When customers shop online, they don’t have the opportunity to pick up a product, examine it from different angles, see how it works or ask a salesperson to demonstrate it.
Good product photography and detailed descriptions can answer many questions, but sometimes images and words aren’t enough.
This is where product videos can make a real difference.
Adding video to your product pages can help customers understand exactly what they’re buying, demonstrate features that are difficult to explain with photographs and, most importantly, give customers more confidence to complete their purchase.
Show the Product in Action
One of the biggest advantages of video is the ability to demonstrate how a product actually works.
A photograph might show what a product looks like, but a short demonstration can show its size, movement, features and how it is used in the real world.
This can be particularly useful for products such as:
- Tools and equipment
- Furniture
- Electrical products
- Machinery and components
- Clothing and accessories
- Home and garden products
- Specialist or technical products
The video doesn’t necessarily need to be a professionally produced advert. In many cases, a simple, clear demonstration of the product can be much more useful to a potential customer.
The objective should be to answer the question:
“What will this product actually be like when I receive it?”
The better you can answer that question, the easier it becomes for the customer to make a buying decision.
Make Installation Easier
If a product needs assembling, fitting, configuring or installing, customers may hesitate because they aren’t sure whether they will be able to do it themselves.
An installation video can remove some of that uncertainty.
Showing the installation process allows customers to understand what is involved before they order. It can demonstrate the tools required, explain each stage and highlight anything they need to know beforehand.
This isn’t only useful before the sale.
Installation and setup videos can also reduce the number of support enquiries you receive after the customer has purchased.
Rather than contacting your team asking how something should be installed, customers have a useful resource available directly from your website.
Help Customers Compare Products
Giving customers plenty of choice is important, but too much choice can sometimes make buying more difficult.
Imagine you sell three similar products with slightly different specifications. A customer may open all three product pages, compare specifications and still struggle to understand which one they actually need.
A short comparison video can make the differences much clearer.
You could explain:
Product A – Suitable for customers looking for a straightforward, lower-cost option.
Product B – Includes additional features and is suitable for most customers.
Product C – Designed for professional users or customers requiring the highest specification.
The customer isn’t simply being shown three products. You’re helping them choose the correct one.
This is particularly valuable for ecommerce businesses selling technical products where customers may not fully understand the differences between specifications.
Answer Common Questions with Short Videos
Think about the questions customers regularly ask your sales or support team.
“How big is it?”
“Will this fit?”
“How does this part attach?”
“What’s included in the box?”
“What’s the difference between these two models?”
“Can this be used outside?”
These questions are excellent subjects for short product videos.
Instead of producing one long video covering everything, consider creating several short videos answering individual questions.
These could sit alongside the product description, specifications, FAQs and product images.
A customer who wants more information can quickly watch the relevant video without having to search through a long page of information.
Video Can Show Scale Better Than Photography
One problem with online shopping is understanding the true size of a product.
Dimensions are important, but seeing “450mm x 320mm” doesn’t always give customers an immediate understanding of how large something actually is.
Showing someone holding or using the product can provide instant context.
For larger products, showing them in their intended environment can achieve the same thing.
This is another reason why lifestyle photography and product videos can work extremely well together. Photography provides detailed visual information while video provides movement, scale and real-world context.
Product Videos Don't Need to Be Long
Customers generally aren’t looking for a ten-minute presentation when they’re considering a product.
For many products, 30 seconds to two minutes may be enough.
A useful product video could simply:
- Show the product from different angles.
- Demonstrate its main feature.
- Show how something opens, closes or operates.
- Explain what is included.
- Demonstrate installation.
- Compare it with another model.
- Answer one common question.
The important thing is that the video provides useful information.
Avoid creating video simply because video is good for marketing. Every video should have a purpose and help the customer make a more informed decision.
Use Your Existing Customer Questions
You don’t necessarily need to spend hours deciding which videos to create.
Speak to the people who already communicate with your customers.
Your sales team, customer service staff and technical support team probably answer the same questions every week.
Those questions tell you exactly what information customers are struggling to find.
If ten customers have contacted you asking the same question about a product, there are probably many more customers who had the same question but didn’t contact you.
Some of those customers may simply have left the website.
Turning common questions into short videos can therefore improve the customer experience while potentially reducing repetitive enquiries.
Video Should Support the Product Page, Not Replace It
While product videos can be extremely useful, they shouldn’t replace good product information.
Customers should still be able to quickly find:
- Product descriptions.
- Technical specifications.
- Dimensions.
- Delivery information.
- Stock availability.
- Product images.
- Frequently asked questions.
- Reviews.
- Clear calls to action.
Video should complement this information.
Some customers will watch every video. Others will prefer to read the specifications. A good ecommerce product page gives customers different ways to find the information they need.
Build Customer Confidence
One of the biggest challenges with ecommerce is confidence.
Customers want reassurance that they’re ordering the right product, that it will do what they expect and that there won’t be any unpleasant surprises when it arrives.
Product videos can help provide that reassurance.
They allow customers to see products working, understand installation, compare alternatives and get answers to common questions before they place an order.
The easier you make it for customers to understand your products, the easier you make it for them to buy.
If your ecommerce website has products that would benefit from demonstrations, comparisons or installation videos, it may be worth reviewing your existing product pages and asking one simple question:
What would a customer want to see before they felt confident enough to click “Add to Cart”?