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The Challenge

Wickes has worked with Taggstar since 2020. During that time, the home improvement retailer has consistently sought to maximize the optimization capabilities of Taggstar’s social proof messaging offer. This included generating a 1.57% conversion rate uplift by integrating animated icons to bring its social proof messaging to life.

In its latest social proof messaging test, Wickes wanted to expand its use of social proof to include review messaging. The company operates a large product catalog and has a loyal base of both trade and DIY customers. More than nine in ten (93%) of shoppers read reviews before buying. This shows how powerful social proof reviews can be to drive purchasing behavior. Wickes wanted to better harness the power of their customer reviews to help guide others to discover and purchase the best product for them.

“We wanted to keep up the momentum of optimization,” says Lily French, Digital Ecommerce Trading Manager at Wickes. “We’d seen how well social proof messaging with integrated reviews had worked for others and wanted to try it for ourselves to make sure that we were making the most of what Taggstar offers. We also knew that social proof messaging worked well elsewhere and so wanted to expose it on other pages without disrupting the customer journey or overloading the experience.”

The Solution

Taggstar partnered with PowerReviews to run three tests displaying Review Messaging, conducted across distinct trading periods — September 2023, May 2024, and January 2025. Each test delivered strong and consistent results, demonstrating the effectiveness of Review Messaging across a range of trading conditions.

Review Messaging was tested across the funnel, deployed on PLP, PDP and basket, on products that had a minimum of five reviews and five stars. The targeted  ‘Top Rated’ 5 stars based on x reviews’ message was tested for an average of 15 days.

“We wanted to encourage customers and reassure them when they’re making the buying decision,” says French. “It helps to accelerate their decision-making, giving them the confidence that what they’re purchasing has been well received by other customers.”

“We were really pleased to witness the consistency of these results. By testing at different times, we were able to understand how well social proof messaging works throughout the year.”

Lily French, Digital Ecommerce Trading Manager

The Results

Across three tests, Taggstar’s Review Messaging, supported by PowerReviews data, drove a strong conversion rate increase alongside an encouraging uplift in revenue.

“We were really pleased to witness the consistency of these results,” said French. “By testing at different times, we were able to understand how well social proof messaging works throughout the year.”

The Future

Looking ahead, Wickes will continue to test and implement additional features offered by Taggstar. “It’s an amazing platform, and there’s so much opportunity. There are always new ways to use the functionalities and modules on offer,” says French.

This will include testing of Attribute Messaging, which highlights key product information to shoppers. “We know that everything else that Taggstar offers works well for us, so we want to try Attribute Messaging. It will allow us to dynamically highlight essential details, such as sustainability, at the right time so that customers do not have to scroll and look for that information. We’re really excited to try that.”

Wickes will also test Bestseller category messaging to speed up purchase decisions of smaller, less-considered items such as paintbrushes, as well as give greater confidence to higher ticket purchases.

Marjorie Leonidas, CEO at Taggstar, says: “Wickes shares Taggstar’s mindset of embracing the solutions that our Conversion Messaging Platform provides. Within reviews, this is particularly helpful as it allows customers to quickly see top-rated products, which gives them added confidence to purchase.”

Interested in unlocking the potential of Taggstar? Take the first step toward higher conversion rates!

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