All across the world, people are spending more and more time watching videos. From Instagram Reels to TikTok and the ever-popular YouTube, a third of all online activity is spent watching video content. It’s not surprising that savvy marketers know where their customers are spending their time. The past decade has seen an explosion of growth in video commerce and sales.
In a nutshell, video commerce is the use of video to promote and sell products. Video commerce has actually been around for a long time. You may remember zoning out in front of endless infomercials during late-night bouts of insomnia.
Video commerce continues to grow in sophistication with an increasing focus on viewer engagement. While video commerce can take many forms, some of today’s most popular forms of video commerce include:
- Product demonstrations
- Unboxing experiences
- Customer testimonials
- Shoppable videos
Are you looking for a way to take your customer engagement and sales to the next level? Then, it’s time to invest more fully in video commerce and customer engagement.
How Video Commerce Drives Engagement and Sales
Video commerce goes far beyond the old tactics of posting product images or describing services in long blocks of text. Instead, video content can showcase products in a dynamic way, demonstrate their features, and provide valuable information to potential customers. This immersive approach allows businesses to create a more interactive and personalized shopping experience. It’s no surprise that 89% of consumers want to see more videos from brands in 2024.
Video commerce can drive sales in a number of important ways.:
- Increased engagement – Video content has the unique ability to capture and hold viewers’ attention in a way static images and text simply cannot match.
- Enhanced product understanding—Videos can showcase a product’s features, benefits, and real-world applications through detailed product descriptions, 360-degree views, and customer testimonials.
- Emotional connection – Businesses can tap into the emotional drivers that influence purchasing decisions by telling compelling stories, showcasing the product in action, and highlighting customer experiences.
- Provide social proof – Video commerce leverages social proof by featuring customer testimonials, unboxing experiences, and user-generated content.
- Improved SEO – Search engines, particularly Google, favor websites that offer diverse and engaging content, such as video. Additionally, YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world. No wonder more than 90% of people discover new brands on YouTube.
- Increased conversions – Video commerce has been shown to significantly increase conversion rates compared to traditional text and image-based product pages. In fact, 82% of consumers have bought a product or service due to watching a marketing video.
How powerful is the impact of video commerce on sales? Leading audio equipment brand Sonos wanted to foster deeper connections with their audience and expand their brand’s visibility. To do that, they launched live video shows that viewers could watch while navigating the company’s website. They also added these videos to their content library to expand the reach of the shows after they ended.
The result? Sonos has enjoyed a gobsmacking 3,507% return on its video commerce investment since launching its live show campaign. According to Olivia Burd, Sonos CRM Campaign Manager, “Video commerce has significantly enhanced our business by fostering deeper engagement with our audience, expanding brand visibility, and driving increased sales through dynamic and interactive live events.”
How to Leverage Video Commerce for Success
Are you just beginning your video commerce journey or not seeing the results you want from your current video strategy? Improving customer engagement with video commerce is hard work. It takes a lot of patience, planning, and consistent implementation.
Create a Video Content Strategy
Improving sales with video commerce begins with a plan. Your first step is to develop a comprehensive video content strategy. Work with your team to identify the types of videos that align with your brand, products, and target audience. For example, a comprehensive video content strategy might include a mix of product demonstrations, customer testimonials, and shoppable videos.
Invest in High-Quality Video Production
Nearly 90% of consumers say video quality impacts their trust in a brand. Poorly produced videos can undermine your brand’s credibility and fail to engage your audience. Budget for professional-grade equipment and a recording space with proper lighting and sound. Hire or contract with skilled videographers and editors.
Optimize for Mobile Devices
In 2023, US adults spent nearly a third of their media time on mobile devices, so you’d better make sure your videos look great on every type of smartphone. Create video content that is easily accessible and viewable on smartphones and tablets. Mobile-optimized video content should be short, engaging, and easily digestible.
Leverage User-Generated Content
One of the most powerful forms of video commerce is user-generated content (USG). You can boost the impact of USG by encouraging customers to interact with your brand and share their videos. Consider creating hashtag campaigns, running contests, or highlighting customer stories on your brand channels.
Integrate Video Content with E-Commerce Functionality
Create a comprehensive ecosystem where customers can watch your video content and shop without ever leaving the platform. At Bambuser, we specialize in offering an interactive platform where viewers can shop and buy directly from videos.
In fact, we worked with luxury retail superstar Bloomingdale’s to produce a 150th-anniversary livestream red carpet gala that featured high-profile guests showing off the brand’s anniversary collection. The result was the highest-ever KPIs of any Bloomingdale’s live shopping event and a 477% ROI on the 50-minute live stream.
Measure and Analyze Performance
To continuously improve your video commerce strategy, you must measure and analyze the performance of your video content. Track key metrics, such as view count, engagement rate, click-through rate, and conversion. Look at your data to identify which types of video content resonate with your audience and drive the most sales. Then, make more of what’s working.
Take Your Video Commerce and Sales to the Next Level
It’s not enough to just create videos anymore. These days, your customers want to directly engage in your video content. They want to comment, like, share, and purchase directly from your videos. You can give them what they want by creating high-quality, compelling videos that fully showcase your products and services. You can also encourage them to create and share their own videos, adding authenticity to your brand engagement strategy.
The impact of video commerce will only continue to increase as users spend more and more time on video-focused online channels and apps. Now is the time to develop your video commerce and customer engagement strategy.
If you need a partner to create easy-to-use shoppable videos, exciting live video shopping events, and more, reach out to us. We’d love to be a part of improving your sales with video commerce.
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