5 creative ways to use social proof on Shopify

Most Shopify stores we audit treat social proof like an item on a checklist.

They install a reviews app, add stars under the product title, embed testimonials, and call it day.

The brands doing it well treat it as a UX decision. They go beyond the basics.

This week I’m highlighting five creative ways we’ve used social proof in recent Platter stores. Then a quick look at ZenZema’s new store, a few new faces on the team, and a shoutout from The Absorption Company.

Let’s jump in.

5 creative ways to use social proof on Shopify

Endorsements from pros instead of customers

Pinned Golf sells rangefinders, golf GPS devices, and Bluetooth speakers. Golfers have a lot of FOMO and pay attention to what gear the pros use.

So instead of leading the homepage with customer reviews, we built a “Trusted by the best” section featuring Michael Breed (PGA Teacher of the Year), Scott Vail (Keegan Bradley’s caddie), Jeff Hamley (Andrew Novak’s caddie), and golf influencer Hunter Nugent.

Expert validation hits harder than a 5-star review from an average golfer.

→ See it on their store

AI summary of your reviews

Atlas uses Okendo’s AI Summaries feature to pin a summary of customer feedback to the top of their reviews section. If you’re not using this yet, you should.

Atlas has over 5,400 reviews on their hero product. Nobody’s scrolling through 5,400 reviews. The AI summary pulls the recurring themes from the 100 most recent (taste, texture, protein-to-sugar ratio, clean ingredients) and it doesn’t hide the criticism.

If you’re already paying for Okendo, this is worth trying.

→ Atlas Bar PDP

UGC directly in the PDP

onewith uses a “see it on” section sits near the buy box with photos and video of real customers wearing the suit. Each tile is labeled with the size that customer is wearing (S/S, S/M, 2XL/2XL, L/L), so you see five different body types in five different sizes side by side.

There’s also a 360-degree video at the end of the main product gallery that shows the suit on a model in motion. Between the two, a shopper can answer almost any fit question before they ever scroll to the reviews.

For categories where fit, texture, or scale matters, this pulls more weight than a traditional review section. And since Onewith is pairing the photo grid with video, they’re capturing the 261% conversion lift Bazaarvoice attributes to PDP video.

→ Onewith Kittery PDP

Use third-party validation (that is actually helpful)

The Absorption Company does this really well. On all the PDP, there’s a “Clinicians’ Choice” badge powered by FrontrowMD.

Click it and a modal opens that breaks down which clinicians have shared the product with their patients, where they practice, and whether they’re paid for the placement. Instead of a logo wall of generic credentials, you see real clinicians with names and practices.

→ The Absorption Company

Shoppable video FAQs with the founder

Also on every Omre PDP, there’s a “Dr. Pedram answers your top questions” section.

Four short videos where the founder, who’s a physician, answers the exact questions customers are about to go look up in Google.

Products are embedded inside the video modal so customers can add to cart without closing the video.

Technically not social proof. But founder-on-camera is one of the most underused tactics in DTC right now. The person who made the product, answering the most common objections.

→ See Omre’s store

Store of the week

We helped the team at ZenZema launch their new store. The site went live at the start of April, timed to coincide with the American Academy of Dermatology conference in March.

→ Check out ZenZema

A shoutout from one of our merchants

Ezekiel Bronfman, co-founder of The Absorption Company, wrote a nice post this week about the rebuild they did alongside our team at Platter, DTCPG, and Skio.

Always nice when clients take the time to share work like this. Big thanks to Ezekiel and the Absorption team for the shoutout, and to DTCPG and Skio for being great partners on this project.

→ Read Ezekiel’s post

New faces at Platter

Ben Sharf shared a post this week about the six new teammates who’ve joined our team over the last few months:

• Baron Swainson (Strategist)

• Mary Li (UI/UX Designer)

• James Wright (TSS)

• Patricia Santos (QA)

• Laura Novruzaj (Theme Developer)

• Meg Boemi Konchar (PM, starting soon)

The work the team is shipping is better than it’s ever been. This group is a big reason why.

→ Read Ben’s post

That’s it for this week.

If you’re looking for ways to improve your Shopify store, reply to this email. Let’s chat!

See you next week