Video Analytics for eCommerce: Boost Sales and Conversions Like Never Before

Video is becoming increasingly ingrained into the eCommerce shopping experience. As convenient as many consumers find online shopping to be, nothing replaces the ability to physically touch an item and imagine how you would use it — but close-up, in-depth videos (including real-time demonstrations) provide the next best thing. From Alibaba’s Taobao Live shoppable video features to Albertson’s bringing video to the grocery world, video offers unique eCommerce experiences that allow shoppers to examine, imagine, and experiment with different products.  

But how do you know your eCommerce videos are doing their job effectively? If you want to leverage video in your business’s online shopping experience, it’s critical to know if they’re providing value to potential customers. The answer: video analysis with insights provided by a robust video analytics solution.  

That said, it’s important to know which metrics are most relevant to your goals and how to use video analytics to steer your overall eCommerce strategy. Continue reading to learn how to properly leverage video analysis to boost sales and conversions.  

   

Understanding Quality of Engagement

Quality Engagement is a category of metric (alongside Quality of Experience and Quality of Service) in video analysis that measures how much your audience interacts with your videos. You can track particular metrics including:  

• Total watch time 
• Drop-off points 
• Likes 
• Comments 
• Shares 
• Repeat traffic 
• End user devices 
• Geographic location  

And more. These insights grant you a deeper understanding of how your content resonates with viewers, whether it’s a shoppable video or an advertisement. The more engagement your content inspires, the more you know what to produce more of. You can learn more about other kinds of video analysis metrics here.  

Now, when it comes to eCommerce, the metrics you care most about will be the ones that allow you to track sales. Likes and comments are nice, but you care most about things like total watch time (was the video compelling and sufficiently invoking interest in the product) click-through rates (did the video inspire action and motivate consumers to navigate to your product page?). This way, you can track how traffic flows from your video content to completed transactions.  

 

Leveraging Video Analysis for eCommerce Success

To harness the power of video analysis and drive eCommerce success, your business can implement a few key strategies. Let’s explore some key tactics and best practices. 

Improve Audience Understanding

Deepening your understanding of your audience is essential for creating targeted and relevant video content. With video analysis, you can gather valuable demographic data, geographic locations, devices used, and viewing habits. This information helps you tailor your content to specific audience segments, ensuring maximum engagement and conversion rates. 

Optimize Content

As we’ve mentioned previously, intelligent video analysis enables you to optimize the type of content you produce so you’re not wasting your time creating material that doesn’t result in conversions. By analyzing metrics like drop-off points and watch time, you can identify where you lose viewers’ interest; and replayed sections indicate what consumers are most curious about. This data-driven approach ensures your content is not only informative but motivating.  

Personalization

Personalization is a powerful strategy that consumers increasingly expect nowadays. When you analyze viewer behavior and preferences, it’s possible to deliver personalized content and product recommendations with relevant calls-to-action in your videos. Shoppers don’t want to feel like just another statistic in your pipeline: they want you to see them as an individual who’s appreciative of their patronage, so tailoring your content goes a long way to inspiring them to make an actual purchase.  

A/B Testing

Video analysis is essential for effective A/B testing. Say you produce two different videos about the same product that have slightly different approaches and want to determine which one is more compelling. Instead of releasing them a month apart and judging their effectiveness based on sales afterward — which could be influenced by all sorts of other variables — you can publish them both at once and monitor different metrics to track which one audiences connect with more. Now you know which specific video elements to include in future content.  

Optimizing Distribution Channels

Creating compelling video content is only half the battle; distributing it effectively is equally important. Video analysis is invaluable for determining which distribution channels yield the highest engagement and conversion rates. By identifying the platforms where your target audience is most active, you can maximize your reach and impact. 

Campaign Performance Evaluation

Want to know how well your overall campaign is working? Video analysis tools can tell you that information, too. Monitoring metrics like lead generation and conversions helps you measure your videos’ impact on key performance indicators. Plus, keeping up with the general trend of viewer behavior empowers you to predict what their preferences will be as the market changes, giving you a leg up over your competitors.  

Video Analysis: Types of eCommerce Videos

Video analysis comes after creating and publishing a video, of course. What kinds of videos can your business produce to drive eCommerce sales? A few examples include:  

Product Demonstrations: Video demonstrations provide an in-depth look at the features, functionality, and benefits of products, giving potential customers a clearer understanding of the item’s value. 

How-To Guides and Tutorials: Creating instructional videos that demonstrate how to use products or provide helpful tips related to the product category can establish the business as an authority and help customers make informed purchasing decisions. 

Customer Testimonials and Reviews: Sharing video testimonials or reviews from satisfied customers can build trust and credibility, influencing potential buyers’ perceptions of the product’s quality and desirability. 

Behind-the-Scenes Footage: Offering a glimpse behind the scenes of the business, such as the product development process, company culture, or day-to-day operations, can humanize the brand and resonate with customers on a personal level. 

Interactive and Shoppable Videos: Interactive videos that allow viewers to engage with the content, such as trying on virtual clothing or customizing products in real time, can drive higher engagement and lead to direct sales through interactive elements. 

Other options include live Q&A sessions with product developers, seasonal promotions, brand storytelling videos, and industry insights. Creating a wide variety of videos — not just shoppable — boslters your overall video strategy so you have more opportunities to connect with your target audience and inspire them to make a purchase.  

 

Choosing the Right Video Analysis Tools

Your business needs access to reliable and comprehensive video analysis tools to unlock its full power. Any good video platform worth its salt will have some sort of analytics tools, but not all are the same, so it’s important to look into how robust those analytics are, how much you can track, and if it integrates with other platforms you use. Wowza is a fully end-to-end video solution that offers insight into a wealth of eCommerce-relevant metrics that can help you drive sales and boost customer retention.  

Video analysis is a powerful tool for eCommerce businesses seeking to boost sales and conversions. By leveraging data-driven insights, businesses can optimize their video marketing strategies and drive revenue growth. From understanding your audience to optimizing content, personalizing experiences, and evaluating campaign performance, video analysis offers numerous benefits and opportunities for success. Try the power of video analysis for yourself and get in touch with one of our experts to learn more.