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I’m an Influencer
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When it comes to footwear, shoppers rarely buy based on looks alone. They want to know how a pair looks on a real person, how it holds up throughout the day, and whether it actually looks like the photos.
The best way to give consumers authenticity is through user-generated content (UGC). Real photos, videos, and stories from real customers give users the kind of context and reassurance that polished studio campaigns simply can’t replicate.
This month, we’re spotlighting Alhamas, a Spanish espadrille brand that has made its community of customers and creators an important part of its online experience with the help of the Flowbox UGC platform.
Read on to see how Alhamas uses UGC across its website to build trust, inspire shoppers, and bring the craftsmanship behind every pair to life.
Alhamas is a Spanish brand specialising in handmade espadrilles and flats. Born in Cervera del Río Alhama, a town in La Rioja with a long tradition of espadrille craftsmanship, the brand combines traditional hand-stitched techniques and natural materials with a contemporary “rural chic” aesthetic.
And while craftsmanship is at the heart of the brand, their customers play an important role in bringing that story to life.
“At Alhamas, we want to give our customers a voice so they can share their experience, inspire others, and support them through their buying journey. We also highly value the insights this content brings to the brand, as it allows us to see, from an external and authentic perspective, how Alhamas espadrilles are actually worn, how our customers style them, and how they fit into their everyday lives. This content helps us get even closer to our community and better understand how the people who genuinely choose our brand experience and enjoy Alhamas.”
Aurora Gil, Marketing & eCommerce Director at Alhamas
Alhamas has integrated UGC throughout their website, starting with the homepage. Here, a dynamic carousel showcases content from its community, giving visitors an immediate look at how customers are wearing their espadrilles in real life.
The brand also has a dedicated community page, where it brings customer content together in an immersive gallery. Content is organised by espadrille style, making it easier for users to discover inspiration that’s relevant to what they’re looking for.
UGC also appears directly on Alhamas’ product pages, alongside product photography and descriptions. Seeing real customers wearing a pair of espadrilles adds valuable context: how the espadrilles look in natural settings, how they fit into different styles, and how they look when worn with real outfits.
These details help answer the questions shoppers might have before buying and make the jump from browsing to purchasing feel more natural.
If you want customers to share the products they’ve purchased and give you permission to repurpose that content on your website, the first step is to make participation easy.
Start by being clear about how customers can get involved. Tell them exactly what to do, whether that means using a specific hashtag, tagging your brand, or uploading their photos directly. The easier the process is to understand, the more likely customers are to take part.
It can also help to show examples of the type of content you’re looking for. This gives your community some inspiration while making it clear what kind of UGC you’d like to feature.
Don’t rely on social media alone, either. Add calls to action across different customer touchpoints, including emails, packaging, your website, and social posts. The more naturally you build UGC into the customer journey, the easier it becomes for customers to participate.
Alhamas, for example, encourages its community to tag @alhamas or use the hashtag #alhamas when sharing their content.
The brand highlights this information on their homepage, but adding it to your Instagram bio is another simple way to make these instructions easy to find.
Not every customer wants to post about their purchase on their personal social media accounts. That doesn’t mean they don’t want to share their experience.
This is where a Media Uploader button can be particularly useful. It gives customers the option to upload photos and videos directly to the brand, where the content can then be reviewed and potentially featured.
For Alhamas, this creates another route for customers to contribute to the brand’s community without requiring them to publish content on their own social profiles. It’s a simple way to make UGC more accessible while giving customers greater control over where they share their content.
What stands out about Alhamas’s approach is how naturally UGC fits into the brand’s existing identity. Its story is rooted in craftsmanship, tradition, and the people who wear their products, so featuring real customers feels like an extension of that story rather than an additional marketing layer.
That natural fit is also what first drew Alhamas to Flowbox: a relationship that goes back further than the content now living on their site.
“We met Eulogi, the CEO, at a trade fair many years ago, back when the company was still Photoslurp, and what won us over was how new and how easy the technology behind it was for showing UGC in our online store.”
Aurora Gil, Marketing & eCommerce Director
Through Flowbox, Alhamas can bring content from customers and creators onto their website and give it a lasting presence across the shopping journey.
That means UGC doesn’t disappear after a social post has run its course. Instead, it continues to inspire consumers wherever they encounter the brand online.
Just as important as the technology, though, has been the team behind it.
“We really value how proactive the team is in looking for new solutions and clearer reporting tools. Clàudia, our Flowbox Customer Success Manager, has a clear understanding of our business and strategy that helps make our meetings productive, and we always learn something new from them”.
Aurora Gil, Marketing & eCommerce Director
The result is a shopping experience that feels less like a traditional catalogue and more like discovering a product through people whose style and experiences you can relate to.
Alhamas shows what’s possible when a brand gives its community a central role in telling its story. By bringing authentic customer content into different stages of the shopping journey, the brand adds real-world context to its products while making its craftsmanship feel more personal, relevant, and shareable.
This September, Alhamas is our Flowboxer of the Month, recognised for their thoughtful use of UGC in the footwear and fashion industry.
Their approach offers a practical example for brands looking to build trust, inspire shoppers, and turn customer experiences into an ongoing source of content.
Want to bring UGC into your own customer journey? Request a demo with Flowbox and discover how you can turn your customers’ content into a valuable part of the shopping experience.
