- Feb 11, 2021
Updated: Sep 7, 2021
Online shopping made up 21.3% of total retail sales for 2020. Amazon counted for nearly a third of all online sales in the US. With a 44% increase over the year, 2020 saw the highest annual growth in US e-commerce in at least two decades. Perhaps an unsurprising figure considering the world was told to “stay at home”. Nevertheless, the pressure is on for brands to optimise online shopping experiences for their customers.
Offline meets online in livestream shopping experiences.
Through live shopping, brands can connect with customers to sell products in real-time. Viewers can watch a live stream and purchase the items shown in the clickable side-bar, a call to action encourages viewers to complete a purchase without leaving the stream. Using this “see now, buy now” mentality, some shows saw their sales reach $1 million in just ten minutes.
For merchants, platforms like Bambuser and Smartzer make it easy to broadcast a live shop. Through the Bambuser app, brands upload URLs of the products that they plan to showcase in the live stream then “go live” with their content to potential customers. Smartzer allows brands to build a shoppable carousel of products by importing directly from a product catalogue or manually. Merchants can then connect the platform they wish to stream on to Smartzer using the RTMP ID and a Stream Key to go live.
Live, Camera, Action
Using Amazon’s livestream gaming platform “Twitch” Burberry took their Spring/Summer 2021 show online, live from London Fashion Week.
The stream received 42,000 concurrent views and offered multiple perspectives from celebrities like Bella Hadid and Erykah Badu using “squad stream mode”. Viewers could simultaneously watch and discuss the show in real time in a communal viewing experience. Unless you are Kim Kardashian, it can be pretty hard to secure a front row seat at a Burberry fashion show. Through live stream, this can be possible for anyone and with in-person audience’s discouraged, live stream offers an immersive, digital alternative in unprecedented times.
Clarins unveils its first virtual shop to connect with customers at home.
Through several interactive online features, Clarins has reimagined beauty e-commerce by partnering with Vee24. Through a virtual and explorable online boutique, viewers can explore the store for information. The skin workshop teaches visitors everything there is to know about Clarins application techniques and a virtual try-on feature allows customers to test makeup using camera filters. Using VeeStudio and VeeSchedular, Clarins is bringing the in-store shopping experience online. Customers can book face-to-face, highly personalised live consultations with beauty coaches and view live streams with guest influencers. As a result, all the benefits of in-person shopping are replicated online.
Brown Thomas has partnered with Smartzer to deliver shoppable beauty masterclasses.
Like Burberry and Clarins, Brown Thomas has reimagined the online shopping experience for customers with department store doors closed. Using Smartzer’s platform, Brown Thomas created a fully customised shoppable video. Fully integrated into the Demandware API, the player allowed for up-to-date product information to be instantly pulled into the Smartzer editor and player. When viewing the live shop Customers could click items in the video and add them to the basket without leaving or pausing the video. Through a variety of beauty tutorials customers can click, learn and buy in a matter of seconds.
Each of these brands prove that interactive video technology can help businesses to sustain customer connections in unprecedented times.
- Feb 11, 2021
Updated: Jun 8, 2022
Digital marketing experts estimate that the average American is exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 ads a day. Consequently, video ads need to stand out to be remembered.
Interactive video is a rapidly growing technology being used by brands to shake up e-commerce. Brands tag videos with products that can be selected and purchased straight from the ad without leaving the window. But how is this possible?
By using Smartzer’s tool, businesses can make any video shoppable in minutes.
Firstly, you will need to add product information to the video. This will be through imagery, text and URLs via a Product API, via a Product Feed or manually.
Customer’s will be able to find out details about products by clicking “Hotspots” in the interactive video. Brands can add this feature by “tagging” products in an interactive overlay. This can be done manually or via photo recognition software. Once videos are tagged, customers will be able to interact and select products to learn more info or even make a purchase. This may be through a “quick buy” or “add to basket” call to action.
Adding products via Product API
Should you have a Product API available, connecting it to your shoppable video player is the best and easiest way to add real-time product information to your player. Simply search the product you wish to tag by the ID or by name and pull the information directly into the player.
Key Benefits:
Instant import of all fields
Real-time product information direct from product catalogue
Enables quick-buy / add to cart integration
Can pull in from many different markets at once
Manually adding products
The simplest way to add products to your shoppable video player is to add all the fields in manually. Should your video not have too many items to add this is a flexible method that can be worth the effort.
Key benefits:
Provides flexibility towards any particular field
Requires no setup
Upload via Product Feed
Many interfaces allow brands to upload their product information via a product feed or file. This can allow brands to add a lot of information at once saving time, however it can prove quite difficult to manage in the long run as the product information is not served in real-time.
Key benefits:
Easy upload
Feed can be uploaded elsewhere
Missoni X Adidas and Smartzer’s shoppable video tool.
An example of video e-commerce in action is exemplified by Missoni X Adidas using Smartzer’s tool. Missoni used Smartzer's platform to make the Adidas collection film shoppable across their e-commerce website and Instagram. Viewers were able to click on the looks in the video to easily discover additional product details with direct links to shop.
This effective method of video e-commerce reduces the path to conversion by offering the customer all the required information at the click of a tag without leaving the window.
Usually, the customer becomes aware of the brand through ads, discovers and researches the product details on an eCommerce site, considers the product then makes the decision to purchase. Through regular, non-interactive video ads this might require the following links to be re-directed out of the previous window to eventually get to the website in a long-winded process. During the journey from the ad to the e-commerce site, you may be distracted from the original product and lose interest. Interactive videos engage customers through a clickable dimension that provides all the necessary details to make an informed purchase without leaving the video.
Interactive video enables each stage of the purchase funnel to be measured. Tracking the initial views and dwell time on the video at the awareness stage, the clicks on the products at the discovery stage, measure clicks at the consideration stage through a call to action and measure conversions through successful purchases or sign-ups.
Read more about 5 Types of Product Marketing Videos to Start Creating
Using video for e-commerce can boost your business to new heights. Attention grabbing virtual content encourages increased engagement, higher dwell times on sites and a rise in conversion rates.
Interactive Video e-commerce and the Purchase Funnel
Widely known in marketing strategy, the purchase funnel is a consumer focussed model featuring four stages of awareness, discovery, consideration and conversion.
In the awareness stage the customer’s attention is initially grabbed by creative, captivating and clickable video ads. For example, shoppable video or customisable video. They can then enter the discovery phase by clicking the interactive hotspots to learn more about the products shown. The viewer may be shown pricing details, images, descriptions and even a call to action. They might view a carousel alongside the video that shows other items being featured. The viewer indicates consideration of the product by clicking a call to action button such as “Buy Now” or “Learn More” to be taken to the product page. A conversion will occur when the viewer places an order, books an appointment or downloads a document.
Brands now utilise conversational commerce, video e-commerce and live shopping to provide a new and memorable shopping experience for the customer increasing the likelihood of conversion.
3 innovative technologies that are revolutionising ecommerce:
1. Conversational commerce is the practice of using social interaction to sell products or services. Virtual shopping app, Hero, harnesses conversational commerce to connect brands with customers via text, chat and video. This gives a human feel to computer-driven bots as teams can chat, schedule store visits and interact with shoppers via 1 on 1 video calls. When buying online, customers are considerably less likely to make a purchase than they are in physical stores. This is due to the lack of in person assistants to provide the answers and advice that gives customers the confidence to buy. Through virtual consultations, personalised advice and recommendations, the benefits of in person shopping are brought to the customer’s fingertips online. With the chatbot market set to be worth over $1.34 billion by 2024, conversational commerce is the future for developing customer-brand relationships.
2. Smartzer makes videos shoppable for e-commerce sites. Brands can use their quick and easy tagging platform to easily add an interactive overlay to all their content making it shoppable across their e-commerce site, livestream, social media, and video ads in minutes. When watching a video the customer can click items to instantly see more details about the featured product and add it directly to their shopping cart without leaving the video. By using Smartzer’s shoppable video technology, brands saw a 50% increase in engagement rates and were able to quadruple their conversion rates.
3. Live shopping bridges the gap between offline and online. Bambuser offers an add-on that enables brands to embed a code in their ecommerce sites to stream live through the Bambuser app. Using the app, brands upload the URL’s of the products that they plan to showcase in the live stream then go live to broadcast content to potential customers. If a customer sees an item that they want to buy, they can click the image shown in the side-bar and add it to their basket without leaving the stream. Bambuser also offers a one-to-one live shopping experience so customer service agents can interact individually with customers for tailor made experiences with product display, product comparison, add-to-cart and CRM APIs.
These three innovative and shoppable video technologies are transforming e-commerce helping to build customer trust and bring the offline online.