Pottery Barn is leveraging user-generated content to drive sales from a digital gallery where items featured in customers’ photos can be purchased, driving inspiration and impulse buying.

The home décor retailer is prompting users to share photos of how they incorporate Pottery Barn products into their home spaces through a curated hashtag on social media. Pottery Barn’s dedicated page on its Web site is using the content to drive sales in a manner that puts the focus on individual style.

“Pottery Barn is wisely using mobile engagement to deepen the consumer experience and link online conversions to content supplied by their customers,” said Wilson Kerr, vice president of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce. “Consumer-generated content can be very effective at driving ecommerce sales because it is perceived to be less commercial than the brand marketing what it wants or needs to sell.

“By tracking the sales tied to the images provided by their customers, Pottery Barn can shape their overall product positioning online, to match consumer preference,” he said.

Pottery Barn inspiration
Fans of Pottery Barn are showing their interest in its products with photos on Twitter and other social media platforms that display the items in users’ home. The campaign showcases the different ways inventory can be incorporated into individuals’ personal style.

Pottery Barn is sharing a series of tweets to prompt users to post photos of their home spaces with the hashtag #mypotterybarn on Twitter and Instagram. The retailer then congregates the best ones and showcases them on a gallery on a dedicated page on its Web site.

The gallery showcases user-generated content and lists items that are posted in the photos for purchase. The images are posted featuring a Shop This Look box within the post that users can click on to buy.

For instance, one photo from a user shows a living room with a couch boasting a wide range of decorative throw pillows. An image of the Textured Linen Pillow Covers are featured within the Shop This Look box.

Social media sales
Free People similarly drove sales of its athletic wear through a shoppable mobile video, advertised on social media along with a contest that taps partnerships with multiple health and fitness-related brands for giveaways (see more).

Online subscription retailer Fabletics also made it easier for its key demographic to signup through a shop now Instagram ad campaign in which users fill out a quiz to get personalized products (see more).

“A notable miss is that the MyPotteryBarn page is not mobile-optimized, meaning mobile traffic is forced to endure pinch and zoom if they want to upload photos,” Mr. Kerr said. “Pottery Barn also does not offer an app.

“An app would be very well-suited to this sort of promotion,” he said.