eCommerce Video Marketing Ideas That Actually Improve Sales

Closest to real life, the video format is quickly gaining traction in eCommerce. 

Unlike what businesses thought earlier, shoppers do love lots of information but as long as they don’t have to take too much effort—and videos manage to help in this effortlessly!

So here are 17 eCommerce video marketing aspects to focus on if you want your conversions AND engagement picking up!

17 Advanced Ways to Sell with eCommerce Product Video Marketing

1. Set up an eCommerce video ad funnel

It’s one thing to create that one-off video that makes its way to your product pages and to your socials as well, and quite another to create a video funnel. 

A video funnel represents a streamlined strategy that takes a shopper from the awareness stage to the post-purchase nurturing stage, while creating incremental confidence to act with every new video. 

Here’s what a typical video ad funnel can look like when you’re targeting high intent paid traffic:

→ ToFu videos: Think of the explainer video that labels out the ingredients of a product, video ads that talk about your bestsellers and offer justifications across Facebook, Instagram & Youtube- basically at the early stage, eCommerce video marketing is about helping potential customers know better

→ MoFu videos: How-to videos, FAQ videos positioned as product placements as well as video ads that promote gifting form a huge part of the consideration stage because here shoppers are past sensing that the brand is a good choice—now they want to see how the product works to even decide if considering it further will be a good idea

→ BoFu videos: When potential shoppers are closest to buying from you, you’ll see some likely behaviors like browsing products repeatedly but never checking out or signing up for discounts but not availing them—which is why this is the ideal stage to line up your testimonial videos, both from existing customers and influential figures like micro influencers

Knowing that we were browsing face creams on Instagram and Facebook, Moxie Beauty served us up an ad that work well for shoppers closest to purchasing–in this reel ad, they answer some FAQs and ensure the “Shop Now” button is hovering at the bottom:

Pro Tip: Your video ads need to carry the treatment most preferred by a channel’s target audience—for example, if you’re marking on Tiktok, it’s good to go with the hand-held device feel, while on Insta & FB, a professionally videographed approach is the only way to get shoppers to stop scrolling

2. A/B test for mobile optimization

When 81% of marketers optimize their social media ad campaigns, they’re secretly betting on mobile views to bring in the conversions. 

Now this is good news if you know the elements that can potentially have the greatest impact on views, clicks and conversions—here are a few we’ve found to be critical:

✓ Captions

✓ Dimensions

✓ Color(s), contrast and brightness

✓ Video length

✓ Music / background score

✓ CTAs

✓ Speed

While these many elements do have a bear on how your mobile video ads do, don’t make the mistake of testing multiple elements at one go—release two versions of the same ad with just one element changed. 

Pro Tip: No matter what element you’re testing for your eCommerce video marketing, maintain a vertical format—after all, only 30% of shoppers turn their device sideways to watch a video, and even if they do, they complete watching only 14% of it!

Further Reading: CTA Button Examples (+ 50 Call to Action Phrases)

3. Link email marketing videos back to your storefront

While your eCommerce product marketing videos may be hosted on Youtube, it’s not necessary that you send shoppers back there. 

Instead, link back to your site where the embedded video can play via the hosting platform. 

This way you’ll be able to enhance multiple things that shoppers can do / enjoy, including:

• Their navigational experience
• Their freedom to browse / explore several pages & products
• Their confidence & trust through social proof cited on the site
• The way you align website data with your paid traffic generation efforts, so that shoppers aren’t retargeted with the same video ad multiple times

Here are a few email marketing link-backs that you can leverage for better conversions:

❖ Brand story featuring founder linking back to your about us page

❖ BTS videos linking back to specific category or product pages (this can be especially relevant for new category & product launches)

❖ UGC videos linking back to specific product or landing pages

We recommend you to read: Using Videos In Emails – 19 Brilliant Examples From eCommerce Brands

4. Make video a key selling point on third party marketplaces

90% of marketers claim that eCommerce video marketing is able to spark better brand awareness. 

And if you ask us, this is crucial especially if you’re counting on conversions across third party marketplaces to add to your profit margins. 

Here’s what you can do to get it right:

✔ On Amazon: 

While there are multiple ways to leverage a video marketing strategy on Amazon, two distinct methods to make the most of it is through:

• Amazon Live: Through this video live streaming option, you have the ease of showcasing products in use, answering Q&As that would’ve otherwise taken a longer customer journey to answer and announce exclusive limited time deals during the course of a livestream
• A+ video content: If you run a business that’s listed in the Amazon Brand Registry, it should be easy for you to create A+ video content - these help to enrich your listing, improve your SEO efforts through better keyword optimization and offer some great template

e.l.f cosmetics, for example, is an eCommerce brand that converts well on Amazon through A+ content that includes rich images & video formats:

✔ On Etsy: 

If you’re thinking of getting engagement on this platform and converting, here’s the kind of video content that you need to focus on:

•  Product listings & page videos: Listings that carry videos on Etsy have a higher chance of getting viewers to engage and convert - similarly product pages that include videos in their gallery get more engagement (given that Etsy highlights how many people are viewing a product or have it in their basket)

When we looked at what Etsy sellers are discussing, we found several of them going to the tune of:

• Video within the “about shop” section: This is a relatively new feature by this third party marketplace, enabling eCommerce brands on it to use video in their about pages - a surefire way to build trust in shoppers who’re still exploring & comparing
• Video using “Explore”:  Available only for Etsy sellers in the US, Explore lets brands create video content that can then be featured on the Etsy app - given that the seller app sees hundreds of thousands of downloads every month, this can be key in getting more brand visibility

✔ On eBay:

Given that this third-party marketplace has come a long way in allowing video formats for different devices, here’s how you can leverage its eCommerce video marketing capabilities:

• Integrate UGC videos into your listings: Currently the marketplace only allows video integration into the image gallery across product pages - 15 to 30 second videos seem to work the best
• Create product demonstrations for more complex items: For example, if you sell lawn mowers or furniture that can be dismantled, this is a good approach - in this case, for more credibility, keep the video length between 30 seconds and 2 minutes

Pro Tip: Using the right keywords to enhance your eBay videos is essential—check out how competitors are using keywords for their most successful products and also type in the search query box to see what the marketplace’s own algorithm is throwing up as hints!

✔ On Walmart:

On this highly competitive marketplace, here are a few things you can do to sell more through eCommerce video marketing: 

• Spotlight the product fast: While brand storytelling videos work well on Walmart, you’ll have to factor in people’s low attention spans in that crowded scenario - which means you must bring attention to your product within the first 5 seconds of the video
• Get your sponsored video typography right: Since sponsored videos on Walmart naturally come with sound off, you’ll have to focus on creating striking typography that draws attention to your brand & products
• Design specifically for mobile: This is to leverage having your listings engage and convert on the Walmart app, where users spend 40% more than the average shopper

Nerf is an eCommerce toy brand that builds toy blasters—they use a video in their image gallery right at the top and even gamify it with text prompts:

5. Market your app through video resources 

Research says that apps sell at least 3x better than regular eCommerce websites. 

Many businesses feature app update prompts by promising additional discounts through that channel. 

You can leverage this too but in a slightly different way—just like Peloton does by mentioning their app video learning resources on their store (which can be especially

helpful in converting shoppers who’re moving towards BoFu):

In case, you don’t have an app, you can bring in a new category called “Video” in your primary navigation (this can especially be helpful if your products have multiple use contexts, are being reviewed by micro influencers etc.)

Alternatively, you can also feature “Learn,” which when clicked can take shoppers to a different page where you can place the video section right at the top - increased engagement because of video typically signals search engine bots to rank sites higher!

6. Come up with a cross-promotion video strategy

23% better customer acquisition—that’s how well eCommerce businesses do when they use a cross-promotion strategy that covers multiple channels and collaborators. 

On the other side, 72% of shoppers say they prefer connecting with brands across channels. 

This brings us to how a cross-promotion strategy around your eCommerce video content may not just be nice-to-have but in fact critical!

There are two ways to do this:

Internal cross-promotion video strategy:

This is what you do to maximize video content reach using your own channels including website, video hosting platforms as well as social handles—here are a few ideas: 

❖ Create Youtube playlists of your product how-to videos based on them and link them back to your product pages (include a “more to learn” section on product pages with related playlists - exactly how you’d feature product recommendations)

❖ Split one video tutorial into multiple BTS videos (this can be highly effective if you’re launching a limited time bundle offer or even launching a product upgrade during peak holiday season)

❖ Feature multiple videos of the same product within one email (for example, one can be a UGC video, another an expert recommendation and yet another from a brand collab that features in your reels)

External cross-promotion video strategy: 

Unlike a strictly internal cross-promotion, an external one leads you to promote your videos through collaborators, ambassadors and even affiliates through their channels—here are a few such product video marketing ideas to explore:

❖ Create value add content combining your products & insights by niche experts - when we checked up on how Convertcart client Squatty Potty keeps engagement rolling on Youtube, we noticed not only have they gotten their products reviewed by several micro influencers, they’ve also made experts throw insights on the how, what, when and why behind a product - here’s an example of GI specialist Sameer Islam offering an expert review:

❖ Announce giveaways & contest results - a 30 - 60 second video that covers the brand, where it’s available, the product range and even a short how-to highlighting the benefits can ring in the conversions - exactly what eCommerce seafood brand Scott & Jon’s did when they announced a giveaway in collaboration with Target:

7. Repurpose existing videos into other shareable formats

It’s quite likely that you already have enough video content shot - either by way of UGC videos you collected for a giveaway, some expert advice through product seeding or even BTS footage that your own team shot on mobile!

And that means it’s a great idea to repurpose these into bite-sized content across your website and socials, where the output isn’t just limited to video:

🍪 Turn that product explainer video into a blog—what’ll take lesser time is a transcription where you highlight the high-intent keywords and embed the original video for good measure

This is exactly what GoPro does while populating the blog with key product recommendations (that also serve to enhance SEO for the brand):

🍪 Use related videos in an email campaign—this is a great tactic when you’re nurturing subscribers to buy or helping them use the product better post purchase - for example, making a pre-purchase campaign featuring a UGC video, one on shipping benefits and another on payment options could work well

🍪 Get FAQ snippets from across videos & stitch them together—in one video you may have spoken about where all you deliver, in another one your best selling products and in yet another what sort of usual concerns your customers show up with, create a highlight reel and share it on platforms like Insta & TikTok 

8. Engage new visitors with homepage videos

Findings say that the presence of video content on a landing page can improve the flow of organic traffic by almost 157%. 

Now whether it’s for organic traffic or ad-based traffic, the homepage is often the chosen landing page for many businesses—so being able to leverage eCommerce video marketing here can be highly fruitful for conversions:

❖ Feature a video background in the hero header—the likelihood of purchases goes up by 51% when shoppers are able to interact with video, and when you add that CTA, the video’s click worthiness goes up by 380%

❖ Tell a story through an animation video—the good thing is you can keep sound-off (81% would mute video ads!) and still relay a key characteristic about your brand through them (eCommerce brand Hommey, for example, recreates one of their physical stores and shows beds flying off like clouds)

❖ Highlight the most influential UGC videos—and make only some of them shoppable - also ensure you don’t have auto-play on for all of them at the same time as this can cause distraction & choice paralysis

We really love how BK Beauty does this while nudging shoppers to read all their reviews in the subsequent section:

Further Reading: 27 Brilliant User-Generated Content Examples (eCommerce)

9. Reduce buying friction through shoppable videos

Until shoppable videos happened in eCommerce, product pages were still considered the most decisive factor in a customer journey. 

With this relatively new video marketing trend though, shoppers actually have the ease of buying multiple products without leaving the video—this considerably reduces friction. 

If you’re trying this as a part of your eCommerce video marketing strategy, know that they serve two kinds of audiences the best:

→ The impulsive buyer: Triggered by a current emotional state or social influence, these buyers look at shoppable videos to get the maximum information within a short time, in order to cut the customer journey short

→ The high-intent buyer: On the other end of the spectrum is the shopper who is clear about what and why they want it—all they want is a little more information from the brand’s side to make the purchase decision

Here’s what you can do to make your shoppable videos get more traction in your video marketing strategy:

❖ Make your bestsellers stand out—while most eCommerce businesses do this by placing static images on the homepage, you could bring in shoppable videos and use a visual cue like an “→” to encourage curiosity & clicks

❖ Use them to make discounts attractive during peak season—this can be valuable in earning customer trust because we all know peak season is about every brand doling out discounts - you can feature the best ones as shoppable video recommendations

❖ Feature them within your “social wall”—this trumps a social wall only with static pictures because it lets shoppers visit the handles of the people in the explainers and also buy directly from the videos - one brand that uses this as part of their video creation for eCommerce is Yellow Beauty:

10. Use explainer videos on product pages 

As we were saying earlier, product pages are often the points of decision-making for buyers. 

Introducing explainer videos here can send customer retention rates up by almost 64% because even if someone doesn’t buy immediately, they’ll be inspired to check out other products. 

To make your eCommerce video marketing stronger, here’s how to use explainer videos on product pages:

❖ Use them alongside product instructions—this can be helpful for shoppers to make sense of the instructions faster and ease the journey of those who’re scanning multiple product pages to compare & buy - exactly what Ava Estell does:

❖ Bring out product benefits through storied videos—and keep them up to no more than 20-25 seconds long - in fact Manscaped hits the sweet spot with 15 seconds, using copy that helps shoppers imagine too:

❖ Convey rich product specifications through auto-play videos—this is something that you can easily make a part of your product page image gallery - labeling the product parts in the video works better even if you offer a 360° view. 

11. Use UGC videos consistently across channels

The verdict is in: brands that use UGC videos on their websites tend to clock about 29% more conversions than their counterparts. 

Similarly, Instagram posts that carry UGC get up to 70% more engagement. 

To make your UGC videos drive your eCommerce video marketing efforts:

❖ Create continuity between UGC videos on social & your website—that’s what skincare brand Colorescience does - they create reels from the same UGC that they then feature on product pages under the “how we wear” section turning these into shoppable videos, which are especially UX friendly for mobile shoppers:

❖ Leverage UGC to offer product comparisons—yet again Colorescience wins at this because they use UGC across Youtube (mainly shorts) as well as on TikTok too: 

❖ Bring in the seasonal angle to your UGC campaigns—try out popular themes like “hauls,” “try-ons” and “lunch / dinner dates” to maximize conversions through UGC videos during the peak season

12. Create strategic video content ft. micro influencers

Considering the average eCommerce customer acquisition cost is about $70, businesses have better chances of converting when they have a captive audience. 

No matter how big your business is, it’s impossible to expect the same shoppers to buy every time, so the next best thing is to work with a variety of micro influencers to tap into their captive audiences. 

There are several ways you can introduce micro influencer content into video marketing for eCommerce:

❖ Come up with giveaway contests together—this can be your classic trope for bringing more eyes to your brand especially with a “tag X friends” to enter condition - in a way leveraging on the existing follower base and amplifying further at the same time

❖ Create a “shop” out of a “look”—Kiko Cosmetics, for example, features micro influencers who’re across age groups, thus defying the concept that makeup can be effectively used only by the young and stylish - here’s one of their reels:

❖ Get them to launch a product—you could create either a series of videos or pre/ post product launch discounts / value add content through a micro influencer

That’s exactly what Glossier did after their Boy Brow Arch launch—they tied up with @yhkayla to create a shoppable video that highlights how to create a look through a clear step-by-step description: 

13. Create videos around expert collaborations 

Strategic partnerships with other brands can improve a business’ visibility by 30%, recent research has found. 

And if that’s a stretch for you, consider getting experts from related areas on board to create capsule collections, seasonal limited edition drops etc. 

This is something that can be leveraged to a great extent in your eCommerce product video marketing strategy—what Wayfair does with their collaborations with independent artists and creators. 

While creating independent landing pages for these collaborations, they spruce them up with video content that justifies why the collection is worth it through the artist’s vision & sense of aesthetic:

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If you’re unsure of how much traction such content will get on your website (especially if you run a smaller brand), do what QALO does - get into collaborations with other niche brands that are built on a similar ethos so that shoppers find real value in buying:

Similarly, eCommerce hair brand Luxy Hair brings on board specialists who try their products and record their experience and insights to ease the customer journey:

14. Relay brand excellence through BTS videos 

BTS video content is a subtle way of generating customer trust by letting them in on how you make your products, shoot them, contribute to causes etc. 

It’s said that 57% of shoppers feel more connected with a brand after they’ve seen a BTS video. 

Here are a few ideas to help you make this a part of your video marketing for eCommerce:

❖ Capture live interactions from a launch / event / trade show—this can work as social proof for audiences still interacting with your brand and figuring out if people like your products / support

❖ Gather footage from production tours and stitch them together—this can come to use when you’re trying to put your values, mission & vision at the forefront (share these not just on your website but also across more public channels like Youtube)

❖ Give a sneak peek into your product shoots—this is specifically advantageous for visually-led brands like fashion, makeup, clothing etc. - something that sustainable brand Allbirds does time and again to keep engagement going: 

Further Reading: Building the Perfect eCommerce About Us Page (& Inspiring Examples)

15. Strengthen your live chat with video

Customers in doubt are impatient. Period. 

And that explains why 1 in 5 customers will stop using a product if response times are slow on chat. 

This is why aiding your live chat with a video prompt is a great idea—it can work even better if you don’t have human interaction possible 24 / 7. 

Alternatively you can do what Pai Skincare does: they greet the customer with a live chat prompt on one side of the page, and on another, they feature a video blurb that helps first-time visitors engage more quickly and book a consultation:

16. Focus on creating sticky “unboxing” video content

Almost 90, 000 people type “unboxing” on Youtube every month—and 62% of shoppers claim they watch unboxing videos while researching and comparing.

This makes it important to include unboxing content in your eCommerce product video marketing, and a few ideas we’ve seen to work are:

❖ Create polls for live unboxing events—this allows people to guess what might be in the box or even if some of the products have a discount if it's a bundle offering

❖ Make your unboxing videos episodic—a great idea for peak holiday marketing where you can announce an “unboxing week” and come back with a new video everyday - pairing this approach with your holiday guides may also work well

❖ Talk about common pain points during the unboxing—talk about returns, exchanges and even packaging if you do it differently for products that are more fragile

Outdoor brand Kelty ensures they put up short unboxing videos that help shoppers visualize an experience with a product while talking through the features & specifications: 

17. Trigger aspiration through landing page videos 

Amplify the high intent that your paid traffic is already coming in with. 

Video on landing pages ensure potential customers who’ve never engaged with the brand can see some crucial information that in turn can inform their purchase decision. 

Here are a few ways in which you can incorporate videos on your ad landing pages:

❖ Use the header to show a live action video—this especially works well for new collection launches across categories like jewelry, perfumes and furniture

❖ Feature the founder in a brand video—this can be extremely reassuring for someone who already has the intent to buy but perhaps needs the right hooks to keep exploring within the same brand

❖ Show a video to bring out a USP—what are you doing differently from competitors? Do you use better materials or more researched ingredients? Furniture brand Outer showcases supershort autoplay videos to keep visitors from scrolling past and pay attention to their USP:

People are also curious about:

Why is video a good marketing strategy in eCommerce?

There are several reasons why including video in your eCommerce marketing strategy is a good idea:

• Viewers are 3X more likely to watch a video tutorial on Youtube than opt to read through a text-based manual
• Shoppers tend to retain 95% of the info a video has to offer as against just 10% of similar text-based content
• 92% of those who watch video on their mobile devices will end up sharing content they like with others (so, if you create your reels & value-add video content really well, your traction grows faster than any form of text would)

And beyond these (very convincing) statistics around eCommerce product video marketing, is the simple fact that 65% of the world leans on visual learning - making it a medium that helps people process information much, much faster. 

In the eCommerce parlance, this is critical for preventing unnecessary delays and friction on the customer journey. 

How to make an eCommerce video marketing strategy work across the conversion funnel?

To make your strategy work across the conversion funnel, the key is to understand what kinds of eCommerce video marketing will nudge potential shoppers closer to a

purchase and retain them after:

Awareness stage: Brand intro videos showing the logo, the people or even the factory / workshop may be beneficial at this stage - it’ll certainly help those who may not have engaged with your brand before but who’re likely to want / consider what you create and / or sell. 

Interest stage: Short videos that offer close-ups of a product or how it can be used can bridge the gap between a potential shopper’s initial resistance and what your product can offer to resolve their objections. 

Desire stage: Comparison product videos can work wonders at this stage because shoppers are looking for very good reasons to continue to consider your product(s) - make the video carry a discount call-out & a CTA to make it even more compelling!

Action stage: Livestream shopping videos aided by expert knowledge and paid ads that carry shoppable videos work well for customers who’re at the brink of buying - just ensure you include adequate nudging through price, benefits or even exclusivity!

Re-engagement stage: Product video marketing that involves new product launches or limited drops or even collaborations between brands work to pull back in customers who’ve already bought or have been subscribing for a while to increase their AOV. 

Amplify video through terrific UX

98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything, even if it boasts of great visuals & video content.

Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

And this is the problem Convertcart solves.

We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.

How we can help you:

Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.