Online merchants need to find ways to attract new customers and delight their current ones. Video content is a proven way that helps generate a positive brand impression, improve search and traffic results, and enhance a website’s stickiness. This article provides an overview of the many benefits to be gained by using video content on a commerce site.
The use of video is on the rise. It’s quickly and easily consumed by an always-on-the-go, often mobile audience, doesn’t result in complaints of TL:DR (too long, didn’t read), and is an effective way for merchants to delight, inform, and engage in a creative manner. Video delivers a highly positive sentiment towards a brand, improves a company’s search rankings and traffic results, and enhances user engagement.
Sales and marketing teams can benefit from adding video to the mix because online commerce is increasingly competitive and anything that can help is of benefit. It’s a proven way to obtain interest with video now appearing in 70% of the top 100 search results listings and viewers being 64%-85% more likely to purchase after watching a video clip. Now that’s a good conversion rate!
Get Discovered
A survey conducted by ThinkWithGoogle estimated that over 50% of people who use the internet search for videos associated with a product or service before they visit a store. Google is a big fan of how popular this activity is on their platform and in turn, offer prominent real estate to ecommerce videos when presenting search engine results. A recent change to Google extends the way they present content for desktop search results. They’ve switched from using a static three-video display format to one that leverages a dynamic carousel-formatted video. Site visitors are now presented with eight separate listings which they can use to click and toggle through. Being promoted in this way translates into a greater chance to generating online sales due to the exposure that’s gained in this manner. If you’re not easily found online, it’s like you don’t exist.
Go Social
When’s the last time you received a text with a long, hard to read product description from a friend who is lending a hand by recommending an item to you? If you answered ‘never,’ you’re not alone. People are naturally more inclined to share product videos– especially if they are well-designed, creative, and engaging. With the rise of influencer culture, shoppers love sharing videos of what they plan on buying on payday, or what they’ve just added to their wishlist coincidentally just around the time of their birthday!
Leverage an Already-Engaged Audience
According to Zenith’s Online Video Forecast for 2018, global viewers are estimated to spend an average of 67 minutes each day watching online video content, with this number expected to rise to 84 minutes in 2020. This audience is active, engaged and expecting video content. To provide long copy to users who are already anticipating that they’ll receive this valuable information via a shorter, clearer, and more captivating method is simply outdated and is unlikely to generate sales.
Provide Added Value
Competition is fierce for attention and any method a merchant can use to become a sought-after destination for valuable information, product tips and tricks, how to’s, and other related content will only serve to endear their brand further to the consumer. Building trust via online video segments that ensure a viewers’ needs are met and educates them further goes a long way to develop a lasting relationship.
Amplify the User’s Experience
Static, boring web pages are outdated, especially when it comes to a product page. Why miss out on the opportunity to let items in your catalog shine and be showcased dynamically? Your websites UX deserves to be amplified with the smart use of video content. This, in turn, will increase time spent on a site and increase the potential for generating sales due to the increased desirability that comes from compelling video rather than serving up a flat, boring image of an item that does little to delight or inspire an intention to purchase.
As you can see, video content is a vital way to amplify your ecommerce efforts. It’s a proven way to effectively promote your products online, resulting in higher conversion rates, and a more positive view of your brand. What’s important is not to be held back by having to shift through a large volume of materials to find videos to showcase. We’ve created VideoLIB, a cartridge for Salesforce Commerce Cloud that’s designed to assist you in managing your video library including stock videos. Our digital media management product will help you keep your assets organized and ensure that your existing and potential customers are informed and entertained with fresh video content.
