What Is Shoppable Video?
Shoppable video is video content that is interactive, allowing the viewer to engage with product details or even add a product to the cart. The experience enables any product featured in a video to be clickable, which helps to capture purchase intent from the consumer at the moment of inspiration. By turning a passive video into an active experience, viewers are more engaged and more likely to convert.
Source: Wirewax
Here are a few stats to back up these findings:
– Viewers spend 47% longer watching an interactive video compared to a traditional video.
– 41% of viewers add products to their cart as a result of shoppable video.
– Shoppable video has been proven to increase purchase intent by 9x.
These stats make sense when you think about the experience consumers are having. Viewing a product in an interactive setting helps the consideration process, showing the viewer the product in action and then allowing them to get more information right away. This further connects them to the products and the brand, even if they decide to purchase later rather than now. Because the experience is more memorable and novel, the brand sticks out when they return to the purchase process later.
So, how does shoppable video actually work? Well, you begin with a video (more on that below). When your video is ready to be distributed, you add interactive calls-to-action called hotspots. These hotspots then trigger an action that you pre-select, like displaying product details, triggering an event, or adding products to cart.
Types of Shoppable Video
There are three main types of shoppable video content. We’ll go into the options for each one and share how they differ.
Shoppable Ad Units
The first option is shoppable ad units. This type of video is great for quick consumption and conversion, and it’s especially popular on social platforms. It can be purchased through ad distribution networks, and because it’s interactive, it often gives marketers more of a return because it delivers more than just impressions.
If you’re creating a video for this type of experience, it’s best if the content is short-form, the video is primarily vertical, and you focus on just one (or a few) products.
Shoppable Video Experience
The next option is a shoppable video experience. This type of video has more of a narrative and may feel closer to a brand story.
If you’re creating a video for this type of experience, the content can be short- or mid-form, can support both horizontal (9:16) and vertical (16:9) orientations.
Integrated Shoppable Video
Finally, the third option is an integrated shoppable video. This is the most dynamic option as it connects elements like your product feed, your inventory, your pricing, and other changing details directly to the video. You can also connect your cart and can use geo- and language intelligence to serve one main video with optimizations for different audiences.
The goal here is to simplify the process and get more out of your videos—you create one single asset, and because it’s intelligent and dynamically updated, you get more use out of it than you might with a typical video.
Production Best Practices for Shoppable Content
Many of the best practices for shoppable content are similar to those of other product videos, but some are unique. First, you’ll want to start with your video goal. This should always be step one in creating video content. A great way to think about this process is by using the marketing funnel (or buyer’s journey) to assess which stage you’d like to target with your content. Shoppable video is great for the consideration and decision stages.
Next, choose your video style. For shoppable content, it’s great to show your product in action with a product-focused video or to educate viewers on how to do something, like walking them through how to use your product or walking through a use case. Why do these styles work best? These styles help viewers envision themselves using the product, so the more clearly you can illustrate how your product works and show it in action, the more likely viewers are going to latch on.
When it comes to your camera shots, it’s important to focus on 1-2 items in a single shot. Make sure to capture both close-ups and full-frame product shots to mimic the experience a customer would have interacting with the product in person. Make sure to also let your product shots run for at least three seconds; this gives viewers time to understand that there are clickable elements and to react accordingly. It’s also best if you place a clickable hotspot within the first few seconds of your interactive video. This aides the viewer experience as it gets viewers accustomed to clicking within the video right away.
For audio, you have a few options. One common route is to add voice-over to your video to guide viewers about the interactive elements. This can also work if your video has an on-screen host with dialogue. In either case, the language in the voice-over or dialogue should clue viewers into their interactive options and even prompt them to click when they’re able. On the other hand, you can always skip the audio and include background music instead. After all, many mobile audiences interact with content with sound off. To combat that, make sure your content has subtitles and graphics that call out the main points to engage anyone watching without audio.
How to Create a Shoppable Video
Our friends at Wirewax have an incredibly user-friendly shoppable video interface, so the following steps reflect their process for creating and distributing a shoppable video. If you prefer a video explanation, check out the walkthrough below.
Step 1: Upload your video
This will always be the first step in the shoppable video process, because to add interactive elements to your video, you have to have a video in the first place! Once you’ve uploaded your video, move on to step two.
Step 2: Add your hotspots
This is where the magic starts to happen. Within your video, you can select the areas you’d like to add hotspots to, and those elements will become clickable in your final video. With Wirewax, your hotspot buttons can even be branded with your company’s logo or fonts, or they can be more abstract. In either case, adding the hotspots to the screen lets your viewers know that they have something clickable to interact with.
Step 3: Create your overlay
At this stage, you create the overlay that viewers will see when they click on a hotspot. Depending on the type of shoppable video you’re creating, this might take your viewers to product details, invite them to add to cart, or trigger another action entirely.
Step 4: Promote and distribute
Lastly, your video is ready for distribution! A few options for distribution: you can incorporate your video into your website or landing pages, leverage your social audience with virtual formats, or even integrate your shoppable video with e-commerce platforms like Shopify. Depending on what tool you’re using and what distribution method you choose, the specifics of sharing or uploading your video will be slightly different, but the Wirewax team can help if you have any specific distribution questions.
That’s it! Once these four steps are complete, your shoppable video will be out in the wild, ready to increase your conversions and audience engagement. We can’t wait to see what shoppable video can do for you!