In today's world, e-commerce has become an essential aspect of retail sales. However, traditional e-commerce platforms can be tedious and time-consuming, requiring customers to navigate through a website, select products, and check out.
This is where shoppable video comes in – a revolutionary technology that allows customers to discover products directly from a video, helping to reduce the purchase journey.
What is Shoppable Video?
A shoppable video is created by taking regular video content, and transforming it. An interactive overlay is added to content, with clickable hotspots encouraging viewers to visit product pages, or even add products to cart, directly from the video. It is a new form of e-commerce that integrates video content with product listings, making it easier for customers to shop. Shoppable video removes the need for customers to see a product in a video, then painstakingly have to find this on a brand’s website. The products are contained within the video itself.
Advantages of Shoppable Video
- Enhanced Shopping Experience: Shoppable video provides customers with an enhanced shopping experience by allowing them to view products in action, making it easier for them to make purchasing decisions. 84% of consumers said that they had been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.
- Time-saving: With shoppable video, customers can discover products directly from the video, eliminating the need to navigate through a website. This saves time and makes the shopping experience more convenient. Brands can therefore take advantage of impulse purchases from viewers who were more easily able to find products through video.
- Increased Engagement: Shoppable video can increase customer engagement by providing an interactive experience. By allowing customers to click on products directly from the video, they are encouraged to stay engaged with the content for longer periods.
- Extensive data collection: By taking advantage of the increased engagement and dwell time, brands can collect data detailing a customer's interaction with the video. Were particular products more popular, did some customers hover over the ‘add to cart’ button for a certain product? This is just two examples of the wealth of consumer data that can be obtained through shoppable video.
- Improved Conversion Rates: Shoppable video can improve conversion rates by making it easier for customers to purchase products. By allowing customers to make purchases directly from the video, the checkout process becomes streamlined and more efficient. Taking advantage of the extensive data collected from shoppable video and re-targeting consumers based upon this new data can increase conversion rates further.
Disadvantages of Shoppable Video
- Technical Challenges: Shoppable video can be more technically challenging than traditional video content. Designing clickable links and integrating them into the video can be difficult, requiring specialized technical skills. This is where companies like Smartzer can help, providing a user friendly interface and dedicated technical support. Smartzer makes adding shoppable hotspots an easy and seamless process.
- Limited Consumer Awareness: Shoppable video is still a relatively new technology and may be unfamiliar to some consumers. Adding educational ‘shop the video’ overlays, or gifs encouraging users to click products can mitigate against this. As a brand utilizes more shoppable content, their customers become more aware of the format, encouraging higher interactivity rates.
Conclusion
Shoppable video is a game-changer for the e-commerce industry. It provides customers with an enhanced shopping experience, saves time and increases engagement. Extensive data collection helps to contribute to the already increased conversion rate. However, shoppable video does have a set of challenges. These challenges however, with the support of companies like Smartzer, can be overcome, with shoppable video proving an extremely useful tool in e-commerce. It is likely to become even more prevalent in the future, and those who embrace it early on will have a distinct advantage over those who don't. With the rise of mobile and video content consumption, shoppable video is an innovative solution that will change the way we shop online.
To find out more about how shoppable video can transform your content, get in touch with us here.
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