Australia’s leading lifestyle brand, City Beach targets a broad range of Gen Z customers who are interested in surf, skate, and street fashion. Talia Bianchi, Head of Content & Marketing from City Beach recently attended Shoptalk Spring in Las Vegas and took a minute to chat with Total Retail about the company’s global expansion strategy and the role of social proof.
CB (City Beach) operates more than 60 stores in Australia and is successfully expanding into New Zealand, the US, and the UK focusing on a strong eCommerce expansion strategy.
Appealing to a younger audience, social media is a critical element of City Beach’s strategy. The lifestyle brand has built a large influencer network and leverages social media to share different types of content to engage and build a strong community.
City Beach leverages social proof on its eCommerce sites to bring its strong sense of community and engagement to the online shopping experience. This is especially important when expanding into new markets. CB carries 300 brands and over 25.000 SKUs which can be extremely overwhelming to consumers, especially for those who are not familiar with the Australian retailer. Social proof messaging acts as a guided shopping tool by highlighting popular products, while real-time data about other shoppers validates the company’s credibility. Social proof authentically showcases what’s trending, in real-time, giving shoppers confidence to buy, and at the same time it creates a sense of urgency that ultimately leads to higher conversions.
The investment in Taggstar’s social proof proved to be the right decision. The initial proof of concept delivered a 3.58% uplift in conversion in just a month. City Beach continues to use Taggstar’s social proof messaging to help it establish credibility in new markets, stand out from competitors and better engage its social proof-obsessed Gen Z customer base.
Read more about how City Beach leverages social proof here.
