Interactive Videos in eCommerce
As purchasing becomes ever simpler, we see brands discover new ways of streamlining buying. Staying in know about what works best is essential. You want streamlined UX, you want higher CTR and you want people to enjoy your content.
The most effective way to utilise shoppable content is through the use of interactive video. These days, many brands are placing these new types of ads within interactive videos in order to lessen the gap between the product and customer by using engagement as a tool.
Videos are big business in the online world of marketing, with 7 in 10 people reacting positively to a brand after watching a well-made and brand-appropriate video, not to mention the fact that almost 40 billion videos are streamed across the world each year and that 80% of millennials use videos to make purchasing choices.
All of these factors combine with the engagement potential of interactive videos and shoppable content make new, shoppable videos the future of e-commerce.
What is a Shoppable Video?
Shoppable video is a form of content that is displayed on the landing page or website of a brand. These videos can be shared and displayed via various social media channels, including YouTube, in order to attract customers and entice them directly to the product or purchasing pages. Shoppable interactive videos allow customers to view a wide range of products while consuming the video content and can simply click on any they like the look of to be taken directly to that product page, or another page that contains valuable information, including reviews, details, a buy button and contact info.
The main purpose of shoppable videos is to satisfy the desire that a customer gets for immediate purchasing after they’ve seen an item they like in a video. The videos themselves are often related to the brand and products, creating engaging stories and enticing visuals to draw viewers in.
The more powerful nature of shoppable videos, when compared to other forms of content, means that they’ll always be around. Interactive video offers a sense of further clarification surrounding both the brand itself and the story they’re trying to tell, including any offers. A brand’s story is the living, breathing embodiment of who they are and what they stand for, which is out in the world. More real and relatable stories live for longer, shine brighter and do better. The user-friendly process has the retailer controlling UI and UX design and improving engagement.
Why is Shoppable Video Effective?
Shoppable video is so effective because it provides opportunities to satisfy the immediate desire to purchase while also engaging customers. Videos can serve as extra motivation to purchase while the shoppable links within give the customers the chance to buy immediately. Video is also proven to help increase customer retention, thanks to its engaging nature, so it can help encourage people to come back to the site and repeat their simple and engaging shopping experience.
As shoppable videos give an impression of your brand, the well-made and impressive ones do well to persuade viewers to buy and the shoppable features allow them to do so before they change their minds.
How Does Shoppable Video Work?
Shoppable content blends together the worlds of content and commerce, meaning that interactive videos with shoppable content remove the gap between consuming video content and making a purchase. Shoppable features are integrated into the video itself, reducing the number of steps in the sales funnel that a customer needs to take from start to purchase.
With shoppable content, there’s no need to remember a product that caught your eye within a video, and no need to go looking for it on the brand’s website. You just need to click on the product within the video and be shown all the details you need to make a decision to purchase, as well as the option to purchase.
5 Reasons You Should Use Shoppable Video in eCommerce
Brand Loyalty
A lot of retailers can struggle with attracting customers and then retaining them through engagement. This can be helped by uploading video content onto your website to allow customers to see real-life uses of the products you sell as well as letting the brands share added value. The shoppable video features and nature of the immediate purchase reduces the frustration of the customer linked to redirects, pop ups and having too many steps in the process. Shoppable video improves the overall customer experience, therefore improving brand loyalty.
Improved Conversions
Brands who choose to utilise shoppable video content can see an increase in conversion rates as high as 30%. Exposing customers to these videos as much as possible, when relevant to do so, helps to improve customer retention during the process as it motivates them to remain on the site for longer. It’s already been proven that videos can substantially improve conversion rates for a brand, and shoppable videos that utilise interactive content features promotes growth by reducing the number of steps needed to complete a conversion.
Sales Boosts
Videos are seen as a useful and helpful tool that can help customers make purchasing decisions. Using videos on your website or in your marketing strategy can significantly boost sales, driving up the average value of order by up to 40%. The use of shoppable videos mean that customers don’t have to do as much to make a sale, and they don’t have to navigate the website in order to find multiple products, as they can simply click on more than one thing from the video and be shown the details. This decrease in time investment directly leads to an increase in sales orders and order value, especially when the opportunity to upsell is considered.
Attention
The thing about interactive videos, and we’re talking about all types of interactive videos here, not just shoppable ones, is that it holds people’s attention for longer. You can easily create a simple shoppable video, but you can also go step further and create a complete interactive video with shoppable features. Anything that requires interaction from the viewer is going to hold their attention better, meaning they’re more likely to be engaged and click to make a purchase.
Engagement
The engagement of videos is high. They’re moving images, that we’re proven to process faster than still images or text, and they can be incredibly creative. Interactive and shoppable videos go even further than this. Shoppable videos enhance engagement levels because they can make the viewer feel like they’re a part of the story. They feel as though they can directly interact with the brand rather than just being talked at.
Brands Who are Using Interactive Shoppable Videos Right
Shoppable video can be utilised by everyone in the e-commerce space. From fashion brands to beauty products, technology to home improvement. Everyone can get involved and reap the benefits of the new trend in interactive video. There are already several brands who are stepping into the shoppable arena, empowering their customers and improving their sales.
Reducing the gap between interest, purchase and conversion has never seen a better improvement than with the use of shoppable videos, making them a highly ideal and valuable tool that leads to improved conversion rates and better brand loyalty.
In order to stay one step ahead of the competition, it’s important that brands utilise this shoppable video trend and get on board. Producing shoppable video content for their websites. A good shoppable video is creative, engaging, targeting to the target market and makes the customer’s life easier while also entertaining them. Bettering the customer experience in this way increases ROI and customer engagement, which are important qualities among the millennials and other, younger generations.
Here are just a few examples of the brands who are already using shoppable videos to their advantage:
Kate Spade
Kate Spade, a clothing and accessories brand, released a wonderful video campaign back in 2016 that featured the famous actress, Anna Kendrick. The video, which showcased a range of products from the brand, featured shoppable features that allowed users to simply click on any number of products throughout the video and have them added to a cart at the end of the video.
Ted Baker
The Ted Baker shoppable interactive video give viewers a tour of a contemporary world, with models showing off various products while on the go. During the video, there are little icons that float over the models that customers can click on. Once clicked, the customer sees a list of each item of clothing that the model is wearing along with a link to add the product into their cart after selecting the correct size and desired colour.
Puma
Back in 2015, Puma was one of the leading brands in experimental shoppable video. The big-name sportswear giant collaborated with a technology provider in order to allow viewers of an ongoing video campaign to click items within the video to instantly purchase. Puma products worn by the actors in the videos were labelled with the logo and clicking on that logo would produce a pop up containing more information.
Shoppable Videos: The Future of E-Commerce
The biggest and most successful brands are the ones that plan ahead. These brands are beginning to align the purchasing process with the use of interactive and shoppable videos in order to increase conversions. The incorporation of shoppable videos into the world of e-commerce can serve to streamline the online sales and marketing processes. The information that can be collected from each shoppable video allows brands to collect valuable data about their customers. Such insights allow the industry, and individual brands, to further adapt their strategies in order to further the increase of conversions in the future.
Shoppable videos are absolutely the future of e-commerce. With attention spans dwindling with each generation and the introduction of newer, faster technology and ways to consume content, it’s vital that brands find a way to speed up the buying process on their e-commerce websites. Shoppable video does this by removing entire steps and preventing the loss of custom due to the sales funnel simply being too long.
Conclusion
Shoppable video lets brands direct a viewer’s attention and focus towards something specific. Engaging content that holds their attention and reduces the amount of time it takes for them to complete a purchase is a goldmine in conversion increase. These kinds of videos are simple to integrate into your overall marketing strategy and it give brands an active and non-invasive way to interact with their customer base while attracting more custom and improving retention.
The future is definitely in the introduction of more shoppable content at the forefront of brands’ websites and marketing efforts. Data shows that the higher engagement, higher conversion and general favourability of shoppable content when compared to the traditional way of finding products and manually reading about them, checking reviews and adding to cart make it a profitable endeavour for all that venture into its depths.
Brands big and small can get involved with the shoppable interactive video trend, using simple shoppable features or introducing entire interactive videos with several features on top of the shoppable element.
You can do whatever your budget and creativity allow, and you’d e surprised at how simple it is to get shoppable content put onto your website and shared on your social media accounts. This is something that is already working. It’s something that people want, and it’s definitely something that you should get involved with.