7 Types of eCommerce Videos Your Website Needs to Increase Sales

Ecommerce videos have drastically grown in popularity due to the content offered in high-quality moving pictures. As a result, Bite-sized, short videos have become more appealing and attractive to buyers.

Customers thoroughly enjoy seeing a more in-depth look into a product or service before they commit to buying. Video is a more engaging medium for your ideal consumer than an image alone,  and videos are also an excellent option for attracting new potential clients.

However, utilizing eCommerce videos to provide your business or brand with maximum output is not an easy feat. Marketing teams and sales professionals are not always knowledgeable about the types of video options that are out there to gain the best conversion rates and create a loyal customer base.

Engagement is a vital component to producing and launching a compelling eCommerce video. The objective is that you want customers to feel as though they develop a keen understanding of your product or service from a short, highlighted video or reel. There are some specific types of eCommerce videos outlined below that will go a long way to help to boost your sales.

Why are eCommerce Videos Necessary?

Your target consumers will be more likely to buy from your eCommerce website if they can view how your service or product works and what makes them stand out above the rest. Video marketing is quickly becoming one of the best ways to gain new customers:

• eCommerce videos have helped the users of around 97% of marketers to understand their service or product better, and 76% of them reported that the videos helped increase their sales.
• YouTube has over 2 billion users with more than 500 hours of video uploaded every minute, and it is the second most visited site worldwide.
• 68%of YouTube users watched YouTube to help make a purchase decision.

These statistics demonstrate the overall power that having an eCommerce video can do for your business. Conversion rates will increase and sales, and you can connect to your customers in a new way that will keep them coming back for more.

Mobile users make up many of those who watch YouTube as well, so this is another factor to keep in mind when creating your eCommerce video strategy. In addition, you want to ensure that the viewing is device-friendly so that your video content can be easily viewed.

Video creates trusting relationships with your audience. As a widely used form of communication these days, videos portray more authenticity to customers since it is more than just words on a page. Here are the most prominent types of eCommerce videos that your website should utilize to promote and increase sales.

Further Reading: YouTube Video Optimization: Simple Tricks Beginners Can Implement To Rank Their Videos

#1: The Overview or “How-To” eCommerce Video

Highlighting a product or service should provide your audience with some benefits and specific features that you can outline about your product or service. Usually, this type of video focuses on a speaker who demonstrates how the product works and also why the consumer should strongly consider buying it.

This type of video is also called the “How-To” video because it provides a deep dive into a product or service’s full range and step-by-step instructions on use. Many of these videos stand by themselves and are used best either directly on your landing page or website for your product or on your YouTube channel. If using on your channel, just ensure that you are also putting links in the YouTube description to direct them to your website for where to purchase.

Many brands will use this type of eCommerce video when creating hype around launching a new promotion or product. This way, viewers can see it in action on the screen and feel excited in anticipation of it. 

A great example that gives this overview and “how-to” use a product is this one about a portable speaker.

(note all of the affiliated links in the description below the video)

#2: The Close-Up Video

The idea behind this eCommerce video is not to leave anything to your viewers’ imagination. Instead, the objective is to portray as much detail as possible so that your customers can clearly see and understand the product, inside and out. 

Showing products at a close-up angle on video can further highlight some details and give your viewers a more up-close look at what they might be buying. Typically this type of eCommerce video works better for products rather than services, but there are some benefits to close-ups for services as well, so don’t discount this type of video if your brand provides a service.

Like the overview or “how-to” videos, these are perfect videos to display right on your product or landing page, as well as on your YouTube videos, since they can stand well on their own. A fantastic look into more close-up shots that provide you with details on a product is this one about a drone.

(note the text descriptions and actual footage used.)

#3: The Testimonial Review Video

One of the more effective types of eCommerce videos is the Testimonial. When customers can review how great a product or service helped them, it immediately creates conversions for buyers. Testimonial videos are a way to provide an on-the-fence potential consumer with more “proof” to purchase.

Consumers trust recommendations from friends and family more than any marketing or advertising tactics. So when you provide actual feedback from customers who rave about your product or service or do an interactive review, you are giving those consumers precisely what they need to hit that “Buy Now” button. 

Customer loyalty is a priority for your business. If you already have loyal customers who believe in the value of your service or product, see if you can find a way to incorporate their feedback into a testimonial or review video for new buyers. An excellent example of this is a customer testimonial for a popular accounting software brand.

She describes with an excellent overview how using this invoicing system has significantly helped her business. She provides some critical details about what it helped her business with and gives the product value by saying how easy it is to use.

Further Reading: The Power of Customer Reviews in Marketing Videos

#4: The Unboxing Video

Taking something out of the box for the first time is exciting, like opening a present on Christmas morning. That is the ultimate goal of the Unboxing eCommerce video. While you can combine this with an actual customer review video, the idea behind an unboxing video is to highlight the product and things like the packaging or presentation. 

Unboxing videos can be addictive to watch. These videos are great if you have a specific product like a subscription box with multiple products or provide a service where a customer receives freebies, samples, or other personalized or customized notes with their purchase. A great example of this is an unboxing of a monthly subscription box.

#5: The CEO/Founder Message Video

While most businesses may opt-out of doing such a video, a message from the Founder or CEO of a brand can be a masterful tool in eCommerce video marketing strategies. The key is to know when and what the best time is to use such a video so that it will create the most impact. 

Don’t underestimate the power that a CEO message can provide – they are the company leader, and having them craft a specialized video message can help to personalize your business and develop a connection with your audience. In addition, customers like to be able to recognize and put a face to a name or logo. 

In some cases, it may be necessary to provide a message from the CEO or Founder when the business is experiencing backlash, an uptick in popularity, or wants to address something that may impact the industry – such as the recent global pandemic COVID-19. Another way that it can be used is just to give a brief company history and thank loyal customers, like in this video.

#6: The Explainer/Feel Good Story Video

Suppose you want your video to tell a story about a customer journey or explain all about your product or service in a short period of time. In that case, this is the type of eCommerce video you should focus your marketing on providing viewers. These types of videos are trendy because they have a clear beginning, middle, and end – as a story should. They work well in email marketing to provide customers with more information than a typical short ad might.

Your story should revolve around the journey, beginning from identifying a specific problem and eventually locating your product or service as the potential solution. Finally, the ending should explain how outstanding and well-received your service was, giving the journey its end with not just expected results but exceeded satisfaction. 

Depending on how entertaining you can make your explainer video, these have the potential to go viral. Everyone loves feel-good stories, and the idea behind this video is to evoke those emotions within your viewer so that they, in turn, can “feel good” enough to purchase. These types of videos are often developed with humor in mind, and in some cases, will have the opportunity to go viral because of the clever scriptwriting and delivery.

Explainer videos can be animated or live-action. They are not meant to show off all of the features or gadgets of your product but are utilized more to target the emotional benefits that customers will desire. 

These types of videos are great for services since they will further highlight the value associated with the outcome. A fantastic video that demonstrates an animated explainer type is through this event ticket company’s video.

Further Reading: Animation or Real People in Your Online Video: Which is More Effective?

#7: The Interactive Video 

One last type of video you can use in your eCommerce strategy is what is known as Interactive video. This type of video is meant to engage your users and get them directly involved in your eCommerce site for your service or product. 

What sets these types of videos apart from the rest is that they provide a “call-to-action” from their viewers, such as a link to access products, take a quiz so that they can find out their ideal type of product or service, or some other type of interactive element. The outcome is to drive customers to actively participate in some form of conversion with whatever product or service you are providing. 

An example of this can be seen with this video about an electric razor. The video shows viewers a cleanly shaved narrator asking you to decide by clicking on the different beards to tell a version of the story of what happened the night before because he is having trouble recalling the events. With each click, the narrator will change their look and voice to tell a different story. It is a great way to sell a product while being entertaining at the same time.

Further Reading: 17 Ecommerce Statistics You Need to Know to Improve Your Ecommerce Marketing in 2023

Other eCommerce Video Tips

While all of these options can work very well for your sales, it is important to keep in mind some other things while producing your videos:

• Demonstrate how your service or product adds value – this is crucial for all video types. Your customer wants to know how this will help them and be beneficial in their life, so you have to ensure you are always providing this within your video.

• Add natural and raw footage where you can – this brings more relatable scenarios that consumers will feel is more realistic. An example of this could be as simple as having real people using your product or service.

• Add words to your video and highlight specific areas or features like price, discounts or promotions, or other specifications with text on-screen.

• Prepare a script when doing something more in-depth or providing steps to avoid missing anything crucial. 

You should also have a solid understanding of what your potential buyers are looking for and what your current customers enjoy about your brand or service. It would be most helpful if you did some research before planning your video strategy to know exactly the types of eCommerce videos that will impact existing and prospective consumers. 

There are many innovative and creative ways to make eCommerce videos that will drive sales. Ensuring you know the best types of videos will help your team create and execute a stellar digital marketing strategy, ensuring that your videos are engaging and significantly boost conversion rates.

Further Reading: Shopify SEO Checklist: 11+ SEO Tasks to Increase Store Sales without Paid Ads

Author Bio

This guest post was written by Donna Maurer. As an experienced content creator, Donna has covered numerous topics in the realms of health, beauty, lifestyle, and the arts. She has written for various publications and can often be found conducting research for her latest article. Donna spends her free time exploring New York City, where her days are filled with new life experiences and adventures to write about!

Hero Photo by Sam McGhee on Unsplash

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