Video marketing is useful for e-commerce businesses at several stages of a customer’s purchase journey. You can use videos to improve awareness about your brand. They can also help the customers consume information about the products and influence purchase decisions through emotional engagement.
E-commerce brands have a variety of visual formats available to communicate and interact with their customers. Below are some of the best ways to different formats of video marketing for your e-commerce business.
Live Stream Shopping
This is a highly successful video marketing format. It generated $500 billion in sales in 2022. Live Stream Shopping benefits from the reach and engagement of live streaming and the conversion potential of interactive shopping.
The fundamentals of live stream shopping are quite simple. You create a live stream on a subject that is relevant to your target audience. The subject should also create an opportunity for product placement. Then you add buttons and links in the live stream. The audience can directly buy the products without leaving the stream.
For example, your e-commerce brand sells kitchen appliances. Then you can create a live stream on cooking authentic Italian cuisine. In the stream, the chef uses your products to prepare the dishes. While the stream is live, people can click a button on the screen to add your products to their cart.
You can also allow people to complete their purchases during the stream. To create a sense of urgency, you can present an offer that expires when the stream ends.
Live stream shopping helps create an engaging environment that is otherwise missing from e-commerce shopping. The format is also quite flexible and you can use it in a variety of ways to promote or sell your products. It is also one of the most effective ways to make the most out of your influencer marketing campaigns.
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Interactive AR
Augmented reality (AR) allows e-commerce shoppers to interact with the products digitally. AR can digitally superimpose 3D versions of the products over the footage of a real environment. You can use this technology to show the customers how your products would suit them.
For instance, the IKEA Place App uses AR to show people how its furniture would look and fit in different places. Similarly, the Visualizer App by Dulux shows the customers how a color tone would look on their walls. Fashion brands are also using AR to let people digitally try out different clothing items.
With AR, people can see a version of the eventual result on their screen. It helps clear doubts that they might have about the suitability of the product. As the users take action, it increases their emotional investment in the product. Owing to a high level of engagement, AR can help increase conversion rates by up to 94%.
Immersive VR
There are more than 170 million VR users around the world. According to the Global Consumer Insights Survey, 32% of VR users employ the technology for shopping online. People also use it to experience retail environments and engage with products.
Despite being around for quite some time, the VR experience still holds a novelty factor. Around the world, retail brands are using VR in a variety of ways. For instance, Nike uses VR to show the journey of a product. FaceCake has created a VR closet where you can try out fashion products.
With VR, you can create a virtual store, craft product experiences, host live shopping streams, and so on. Furthermore, you get complete control over the virtual world. This would allow you to create an immersive brand experience.
Video Storytelling
Stories can drive purchase decisions better than logic. According to a study by Stanford University, stories are 22 times more memorable than facts and figures. Several brands around the world have used storytelling to sell products and promote their brands.
You can use video stories to tell people about your products and communicate their benefits. Visuals can better communicate experiences than blogs or still images. For example, you can create a video of how your products solved a particular problem for a customer and their delight after using it.
You can also strengthen the association of the customers with the brand by describing your services in the form of a story. For example, you can describe what is the order fulfillment process of your brand by showing people the journey of a product from your warehouse to their homes. Similarly, you can create videos about the origin story of a product from ideation to customer experience.
You can incorporate storytelling in several aspects of marketing and communication. These include customer testimonials, product use cases, how-to guides, offer advertisement videos, and so on. You can also take a step ahead and create short films, documentaries, or episodic fiction series to promote your products.
Video Game Shopping
Gamification of e-commerce shopping is a relatively new format. Yet, several brands have successfully used video games as tools to sell their products. The retail industry holds the biggest market share in gamification solutions. Video games help improve user engagement and can also drive purchase behaviors.
The Winter’s Angry campaign by Nike is a great example of gamification. Nike created a video game where the players had to make sure that their characters stayed warm during training. To achieve this the player had to use different products from Nike’s winter sportswear collection. The players could also purchase these products within the game.
When you introduce your products as such, the user starts viewing those products as an achievement or a reward. But, you need to balance rewards against efforts. You can also use gamification to transform your customer service, loyalty programs, referral campaigns, and more.
Conclusion
Videos are powerful tools for communication, engagement, and conversion. You can use different types of visual formats to promote your e-commerce brand and sell your products. But, you should measure the viability of different video formats for your target audience. Not everyone owns a VR set or enjoys video games.
The video format you use for your e-commerce brand should resonate with your potential customers. Furthermore, the video format should run smoothly and create a positive experience for the users. If your live shopping stream glitches, it will create an unsavory experience for the customers. The video formats you use for marketing are as much a part of the brand experience as your products and services.
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