Types of Shoppable Videos for Online Brands

We are finally in that era where video is dominating at a rapid state in the digital market, with online brands like yours shifting towards shoppable videos with the aim of engaging customers and improving the shopping experience while keeping a strong eye out for enhancing conversions.

What makes these videos exciting is that they are not just interactive, but also allow your users to watch content while shopping side by side. This seamless blend of commerce is a game changer.

In this article, we’ll explore three highly effective types of shoppable videos that can be easily implemented across your online store: Instagram-style stories widgets, bestsellers carousels, and product bubbles. Each format serves a unique purpose in the buyer’s journey and can be a game-changer when used strategically.

1) Instagram Stories Widget

The first type and most popular in recent types is the Instagram stories style widget. This is essentially a format that has been inspired by the user experience offered by the popular social app. These short form videos are simply perfect when it comes to delivering context about your products, a behind-the-scenes content glimpse or even educational value that is often in most effective in a bite-sized visual format.

Why It Works:

The reason that this is seen to work is that this format of content has the ability to build trust, while providing shoppers with the needed information they require to feel confident while making their shopping purchases. Quite like social platforms stories, these videos are not only easy to create but also easy to consume, making it more personal than a static image or showcasing an extensive product description.

Where to Place It:

Research has shown that the best and most effective placement for these stories widgets are just below the "Add to Cart" button on your product detail pages. This has been A/B tested and tried to ensure that the strategic location enables visitors to continue their flow of browsing information while having instant access to videos while they are seeking to gain clarity and reassurance about the product before buying.

Tip for Success:

Use real people (customers, creators, or your team) in your videos, and focus on context over sales. Think styling tips, usage ideas, or quick tutorials. The more relatable and helpful your content is, the more likely it is to influence purchase decisions.

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2) Bestsellers Carousel

The second type of shoppable video implementation is the Bestsellers Carousel—a horizontal slider that showcases your top 5 to 10 best-selling products through video content. This format is effective especially for homepage placement and can also be integrated into the footer of every page for maximum visibility.

Why It Works:

The bestsellers' carousel helps undecided shoppers discover your most popular products without needing to search or navigate deeply into your catalogue. It's a great way to guide hesitant visitors toward products with proven demand, increasing the likelihood of a conversion.

What Kind of Videos to Include:

Your carousel should include a mix of promotional and informative videos. Avoid overly sales driven ads—those are best kept for external acquisition channels like Instagram or Facebook ads. Instead, use on-site videos to provide real value: feature product highlights, short tutorials, customer testimonials, or styling videos.

Stay Fresh:

It’s essential to update the videos frequently. Stale content can hurt engagement, whereas regularly refreshed videos signal activity, relevance, and care. Many brands use integrations with TikTok or Instagram to pull in the latest social media content and display it within their carousel using video widgets or Shopify apps.

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3) Product Bubble for Clothing and Accessories

Last but not least, we have the floating product bubble, which is in its element a small, and circular video player that hovers directly over the PDP. It is seen to be most effective for clothing as well as accessory brands and helps shoppers to visualise their products either in motion or being worn in a real life setting.

When and Where It Appears

What makes this widget interesting is that it tends to appear as and when a visitor is scrolling roughly 20% down the PDP, which tends to be a strong indicator of a genuine interest. When the video is triggered at this given point, you tend to engage those users who tend to be actively exploring your given product.

Why It Works:

The reason this is effective is simple psychology. It simply is able to replicate the feeling of browsing a physical store that allows for shoppers to see the actual flow, feel of the product directly through UGC content of real-people trying on the product alongside styling demonstrations. These videos help bridge the online-offline gap by showcasing products in a human context.

Technical Advantage:

One of the advantages is that these bubbles are overlaid on the page layout, implying that there is no website theme modification that is required. In addition to this, it includes settings that enable the restriction of other elements, such as newsletter pop-ups or chatbots—keeping the browsing experience clean and intuitive.

Best Practices:

A best practice to keep in mind here is that your videos should be between 6-10 seconds that are more informative and natural rather than sales. Remember, the goal here is to enhance the browsing experience, rather than interrupting it.

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Why Shoppable Videos Matter More Than Ever

As the e-commerce landscape becomes more competitive, online brands must find smarter ways to reduce bounce rates, improve dwell time, and drive more conversions. Shoppable video content is one of the most powerful tools for doing exactly that.

According to recent e-commerce reports:

• Visitors are 2.5x more likely to make a purchase after watching a product video.
• Brands using embedded video widgets see up to 3x more conversions.
• On-page video increases session duration and customer confidence, particularly for fashion and lifestyle brands.

Final Thoughts: Build Your shoppable videos

Shoppable videos as seen through the course of this article are a strong essential component of any modern e-commerce stores strategy. Simply embedding your video content is not enough, rather it is about identifying and implementing the right format for the right context.

• Use Stories Widgets to enhance product context.
• Use a Bestsellers Carousel to guide undecided visitors through their shopping experience.
• Use Floating Product Bubbles to add real-life experience to your product pages.

By using these formats, brands like yours can effortlessly deliver an enjoyable and visually engaging shopping experience that meet the growing expectations of your customer

By adopting these formats, your brand can drive a seamless, enjoyable, and highly visual purchasing journey that meets today’s customer expectations.

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