Why does a customer's photo sell better than yours?
Your product photos are lit, cropped and edited, and every visitor knows it. What they can't tell from them is how the jumper fits a normal person, how big the vase really is next to a kettle, or whether the colour looks the same in a dim kitchen. So they scroll past your pictures and look for someone else's.
That someone else's picture, or review, or video, is user-generated content. You can't make it yourself, which is exactly why people believe it.
What counts as user-generated content?
The definitions agree on one thing: it is made by the people who use the product, not by the brand. Loox's article on e-commerce UGC, which we read on 3 November 2026, describes it as content “posted by users of online platforms” and lists pictures, videos, text and audio. Trustindex's article of UGC examples names social media posts, videos, pictures, reviews and testimonials.
Two edge cases are worth knowing. A “UGC creator” you pay to film a video of your product makes an advert in a customer's style, not content from a customer, and it should be presented as paid. A review written in return for a discount or a free product is still a customer's review, but it should say it was rewarded, which our article on offering a discount for a review explains.
Is a customer review user-generated content?
Yes, and for most small shops it is the main kind they will ever get. Few customers post about a ceramic mug on social media, but some will leave a few sentences and a photo when you ask them by email a few days after it arrives.
Reviews also have an advantage that social posts lack. They sit on your own product page, next to the button, where the visitor decides. A post on someone's feed scrolls out of sight within a day or two. If you also want longer pieces, our guides to asking for a testimonial and to collecting video testimonials cover those.
What can a customer's photo give away?
More than the customer meant to. A photo taken on a phone often carries the exact place it was taken, and for a picture of a product in someone's living room, that place is their home.
On 2 November 2026 we tested this on our demo WooCommerce store. We uploaded a test photo with a location in it to the WordPress media library, which is where review plugins such as CusRev keep them. The original and all 8 resized copies, 9 of 9 files, still carried the location when we downloaded them. The same photo through Formgong's upload step came out with the location blank. Our article on photo reviews in WooCommerce has the full test.
Can you reuse a customer's post or photo?
A review left on your own site, under terms the customer saw, can be shown on that site. Taking it further, onto Instagram, into an advert or a printed flyer, is a different use, and the decent and safe thing is to ask first. Keep their words as they wrote them and credit them the way they agree to.
A photo someone posted on their own account is theirs. Ask in a comment or a message before you repost it, and keep the answer. Our guide to turning a review into an Instagram post shows how to ask and which image sizes work.
How do photo, video and voice reviews work in Formgong?
Customers add files on the same review form they rate on. Here is what each kind allows:
| Kind | What a customer can send | What visitors see |
|---|---|---|
| Photos | Up to 5 per review, 5 MB each, JPEG, PNG or WebP | Thumbnails in the review; the location is removed before it is stored |
| Video | 1 per review, up to 50 MB, MP4, MOV or WebM | A player in the review, after you approve it |
| Voice message | Through the voice field on your review form | The transcript as the review text; the recording is played to you only |
| Text and stars | No limit on the number of reviews | The review itself, with your public reply under it |
A review with a photo waits for you to approve it unless you use the AI check, which looks at the photos itself, and a review with a video always waits. In our test site's public review feed, a photo review comes with its type, address and size, and the widget draws it as a thumbnail.
The voice message is where we differ from the apps most shops compare us with. Judge.me's page on photo and video reviews and Loox's information page, both read on 3 November 2026, describe photos and videos and say nothing about voice. Some customers would rather talk for twenty seconds than type, so Formgong's review form can take a voice message. What it publishes is the text the customer checked, and the recording stays private, played only to you in the dashboard. The photos and video docs and the voice field docs show the setup.
What do your customers send you?
If your customers send photos, videos or voice notes with their reviews, or never do, tell us at support@formgong.com. We would like to know which kinds small shops actually get before we build more.
What Formgong Reviews includes for free
- Unlimited review sites and reviews. Text, photo, video and voice reviews on Free.
- A widget with no view limit. The review widget, carousel, badge and stars in product lists load as often as your pages do.
- Review emails in your store's name. Sent after each order with your logo and colours, replies to you, no email service to set up; buyers can rate inside Gmail without leaving the email, and get one reminder (how it works).
- Bring your old reviews. Import from Judge.me, Yotpo, Loox, Shopify Product Reviews, WooCommerce, Etsy or a CSV.
- You decide what shows. Approve each review or choose a publishing mode, reply in public or in private, and let shoppers ask the author a question.
- Google. A Merchant Center review feed, and product rating markup through the WordPress plugin.
- Reviews from your form. People who filled in your contact form can get a review request automatically.
- One account for the rest. Contact forms with Telegram and Google Sheets, an AI help chat, and free website templates.
Frequently asked questions
What is UGC in simple words?
Content your customers make about your product: reviews, photos, videos and posts. It is believable because you didn't make it.
Are product reviews user-generated content?
Yes. For most small shops they are the main kind of UGC, and they sit on the product page where visitors decide.
Is paid creator content UGC?
Not in the sense shoppers trust. A video you paid for is an advert in a customer's style and should be presented as paid.
Can I repost a customer's photo from Instagram?
Ask them first, keep their answer, and credit them as they agree. The photo is theirs even when it shows your product.
Does Formgong remove the location from review photos?
Yes. Location data is blanked before a photo or video is stored; in our 2 November 2026 test the stored copy had no location.
Sources and documentation
Official references for this guide: Formgong: Photo reviews in WooCommerce. Photos and video in reviews, where data is stored.