The Role of Video in Today’s E-Commerce Marketplace

As video empowers brands to show their products in action, these assets can be a critical tool for delivering the new e-commerce shopping experience that consumers seek.

The changing buyer’s journey

In today’s retail landscape, researching products before purchase is a long, time-consuming stage of the buying process—whether that process takes place in-store or online. From looking at reviews to seeking advice from family and friends to surfing several websites for suitable items, there are a variety of steps that can extend the length of the buyer’s journey from considering a purchase to clicking “add to cart.”

Within this journey, video can be instrumental in supporting shoppers on their mission to make the right choices and get the most from their hard-earned budgets. In fact, Brightcove’s 2018 Video Marketing Survey found that 53 per cent of American, British, and Australian adults (18+) engage with a brand after watching a video they like on social media—and 76 per cent have purchased a product or service after viewing a video.

Drive revenue with e-commerce video 

So, how can you incorporate video into your e-commerce strategy? Consider creating the following types of content to take your marketing campaigns to the next level:

• Product demos: Create videos that highlight the best of what your products have to offer—from the high-quality materials to the individual use cases and functions that make them unique. Take a look at UK online electrical retailer AO for example, who use video to deliver a truly engaging online retail experience that brings their products to life.
• Shoppable videos: Incorporating interactivity into your video content empowers you to connect with your audience in an exciting new way. By leveraging powerful calls-to-action and add-to-cart functionality, you can convert viewers at warp speed. Endeavour Drinks Group (EDG), the beverage arm of Australia’s Woolworths Group, does just that and interactive video has helped the business drive 41 per cent of viewers to add to cart at checkout.
• Live streams: Whether you’re featuring a demo, new release, or product announcement, live streaming gives you the opportunity to create an engaging, immersive experience for your audience. As an added bonus, you can repurpose this content into video on demand (VOD) assets down the line.

No matter what type of e-commerce videos you choose to create, be sure to track and measure the performance of these assets. Dive into your analytics to evaluate metrics such as your play rate and engagement score so that you can understand the type of content that is resonating best with your audience. Doing so will help you evaluate the ROI of the videos you create‚ and uncover valuable purchase behaviours. Down the line, you can use these insights to build a data-driven strategy that empowers you to increase cart values.

It’s clear that today’s consumers want a purchasing experience that offers the best of both the online and brick-and-mortar shopping worlds. In order to be a leader in the evolving retail space, you must be able to deliver an in-person shopping experience virtually anywhere—and video is a powerful medium through which to do so. By incorporating video into your strategy, you can cut through the e-commerce noise and connect with your customers on a deeper level.

Interested in learning more? Download Brightcove’s whitepaper, Humanise the Online Experience: Video’s Role in Today’s E-commerce Marketplace.