Helpful product videos can have a positive influence on potential customers' purchasing decisions. Amazon no longer only offers vendors the opportunity to integrate product-related video material. It has been possible to upload videos to the brand store of your own brand for some time now. As this topic has already been discussed in this post on creating an Amazon Brand Store, we will now focus on the integration of product videos on the product detail page. You will find out which three options you have for adding videos to your listing and which requirements apply.
Requirements for the product video
Before we go into the possibilities for sellers to expand their product listing with product videos, here are the most important requirements for such a video.
Professionalism: A product video does not automatically bring an advantage, because unprofessional videos can also put a product in a bad light. However, it is not always necessary to hire an advertising agency. Think about a script for the short film beforehand, film with a good camera and avoid wobbles and poor sound quality.
Length: The video should not exceed 3 minutes in length. The less time you need to advertise the product, the better.
Size: The product video should not be larger than 500 MB, preferably less than 200 MB.
Preview image: Unless otherwise specified, Amazon selects the first image frame as the preview image. Please note this when creating the video.
Quality: Amazon usually reduces the quality of the video noticeably. Therefore, avoid details that are difficult to recognize.
Subtitle: Many interested parties will watch the video without sound, so it makes sense to provide the video with subtitles for reading along.
Contents: Show the product clearly and emphasize all the special features. However, keep it brief. Also try to create a link to your brand. What makes your brand special?
Product video in the picture gallery
In various forums, the question of how it is possible for a seller to add a product video to the image gallery comes up again and again. The answer is almost always "Not at all". The video slot within the image gallery is reserved for vendors only. However, this information is not entirely correct. In fact, the path to the product video is currently anything but intuitive and obvious, but it does exist - even for sellers.
Innovations since December 2020
Since December 2020, product videos can now be uploaded easily and independently via Seller Central without having to contact support. To do this, go to Stock -> Upload & manage videos.
Here we can now easily upload videos of specific products. Simply click on Upload video and then upload the respective video and assign it to a product. Then we just have to choose a title and a thumbnail and we can submit the video.
Prerequisites
The only requirement is that you have registered with the Amazon Brand Registry. If you have your own brand on Amazon sellsbut have not yet completed the trademark registration, you will be redirected to the this contribution will guide you through the registration process and explain the advantages and disadvantages of registering a trademark.
In addition, the desired video must be accessible via a link, i.e. you must have previously uploaded your video to your domain, for example. A link to platforms such as YouTube is not permitted.
Request product video
The integration of product videos is currently still in the test phase for sellers and can therefore not yet be entered in Seller Central together with the product images. Instead, the path leads via the Amazon Brand Registry.
First log in there with your access data and select the contact for brand support. Select "Request not listed" as the request. Now write the support team a message containing the link to the product video and name up to five ASINs for which the product video should be inserted.
Support should deal with your request relatively quickly and confirm the integration of your video. However, it may take up to 24 hours for this to be published on the product detail pages.
Advantages
One advantage of this type of video integration is that the video is embedded at the position of the seventh product image. This means that it is always shown after the regular product images in the image gallery. As the product images, together with the title and bullet points, represent the most important aspects of a listing and receive the most attention, there is a high probability that the product video will be viewed by potential buyers and, in the best case, have a positive influence on the purchase decision.
Disadvantages
Admittedly, the effort involved in this type of video integration is somewhat higher and less intuitive. However, if you look at the US Amazon marketplace and other large online mail order companies, it is reasonable to assume that uploading product videos will also be possible on the German Amazon marketplace within Seller Central in the near future. In the best-case scenario, there will even be corresponding analysis tools for video content.
Product video in A+ content
Who can create A+ content for their products and how exactly this works has already been explained in this post presented in detail. Product videos can also be embedded there.
Prerequisites
This variant also requires brand registration with the Amazon Brand Registry or participation in the vendor program, as A+ content is currently only available to these users.
Add product video to A+ content
First log in to Seller Central and select the A+ Content Manager under "Advertising" at the top. There you can now either edit existing content or create new content. In edit mode, you can now choose from various modules. To add a video, the corresponding module must be selected. Follow the instructions shown and add the required elements such as the video file, a thumbnail image, video title and video description.
If necessary, create additional modules until you are satisfied with the content and then send them to Amazon for review. The review of A+ content can take a few days. However, as soon as the content has been approved by Amazon, your product video will be visible on the corresponding product detail page.
Advantages
Your video is displayed directly within the A+ content, so it does not have to be selected within the image gallery (as in variant 1). At the same time, you can integrate it into your A+ content in a visually appealing way.
Disadvantages
This depends a little on your product. If you sell low-priced items, a purchase decision may already be made based on the title, product images and bullet points. This means that the A+ content - and therefore your video - may receive hardly any attention.
For higher-priced items, customers like to gather as much information about the product as possible before making a purchase decision. In such a case, the A+ content and the product video will probably represent greater added value for the customer.
Product video in the reviews
Product videos also appear in the reviews - but these are created by the customers. At first glance, this option may seem less interesting, as these videos can hardly be influenced by the seller. However, a well-made review video in which your own product is positively advertised can have a significant influence on the purchase decision of potential customers.
Prerequisites
Basically, any customer can leave a review video for any product on the Amazon marketplace.
Generate review videos
First of all, you should make sure that customers leave positive reviews. To do this, the product should match the images and the information provided. If it turns out that the reviews are predominantly positive, you can ask customers to share their feedback on your product in personalized review requests. There you can, for example, point out the possibility of a video review.
If you have a community on social media such as Facebook or Instagram that is convinced of your products, you can also ask them for support through video reviews. This also increases the likelihood that the video reviews will be positive.
Advantages
The big advantage of video reviews is that they do not come from the seller themselves, but in the best case from convinced customers. As reviews generally play an important role in the purchase decision, an honest video review in which your product is objectively praised can really enrich your product detail page.
Disadvantages
The disadvantage of this method is the limited scope of influence on the part of the seller. At best, the review can be steered in a positive direction, but what exactly is said and shown in the review video is up to the customer. A call for a video review should therefore only be made when you can be fairly certain that it will be positive.
Conclusion
This article should have shown that sellers with their own brand do not have to do without product videos on the product detail page. Of course, the options can also be combined. There is reason to believe that video content will be much easier to integrate via Seller Central in the near future and may even be analyzed. At the same time, however, it can be a competitive advantage to deal with the topic of product videos now, when they are not yet represented on every product detail page.
