Optimising video for e-commerce

Connock, A

Abstract

An e-commerce video is an online video which offers one or more items for the viewer to directly buy. It is a new type of media content, resulting from the fusion of the retail, content creation and digital marketing industries, and it is enjoying rapid, global growth.


But what kind of video works best in e-commerce? How is such video best produced and distributed? What are the optimal strategies for content in e-commerce video?
Through his critical analysis of a set of works published from 2013-18, the author has sought to break new ground through answering these questions. He sets three specific objectives, around which the narrative of this thesis is built, in looking to provide a better understanding of the route to optimization of video content for e-commerce.


First, he evaluates what literature already exists, in both the parent category of branded content, and in the new, fast-growth sub-category of e-commerce video itself - around the drivers of success in shoppable video content creation. He finds that coverage is quite substantial around e-commerce and social media, and in the technical routes to successful e-commerce sales through video distribution. But it is sparse with respect to the content itself, which allows him the space to make a meaningful contribution.


Second, he considers and contextualises his own original research into the existence of a ‘cliff-edge’ in branded content including e-commerce video. In a piece of video content, there is a point beyond which greater brand integration has a negative effect on customer engagement and sales. Knowing that point is vital to the advertiser. Here the author’s original, new research provides useful insight into the gradations of in-content branding that are effective, and this cut-off moment where the audience begins to respond negatively.


Third, the author considers and contextualises his own additional new, original research into which specific styles of e-commerce video are most likely to deliver results. Here he provides multiple new findings - such as the fact that multi-product videos are more likely to sell goods than ones featuring single products alone; or that mute videos are better sales tools than videos with presenters, or using user-generated content.


By answering the three research questions, the author provides focus and nuance to an academic topic which is barely a decade old, and in a developing media content genre which is commercially powerful, global and evolving fast. As a reflection on that rapid change, the author adds a postscript chapter where he reviews all the technologies that are driving the growth of e-commerce video into the future, including Artificial Intelligence.

Citation

Connock, A. (in press). Optimising video for e-commerce. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Acceptance Date: Sep 28, 2018
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 3, 2018