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Let’s be honest, most of our quick coffee breaks are spent getting lost in doom scrolling—from the internet's latest song obsession to pets doing the cutest tricks—and we don’t even realize it. Shrinking attention spans are especially a challenge for the businesses because if the content doesn’t hook viewers instantly they simply move on and a potential customer is lost within seconds. It is, therefore, no surprise that video shopping is becoming so popular, combining the engaging power of video with the ease of online shopping.
Video remains the most engaging medium, perfect for converting casual browsers into buying customers. According to Vidico, 82% of consumers have been convinced to buy a product/service by a video. Clearly, if you're not using video marketing, you're missing out on a lot of potential customers.
Consider Sephora, which has used live-streamed makeup tutorials to engage millions of viewers, offering not just valuable tips but a quick purchase option. Any business can use video shopping in its own unique way to grow. In this quick guide, we’ll walk you through the basics of video shopping and how you can make it work for you.
What is video shopping?
Imagine a video where someone is trying on clothes or using one of the headphones from your wishlist. Instead of just watching, you can now click on the products featured in the video and purchase them right away without leaving that page at all.
Video shopping or shoppable video is a seamless blend of video content and e-commerce, allowing customers to shop directly from videos. These videos can take various forms—live-streams, demos, influencer reviews, or even product tutorials. The key feature of video shopping is its interactivity; viewers are not just watching it but can actively engage with it by clicking on embedded links that lead to product pages, making purchases easier and quicker.
Whether you're running a small business or a big brand, video shopping gives you endless ways to connect with your audience in fresh, engaging ways, breaking away from the usual repetitive messaging.
Why is video shopping so popular?
Today, consumers are spoiled with choices. With so much content competing for attention, video shopping helps businesses gain a competitive edge by engaging viewers and providing instant gratification. This isn’t just one of the many latest trends, it is a complete shift in how consumers interact with brands and vice versa.
As consumers increasingly crave personalized, immersive experiences, video shopping offers the perfect way to meet those demands. There are a few key reasons why video shopping is quickly gaining popularity:
1. Increased engagement through videos
Video content is inherently more engaging than static images or text. It’s dynamic, visual, and often more entertaining. Studies by Wyzowl show that 89% of consumers want to see more videos from brands in 2024. When you combine this with the convenience of online shopping, it creates an experience that’s hard to resist.
2. Higher conversion rates due to convenience
We live in a world where people want things quickly. Video shopping taps into this instant gratification opportunity well by allowing viewers to see a product in action and buy it immediately. No need to search for the product separately—it is all right there at your fingertips.
Video shopping simplifies the purchasing process like never before. Instead of browsing through multiple pages, customers can buy products with just a click while watching a video. This reduced friction often results in higher conversion rates.
3. Better customer experience with higher trust
Video shopping allows customers to see products in action, which can help reduce doubts and provide a clearer understanding of how the product fits into their lives. Customers can get a better sense of how a product looks, works, or fits, reducing the uncertainty that sometimes comes with online shopping. This experience can lead to greater satisfaction and fewer returns.
4. Improved SEO and better shareability
Video shopping is great for businesses too. Search engines favor video content, and websites that incorporate videos are more likely to rank higher in search results. This means that video shopping not only enhances user experience but also attracts more organic traffic.
Video content is highly shareable on social media platforms, which can significantly extend a brand's reach. Shoppable videos can be shared across channels like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, driving traffic back to the brand’s website and generating sales.
Types of videos used in video shopping
1. Live streaming
Live streaming is a complete game-changer for how businesses connect with people. It's all happening in real-time, so viewers can watch stuff go down as it happens, chat with hosts, and even get involved with things like polls or Q&A sessions. This kind of direct interaction not only makes viewers feel more connected to the brand but also gives instant feedback and insights.
Businesses of every size can benefit from live streaming—it lets them show off products, point out useful features, and answer questions right there and then. This can make shoppers way more comfortable about hitting that buy button, increasing conversions.
Using live streaming is best when you want to build engagement, increase community interaction, and improve real-time selling.
2. Pre-recorded shoppable videos
These are pre-recorded videos embedded with clickable links that viewers can use to purchase products directly. They often feature high-quality production and are designed to showcase products in a visually appealing manner.
These videos can be embedded on websites, shared on social media, or featured in email marketing campaigns. YouTube’s shoppable ads are a great example of this format.
This is useful when you want a seamless shopping experience irectly from an engaging video content, or if you are running a video campaign to achieve sales goals.
3. Interactive product demos
These videos focus on demonstrating how a product works, its features, and its benefits. They are educational and designed to help consumers make informed purchasing decisions by showing the product in action.
What makes them unique is the ability to click on specific parts of the video to explore more or make a purchase. Instagram Shopping often uses this format, allowing viewers to click on tagged products in videos.
Such videos are best when you are educating customers, highlighting product benefits, and reducing purchase hesitations.
4. Influencer video shopping
Brands often collaborate with influencers to create content around their products, integrating shoppable links within the video. This approach leverages the influencer's audience and credibility to drive sales.
Influencers typically talk about products naturally within their content, creating an authentic and engaging shopping experience. These videos can be pre-recorded or live-streamed and often feature personal endorsements, styling tips, or unique use-cases by the influencer.
This type offers enormous benefits of tapping into established audiences, trust and relatability, and driving conversions through personal recommendations.
5. Unboxing and review videos
These feature a person–an influencer or a customer–opening a product’s packaging and checking out its contents for the first time. Unboxing videos really catch that thrill of opening something new and can impact buying decisions by showing you exactly what you'll get when you buy.
In fact, Milton used unboxing videos as one of the shoppable videos and they saw 450 items added to cart directly from the videos and around 3% conversion rate from the videos alone. Similarly, customers or influencers reviewing products and sharing their personal experiences builds trust by providing an honest opinion from a user’s perspective.
This is a great way to generate excitement by using social proof, and works especially well for new launches.
Best Strategies for Video Shopping
1. Leverage influencers
Partnering with influencers who match the vibe of your brand can really ramp up the credibility and reach of your shoppable videos. They help you find the latest trends and add their own flavor to your content, making it feel more down-to-earth and genuine to their followers. Think of them as your temporary brand ambassadors to help make your products a no-brainer for their audience.
When to collaborate with influencers?
- When you're introducing a new product to the market, influencers can help generate buzz and excitement.
- If you're targeting a specific group or entering into new markets, teaming up with influencers who already connect with that crowd can be super helpful. They've got the trust and attention of the people you want to reach, which can make your campaign way more effective.
- During high-demand shopping times like the holidays or festivals, or when you are running special promotions, influencers can help you stand out amidst the noise.
2. Focus on quality content
Don't skimp on the visuals and sound—high production quality makes your videos a treat to watch. Investing in good lighting, crisp sound, and professional editing helps make everything look top-notch. But it's not just about looking good; it's also about engaging your viewers. Spice up your videos with interesting storytelling and clear demos to keep everyone watching. It is usually a great idea to use some video creation tools for results that stand out.
3. Optimize page speed
Imagine clicking on a video shopping link, only to find that the page is sluggish, and images or video clips only partially load. It’s frustrating to say the least and this type of experience is a sure way to lose your customers.
Therefore it is host your videos on optimized ecommerce video hosting platforms like Whatmore or Vimeo to avoid slowing down your page. Slow page load times can deter potential customers and negatively impact user experience. Choose video hosting services that maintain your site’s performance while delivering high-quality video content.
3. Integrate seamless shopping experiences
Make buying as easy as watching. When viewers decide they want what you’re showing, the next steps should be super simple. Keep those shoppable links obvious and simple to use, and get rid of any unnecessary steps that might make them think twice about buying. Smooth experience from watching to purchasing means fewer dropped carts and more sales.
Tips on providing seamless shopping experience to your customers:
- Make the buttons or tags that stand out, so viewers know exactly where to click to purchase the product.
- Minimize the steps required to complete a purchase. Ideally, viewers should be able to go from the first click to check out in just a few clicks.
- Use pop-up prompts within the video to highlight products so that viewers can purchase directly from the video.
- If your video shows multiple products, offer a "shop the look" option where viewers can buy everything in the video with a single click.
4. Utilize analytics
Track the performance of your shoppable videos. Which ones keep people watching? What’s making them hit the buy button? Dig into the data to see what your audience likes and tweak your strategy to scale what works. Something that works for one business might not work for another similar business, so find out what your unique audience likes.
5. Promote across channels
Don’t just park your shoppable videos on one platform; spread the love. Show them off on your website, pop them into your social media feeds, and mention them in your emails. The more places your videos appear, the wider net you cast, reaching more eyeballs and pulling more potential buyers into your orbit.
Real results: How video shopping transforms businesses
1. Sephora: Growing exponentially with video shopping
Sephora, a global leader in the beauty industry, has effectively used the power of video shopping to drive remarkable success - growing to a revenue of $37.2 billion. They focused on creating a great video shopping strategy that’s more than just selling—it's about showing and teaching.
In their videos, you’ll find a vast range of video types from how-to tutorials and product reviews to sneak peeks behind the scenes. They are really trying to connect with their customers and help them understand how to use their products in everyday life.
What really works for Sephora is how they connect through their videos. They’re not just giving you the hard sell; they’re teaching you, engaging you with beauty tips that make you want to try what they’re showing right then and there. And if you do want to buy, it's super easy—just a click from the video to your cart. This is where the magic of video shopping comes in.
They have cracked the code:
Easy Buying Experience = Happy and Loyal Customers
2. Aachho: Embracing heritage with latest tech
Aachho, one of India's leading online ethnic fashion brands, has built a niche for itself by celebrating the country's rich cultural heritage. However, despite its initial success, Aachho faced challenges in maintaining engagement with its growing customer base.
As the market became increasingly crowded with similar products, Aachho found that their traditional marketing methods were losing steam, leading to stagnant growth and fewer spikes in customer interest. They realized the need for a fresh way to showcase their unique brand value and reconnect with their audience.
They understood that they needed an engaging channel and interesting storytelling to stand out amongst the competition. For this, they decided to provide their users with a video shopping experience. This approach allowed viewers to explore products in a dynamic and interactive environment, making shopping an integral part of the video experience.
To implement this new strategy effectively, they needed a solution that was easy to integrate, personalized to their needs, and had advanced analytics. Aacho partnered with Whatmore as their video shopping solution because it fit all their requirements.
With this shift to shoppable videos on their website, Aachho turned passive browsers into active buyers, achieving amazing results.
- 30% increase in conversions, increasing sales.
- 50% improvement in organic traffic, driving more visitors to the site naturally and therefore more leads.
By using video content effectively, they not only stood out in a competitive market but also created a more engaging shopping experience for their customers, while growing rapidly.
3. Philips
Philips India, a leader in electronics and healthcare, has taken a significant step forward by incorporating shoppable videos into their online strategy. This move has not only made shopping easier for their customers but also increased the average value of orders placed through their website.
Even with a strong lineup of products, Philips India struggled to keep customers engaged on their website. With the emerging fierce competition, finding effective ways to showcase products and simplify the purchasing process became more important by each day.
To tackle this, Philips India introduced shoppable videos with Whatmore as their partner across their e-commerce platform. These videos allowed customers to see products in action and buy them without leaving the video.
The result was impressive: a 20% increase in the average order value. This jump came from customers buying more confidently after watching the products being used and demonstrated in the videos.
Wrapping up: Increase your revenue with video shopping
Video shopping is more than just a trend—it's a practical way to engage with customers and increase sales. By integrating video shopping into your website, you can provide customers with an informative and interesting shopping experience that not only showcases your products but also makes purchasing them as straightforward as possible.
With Whatmore, you can use your video content to increase engagement and conversion rates with a video-first shopping experience where customers can see your products in action and buy them without hesitation.
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