You know it isn’t easy to keep your shoppers interested in your ecommerce store when they have so many other online stores to choose from. You must make it easy, engaging, and interactive for them to shop with you.
So you implemented shoppable videos in your online store. However, the bounce rate of your eCommerce business is higher than a kangaroo 
Even though shoppable videos can be a powerful tool for driving conversions and boosting engagement, not all brands can effectively leverage the potential of shoppable videos due to a lack of understanding, insufficient creativity, or inability to integrate the technology smoothly into their existing user interface.
That’s why we created this list of 9 best practices with real-life examples showcasing how to create shoppable videos that can drive sales and enhance your customer’s user experience.
What are shoppable videos?
Shoppable videos are interactive video content showcasing a company’s products and enabling viewers to instantly buy those products with just a click.
Shoppable video is a combination of traditional video with eCommerce functionality – mimicking the in-store shopping experience that resonates with your audiences and engages them better.
Here’s a shoppable video example from RIFRUF – the first design-driven dog shoe brand.
The company’s CEO Peter Liu spent approximately two years sketching, designing, and testing many shoe model prototypes before launching RIFRUF.
However, the challenge was most dog owners believed dog shoes weren’t a necessity. So RIFRUF wanted to educate and engage with them to show how their products look, how to use them, and most importantly, why they should use them for their dog.
Now RIFRUF could either stick to the traditional approach of displaying static images of their dog shoes or showcase it through interactive shoppable videos on their website.
They chose the latter option and could generate +$50K in added revenue in just six months.
On their homepage, you can see a section on “Check out what our RIFRUF pack is saying,” showcasing their shoes through shoppable videos. And on their product pages, they have a dedicated “Help Section” helping shoppers with depth information about their product and how to order the right size.
Vitaliy Verbitskiy, head of Marketing at Videowise, believes the video shopping experience can increase engagement rate on websites by up to 10X.
Interesting?
Now allow me to show you the top five benefits of using shoppable videos in your online store.
5 benefits of using shoppable videos in eCommerce
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift from physical stores to online shopping by roughly five years. The pandemic has increased online shopping behavior, with consumers spending more time and money online.
However, consumers usually do not know what they want or which product will best suit them. By implementing shoppable videos, you can give your consumers a richer shopping experience and convince them how your product can solve their pain.
Allow me to share some key advantages of using shoppable videos:
- Improved shopping experience
Shoppable videos make it convenient for buyers to get a feel how the product would look in reality – leading to the same level of actual product knowledge, but all are more effective than static pictures.
With shoppable videos, merchants can create a seamless journey for their buyers from inspiration to purchase – making it as easy for the consumer to explore and shop items directly from videos. It also allows merchants to promote the brand in the video without sounding commercial.
- Increased customer engagement
Shoppable videos shorten the purchasing path for your consumers. It has the potential to satisfy the immediate purchasing desire that they get after seeing a product in a video.
By displaying shoppable videos to your viewers, you ensure they comprehensively understand your product. It also allows viewers to interact with the products and purchase without leaving the video.
Such interactive and immersive shopping experiences build customer trust and keep them engaged and interested in your brand.
- Boost instant sales with shoppable videos
Shoppable videos use embedded clickable links that enable people to buy your products right away without leaving the video. So, instead of putting product links in the description, which forces your viewers to leave the video and miss your marketing message, shoppable videos let people shop without leaving the video.
Such an interactive shopping experience makes it easy for customers to look through the videos and buy things as they see them – resulting in brands making direct and immediate sales.
- Embrace emotional shopping experiences
In static images, the actual shopping environment is missing leading to communication barriers between the brand and shoppers. The shoppable video addresses this challenge and combines television’s reach and emotional power with the ability to order products and services.
So when you introduce your shoppers to video-based content showcasing your product, it can trigger emotions. This emotional connection may lead to a positive tendency to purchase your product, encourage shoppers to revisit your online shop in the future, and also prompt them to share the link with other potential customers.
- Helps in purchase decisions
Shoppable videos are becoming increasingly popular as they provide your consumers with an immersive experience that includes product demonstrations and related information, allowing them to make informed decisions.
A survey showed participants’ clear preference for shoppable videos compared to still product pictures, attributing their preference to the details available in the videos, including available sizes, prices, colors, and other attributes associated with the items.
Such comprehensive information enables customers to make better assessments before finalizing a purchase.
Interactive shopping: 9 Shoppable video strategies you need to know
Shoppable videos are becoming increasingly popular as the demand for video content rises. However, many e-commerce retailers fail to understand how to use shoppable videos effectively.
Here are 9 best practices to create shoppable video for your eCommerce store:
- Tell a compelling story: Engage your viewers within 5 seconds
Your audience faces heaps of content every day. So brands that dare to be different hook their audience in the first 5 seconds.
To grab your audience’s attention, you can do simple things like add surprising visuals, trending music, and sound effects.
Katelyn Bourgoin, the CEO & Lead Trainer at Customer Camp, stated,
Creating a narrative arc in your story takes your audience on a journey. Use storytelling techniques to weave a compelling story that can convey your message and inspire them to take actions.
Dan Siepen, Growth Marketing Consultant & Advisor for eCommerce Brands, having worked with numerous eCommerce brands, says,
“Some of the brands I’ve worked with, I’ve witnessed a great boost in sales (even upwards of 30%) when they incorporate a great hook and story into their video content. If you get these two components working harmoniously, you certainly increase your odds of engagement, shares, views, and ultimately, more conversions/sales.”
However, to create a compelling story, you need to understand who your target audiences are and their pain point and then give them a reason to buy your products by showing exactly how and why they should use your product.
Case in point: Apolla
The Joule: Unrivaled Support Barefoot Profile
From the beginning, Apolla’s videos grab the audience’s attention with a blend of music and sound. They showcase their products from multiple angles and hook the audience with their music and content.
The content in the first slide states, “The Joule offers unrivaled support barefoot or in any shoe,” which arouses curiosity and convinces the audience to learn more and (maybe) purchase.
- Set videos on autoplay
The autoplay feature of a shoppable video player mimics a TV channel and allows your viewers to play content without making an effort to pause and play the next content. However, shoppers can skip, rewind, and share a video.
Tony Angeleri, VP Business Development at Lone Wolf Paintball, says,
“With the autoplay feature on your side, you can clock higher conversions, leads, traffic, referrals, and even shares. After all, the audience does not have to pause and make an effort to play the video; all they have to do is find the played content interesting and convincing enough to engage further.”
Case in point: Dr.Squatch
When you scroll down the homepage of Dr.Squatch, you’ll come across the “Watch Squatch” section, which has various types of videos. I like the dynamic nature of the embed as it automatically scrolls and plays, catching the visitor’s eyes as they’re scrolling.
So instead of searching for the play button, your shoppers can easily select or hover over the shoppable video for it to auto-play easily.
They can maximize their viewing experience by expanding each video in the carousel. They also get to swipe right and find products they love among the many videos.
- Be concise and to-the-point
In today’s fast-paced digital world, people have a limited attention span, and shorter videos are more likely to capture their attention than long ones.
Moreover, people searching for a solution to their problem don’t care what your product does – they care how it will help them. So your video doesn’t need to be long to get your point across.
Instead, a video of 30 seconds to one-minute maximum is good for explaining your product or service concisely and effectively, capturing your audience’s attention.
Case in point: Tru Earth
This 6 seconds video from Tru Earth eco strips shows how their laundry eco-strips dissolve quickly – giving their customers a good idea about how it works.
Creating a concise video like this highlights the benefit of utilizing the strips providing viewers with a clear understanding of how the strips dissolve rapidly in water, eliminating the need for measuring, unlike liquid detergent.
Samir Ali, Search Engine Optimization expert, believes that shoppable videos are like snackable content.
- Focus on a few products
Next decide on the products you want to add in your video. It can be a single product, may be your flagship product or a combination of a few related products. However make sure you do not link more products in one video – it can lead to overcrowding and create confusion in the mind of the viewer.
Case in point: Busy Baby Mat
Busy baby mat focuses on just two items placed strategically at the bottom of the video and on the right-hand side.
On the right pop-up, when you click one of the product items, you see the modal show further product details, and other recommended products. Busy baby mat makes it very convenient, accessible, and frictionless for visitors to add the product to their cart.
Ariav Cohen, VP, Marketing, and Sales at Proprep, believes,
“It’s best to stick to your top few best-selling products when creating shoppable videos. When you focus your audience’s attention on a few winning aspects, it’s easier to convince them to stay and know more about your offerings. They’ll understand your products better and learn everything they need to be confident so that the only thing left to do is decide on the purchase. There’s no confusion or noise. All you do is sell the product by simplifying the buying funnel and decreasing the effort that takes a customer towards locking down their cart. And all the customer does is make a quick buying decision.”
While you might consider adding your entire product catalog to create awareness about the different products you sell, too many options can paralyze your customers and increase your cart abandonment rate.
- Streamline customer journey with a proper CTA
As an eCommerce business owner, your goal is to smoothly move your potential customer through all phases of the conversion funnel (from discovery to purchase). And adding a proper cta like add-to-cart/shop helps shoppers to quickly head to checkout after breezing through product selection.
Case in point: Frank Body
Frank Body features their shoppable videos on their homepage (at the end). When you hover/click one of the embedded videos, you get a nice pop-up experience on the right-hand side, with the video and a clear product CTA to ‘shop.’
Even though there’s no perfect formula for a CTA, the best practice is to ensure the button and background colors contrast so the call to action stands out from other elements on the webpage. Apple recommends the minimum size of a CTA button should be at least 44×44 pixels.
A proper CTA clarifies to your prospects about the next step in their journey – this could be to add an item to their online shopping cart or complete the purchase.
- Share influencer and creator content to build credibility
Getting a marketing message out to your customers is a challenging task because the media consumption pattern of Generation Z is different from that of the older generation.
And this shift has given rise to social media influencers. So when shoppers see their favorite influencer using your brand’s products, they will most likely purchase them.
Because nowadays, people trust and admire creators more than companies, and access to trusted influencers’ content featuring your brand’s product keeps shoppers on your site and promotes purchase confidence.
Case in point: Mamaearth
Indian brand Mamaearth partners with instagram influencers to create videos that deeply resonate with their audience, increasing engagement and fostering trust among their fans.
Such videos enable businesses to tap into the influencer’s reach and build credibility to drive sales and brand awareness.
Pro tip: With Videowise A.I based methodology, you can find positive video reviews that mention your brand from TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube and make them shoppable.
Check out how Busy Baby Mat Used Videowise’s “Find Video UGC feature” to achieve an 11.49% conversion rate with shoppable video content.
- Share reviews and feedback
Customers crave social proof before buying because the opinions of others influence us all to some extent. We love reading or watching honest opinions from real people before our purchase.
Making positive customer review videos is a good idea since it sounds authentic and provides a human connection which promotional videos usually do not.
Case in point: Avaestell
According to recent research on building consumer trust in cosmetic advertisements, only 18% of the claims made in beauty advertising are considered trustworthy.
So it was challenging for our customer Avaestell – an all-natural skincare brand to convince shoppers that their product works wonders.
Avaestell started creating videos on “Real Reviews from Real Customers” on their landing page with video testimonials of their customers.
These testimonials, included before and after videos to demonstrate how well their product works. Sharing such reviews reinforces consumers’ belief that they are spending money on brands they can trust.
- Maximize engagement and conversions
Shoppable videos offer a simplified conversion funnel that makes it easier for customers to make purchases – leading to increased consumer engagement and conversions.
Here are some ways to maximize the engagement and conversions:
- Add custom thumbnails
A video thumbnail creates the first impression of the video. An eye-catching, well designed thumbnail can increase the chances of viewers clicking on your video and watching it.
Case in point: Sacheu Beauty
A beauty brand called Sacheu Beauty uses Videowise on its homepage with a great thumbnail focused on its product offering.
What I really like is their automated flash thumbnail previews of the videos allowing users to quickly get an idea of the content of the video before watching it. These previews are generated automatically, alternatively with Videowise you can customize the appearance to fit your branding.
- Run vertical video advertising campaigns
Modern customers like to watch vertical videos instead of horizontal ones, as they hold their phone upright 94% of the time. So it’s crucial to create shoppable videos that are mobile-responsive, with proper font sizes and clear navigation to make shopping easy.
With Videowise your videos can automatically adapt to any device or screen resolution, delivering high-quality video content for your users giving the same immersive feel as social media.
Here’s an example of a shoppable video created with Videowise for tushbaby – a certified hip seat baby carrier with large storage pockets which transforms from a nursing pillow to an ergonomic carrier to a diaper bag.
Tushbaby creates mobile-friendly vertical shoppable videos, which makes it easy to view on mobile sites.
- Create a dedicated video gallery page to offer a social-like experience that’s about million times more fun than searching and clicking
9. Share your shoppable video – offsite
Omnichannel marketing enables shoppers to shop with you on any platform they choose – email, SMS, Whatsapp, and QR codes.
Let me show you how you can use shoppable videos to promote your goods or services outside your ecommerce store.
- Send shoppable videos in your email campaigns
Email marketing is one of the most popular forms of content marketing; however, capturing your audience’s attention and encouraging them to take action has become increasingly challenging in the current landscape.
One practical approach is embedding shoppable videos in your email content, helping your audience conveniently start purchasing directly from the video player as soon as they receive your newsletter.
- Send shoppable videos through SMS/WhatsApp campaigns
53 percent of consumers say they prefer shopping with a business they can message.
So sending shoppable videos through SMS or WhatsApp is an easy way to reach your audience base and gives your customers a seamless shopping experience straight on their mobile device. It also helps you to reach your target audience anytime.
- Upsell with shoppable video playlists with QR codes on packaging
A study examining the impact of QR codes on purchase intention and customer satisfaction shows QR codes significantly impact purchase intention and customer satisfaction.
It has become a creative way to boost sales by connecting physical shoppers to the digital space.
eCommerce stores can use QR codes on their packages giving instant access to their customers to shoppable video playlists in no time. You can also tag related products or accessories in those videos to generate more sales, helping customers navigate stores and track down merchandise efficiently.
According to Dan Siepen, “The top performing shoppable videos which I’ve seen from first-hand experience that I recommend to eCommerce stores to test include; influencers doing a tutorial using a product, a product unboxing shot, a close-up of a result, and showing the product close-up whilst giving it a review/sharing tips.”
A/B test best practices for shoppable videos to see better results
Your marketing efforts will be incomplete if you don’t implement some of these best practices. While you’re working on providing your shoppers with a unique interactive shopping experience, you should A/B test different practices until you find those that work best for you.
Videowise helps you to:
- Seamlessly add shoppable videos to any section of your e-commerce store.
- Create captivating marketing campaigns by utilizing shoppable videos that can be shared anywhere outside your store – in your email, SMS, or QR code marketing campaigns.
- Leverage artificial intelligence to scrap and save user-generated video content from social media, transforming it into shoppable content to monetize it on your store.
- Monitor video performance through cutting-edge video analytics, enabling you to optimize shopper engagement and drive them toward making informed purchasing choices.
The most successful eCommerce brands regularly A/B tests and combine the best practices to provide a fast page speed and interactive shopping experience for higher conversion rates.
Remember to check out the features offered by Videowise to discover how they may assist you in creating incredible shoppable videos.
Book a demo to learn how Videowise can improve your conversion rates.