How to Use Video On-Site to Increase Conversions During Black Friday

During Black Friday, you are competing with thousands of stores to catch the attention of potential shoppers. Through your outbound marketing or social media, visitors would learn about your sale and land on your Shopify store.

However, if your on-site experience is poor, you will likely lose them. One of the ways you can enhance the experience you provide is by creating and adding videos to your Shopify store. With videos, you can explain your product better, build trust, engage visitors better, and convert them easily.

Through this blog, we’ll help you understand why videos are crucial for your Shopify store, which videos to use, and where so that you can sell better this BFCM.

How videos can help you sell better during Black Friday

Typically, shoppers do a lot of research and measure the credibility of an online store before buying. Despite the time-sensitive nature of the BFCM sale, shoppers still follow this process. But, if getting all the information about your products and trusting your brand is time-consuming, they are likely to drop off and wander off to a store that gives that context faster.

Here’s how videos can solve this for you, especially during BFCM:

Build trust

Videos about the product review and even testimonials from past customers allow you to position your brand as credible and trustworthy so that customers can make a more informed decision. By gaining their trust, you can convert and retain these shoppers long-term. All this without them having to leave your site to verify your brand’s credibility.

Add context to your products

The right videos on your product pages will allow your shoppers to fully understand your product and see if it’s the best fit. Videos showing how to use the product, styling them, or even talking about their benefits can give shoppers all the information they need to make that purchase decision.

This way, shoppers won’t need to head to YouTube or other websites to learn more about the product. They can get context from your product page and checkout or browse other products and repeat this process without leaving your site.

Engage better

As a shopper, what experience would you value? Would just product images suffice, or would you want to watch a few videos to understand the product well?

Video has become a primary form of media for us all. By using videos on your Shopify store, you can play to your shoppers’ comfort and preference and make them want to spend more time on your store. Through such an engaging and enjoyable experience, shoppers would have a positive affinity towards your brand and even convert better.

Increase purchases

Safe to say that by building credibility, giving all the information they need upfront, and engaging them better, shoppers would be confident enough to shop from your store.

Which types of videos should you use on your Shopify store for BFCM?

How do you understand which video would help your shoppers trust your brand, make a decision, and checkout— all within this short sale period? We recommend testing different videos and iterating based on the response you get.

But, to get started, here are the types of video you can use based on where you are using it on-site, your goals, and the type of product you are selling.

1. Place review videos on pages featuring high-ticket products

If you sell products with a higher price tag, shoppers need much more information before deciding to buy. Usually, they would wander off to learn more about the product and how it compares with others similar to it. But you can’t let that happen during your time-sensitive sale.

You can provide honest and unbiased information about your product with review videos pulled from third-party sites like YouTube. Shoppers can then watch these videos on the product page and, if convinced, purchase the item directly.

Brands selling electronics, premium skincare and haircare items, and others products that shoppers frequently compare would benefit from having these videos on their product pages.

2. Create and display how-to videos for products that need some explanation

If you sell products requiring set-up or a slightly longer process, use how-to videos to explain it better. You don’t want your shoppers abandoning their interest in buying the item because they were confused about minor details about the product.

For instance, if you sell furniture, you would want to create and place videos that show exactly how to put the piece together. Or, if you sell a face mask, you might want to instruct how to apply it, how long to keep it on, and other details that’ll make its use more effective.

Place how-to videos below the product images so that shoppers don’t miss them.

3. Show potential with styling and product feature videos

Brands selling apparel and accessories might have difficulty helping shoppers visualize the item better. During Black Friday, shoppers are usually open to impulse purchasing but still need to be excited to make that impulse buy.

A video showing how they can style the product is the perfect way to catch their attention while they browse your store and even nudge them to buy the item.

You can place these videos on the homepage, product pages, or even use them when sending out your email and SMS campaigns for Black Friday.

For instance, a fashion store can promote its BFCM sale via email and lead shoppers to a video. This video could show a few bestsellers or even products the brand wants to sell more during this sale period. Shoppers can watch the video and, right within it, click to buy one of the products featured.

4. Place testimonial videos on product pages next to the “Reviews” widget

If shoppers have scrolled down your product page to read the reviews, they want to confirm that the products and your brand are trustworthy. You can add your testimonial videos next to the ratings or even pull reviews of your product from social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Instead of just reading the reviews, shoppers could see real customers (like themselves!) talk about the product and your brand, making them more convinced to buy from you.

5. Promote the sale with videos on your homepage

What makes your BFCM sale stand out among the thousands of stores also running this sale? Instead of shoppers having to browse through product pages, you can make their experience on your store more unique and exciting with an immersive video through which they can see featured products and buy right from the video.

With this video, you can push specific products you’ve planned to promote more during the sale.

6. Increase credibility with testimonial videos on the homepage

If you find that new shoppers have a challenging time trusting you and that slows down their purchase journey, testimonial videos on your homepage can help.

With these videos, you can establish the value your brand has brought other customers like them, making shoppers are more inclined to buy.

Kegelbell is a newer invention, and the brand was aware that shoppers might be a little skeptical about buying. To solve this, the brand used videos of past customers to share how the product has helped them.

7. Add shoppable videos within blogs when relevant

If you publish blogs and have a lot of traffic visiting these pages, you can leverage them to sell (even when you aren’t promoting your BFCM sale).

Adding videos to your blogs is especially important during the sale for a few reasons:

• Shoppers may be searching for deals based on issues they want to solve. For instance, they may search “products suitable for dry skin”. Google tends to rank blog pages higher for such queries. Blogs with videos are better optimized for search, ranking them higher. Moreover, these videos would allow you to sell your products more subtly.
• Many of these shoppers roam around, visiting your blog and reading your content to glean some quick insights. Placing videos at these touchpoints lets you build trust through your valuable tips and nudge them to browse your products in a more immersive format.
  
  

You can add relevant videos within your blogs that feature the product, like a how-to video or a video breaking down the benefits or features of the product.

Best Practices to Keep in Mind When Using Videos

Doing some pre-work before adding videos to your site can help you predict and fulfill expectations, fill information gaps, and enhance the experience for your shoppers.

Use these best practices to guide your strategy when creating these videos and placing them on your Shopify store.

1. Understand customer needs and information gaps before adding videos

When planning for Black Friday, you will go through your analytics to understand where potential shoppers dropped off, what worked, and what didn’t. When retrospecting, your team can ask these questions (based on the sale and general buying journey of your customers) to understand which videos to add to your store and where:

• What information gaps do your product pages have?
• What questions did visitors ask your support team about your products?
• Where do shoppers drop off on your site? What could be causing this?
  
  

Based on this, you can understand which kind of videos would help you sell better at different touchpoints on your site. You may find that many visitors lingered at the “Reviews” section and then dropped off, showing that you weren’t able to earn their trust.

If you run surveys and collect feedback post-purchase, you can ask customers what they found was missing on your site and what didn’t meet their expectations. This information can help you update your store accordingly and add the right shoppable videos where necessary.

2. Keep the videos short and sweet

During Black Friday, there are multiple stores that shoppers may want to browse through and buy from. By making your experience quick and exciting, shoppers would find it easier to pick the right product and checkout faster.

That’s why it’s crucial to make sure the videos you add to your pages are short while providing all the information they would need.

3. Allow checkout within the video

You don’t want to make your shoppers watch the videos, go through the hassle of exiting the video player and then scrolling back to the CTA to add the item to their cart.

Allow shoppers to checkout from the video player by making your video shoppable. Using Videowise, you can have the “Add to Cart” button right next to the video player. This way, shoppers can checkout right after watching the video.

Besides allowing instant checkout, you can add featured video cards below the CTA so that shoppers can instantly browse other similar products and not drop off.

4. Update your title to reflect the urgency of the sale and give context to the videos

When adding video widgets to your pages, ensure that the widget's title is enticing enough for shoppers to click through. The magic formula is to build urgency about the sale ending or the product running out while hinting at its value.

Here are some ideas for the kind of title you can use:

• Watch why everyone is rushing to buy this!
• Watch why the product is selling out fast!
• Hear what other customers love about it
• Not sure why you need to grab this deal?
• Wach our biggest sale of the year!
  
  

Leverage videos to sell better this Black Friday!

While there are other improvements you would need to make and different ways you can optimize the journey on your Shopify store, videos are one of the easiest tactics to elevate the experience for your shoppers.

Once you understand what shoppers are looking for, you can use the right videos at different touchpoints to engage and convert them much faster, keeping the buying journey shorter during this sale period.

If you’re looking for guidance to set up a stellar BFCM, here’s a brilliant resource by Shopify on how you can prepare your store for the sale.

Add the right videos to your Shopify store and make them shoppable with Videowise.