The product detail page is one of the most important places of your ecommerce site. After all, this is where the buying decision is made. There are several components to consider when crafting that perfect product page, but there is one element in particular that many brands miss: a video showing the unboxing experience.
The media gallery on your product detail page (PDP) should ideally contain a mixture of photos and videos that make both the emotional and logical pre-sells required to make an ecommerce sale. Remember, emotion is the primary driver of a purchase decision, and logic helps push the customer over the line. Adding a video instead of just using images can help a lot with both.
In this article we’ll discuss unboxing videos, which are a unique way to incorporate video content on your PDP, or even other areas of your site or social media. While most people leave it to influencers or ambassadors to check this box, videoing the unboxing experience yourself can provide a unique edge that pushes customers to purchase.
Defining the Unboxing Experience Video
An unboxing video is pretty much what you would think— a video showing the unboxing experience when a customer receives a product in the mail.
This has become a trend on social media for an interesting reason. People get an emotional charge out of a great unboxing experience for a product they care about. It’s the same anticipation as opening a Christmas present. And that experience and those feelings can be captured in a video for potential customers, both to communicate what they can expect, and to help get them excited for your product to be at their door. Not to mention, there is a practical benefit to simply showing your customer what is included with their purchase. We have found that it helps increase conversion rates because it removes questions or hold-ups in the potential customer’s mind.
Typically, brands leave these videos to ambassadors, influencers, or regular customers to post on social media or YouTube, but we don’t want to leave this type of video to chance.
In this post, we’ll outline four things to keep in mind when creating an impactful unboxing video for your ecommerce store.
4 Tips for an Effective Unboxing Video
1. Prioritize Polished, Professional Quality
Creating a high quality video is very important here; in fact, no video is better than a bad one. In order for this to be effective, people need to want to watch this, and it needs to make your products look great.
You will need to have the right setup, which requires a couple good cameras and mounts, lighting, and more. There are tutorials on YouTube you could refer to for this, or you could hire a team like us to help you. Either way, your end product must look amazing and be engaging.
2. Channel High Energy & Enthusiasm
The person demonstrating the unboxing must have upbeat, positive energy. There is a reason social media influencers sell products so effectively. It’s not just what they say about the product, but how they say it that matters. Channel that engaging passion for your product in your video, in a way that is authentic and relatable for your unique customer avatars. The emotion of the unboxing experience must be communicated to the customer, showing them what they will feel. In short, the goal is for your site visitors to be excited just watching this, simply because the person in your video is excited.
3. Dive Deep into Product Details
Real estate is limited on a PDP, and oftentimes, the description box can’t answer all of your customers’ questions about your product or what’s included. Even if you have FAQs further down the page, odds are, some will skim right over those and still be hesitating over their unanswered questions.
For example, we were recently shopping for an espresso machine for our office. We had our eye on one, but had too many outstanding question marks about what it would look like on the counter, if it would fit, if it came with certain features or parts we needed, etc. We had to resort to digging through YouTube to answer these questions. If the brand had just shown us what all was in the box, we would have bought it right away.
With that in mind, make sure your unboxing video is descriptive and thorough, diving into any features or aspects a customer would want to know. If you haven’t already, check with your customer support team about common questions they get, or complaints that come with returned products. Getting rid of as many of these barriers to purchase as possible will help your conversion rate increase!
4. Bring Your Product to Life
Make sure your unboxing video really shows the details of your product in a variety of ways. Get close-ups and different angles. Hold the product and actually show it in action. The unboxing you record doesn’t have to be just top-down on a table. It will be more engaging if you actually show how it’s used once out of the box.
Even if you sell a digital product, there are ways to show the customer what it’s like to receive it, open it, and begin using it. This is actually extremely helpful for digital products where customers might not fully understand what the experience will be like or what they’re actually getting.
Remember, it’s all about reducing questions in the customer’s mind. The goal is to show the customer what it’s like to use this product, so that they feel ready to take action and purchase now.
Create Your Unboxing Video and Start Increasing Conversions
Videos showing the unboxing experience really give you a chance to sell the emotional and logical sides of the brain, front and center on your product detail page. If you leave this to influencers or other customers to create, it will be off-site, making it harder for your site visitors to go locate on their own. (Not to mention, you’re sending them off to the distraction-filled world of YouTube and social media, and you might never see them again!)
Not only are videos showing the unboxing experience effective tools for your ecommerce store, they’re easier to create than most other video types such as ad content. You know your product well and you have it on hand, so it’s relatively simple to create an ideal setup and start talking through it.
If you’d like to improve the strategy for selling using video and other content to sell to your customers, reach out to us and we’d love to help.