Sell a product online? If you do, you know the frustration that comes with trying to close that final sale. You don’t have much information about what stops users from hitting the Buy button, but you do know that without seeing or touching a product in person, most online shoppers are nervous about making a decision they’ll regret.
Luckily, video can help take a lot of those doubts away.
From showing shoppers how to use a product, to demonstrating its unique features and benefits, video provides that final push that can help turn a visitor into a customer.
We asked seven ecommerce experts to weigh in on how video is changing the ecommerce landscape – here’s what they had to say!
1. Use video to tell a story.
Video marketing is changing ecommerce – and that trend will only increase. For a while, you could get by just creating a selfie-style video of your product, but now there are so many great videos on social media that you need to do something to stand out. You need to know how to tell a story through video.
William Harris
Ecommerce Consultant at Elumynt
2. Demo your products with 360 videos.
Video adds an important visual element to product pages that shows your products in context. Use it to demo what you’re selling and give shoppers the visual data they’d get if they were browsing in person with 360 views.
3. Tailor your video for mobile audiences.
The use of video on mobile will change the way retailers use it in the near future. Consumption of video on mobile devices is growing rapidly, and this presents an opportunity for retailers to reach a mobile audience, and to convert them more effectively. More and more video will be tailored for mobile, like the use of vertical video, for example.
4. Commit to the investment of video marketing and reap the rewards.
Video gives you visibility on the second-largest search engine in the world: YouTube. Without video content, you’re missing out on loads of potential views and connections with your customers. Video also allows you to showcase your brand and products in a highly dynamic, visual way. A well-done, 30-second product video can often replace 1,000+ words of text and do a more effective job merchandising your product. Finally, product pages with well-done videos convert customers into buyers at higher rates that picture-only pages.
Are there downsides to ecommerce video marketing? Yes. To do well, video takes a significant investment in time and equipment. But if you’re willing to commit to the equipment, learning curve, and a regular shooting schedule, you’ll be well-rewarded for the effort.
Andrew Youderian
Founder of eCommerceFuelJobs, a job board for eCommerce-specific roles
5. Include captions in your video.
Make sure you include captions in your video that outline your unique value proposition. Many people watch videos without audio, so it’s essential that your message gets conveyed regardless of sound.
In addition, never use any bumpers or intros for sales videos. Get straight to the point and try to grab a user’s attention in the first three seconds.
6. Use customer testimonials to tell your story.
The most important marketing video tip boils down to one word: testimonials. If you simply had a compilation video of testimonials from REAL customers, you would be on your way to a winning video. Take this one step further and include reviews and testimonials on the product page of your site and you’ll have a winning combination for social proof. But don’t forget that overall sales conversions will be most impacted by focusing on low-hanging fruit.
7. Increase conversions with informational videos.
Your website visitors don’t always read. That’s a fact, and we’ve proven this countless of times with eye tracking and usability testing analyses. This often creates a challenge: what if the product you’re selling has features or benefits that require some explanation, but visitors simply skim through it?
In our work with numerous skincare and beauty companies, we’ve found that people often wonder how to apply the products, which ones to use first in a skincare routine, and more, all while browsing product pages. In these cases, the product descriptions often addressed those questions, but was usually completely ignored!
Using informational videos on these product pages broke down the information in a different way and visually answered some of the customers’ key concerns. This increased conversions nearly every single time. That being said, we’ve also identified a downside – when the videos looked too much like advertisements, meaning they weren’t really useful or didn’t add value, conversions often decreased or stayed the same.
The lesson? Video marketing can be quite valuable in ecommerce and can increase conversions when a brand has to show a product in more detail.
But don’t assume any single video will either increase or decrease conversions. Hundreds of factors can make a video either succeed or completely flop, so make sure to test, test and test!
Raphael Paulin-Daigle
Founder & CEO at SplitBase
What are you waiting for? If you want to launch your next product video, our creative producers can help you get started.