Updated: Jun 18, 2021
Smartzer's interactive video platform can now also be used to make livestreams shoppable. Here is a step-by-step guide to building live shopping experiences using Smartzer.
Step 1: Set up your products
The first step to build your live shop is to prepare the items that will be featured in the live shopping stream itself. Therefore before you start, be sure to plan what products you would like to talk about and cover during the stream. Once you have the items, it’s now time to add them to the Smartzer editor. This can be done by connecting your product catalog to the editor and requesting the information by SKU or simply by adding the products manually. Speak to your account manager for more information here on what solution would work best for you.
Step 2: Build the shoppable carousel
So you have your products ready to go, check! Now it’s time to build the shoppable carousel that will feature as the live stream is playing. This can be done with a few simple clicks: first by adding the carousel then selecting add all products to the carousel. Once created you can reorder the items in the carousel as you see fit. With the carousel created, the Smartzer overlay is ready to go. Now it’s time to connect the player to your broadcasting service of choice.
Step 3: Connect the interactive player to your live streaming service
Each new interactive video project has a stream key and RTMP link associated with it. These can be used in a wide range of live stream broadcasting software to connect the Smartzer player to the stream. Stuck for choice? Here’s a list of a few Smartzer recommended services you can use to broadcast your stream:
OBS Studio (Desktop encoder & free)
Wirecast (Desktop encoder & paid)
Larix Broadcaster (Mobile APP & free)
Wirecast Go (Mobile APP & paid)
Step 4: GO LIVE!
Having input the stream key and RTMP link into your broadcasting service of choice, you can now go live with your live shopping stream. Simply distribute the Smartzer player URL via Social media or embed the player directly onto a webpage of your choice using the Smartzer embed code.
Following your live experience, the video can then be converted into a fully shoppable video using the Smartzer editor for on-demand viewing and to add to an online repository.
Interested in learning more? Please feel free to get in touch.
Updated: Feb 12, 2021
How brands like Valentino, Ralph Lauren and Zimmermann drive online conversion through video content by turning it into an interactive and shoppable client experience.
Photo courtesy of Valentino
Today in 2021, we look over the past year as the year that disrupted Luxury more than ever before, forcing brands to accelerate on digital and omnichannel strategy, ensuring that products were available anywhere and anytime, in the channels where their customers preferred to seek them.
Maintaining the appropriate brand image and experience across platforms, while tapping into the different sales channels to engage clients and drive conversion continue to be at the forefront of challenges for brands this year.
The rise of video campaigns in luxury has been an increasingly popular tool for brands to communicate key messages, as well as showcase product launches and collections following their own creative direction, has allowed them to connect with their audiences in a more immersive way. Video is seen as the key driver for e-commerce for luxury brands in 2021.
Since almost all major players are using video in their digital marketing strategies, it’s important that content is unique and stands out, but with 2020 boutique closures and global pandemic measures, customers are having to rely on the content they see online to influence their buying decisions.
Creative teams are therefore having to change the way they work on content, ensuring that they convey the correct brand image in a way that would also appeal to an online consumer audience.
Luxury brands are using a range of video experiences fro shoppable videos of Valentino, to personalised video shopping by Gucci, and
Brands like Valentino, Ralph Lauren and Zimmermann are allowing their audiences to purchase products directly from video campaigns by sharing shoppable videos where an interactive overlay has been added to existing content. Through this immersive video experience, viewers can directly click on the brand’s video to instantly explore the detail of the product, as well as adding products straight to their online shopping cart.
Sharing this live shopping video experience on their website, as well as across channels such as Instagram and Facebook, has enabled the brand to drive qualified traffic to desired product pages on their website, to increase on-site engagement and to drive additional sales online.
Shoppable video is proving to be the perfect marriage of brand experience and the virtual boutique and as 2021 is already set to be a difficult year for brick and mortar businesses, video content and online user experiences will continue to be key elements of this year’s luxury market’s strategy.
Updated: Feb 12, 2021
With video being a core marketing asset, the ability to add an interactive overlay maximises its potential. The rise of social media has shifted consumer behaviour towards immediacy and easy access to more information. Video interactivity is the perfect way of responding to this change by giving access to more information about anything in a video through a single click.
Adding an interactive overlay also gives access to additional analytics about each interaction with content. This provides a way to understand how customers engage with videos, what they are actually interested in, and which parts of your videos worked best on different channels.
Interactive video technologies add clickable overlays to videos. The overlays can be used in a wide range of use cases, from showcasing additional information for discovery purposes, to enabling direct in-video shopping.
Here are a few examples of how businesses are adding video interactivity to help drive engagement and sales online:
INTERACTIVE TRAVEL VIDEOS - LEARN MORE
Travel related videos often showcase beautiful and inspirational locations, hotels, and activities. However, actually finding out what has been featured can be very difficult and require a lot of searching. Using interactive video technology to tag videos, can transform these videos into fun discovery experiences where the viewer can click on anything they find interesting to instantly see more details with links to relevant web pages.
Video: Interactive discovery video example from Amazing Thailand
INTERACTIVE CAR ADVERTS - BOOK A TEST DRIVE
Every new car launch campaign includes a video highlighting certain new features of the vehicle. Using interactive technology to make these features clickable can add huge value to the content experience as the viewer can instantly read more details about each feature with relevant links and ability to download a brochure or to book a test drive for example. The video interaction also creates a seamless link from the inspirational video to the final call to action, helping car brands increase their conversion.
There are also examples of interactivity that can create an additional immersive experience such as the Honda campaign where the user was able to switch between day and night during video playback.
Video: Interactive video campaign from BMW on Instagram and Facebook
VIDEO ECOMMERCE & VIDEO SHOPPING - SHOP NOW
An increasingly popular use case for interactive video is to enable video shopping and livestream shopping. Interactivity can be used to make products in videos instantly shoppable, with in-video check out capabilities. This allows brands to convert videos from assets that were traditionally only used for awareness purposes, into a format that gets customers into the purchase funnel and enables direct conversion. Shoppable video format works across a wide range of categories from fashion to beauty, luxury to electronics and home.
Video: JD Sports shoppable video
The possibilities of using interactive video platforms to tag videos and create interactive experiences can be endless!
Make your first interactive video here