is shaped like a ball; it can be used as a decoration object as well as a dinner set for two. The challenge for Villeroy & Boch was to show the multiple purposes of the products using just a few still-life images.

Additional visual content from customers highlighting the product gives shoppers more context about how they may be able to style and use La Boule in their own homes.

“We want to show authentic, trustworthy, real-life content from our customers’ lives, their tables, their rooms, and their homes,” said Kaufmann. “A picture is worth 1,000 words. It can help describe a product far better than any words could.”

The many ways Villeroy & Boch uses its new UGC

Villeroy & Boch chose to activate Bazaarvoice Galleries to showcase UGC across all of its homepages and newsletters worldwide. It also uses Galleries to help gather specific content for themed landing pages (for example, gift pages).

“We now have a reserved slot on our homepage for the Galleries to share fresh, new UGC as we get it,” said Kaufmann

To help capture more visual content for marketing purposes, the brand asked customers to use the hashtag #yesvb when posting its products. Using a hashtag like this also allows Villeroy & Boch to manage customer content efficiently.

Social commerce leads to a 275% increase in conversion rate among users who engaged with UGC

The additional use of Bazaarvoice Social Commerce solutions has helped Villeroy & Boch’s e-commerce team quickly syndicate the same, high-performing content across all sites and easily measure the impact of the brand’s UGC efforts.

In the last year, the company has seen an incredible:

● 175% increase in time on site
● 275% increase in conversion rate
● 29% increase in average order value

(Among users who engaged with Bazaarvoice solutions vs. those who did not)

“With ratings and reviews and Galleries, we enable our customers to become real brand advocates and tell the whole story of our products,” said Kaufmann,

Learn more about how social UGC tools like Galleries can help you increase conversion and revenue.

Request a demo