How to Add Videos to Shopify: The Simple Guide for Sellers
In the fast-paced world of Shopify ecommerce, videos have become the key to engaging customers, showcasing products, and boosting conversions. In this blog post, we'll explore how to add videos to Shopify.
From increased conversion rates to improved SEO rankings, get ready to unleash the potential of video marketing. Join us on this journey and unlock the secrets to a more immersive and successful customer experience.
Let's dive in!
What are the benefits of adding videos to your Shopify store?
As you may already know, video marketing has become a dominant tool in the ecommerce market, particularly on Shopify.
Plenty of e-commerce brands utilize the easy application of video content on Shopify by displaying an in-depth representation of their products, engaging their customers, and sharing compelling brand stories.
Nowadays, as technology advances, consumers demand more immersive shopping experiences, therefore, brands can harness the power of videos to deliver a memorable customer journey.
To better understand the influence of videos and why implementing them in the customer journey is so important, let’s tap into some advantages this method brings your business.
1. Increased conversion rates
Applying videos to your Shopify page allows you to convey more complex messages and therefore, enhances product understanding. Currently, videos are the most significant tool for clearly depicting the value of your product. Essentially, this builds consumer confidence and ensures potential buyers of the credibility and authenticity of your products, ultimately resulting in a purchase. In fact, a video marketing study done in 2021 found that 84% of people have been influenced by a brand video to buy their product or service.
2. Boost SEO rankings
A website’s position, in response to a search query, on search engine results is known as its search engine optimization (SEO) ranking. Adding videos to your page will increase engagement and the amount of time users spend on your website. Moreover, adding compelling content via call-to-action buttons (CTA’s), will guarantee more user interaction with your site. This will eventually lead to improved visibility in search engine results, that results in a higher SEO ranking.
3. Improved customer experience
Videos are a great way to captivate your customers’ attention for a longer period of time by showcasing dynamic and engaging content. Customers have a better time shopping when they can see the products in action and recognize the benefits for themselves. Videos can also be recorded and edited in a visually appealing way, thus successfully making a good impression on consumers.
4. Increased brand reach
Due to how simple it is to share videos, they can now easily be distributed across various platforms. What’s more is that consumers have a preference for appealing video content and will most likely share these videos on their own networks, consequently increasing brand awareness and reach.
5. Decrease bounce rate and minimize returns
Providing content that gives your customers a clearer understanding of the features and uses of your products will reduce uninformed purchases and subsequently returning items. Since videos can have both a verbal and visual description of your product or service, consumers are automatically more confident in their purchase. There are even types of videos such as UGC that are highly effective in reducing returns due to the accuracy of the content shown.
Furthermore, your visitors are encouraged by engaging videos to stay longer on your website. This means that the bounce rate, which is the percent of visitors leaving a website without taking action, will be low. For this reason alone, you must generate captivating content in order to persuade your viewers to remain on your site and take action.
4 different ways you can add videos to your Shopify store
1. Embedding YouTube videos to shopify
Adding videos to your Shopify site offers a seamless integration of the entire process. More importantly, YouTube is a well known video hosting platform that is reliable for its quality and content. Since you will be embedding using another platform, you will be reducing server load and ensuring the high-speed performance of your Shopify store.
Moreover, embedding videos from YouTube enhances the SEO performance, since Google owns YouTube. However, we will discuss a more beneficial approach to embedding YouTube videos. When you add YouTube videos by only using Shopify’s in-house feature, then these videos may not be responsive. What does that mean? It means that when you add your video to your Shopify site, it will become responsive by automatically adjusting to the width of the browser window or mobile device. Let’s have a look at how this is done;
- Step one, copy the URL of the video you want to embed.
- Go to the site Embed responsively and select the media source, in this case, YouTube. Then paste the YouTube Page URL you have copied to your clipboard and click Embed.
The CSS then gives you a code that makes the size of the video automatically adjustable or, in other words, responsive.
- Copy the embed code.
- Open up your Shopify Dashboard and select “Online Store”. Once you do so, more options will appear underneath it and you can select “Pages”.
- On the right-hand side, you will see your page options, where you can select the one you wish to embed the video on.
- Once you have selected it, click on the camera icon of the formatting panel under “Content” and paste your embedded code in the new pop-up. Finally, press on “insert video”.
- Another way to complete step 6 is by clicking on the HTML icon “<>” on the right side of the formatting panel and directly paste the code in the text box below. Once you’re done embedding, click on the same icon and to go back to “Show Editor” where you can then click save and see what it looks like.
2. Use Shopify's embedding feature
You can also add videos to Shopify using Shopify's in-built embedding tools. In this section we'll cover how to add videos to your product pages andalso to your Shopify homepage.
a) add vides to your product page
The first way you can embed videos on your Shopify product page is by adding them to your Product Gallery.
- You start by going to your Shopify Admin and selecting the “products” option
- On the right-hand side, you will see your product options appear. Select the product you want to add a video to.
- After having selected the product, you will be taken to the product’s details page. Here, you need to scroll past the Title and Description, and then you will see the option “Media”. You will be given two options for uploading videos: “Add” or “Add from URL”. You can also add a video by dragging and dropping it anywhere on the media section. Select whichever applies to you.
- You can proceed by clicking “Add” to upload a video from your device, or by adding from the URL link of the YouTube/Vimeo video you’d like to add.
- Save your changes and you’re done!
The second way to do this is by embedding videos to your Shopify Product Description. We already provided a step by step of this process when describing how to embed with YouTube. The other way to embed videos is onto your Product Description by uploading them from your PC.
- Repeat the first two steps of adding videos to your product Gallery.
- Now, go to Product Description and select the video player icon to insert a video.
- Paste your video here and click insert video to complete the process.
b) Embedding videos to your Shopify Homepage
Although there is some coding involved when embedding a video on Shopify, you won’t need any coding knowledge to follow our steps explaining how you can embed your videos directly from your PC to your Shopify homepage. Keep in mind that Shopify has different themes, therefore, not all themes provide the option to share a video. If they do, they may have different uploading steps.
- Access Shopify Admin: Go to your Shopify Admin and then head on over to Settings where you will select the “Files Tab”
- Select the “Upload Files” button.
- Video formats: Upload a video file that meets these 4 requirements:
- File type: mP4 or .mov
- Video resolution: up to 4K (4096 x 2160 px)
- Video length: up to 10 minutes maximum
- Video size: 1 GB maximum
- Once the upload process is complete, copy the URL of the video by pressing the Link icon “🔗”.
- Edit homepage: Return to the admin page, where you will click on Online store and open up themes.
- Pick the theme you want to edit and click on the “actions” button, then click on the edit code option.
- Another way to add content is by directly clicking on the green customize button, selecting “add section” and pasting a copied URL link from a YouTube or Vimeo video.
Once this is created, a text box will appear that may contain existing code that you will remove. In place of this code, you may paste the copied URL from Step 4. However, this URL needs to be pasted within an embed code. Below is an image displaying types of embed codes by different platforms. You can embed your copied URL into any of the codes listed on the image. Do this by pasting the URL after “src=” in the embed code.
Embedding videos to your pages shouldn’t be a complicated and tedious process. For the last two years, new types of video players have been arising on the Shopify App Store, enabling a seamless integration of embedding modern video formats. Our last option for embedding on your Shopify store might just be the most efficient as it is not only quick, but also, offers a variety of different features you can adjust and add to your videos.
3. Embedding Videos to Shopify with Vidjet
In the quest for new and captivating video experiences, brands are constantly looking for current innovative ways to create a memorable customer journey. Short, shoppable and interactive videos offer a new type of format merchants can leverage to boost engagement and conversions. Enter Vidjet, a shoppable video platform that makes the process of upload these types of videos to your Shopify feel like a breeze!
- Firstly, Sign up to your Shopify admin account.
- Go to “Home” on the Shopify Dashboard and select the “customize theme” option. Then, click the “customize theme” button.
- Now that you can see the “Theme” section. Click on the green “customize” button on the theme you have selected.
- You will then be able to see your Home Page with a menu on the left-hand side displaying different sections such as: Header, image with text, and so on. The options provided depend on the theme you have selected, so another theme may have a different order of sections.
- Scroll down and click on “Add Section”. Once you do so, select the “custom content”
- Now, you will spot the “custom content” section at the lower part of the menu on the left-hand side.
- Click on “Add block” to add a tab under the “custom content” section.
- Depending on your theme, click on “Custom HTML” or “Custom liquid”
- Once you have added this option, select custom HTML.
- You will then be directed to a new page where you can see an empty box on the left-hand side with the word “HTML” written above it. Go to Vidjet where you will have an embed code after having completed the process of creating your video feeds or in other words your campaign creation. Copy the embed code.
- Return to Shopify and paste the Vidjet code in the HTML text box. Once you do so, you will see a preview of the video on the right side of your page. Depending on your theme, you may need to scroll to find the position of the video on the page. Lastly, adjust the “container width” if you deem it a necessary.
- You have now successfully embedded your video, finally you should “save” your work, and be done with this process!
Types of video content you can add to your Shopify store
There are all kinds of fantastic content you can create for your Shopify store, but some methods are more effective than others. You need to make sure that the video content you provide engages your audiences and enhances their shopping experience. The more you diversify this content, the better impression you will leave. Have a look at a few of the methods we propose for appealing to the different preferences of your customers.
1. Campaign videos
Campaign videos must align with your marketing goals and portray a message to your targeted audience. The reason this would be make a great addition to your Shopify store is that it helps create a sense of urgency around a purchase by building excitement and engagement. To better understand it, below are two examples of campaign videos and what they are used for.
a) Product launch or new feature announcement
This video format is made to promote your company’s products or services via a specifically designed marketing campaign or product launch. As we know it, this marketing campaign can be different types of content, such as a limited time offer or a new feature announcement. Adding this type of product video to your home page and product page will effectively encourage your customers to take action on your shop. Since, video campaigns are carefully crafted to gain the interests of their consumers, they ultimately lead to higher conversions.
2. Employee videos
Employee content is a safe and effective way to guarantee the authenticity of your product or service. It is the perfect content for building, establishing a between what your company offers and consumer trust. It is also, a great method for humanizing your brand directly. Below are two different types of employee videos you can create.
a) Informative content
The term “informative content” is pretty self-explanatory. These videos feature your employees explaining useful information and sharing valuable insights about the product and service you are selling. By having someone from your brand directly explain your product’s functionality, you provide a deeper understanding of your offerings via a trustworthy source. Subsequently, you humanize your brand more with employee videos and reinforce your brand’s values, leading to customer loyalty.
b) Welcome & thank you videos
Welcome and thank you videos are the type of video content that easily fosters a positive connection with your customers. A personalized approach such as this creates a warm and friendly environment, hence leaving your viewers with a lasting impression and perhaps making them feel appreciated.
3. User generated content (UGC)
You may already be familiar with this term, but if not, user-generated content involves any type of content created by someone who is not an official representative of your brand. This is a powerful tool for enhancing your store’s authenticity in that it is relatable and genuine. Displaying real customers on your Shopify store, will encourage potential buyers to make a purchase since they can see genuine feedback from other people using your product or service. Furthermore, you can increase sales by leveraging your UGC and turning it into shoppable videos on your Shopify store. Now, we will explore different types of UGC you can create:
a) Unboxing videos
Unboxing videos have become a popular video format today that’s produced by influencers and other content creators. Viewers enjoy seeing how other buyers react as they unpack aspirational products. This type of immersive experience builds anticipation and allows viewers to experience the product vicariously through the content provider. This is a great method to instil confidence in your brand, by offering customers valuable insights about your goods before they decide to make a purchase. The reviewing and displaying of your products’ characteristics enhances the value of your brand.
b) Customer reviews
Customer reviews easily establish trust and credibility for your brand. Videos of existing consumers giving their feedback through videos, allows potential users to see an authentic customer experience with the products. What this does is influence their purchase decision by facilitating an emotional connection and providing social proof that others really do enjoy your products or services. The more transparent you are on your website, the more consumers will trust your brand.
c) Product tutorial
Last, but not least, product tutorials are a highly valuable video format where consumers are given an in-depth demonstration and explanation on how to effectively use your product or service. This leads to a positive shopping experience, it enhances your customer satisfaction, and minimizes the chances of returns. If you want to show how committed you are to your customers, a product tutorial is a great way to go about it. Additionally, product tutorials can attract new customers and keep existing ones loyal to your brand.
Go Forth & Add Videos to Shopify!
Adding video content on your Shopify’s home page or product page offers many benefits, some of which are; improved SEO, a greater brand reach, and increased conversions. This video marketing technique will enhance your customer experience via engaging content. Furthermore, incorporating diverse and compelling types of video content such as UGC, employee, and campaign videos, will enhance your customer journey by creating a captivating online shopping experience. Based on your requirements, choose either of the three methods listed above for embedding videos to your Shopify page and apply them. Should you follow any of these steps and suggestions, you will successfully launch your Shopify store and stand out amongst competitors. I hope this article helped you better understand the advantages of embedding videos in your Shopify store and the different ways you can do so!
This post was written by Leona Kalenikova: I am a PR & content specialist at Vidjet. I enjoy exploring new ecommerce trends and writing about SEO optimization.
