A woman is standing in the aisle with a jar in one hand and her phone in the other. She is not looking up reviews. She is checking whether the same thing is cheaper on the app, and whether the discount she half remembers is still running.
She already likes the product. Your UGC did its job weeks ago. The thing standing between her and the till is not preference, and no amount of better creative about how good the product is will move it.
What the video is actually competing with
Portuguese retail runs on mechanics, not just on prices: card discounts that come back later, coupons printed at the till, stacked offers, app-only prices, and a rhythm of promotional weeks that regular shoppers learn without being taught.
That has a consequence most brands do not build for. In a market where the same product carries several possible prices depending on how you buy it, the customer's real question changes shape.
The decision is timing, not preference
Nobody in that aisle is asking whether the product is good. They decided that already, or they would not be holding it.
They are asking whether buying it today is the smart version of buying it. That is a different question, it has a different answer, and almost no UGC brief is written to address it. The brief asks the creator to demonstrate the product, so the video answers a question the viewer resolved before they arrived.
Loyalty cards changed what a price means
The shelf price stopped being the price some time ago.
For a regular shopper, the number on the shelf is one input among several, alongside what comes back on the card, what the app shows, and what the coupon at the bottom of last week's receipt says. A creator who states a price with none of that context is quoting a figure the buyer does not consider authoritative, and the mismatch is quietly damaging: it makes the video feel like it was made by somebody who does not shop here.
What this does to a UGC brief
The fix is not to turn every video into a discount announcement. It is to stop leaving the timing question entirely unanswered.
| What the video shows | What the viewer still has to work out | Where they go to work it out |
|---|---|---|
| The product being used | Whether it is worth this price | Comparison sites, the app |
| A price on screen | Whether it is better elsewhere this week | A competitor's app, in the aisle |
| A discount with no end date | Whether it will come back cheaper | Waiting, which costs you the sale |
| Where it is sold | Nothing, this one lands | Nowhere, they go and buy it |
| A reason this week is the week | Nothing, if the reason is true | Nowhere, and they remember it |
Read the right hand column as a map of where you are sending people. Three of those rows send the buyer somewhere you do not control, and two of them keep the decision inside the video.
The two things creators should show
First, the mechanism, not the number. A creator saying that this is the version with the bigger jar, or that this is the size sold only in the app, gives the viewer something that survives a price change. A percentage does not survive anything.
Second, the moment. If there is a real reason that this week is different, a seasonal edition, a size that goes out of stock, a delivery window before a holiday, that reason belongs in the video and it does more work than any product demonstration.
Both are things a creator can say naturally, and neither turns the video into an advert for a promotion.
The trap: teaching people to wait
Here is the part that gets skipped, and it is the reason some brands are right to be nervous about all of this.
Promotion led content converts better in the short run and trains the audience in the long run. A brand whose UGC always arrives attached to a discount teaches its best customers a simple rule: never buy at full price. Those customers do not leave, which is what makes it hard to see. They just stop buying between promotions, and the brand ends up running promotions to reach the volume its own promotions destroyed.
How to promote without training the wait
Attach the urgency to something that cannot repeat.
Availability, a limited edition, a format, a delivery deadline, a bundle that exists once: all of these create a reason to buy now that does not become a rule about your pricing. A viewer who learns that your seasonal size sells out has learned something about scarcity. A viewer who learns that you discount every third week has learned something about your prices.
If you do run a percentage, put an end on it and honour the end. The brands that suffer most are the ones whose sale never quite finishes.
When you cannot discount at all
Plenty of brands here have no room to move on price, and this is where UGC earns its cost.
If you cannot make today cheaper, make today certain. A creator showing the product arriving, showing what is inside the box, showing how it looks after a month, is removing the risk that makes people wait. The person hesitating in the aisle is often not waiting for a better price at all. They are waiting to be sure, and certainty is something a video can supply and a discount cannot.
That is also the version that ages well. A video about a promotion is worthless the day the promotion ends. A video that makes the product feel like a safe purchase keeps working for a year.
Keep reading
- Portuguese Wine and Food Abroad: The Name Problem
- In Portugal, Your Price Is Public
- UGC for Startups in Portugal
- European or Brazilian Portuguese for Your UGC
- The complete UGC guide for Portugal
Frequently asked questions
Should the creator say the price out loud?
Only if it will still be true in three months. Otherwise name what makes it worth the price, and let the price live on the page where you can change it.
Does promotional UGC hurt the brand?
Not by itself. It hurts when it is the only kind you make, because that is what teaches the audience the rule. A mix where most videos are about the product and a few are about a genuine occasion does not create the habit.
What if a competitor is always cheaper?
Then price is not your argument and you should stop making videos that invite the comparison. Show the thing they cannot copy quickly: durability, service, where it is made, what happens when something goes wrong.
How do we handle app only prices in a video?
Say the mechanism plainly, that this price exists in the app, rather than showing a number with no explanation. A viewer who understands why two prices exist trusts both of them. A viewer who does not assumes the higher one is the trick.