One of Tamebay’s regular readers, an experienced Amazon seller, posed a decent question on Facebook just yesterday. He asked: “When oh when will Amazon allow us to add video to descriptions and/or EBC!” It caused Tamebay to explore just how much Amazon is serious about video selling for third party sellers. And it’s quite surprising how little help they offer what should be key ecommerce tool on the marketplace.
Of course, you can add videos but they are not prominent. With a vendor account you can add a video to your Amazon listings but it is fairly well hidden after the images, he says. And even then videos don’t even show up on a mobile.
It’s a truth universally accepted that videos are a good way to sell products. They work especially well for goods with moving parts or those which benefit from a demonstration. An audio commentary accompanying the video can also be a very good way of clinching a sale.
Video selling just helps shoppers truly understand what’s on offer. Just this week I bought a new wardrobe online and it was the video profile, specifically the look at the doors moving and the internal drawers in action that convinced me to shell out. That’s a basic example. Videos are potentially even more persuasive when it comes to electronic devices, motor cars, mechanical devices and the like.
And video reviews could well be a huge horizon, not least with the Amazon ‘Enhanced Branded Content” (EBC), as our correspondent notes. So why isn’t Amazon doing more to help merchants use video?And it’s keen question, especially with regards to Private Label Selling where it could be a huge boon. Video selling is clearly the future.
Amazon is usually at the forefront of tech developments and helping sellers make sales and showcase their products should be a priority. But when it comes to video displays Amazon does rather seem to be lagging. We’d love to hear from Amazon sellers and learn how you’d like them to help you sell using video. What additional functions would you like them to provide?
3 Responses
You make a good point, Dan, but it raises another question. Is there no such thing as an ‘Amazon Spokesperson’ to whom you can put such issues? Do they even have a Press Office? Under normal circumstances, a news conduit like Tamebay would have regular contact with the companies they write about, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. You seem to get quotes from eBay now and then, but never Amazon. Is it all part of their usual monolithic mystique?
Haha brilliant!!!.
I totally agree with your views on how convincing a video can be in swaying a customer but mainly when they get the item and are struggling being able to refer back to a video is a perfect way of avoiding returns, damaged goods and frustrated customers.
But here is the amusing part if Amazon do go down that route eBay have just spent a whole year making sellers remove embedded videos from their descriptions and so with them always hanging onto the shirt tails of Amazon like a squawling clingy child they could end up looking silly telling everyone they can now put them back on.
But thats ebay for you.
We are a big fan of video, In our industry it is the best way to actually SHOWCASE our products and it is easy also. We basically have trailers.
We were even showcasing our products with video on ebay for a while (we managed to upload video) on to ebay collections via ebay.com. before they gave up with the “collections” after year, which may been a bit hasty with IMAGE search the next big thing.
We use video on social all the time and on our website. It really works well on Instagram and Facebook.
As far as Amazon goes WE do actually watch the videos a bit when we make purchases it is a very useful tool and we like customer Photos in reviews.