Success Story
Cernucci is a London-inspired brand that focuses on urban jewellery and, since 2022, has also expanded into streetwear. Inspired by hip-hop, football and urban culture, the brand was originally founded in 2018 by fashion enthusiast Fred Buckley, who is half British and half Brazilian.
His jewellery designs soon gained a fanbase amongst his friends, and Cernucci was born. Today, the brand is also sold in UK Harvey Nichols stores and online with Flannels, as well as in the US and Europe. Cernucci’s head office is in Manchester, UK.
Built around bold design, trend-led drops, and a strong social identity, the brand has developed a loyal following across the UK, Europe and the US. Influencer partnerships, paid social, and a strong focus on e-commerce performance has enabled the brand to scale rapidly.
Key KPIs delivered by Taggstar
As a digital-first retailer with fast-moving product lines, Cernucci is constantly seeking ways to enhance the on-site experience, boost conversions and maximise revenue from every visitor.
When the company first met with Taggstar in January 2025, it wanted to also add user-generated content to its site to create a more community-driven experience for its customers.
It hoped this would drive additional conversions and orders; however, it was essential for Cernucci to maintain its premium feel, ensuring that the on-site experience remained true to the brand’s style and identity.
Cernucci ran a 70-day test of social proof messaging across its UK and US websites between the end of June and the beginning of September. The test demonstrated statistical significance after a month, but Cernucci were keen to extend the test to be confident that Social Proof would continue to deliver uplifts.
All seven real-time messaging types from Taggstar’s Social Proof Pro Plan were used across the full funnel. The Social Proof Pro Plan, one of Taggstar’s most recent innovations, allows smaller or emerging speciality brands and retailers access to the same social proof technology used by many of retail’s giants today. Messages included ‘IN DEMAND – Sold 27 times in the last 5 days’ and ‘TOP CHOICE – Added to bag 100+ times in the last 5 days’.
“We have been thrilled at the strong results that Taggstar’s social proof messaging has delivered across all our trading metrics. The ROI for the test itself was strong, but at 3,272% ROI for the full 12-month contract is even more impressive.”
The proof-of-concept resulted in a 3.15% uplift in conversion over 70 days, delivering more than 460 additional orders and generating an £81,000+ increase in revenue. Average Order Value increased by more than £2.
The 70-day test delivered an ROI of 488%. Extrapolated across the full 12-month contract, that’s equal to a 3,272% increase in ROI and additional sales totalling £298,880.
Outside of the test, Taggstar also now supports Cernucci’s German region with localized translations of social proof messaging.
Cernucci and the Taggstar team are continuing to work together to develop the brand’s social proof messaging strategy, as well as testing a new UI for seasonal campaigns.
Cernucci has already tested animated icons versus 2D messaging. Animated icons are an additional option for social proof messaging that help further capture customer interest and attention by adding movement to message icons. They have since rolled out across the site for Cernucci’s recent Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns.
Victoria Pearson, Director of Ecommerce at Cernucci, says: “We have been thrilled at the strong results that Taggstar’s social proof messaging has delivered across all our trading metrics. The ROI for the test itself was strong, but at 3,272% ROI for the full 12-month contract is even more impressive.”
“As well as delivering strong results, working with Taggstar has been stress-free, with the team determined to help us achieve the best results we can. We look forward to seeing how else social proof messaging can help us boost sales, conversion and better help our customers.”
Marjorie Leonidas, CEO at Taggstar, says: “Taggstar’s Social Proof Pro Plan can offer smaller and specialty retailers access to the same sort of uplifts that their larger rivals often see from full adoption of our enterprise offer. Providing this level of accessibility to evolving retailers and brands is essential to levelling the playing field for all, allowing the power of social proof messaging to grow with them.”
