As the eCommerce industry has matured in sales and reach, it has realized it still has obstacles….namely engaging and persuading real people. To take this on, successful brands have embraced digital content to add a pop to their product presentation. But as recent survey from Episerver found, 98% of shoppers have been deterred from completing a purchase because of incomplete content.

Research has shown that video is a valuable content form for online shopping engagement. Put simply, it helps overcome the advantage of tangible interaction provided by in-store experience.

So that being the case, what kind of video content works best to boost eCommerce sales? A new study from the UK has found some insightful answers.

Alex Connock of EndemolShine North in MediaCityUK wanted to examine how differing editorial styles and durations would impact the customer journey. “Around the world there are many territories which have a more relaxed approach to brand integration into mainstream or OTT programming, and here it is possible that e-commerce ‘clickability’ will be included in factual and fiction programming of a mainstream variety. Testing what works in terms of functionalities and styles of integration of that technology is fascinating and seriously useful. We already have interest in this study from colleagues all over the world, from Spain and Holland, to the US and China” he recently told Prolific North.

A survey was conducted of 2800 UK respondents, in 28 standalone representative groups of 100 people each. Before they watched any of the test videos:

30% said have clicked on an online video to find out more detail
29% had actually made a purchase through an online video
49% usually have the sound on, when shopping online
They were then shown the video and asked: would you have bought the product?

The study found that among other things: short videos worked the best, videos with people work better, branded content works better than a hard sell, marketing multiple items works well and leads to more “buys”, and waiting until the video ends before offering click to buy.

“What didn’t surprise me was that short videos do very well as drivers to purchase, as I think we have seen that worldwide. But what was surprising was HOW short that took effect. Notably 15 seconds resoundingly beat 40 seconds as a shoppable video length,” Connock told Prolific North.

“I was very surprised, as are most people who see the survey, that user-generated content ranked so badly as a driver of purchase. It’s definitely one to avoid and that’s a real learning for many ecommerce platforms.

A lot of other surprising findings came from the study that are well worth any eCommerce/eTailer business to consider. The video below shows a summary of the research and results.