Shoppable Video: The Next Big Digital Retail Opportunity

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We’re seeing a new movement, with video at the forefront

Video is popular and getting even more popular.  The growth and widespread consumption of video is staggering. It is expected that by 2018, video will take up 79% of all consumer internet traffic (MWP) and the popularity spans across all demographics. According to ComScore, YouTube reaches 95% of adults aged 35+ in a month, 95% of adults 55+ in a month, and 50% of YouTube audience is female (Think With Google).

According to Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing Survey, 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool — up from 63% in 2017. Here are a few other highlights worth mentioning: 97% of marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service, 76% say it helped them increase sales and 85% of people say they’d like to see more video from brands in 2018 ( hubspot).

With outreach potential like this, video can no longer be ignored.

But does video marketing actually perform?

We believe it’s an unequivocal yes. Video’s unique form of rich content that combines visuals, sound and movement, speaks to consumers on more of an emotional level and allows brands to connect with people in a way that isn’t available with other channels. Furthermore, video engages audience more than any other channel. Consumers are over 27 times more likely to click on an online video ad than a standard banner ad and just using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19% and clickthrough rates by 65% (Forbes). In addition, video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined. Marketing agency, KISSmetrics, found that a call-to-action with a video produces 380% more clicks than a non-video sidebar call-to-action. Basically, video increases a user’s likelihood of taking action on what they see.

On top of that, video produces the best search engine results. Back in 2009, Forrester conducted a study and found that website pages that include videos are 45 times more likely to rank on the first page of Google than pages without videos.

According to Think With Google, 68% of YouTube users watch YouTube to help make a purchase decision.

Today 51.9% of marketers across the world say videos have the best ROI, and that shoppers who view a video in the pre-purchase stages are 1.81 times more likely to make a purchase than non-viewers (Forbes). Marketers have caught on. Already in 2013, 64% of marketers expected video to dominate their strategies in the near future.

Thus, the need to make your visual stories sell

To remain competitive today, companies must add video to their marketing strategies. And just adding video alone is not enough – videos must be innovative, engaging, and delivering value. Monetizing videos by making them shoppable allows retailers to provide better customer experiences, increase revenue and engagement and position themselves as innovative, a quality that is important amongst millennials (Forbes).

Lorelei Orfeo, Birchbox’s senior manager of social and content, noted, “we have seen that video content really boosts conversion at a higher rate across all channels, so we’ve been investing heavily in it (Digiday).”

According to Ted Baker’s Brand Director, videos succeeded in driving sales for the brand. However, the format was used beyond sales in pushing engagement and also traffic to its site, and those of its partners (Digiday). While shoppable video is a relatively new concept, it will soon become the norm.

Introducing VueStudio – Vue.ai’s Shoppable Video solution

Vue.ai’s shoppable video tool – VueStudio, is built around computer vision and artificial intelligence technology that teach computers to look at images and all forms of media and extract detailed attributes, like color, pattern, and style, the way that humans would (more on computer vision). The technology can detect keyframes in videos and then automatically identify the most similar products (or products that complement the look) from a retailer’s product catalog to show relevant product recommendations instantly without navigating away from the video. Our shoppable video solution goes one step further – a layer of personalization engine is added to the equation.  By tracking consumer behavior (only on site), we ensure that the product recommendations that are shown to customers are personalized to their individual tastes based on their past browsing and purchase history (more on dynamic personalization).

All it requires is an upload of a video and our tech instantly matches the items with your catalog to make it shoppable.

The process is user-friendly too. Retailers also have control of the UX design and interface and can override product recommendations of the video before publishing it on site. Plus, we connect to inventory in real-time so retailers never have to show an out of stock product again. If a product is out of stock, the technology detects the most visually similar products in stock.  The shoppable video will never be obsolete.

Include shoppable video in your marketing growth stack

With advances in technology and production costs decreasing, video is the marketing medium of the future. Marketers and retailers who have begun to capitalize on it with shoppable video, are experiencing outstanding results. Those who are slow to get on board, are losing a tremendous opportunity to increase revenue and traffic and further engage with customers. Video content production costs need not be an obstacle in getting started. As YouTube sensation and video marketing expert Amy Schmittauer points out, “today, you have one of the best cameras on the market in your smartphone. And it’s incredibly user-friendly. The average person can simply press a button and record a video. There are also editing resources that are either free or extremely cheap and because there are plenty that are drag-and-drop based, it’s simple too (Tony Robbins).”  

The first step towards creating a strategy around the shoppable video is to identify your target audience and evaluate the sort of messaging that is most likely to resonate with them. You want to create conversations around your media content and understand how your audience behave online and interact with your brand. It is also essential to identify the platforms and formats that work well for your video content and campaigns. Using the right technology and tools, such as shoppable videos, to ensure you are getting the maximum returns out of your media strategy will ensure that you are staying ahead of the curve. The most important thing is to start somewhere, test your hypotheses, analyze the results and responses and adjust your strategy as you go.