ProveSource | D for Dog Case Study

CUSTOMER STORY

How D for Dog Won Customers over with Social Proof in a Competitive Industry

According to Statista, since 2016, the share of households owning pets in the UK has increased, with an estimated 45 percent owning one in 2018. Following the increasing demand, the pet product industry has been experiencing massive growth.

With so many places to choose from, going online to purchase something for your pup should be a no-brainer. Right?

But what if you are not sure what to buy for your four-legged friend? What if you need some advice? You want to buy the best and most suitable product or accessory for your dog but who can you turn to? That’s where D for Dog comes in.

A small family run business of real dog lovers, D for Dog is a place where the team is more than happy to advise anyone with a dog-related question. They provide good old-fashioned service that is hard to come by when dealing with large faceless corporations.

Jenny Prevel is the owner of D for Dog. Speaking with her, there’s no doubt her love for dogs is at the center of her work. She takes great care when considering which products to sell and believes that D for Dog is where dogs would shop!

Challenge:

When it comes to purchasing for the first time, audiences are naturally apprehensive. If they don’t trust your website, they’ll simply look elsewhere. Because D for Dog is a small family business, they are constantly faced with the challenge of convincing new prospective customers that they should choose to shop with them, instead of the bigger competitors.

With 15 years of experience in the industry and hundreds of 5-star reviews, they wanted to communicate that level of trust to visitors but felt that very few consumers bother to look at online review websites before making a purchasing decision.

D for Dog needed to find a way to convey the trust past customers had in them, to new prospective customers visiting their website. In Jenny’s words:

“We had been looking for something that we could directly show to our visitors the minute they came to D for Dog”

Jenny Prevel
Owner, D for Dog

Solution:

Social Proof

Social proof seemed to be the perfect solution for D for Dog. They tried several different options and eventually found ProveSource.

“When we discovered social proof pop-ups, we tried a few different ones and none really impressed, until we came across ProveSource. We were instantly met with friendly enthusiasm and no question was too silly to ask... and we asked quite a few”.

Jenny Prevel
Owner, D for Dog

With ProveSource, displaying evidence that their website is trustworthy and that their products are loved by existing customers was easy. D for Dog was finally able to show prospective customers their positive reviews directly on their website.

Customization

Jenny was blown away by all the different features and customization options available on ProveSource.

“Social proof can be so much more than just getting recent orders in front of customers. You can also show your visitors different messages, online reviews, visitor stats, and more”.

Jenny Prevel
Owner, D for Dog

She immediately recognized that social proof comes in many different forms. She began to tailor the notifications to cater to visitors on different pages on their website, and consequently – different stages of the conversion funnel.

For example, the shop pages feature a pop up showing recent purchases and customer reviews to build confidence in visitors looking to make a purchase, while the blog pages have different messages aimed at encouraging blog visitors to visit the shop.

“This has been really great for us because the D for Dog blog is hugely read and respected so it is a great way for us to make more conversions”.

Jenny Prevel
Owner, D for Dog

Results:

Increased Trust

After implementing ProveSource, Jenny and the team found that utilizing social proof notifications to increase trust and credibility has worked out perfectly.

New visitors can easily see ProveSource notifications and feel a sense of security and credibility throughout the website, and as a result, are more inclined to shop with them.

“We feel sure that ProveSource is giving our visitors the confidence they need to make a purchase with us. People can see that we have a lot of visitors, that we have been in the industry for years, that we can be trusted, and that real people are making purchases and leaving us great reviews too”.

Jenny Prevel
Owner, D for Dog

Achievements with ProveSource:

D for Dog provides dog information and online shopping for dog accessories and gifts.

They sell a range of carefully selected dog products including dog beds, bowls, toys, collars and leads, harnesses, and more plus a range of fabulous gift ideas too, for dogs and dog lovers.