Shoppable videos are becoming increasingly popular, and for a good reason. It provides a means for potential buyers to discover featured products and buy them directly from the video through links. 

For business owners, shoppable videos change how they interact with their target audience—giving their business a new level of convenience and engagement to generate sales. 

In this blog post, we’ll walk you through how to leverage shoppable videos and make them part of your marketing strategy to grow your business. 

What are shoppable videos?

A shoppable video is an interactive video to generate sales for ecommerce brands. Viewers can check the products on display and click or tap the hotspots with clickable links to buy products online, usually within the app or platform hosted by the video.

It combines entertainment and ecommerce with a host, influencer, or brand ambassador talking about a product. It’s the modern version of infomercial shopping with a seamless product purchase cycle.

You can create shoppable videos on Amazon Live, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and other lesser-known platforms like Buywith and TalkshopLive. 

Benefits of shoppable videos for ecommerce businesses

Why bother with shoppable videos for your brand? Here are a few benefits of using shoppable videos in your business:

• New means of generating sales – Shoppable videos are one of the most popular and new means of generating sales for your business. You’re helping your buyers discover your products while putting you in front of a new audience and helping them with buying decisions – faster. 
• Makes the customer journey easier – Shoppable videos aim to make the customer journey as seamless as possible. They go straight from the discovery stage to ecommerce and purchase all in a few clicks.
• Fun and engaging content – It helps you create content that showcases your products and brands and makes content your ideal customers can enjoy and interact with.
• Allows you to retarget customers – If you have a customer who’s purchased before but has drifted away from you or follows you passively on social media. You can use your shoppable videos for retargeting or re-engaging these customers.
• Creates content you can use on other channels – Repurposing the shoppable video is basically recycling the content on other platforms, which you can do to increase and enhance your brand’s reach.

How to create shoppable videos that convert

Not sure where to start to create shoppable videos that convert your customers? Here are a few tips to get started and convert from your content.

Planning and scripting your video

The first thing to do is work out what channel you’re going to create your shoppable videos on and then start to plan and script accordingly. Different styles and products work on different platforms. Even if you’re creating a more informal video, planning and scripting can elevate your content and outline what you need to talk about in the video.

Choosing the right platform for your shoppable videos

Different audiences use different platforms – this could be based on age, location, or areas of interest, among other reasons. For example, TikTok skews a little younger, and YouTube is more popular with gamers. Take the cue from your audience on where you should hold your shoppable videos for maximum conversion.

Integrating your shoppable videos with your website

You can add your shoppable videos to your product pages to give a closer insight into your products. It also helps to sell the benefits of your products. You can also use shoppable videos on your product pages to answer common questions that customers might have. It can help to convert a browser into a customer. You can use them on your product homepage too.

Creating engaging content

Part of the reason people love shoppable content is that it’s engaging and interesting. Use voiceover, narration, or a presenter to talk directly to your audience.

Make it clear that your audience can engage and use shoppable links within the first shots – don’t be afraid to go over information again and reiterate the benefits of the products. You don’t need to overcrowd the shot or link every single product. Sometimes it’s about working out what works for your audience. A good quality video will always work best.

Optimizing shoppable videos for search engines

Make sure you think about hashtags when creating your video – you need to use relevant keywords, trending hashtags, and information to help your target audience realize it’s for them. This will increase the visibility and searchability of your products, brand, and video content.

Promoting your shoppable videos on social media

Tease and trail the shoppable video date and time in advance to build interest, engagement, and awareness. Add it to your homepage or send it out in your email newsletter. 

On channels like Instagram, you can ask users to set up reminders for content. You must also distribute your videos across social media, email marketing, and your website afterward. This means you get the most from the content and that it works hard for you.

Measuring and analyzing video content

Conversions and sales are probably the most important metrics to measure and analyze. Ideally, you want to have some goals and measurements ahead of the stream to be clear on what you’re focusing on as a sign of success. Viewers and engagements are good to watch, but they don’t always equal sales.

Tools and apps to create video content

Creating shoppable video content needs your ecommerce platforms and social channels to be integrated. You can usually set this up by connecting your ecommerce platform with your social media accounts and creating video content from there. For example, this might be the TikTok or Instagram Shop apps on Shopify or WordPress.

For video editing, use in-app or video creation tools like iMovie or Premiere Pro. As video content has become more important across the social media and marketing landscape, the free tools on offer have improved and are better for creating quality video content.

Takeaways

Ecommerce is predicted to make up 50% of all global retail sales by 2026. In a survey by Instagram, nearly 50% of people said they shop on the platform weekly. 

Social shopping and shoppable videos are getting more and more mainstream. They don’t have to involve a huge financial investment to make amazing, engaging videos, which makes it a great option for smaller ecommerce brands. Your target audience – particularly younger ones – will expect it; if they don’t find it, they’ll go elsewhere.