A Trend That is Here to Stay - Shoppable Videos
Video marketing has long been quite effective at driving sales but there’s one thing that could make it even more effective – embedded links leading directly towards promoted products. If you enable the purchase without the need for the audience to leave the video, what you get is a concept known as shoppable video.
This method even sounds convenient and efficient because it allows people to make an instant purchase without having to leave the page or the video that they’re currently enjoying. Here are several other things you should know about shoppable videos, as well as a brief explanation of why this trend is here to stay.
Shoppertainment
The concept of shoppertainment is a psychological trick that helps people develop a relationship with your products before they even buy. You see, people forget everything easier than they do emotions. If they feel happy, relaxed and without worry, they’re more likely to buy.
Moreover, if the video including the product or promoting the product is entertaining, it will help give them a hint of what owning/using the product might be. This thrill alone might be a strong enough motivator for the majority of people.
The Interactivity
Interactivity is a huge part of shoppable videos and it raises your shopping ability to a whole new level. Imagine watching a cooking video and being able to place orders on ingredients and appliances while the video is rolling.
A cook on the video adds an ingredient to the pot and you just click on it in order to place an order. From the marketer’s and retailer’s perspective, this is also relevant because it completely reinvents the concept of impulse buying. Instead of just seeing something and buying it because you remember you saw it in a video, you can now buy it while watching a video.
No Back-and-Forth Navigation
One of the things that irritate buyers the most is having to navigate back and forth between pages or videos in order to get what they need. Even with an SSD and the fastest internet out there, leaving the page and returning will take a moment to load. Even if it didn’t, you would be aware of the process, which is something that discourages a lot of people from acting on their impulses.
If the video is a bit longer, by the end of it, buyers may no longer remember that they wanted to leave. Moreover, if there were several things they wanted to click on, they might not remember all of them. With shoppable videos, this entire step can be safely skipped.
Quality Above All
The next thing worth keeping in mind is the fact that people feel comfortable with quality content. Because everyone now has both the tools to record and a platform to promote content on, it’s become quite rare for an audience to see a professional video production in a video.
The problem is that there’s a niche for that, as well. Just because people have a thirst for user-generated videos, this doesn’t mean that professional production is valued any less. If anything, shoppable videos might help turn this around.
Qualified Leads
Perhaps the biggest challenge of any marketer is to avoid those demographics that have zero interest in ever becoming paying customers. Those with a high likelihood are usually called qualified leads or low-hanging fruits.
The thing is that these people cost less, take less time and even take less effort to convert. Now, think about shoppable videos. First of all, a person clicking on the video is already interested in what is going on. Second, if you include the shopping button somewhere in the middle of the video, the very fact that they have made it this far makes them into qualified leads.
Better Metrics Across the Board
We’ve already mentioned that shoppable videos are more convenient, so, where does this lead? First of all, customers will buy more and engage more with videos. Because this is so handy, not only will your sales increase but your videos might also get more engagement rate.
Seeing as how all engagements and conversions affect your current SEO rank, your video will become more visible, which will drive even more traffic your way. This creates an endless loop of increasing sales and a growing digital footprint.
Improved Analytics
As far as the analytics go, shoppable videos will provide more insight than any other marketing method before. Just think about it, if the shopping button is lingering, you will be able to tell which moment it was exactly when the buyer decided to click on it.
You will be able to see the exact moment at which you managed to convince your buyer, which will allow you to create more efficient promotional videos in the future and improve your marketing strategy as a whole. Gaining more insight into the behaviour of your customers is always welcome.
Great for Episodic Content
Coming up with a consistent content marketing strategy, in the long run, is a challenge for a lot of digital marketers. With shoppable videos, you can easily fit your sales strategy into episodic content. For instance, if you’re selling construction tools, you can eventually fit every single item you sell into a series about all sorts of DIY repairs and projects.
If you’re selling ingredients and kitchenware, you can start a cooking series on all your platforms. It ensures that your sales grow uninterrupted and that you don’t run out of topics for your content marketing for quite a while.
In Conclusion
Needless to say, this is a natural progression of ecommerce; it’s a natural evolution. First, it was being able to shop without having to leave your home. Now, it’s being able to shop without having to leave the video. The main reason why this trend is here to stay is that it’s convenient and offers people a lot of practical value. Moreover, it offers people a chance to do something directly, without having to take a myriad of extra steps to get there. It helps retailers reach the pinnacle of impulse buying without much effort.