At present, a huge part of our life is dependent on technology. Whether it’s sharing content across various social media platforms, streaming videos on services like Amazon Prime, or simply using our smartphones, you can’t deny the fact that we’re hugely dependent on technology.

That being said, it’s also true that over the years, we’ve seen major technological advancements and it’ll continue evolving in the years to come. In the business world, this means marketers will need new ways to come up with better user engagement strategies to meet the changing demands of the customers.

Nowadays, better customer experience is not just something that consumers expect from brands, it has become a demand. And by failing to do so, you risk losing your clients to your competitors that offer impeccable user experience. 

With the increasing popularity and significance of social media platforms over the last few years, interactive video shopping is one such important medium for improving user engagement. According to some studies, visual inspiration has been known to ignite purchasing behavior.

Organizations are starting to recognize this opportunity and as such, the retail industry has seen a growing trend of companies leveraging interactive video shopping strategies to boost sales, reduce cart abandonment, streamline their process, improve user engagement, and deliver a better user experience.

In this blog post, we’ll provide you with some effective tips on how to leverage interactive video shopping for better customer engagement.

Interactive Video: What Does It Mean?

An Interactive video refers to a type of video content that helps you in boosting engagement by embedding the existing video with various content such as lead generation, hot spots, data inputs, quizzes, and so on.

Unlike linear or standard video where viewers can only watch the video with limited options like rewind, pause, restart, or fast forward, interactive videos offer so much more. It enables viewers to engage while watching. Moreover, it allows your clients to learn more about the product/service.

 

Study shows that people spend 47 percent more time watching an interactive video in comparison to standard, linear videos. Plus, when your viewers have the option to be more interactive with the video, they’re 32% more likely to remember the ad.

Interactive videos are now the most valuable marketing tool for organizations across various industries. According to a study by Brightcove, 35% of businesses that leverage interactive videos showed an increase in their conversion rate and experienced a growth in their sales by 25%.

Why Use Interactive Video Shopping?

Aside from helping your brand stand out from the rest, leveraging interactive videos offers several clear-cut benefits. Unlike traditional, linear videos, interactive media tends to have more engagement on average, meaning people spend more time on it.

Also, interactive video allows you to create content that suits the needs of a specific segment and also helps in providing CTA (Call-to-Action) depending on the individual’s preferences. As such, it aids you in magnifying your conversion and engagement by tenfold. That’s not all, it also helps you in gaining actionable customer insights, which can be used for segmented marketing in the future.

Here are some significant points about interactive video shopping worth considering that’ll help you in magnifying customer engagement:

Identify Your Audience

As millennials represent a huge portion of today’s population, they’re an important target segment for various consumer companies. You have to note that the millennials give utmost importance to experiences and authenticity. 

This means you have to provide a way for them to engage throughout their purchasing journey. That’s where interactive video shopping comes to play. By using an interactive shoppable video, you’ll be able to offer clients more information concerning your product.

This way, you can interact with your customers more effectively. The best part of using interactive shoppable videos is that it allows the use of trigger points for adding links to your landing page so that your viewers have the option to purchase the product shown in the media.

Here’s an example of how Ted Baker implemented interactive video shopping for their last Christmas campaign. 

As you can see, they embedded several hotspots within the video so that their customers can gain more information about the item by clicking on the hotspots or simply purchase by tapping on “Click to Shop.”

If you click on any one of the hotspots, you’ll come across a popup showcasing the product price, details, and CTA to buy the product.

Utilize Social Media Platforms

The abundance of video content and social media are the two biggest driving forces of shoppable content. Various studies suggest that social media plays a major part in influencing consumers’ purchasing behavior.

Also unlike static content, videos are more powerful when it comes to influencing shoppers. This is because they tend to be more original and engaging. According to eMarketer, Americans spend about 108 minutes watching video content every day on average.

Various eCommerce retailers are starting to realize this consumer behavior shift as a valuable opportunity and thus, providing shoppable video content to not only educate but also influence shoppers on various social media platforms.

However, if you want this to work for you, you’ll have to make it easier for your consumers to find the product and produce branded video content that can be easily found on social. You can do this by incorporating cues or dots to specify the CTA options and interactive elements.

Convenience is the key

Convenience plays a key role in increasing sales. Also, because a majority of the shoppers now make their purchasing journey via mobile, this can be a great opportunity for retailers. Especially, if you can interact with your consumers at the most appropriate place and time, you’ll be able to provide your shoppers with a rich mobile experience.

If you want these touchpoints to work for your brand, you’ll have to make sure that your interactive video content is not just convenient but also seamless for your shoppers. This is because people tend to make perform more transactions via smartphones. As such, you must create shoppable content that is optimized for smartphones by including simple swiping and responsive design.

This will help in improving customer engagement to a great extent, thereby, providing your clients with a seamless buying experience.

Incorporate Suitable Interactive Elements

One of the best things about interactive videos is that you can incorporate various elements within the video to make it more engaging. However, you need to ensure that the video is not overloaded with interactive content otherwise it’ll become more of a distraction rather than engaging.

Here are some interactive elements that most companies integrate into their shoppable videos.

Quizzes: By integrating quizzes within your shoppable media, you’ll be able to grab the attention of more consumers and also ensure that your message is delivered. Also, you can offer rewards at the end to ensure that your customers stay focused. Interactive videos that are embedded with quizzes are an excellent way to capture your clients’ attention and provide information about the benefits of using your product. 

Quizzes also allow your viewers to shape their video experience. For instance, the video can include a rhetorical question where the viewers can continue watching the video based on the choices they make.

  

Hotspots: Hotspots are a part of video branching where your viewers are taken to a new video by clicking on the additional link present within the existing videos. In video branching, you compile different clips together and create an engaging story for the customers.

Interactive navigation: Did you know that you can use menu bars to make your videos easier for your shoppers to navigate? With interactive video shopping, you have the option to segment the video into different chapters. This allows your viewers to watch the content at their pace, thereby improving the video experience for customers.

Here’s an example of how Callebaut integrated navigation menu within their video, making it easier for the shoppers to navigate throughout the entire video experience.

CTAs: Linear videos tend to have very limited CTA options. This is also quite inconvenient and limiting for potential shoppers as they won’t have access to the necessary information about the product and as such, lose their interest. Embedding videos with CTA buttons like “learn more”, “click here”, “shop now”, “visit website”, and so on can help you in increasing conversions.

Final Say

Interactive shoppable videos are becoming a powerful medium for retailers. There has been a global surge of videos as more and more brands are leveraging interactive video shopping to simplify the purchasing journey for their clients. In fact, interactive videos account for 36 percent of all the videos that are produced by brands. 

As the technology space continues to evolve, companies have to do their best to keep up with the changing techniques and trends. Also, nowadays shoppers, especially those belonging to the Gen z & Millennials bracket prefer to be active participants rather than just being passive viewers. By leveraging interactive video shopping, you can magnify your ROI significantly. Just remember the aforementioned tips and you’ll be able to make the most of interactive videos and ultimately, enhance your user engagement by tenfold.

About the author: Robert Jordan, a seasoned marketing professional with over 10 years of experience, currently working as Media Relations Manager at InfoClutch Inc, which provides services & technology databases including a list of companies that use salesforce, Hospitals email list & many more technologies for your marketing campaign. However, his passion is writing. Now he works at studyclerk.com as a content writer and marketing consultant.