Driving Digital Sales: A Guide to Shoppable Content on Social Media and E-Commerce

1. Shoppable Content on E-Commerce, Instagram, YouTube, Tiktok—What's the best social commerce strategy for your Brand?
2. Shoppable Videos on Social Media
3. Benefits of Social Media Shoppable Content
4. Shoppable Videos on Brand E-Commerce Sites
5. Benefits of E-commerce Shoppable Videos
6. Social Media Shoppable Content vs. E-Commerce Shoppable Videos
7. What Should Your Brand Do?
8. Ready to Level-Up Your Marketing Game with Shoppable Videos?

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Shoppable Content on E-Commerce, Instagram, YouTube, Tiktok—What's the best social commerce strategy for your Brand?

Imagine your customers are watching a video of their favorite influencer on your website, admiring their outfit, and buying it in a few clicks. Or they are watching a product demonstration on a product detail page, learning about its features, and adding it to their cart without leaving the video. Sounds amazing, right? That's the power of shoppable videos—a hot trend in e-commerce that's changing the game for shoppers. 

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These innovative videos allow your customers to buy products directly while watching, providing all the necessary information to make informed decisions. From product details to pricing, shoppable videos display everything your customers need to know, eliminating the need for separate browsing sessions. Shoppable Videos are rapidly gaining popularity and popping up on brands’ websites, social media, and apps, which have proven to boost sales, customer engagement, and loyalty.

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With today's busy lifestyles, customers crave convenience. Studies show that 9 out of 10 shoppers prefer stores that save them time and hassle. That's why brands are jumping on the shoppable video bandwagon, adding user-generated content (UGC) that lets you shop right from their platforms.

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In today's digital landscape, it's essential for brands to integrate social commerce into their marketing strategy, leveraging the power of shoppable content to engage customers and drive sales. To achieve this, forward-thinking brands are integrating shoppable videos into various marketing channels, including on-site galleries and product pages. It's a game-changer in e-commerce, streamlining the path from product discovery to purchase. But with options like social media shoppable content and e-commerce shoppable videos vying for attention, how can your brand determine the best approach? Let's explore together.

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Shoppable Videos on Social Media

Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are goldmines for brands looking to engage with large audiences and boost sales. Instagram's visual appeal, TikTok's bite-sized video format, and YouTube's long-form engagement cater to different tastes:
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• ‍INSTAGRAM:
  
  -> From a User Perspective:
  Instagram stands out in the realm of social media platforms, offering users a space where photos and videos enjoy a longer lifespan compared to platforms like TikTok. With features like Stories, IGTV, and Reels, users can share diverse content, catering to various interests. Instagram's emphasis on visual aesthetics empowers users and businesses alike to curate captivating profiles, making it an ideal platform for showcasing products or services. Its broad demographic appeal—from teenagers to older adults—makes it a prime choice for businesses seeking to engage with a wide audience.
  
  -> From a Business Perspective:
  Advertising options like feed ads, story ads, and influencer marketing further enhance its appeal. Success on Instagram involves consistent sharing of high-quality content and active engagement with followers, fostering brand loyalty and trust. For businesses, Instagram emerges as a powerful tool to visually present themselves, engage with their audience, and cultivate a loyal following.
  
  -> Shoppability option: 
  ‍This visual-centric platform is perfect for showcasing products through tagging features, Stories, and Reels. With seamless integration, brands can provide immersive shopping experiences and direct interaction between customers and products.
  
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• ‍TIKTOK: 
  
  -> From a User Perspective:
  ‍TikTok offers users a dynamic platform for short, entertaining videos, often ranging from 15 seconds to one minute. The content spans from comedy to dance, DIY tutorials, and education. TikTok's interface encourages rapid content discovery through continuous scrolling, making it easy for users to explore new content. With a young and vibrant community, TikTok attracts users of all ages but is particularly popular among younger demographics. While primarily focused on entertainment, TikTok also presents opportunities for social shopping, with users sharing product recommendations and reviews in creative and engaging ways.
  
  -> From a Business Perspective:
  For businesses, TikTok provides an opportunity to showcase themselves through short, engaging videos and reach a younger audience. It's well-suited for viral marketing campaigns and influencer partnerships, allowing businesses to quickly gain traction. Advertising options like in-feed ads and hashtag challenges are available to increase brand awareness. Additionally, TikTok's growing emphasis on social shopping presents an opportunity for businesses to promote products directly to consumers in a fun and interactive manner. However, it's essential for businesses to ensure their content aligns with TikTok's tone and style to appear authentic and appealing to users.
  
  -> Shoppability opportunity:
  Brands can drive conversions directly from videos by adding clickable links and call-to-action buttons, making it easy for viewers to discover and purchase products.
  
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• ‍YOUTUBE:
  
  -> From a User Perspective:
  YouTube is a platform that caters to both short and long-form video content, covering a wide range of topics including tutorials, entertainment, and education. Users can discover content through subscriptions, recommendations, and search, with videos often having a longer lifespan and maintaining consistent viewership over time. YouTube fosters a sense of community through comments, likes, and shares, allowing users to engage with their favorite creators and discover new content. 
  
  -> From a Business Perspective:
  For businesses, YouTube offers a platform to share detailed and in-depth content that can convey expertise and build trust with consumers. It provides various monetization avenues including ads, subscriptions, and merchandising, allowing businesses to generate revenue from their content. YouTube's vast user base and diverse content ecosystem make it an attractive platform for businesses looking to reach a wide audience. Additionally, YouTube's emphasis on community engagement presents an opportunity for businesses to connect with consumers in meaningful ways and drive sales through social shopping initiatives. However, businesses must ensure their content is engaging, informative, and aligns with the interests of their target audience to be successful on the platform.
  
  -> Shoppability opportunity:
  While primarily known for entertainment and educational purposes, YouTube also presents opportunities for social shopping, with creators sharing product reviews, hauls, and recommendations. Brands can embed shoppable elements like links in video descriptions, merchandise shelves, and interactive cards, allowing viewers to explore products while watching engaging videos. By integrating shoppable elements strategically, brands can leverage social media's power to create engagement, social proof, and instant gratification for their customers.

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Benefits of Social Media Shoppable Content

Social media platforms boast billions of active users worldwide, making them a powerhouse for expanding your brand's reach and visibility. With a variety of options to choose from like shoppable carousel posts, images, reels, ads, etc. there’s a plethora of ways to advertise, generate sales and establish your brand reputation on your social media channels. Let’s explore the key benefits of shoppable content on social media:

• Enhanced Engagement and Interaction: Shoppable content on social media creates interactive experiences that capture and retain the attention of your audience. By seamlessly integrating shoppable elements into your posts, stories, or videos, you can drive higher levels of engagement and foster meaningful interactions with your followers.
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• Increased Reach and Brand Visibility: Social media platforms host billions of active users worldwide, presenting unparalleled opportunities to expand your brand's reach and visibility. By integrating shoppable elements into your social media content, such as product tags or links, you can showcase your products to a vast audience. This transforms passive scrolling into active engagement, capturing attention and encouraging interaction. 
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• Fast Community Growth: Shoppable content also adds a new dimension to your brand's presence, making it more discoverable and shareable. As users engage with and share your shoppable posts or videos, they introduce your brand to new audiences, amplifying its reach organically. 
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• Leveraging Social Proof: Through strategic partnerships with influencers and user-generated content, brands can leverage social proof to enhance credibility and trust among consumers.
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• Instant Gratification: Shoppable content offers consumers instant gratification by allowing them to purchase products directly from the content they love. This frictionless shopping experience enhances customer satisfaction and encourages repeat purchases, fostering long-term loyalty to your brand.

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Shoppable Videos on Brand E-Commerce Sites

While social media platforms offer fantastic reach and engagement, brand e-commerce sites provide unparalleled control and customization over the shopping experience. By partnering with a top-rated video commerce platform, you can maintain complete branding control and gain invaluable insights into consumer behavior. In this section, we'll explore why so many brands like Charlotte Tilbury & AVON are integrating shoppable videos into their e-commerce platforms; we’ll also shed light on the benefits and points for your brand to consider to harness e-commerce shoppable videos.

• Seamless Path to Purchase: By embedding shoppable videos directly into their e-commerce sites, brands can provide consumers with a seamless pathway from product discovery to purchase, minimizing friction and maximizing conversion rates.
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• Full Control Over Branding:  Unlike social media platforms where viewbility is based on algorithms, brands on e-commerce sites have complete control over branding and customer experience, ensuring a cohesive and comprehensive shopping experience.
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• Data Ownership and Insights: By hosting shoppable videos on their own platforms, brands gain valuable insights into consumer behavior, enabling them to optimize their marketing efforts and drive targeted campaigns.

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Benefits of E-commerce Shoppable Videos

Shoppable videos aren't just a passing trend—they're a powerful tool for e-commerce businesses to showcase products, share stories, and connect with audiences on a deeper level. Here's why integrating shoppable videos into your e-commerce strategy can benefit your business:

• ‍Increase Sales: Shoppable videos act as a seamless bridge between discovery and purchase, eliminating hurdles for customers and enabling them to effortlessly access products without straying from the platform. Research from Wyzowl reveals that a staggering 84% of consumers have been swayed to make a purchase after engaging with a brand's video content. Crucially, shoppable videos have the potential to elevate the average order value as customers can unearth and acquire multiple products showcased within the same video.

• ‍Maximize the Value of Your Existing Videos: You've already dedicated significant time and budget to producing high-quality video content, such as tutorials, product demos, and engaging product launches. However, these valuable assets may have been overlooked, sitting dormant on your social media channels without reaching their full potential. It's time to make the most out of your video investments by using video commerce platforms like LiSA. With LiSA, you can easily repurpose your existing videos, transforming them into interactive and shoppable experiences that can be seamlessly integrated into your product pages and website. This allows you to extend the lifespan of your content and enhance its impact on your audience.

• ‍Boost Engagement: Shoppable videos capture and retain customers' attention by providing an immersive and interactive shopping experience. Customers can watch, learn, and shop simultaneously, resulting in higher engagement levels. Shoppable videos spur social interactions, including shares, comments, and likes, thus magnifying your brand's presence and visibility across various social media platforms.

• ‍Build Loyalty: Shoppable videos help build trust and loyalty with customers by showcasing your brand's personality, values, and stories. Customers resonate with your brand's narrative, draw inspiration from your offerings, and gain assurance in your caliber and commitment to service. 

• ‍Compelling Product Narratives: Shoppable videos enable brands to tell dynamic and immersive stories about their products, allowing consumers to experience the brand's narrative firsthand. This storytelling approach creates deeper connections with customers and enhances brand affinity.‍

• ‍Deeper Insights and Retargeting Campaigns: Harnessing data insights gleaned from shoppable videos, brands can fine-tune their targeting tactics and customize marketing endeavors for distinct consumer segments. This data-centric approach enables brands to deliver tailored and pertinent experiences, thereby augmenting the efficacy of retargeting initiatives and propelling conversion rates skyward.
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• Increased Average Order Value: Shoppable videos excel in boosting the average order value by presenting consumers with additional product recommendations and cross-selling opportunities. Through strategically showcasing related products within shoppable videos, brands effectively encourage customers to explore and purchase complementary items, ultimately driving up the overall sales revenue.

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Social Media Shoppable Content vs. E-Commerce Shoppable Videos

So, how should brands choose between them? Consider factors like audience reach, engagement levels, conversion rates, content control, data analytics, and ROI. While e-commerce videos target existing visitors, social media content reaches a broader audience. E-commerce videos offer deeper immersion, while social media content delivers quick, visually appealing experiences. Weighing these factors against your brand goals, target audience, and resources helps you decide the best approach.

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What Should Your Brand Do?

Instead of viewing social media shoppable content and e-commerce shoppable videos as rivals, think of them as a dynamic duo that can supercharge your brand. 

Social media shoppable content lets you reach vast audiences on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. With their visual appeal and interactive features, these platforms help you grab attention, spark conversations, and deepen engagement with your brand.

Meanwhile, e-commerce shoppable videos create a smooth path from discovering a product to buying it directly from your website. Whether you embed these videos on product pages or create dedicated video galleries, they provide customers with an effortless shopping experience that boosts sales.

When you blend social media shoppable content with e-commerce shoppable videos, you create a powerful marketing mix. For instance, you can generate excitement for new products on social media, driving traffic to your website where customers can explore and purchase items through shoppable videos.

Shoppable content, whether on social media or e-commerce platforms, is a chance to build trust and loyalty with your audience. Showcase your products authentically, collaborate with influencers, and share user-generated content to humanize your brand and forge genuine connections with customers.

Both social media and e-commerce platforms offer valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. By analyzing this data, you can fine-tune your targeting, personalize your marketing efforts, and optimize your shoppable content for maximum impact and return on investment.

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Ready to Level-Up Your Marketing Game with Shoppable Videos?

Embracing both social media shoppable content and e-commerce shoppable videos allows your brand to harness the full potential of shoppable content marketing and capitalize on their respective strengths. By adopting a holistic approach to shoppable video marketing, brands can enhance their online presence, deepen customer engagement, and drive tangible results.

Whether through influencer collaborations, embedded videos, or innovative storytelling, shoppable content offers endless opportunities for connection and sales. So, why choose between them when you can have the best of both worlds? It's time to elevate your brand's marketing game with a comprehensive approach to shoppable content and social commerce.

Are you ready to revolutionize your digital marketing strategy with shoppable videos? Contact our social commerce experts today to learn how we can help you develop a customized shoppable video strategy tailored to your brand's unique needs and objectives.  We’ve helped world-leading brands turn their social media videos into high-converting shoppable formats for their websites, and create a strategy that combines their social media with e-commerce, and we’d love to help you do the same.