Supercharge Your Holiday Sales: How Shoppable Videos Drive Black Friday and Cyber Monday Success

According to the Mastercard, holiday sales in the U.S. are expected to reach $271 billion in 2024, and a significant portion is kicked off by Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Bain and Company predicts that the 4 day weekend will bring in a record breaking $75 billion, making up 8% of total holiday sales, growing a significant 5% since last year.

To ease the gamble of trying out a variety of strategies, especially with consumer expectations for engaging, fast, and convenient shopping experiences higher than ever, video commerce has become a tool for retailers to capture attention and drive conversions, particularly the use of shoppable videos. From teaser campaigns to interactive content, here’s how video commerce can supercharge your Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing efforts to kickstart the holiday shopping season.

1. Boosting Engagement: Today’s consumer attention is scattered across countless ads and promotions, making it harder for brands to stand out. Short-form videos and shoppable videos cut through the clutter by offering a visually compelling, immersive shopping experience. Whether on social media or via a shoppable video platform like buywith, these videos grab attention quickly and drive engagement, with studies showing that video content increases dwell time by over 80%.
2. Supercharging Conversions: Video commerce isn’t just about brand visibility – it drives sales. Shoppers are 64-85% more likely to buy a product after watching a shoppable video demo. The ability to see a product in action, or even better, purchase it directly from the video, eliminates friction in the buying journey.
3. Driving Urgency: Holiday shopping is driven by limited-time deals and fear of missing out (FOMO). Video with countdown timers and flash deals creates urgency. Brands can use live-streamed video or short teasers to highlight exclusive, time-bound offers. The visual cue of a countdown heightens the sense of urgency and triggers faster purchase decisions with effectively made shoppable videos for holiday shopping.

While it can be a laborious process for some brands, an efficient process is one like ours with buywith. Our proprietary AI will cut your long form video into short, snackable and engaging variations and will optimize them automatically to perform well as shoppable videos for holiday marketing on any channel. With buywith, brands can seamlessly run live shopping events onto their e-commerce sites showcasing product lineups, hero products, or seasonal specialties. Learn more about how to create these easily and swiftly from any video!

With 70% of Black Friday traffic coming from mobile, ensuring your videos are optimized for mobile viewing is critical. Once again, buywith’s proprietary AI cuts any long form video into relevant and engaging clips, automatically optimizing them for mobile. Shoppable videos, snippets and short form vertical videos work best, allowing shoppers to engage without flipping their phone. 

Lastly, platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are leading the charge when it comes to video-driven commerce. Keeping videos relevant to these formats can drive up to 34% higher conversion rate. Again, buywith eliminates the need to recreate content for social, as our shoppable video snippets can easily and automatically be used for social media, too.

1. Teaser Videos to Build Anticipation: Begin your holiday campaign with a bang by releasing shoppable videos for holiday sales as teaser videos weeks before Black Friday. Create intrigue by offering glimpses of upcoming promotions or limited-edition products. For example, shoppable video snippets that showcase flashes of must-have products, with a teaser of “big deals coming soon” builds excitement. Share across social media, email, and your website to hook your audience early. Adding a sense of urgency to your videos can push hesitant buyers to take action with the likes of countdowns emphasizing limited-time offers during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday rush. Poppi created one such teaser campaign with the headline “Black Friday Canceled” to pique buyers’ curiosity. Similarly, Ruggable transitions easily from Halloween to a preview of Black Friday with a short and sweet 5 second video!

2. Shoppable Videos for Holiday Shopping and Seamless Sales: Short-form videos and shoppable video snippets make it easy for customers to go from discovery to purchase in one seamless experience. Viewers can see the product in action and click to buy without leaving the video. Fashion and beauty retailers can showcase an outfit or a makeup tutorial with clickable “Shop Now” buttons that let users add items to their cart instantly. The fewer clicks between discovery and purchase, the higher your chances of conversion. 

3. Interactive Live Streams to Spark Engagement: Real-time engagement is a powerful way to connect with consumers during the holiday rush. Live shopping is a format of video commerce that not only captures attention but allows brands to respond to questions in real time, creating a personalized experience. For example, host a live-streamed Black Friday sale event where an influencer or brand ambassador demos top products, announces flash sales, and answers viewer questions. Offer exclusive deals for those attending the livestream, increasing viewer retention and participation. One such way is by using buywith’s new raffles feature during a live shopping event, which is proven to retain audience engagement and drive conversion.

4. Product Demos with Clear Value Propositions: One way to use shoppable videos for holiday marketing is via product demo videos. Product demos give consumers the clarity they need to make a purchase. Use video to highlight the key benefits and showcase real-world applications of your products. For example, a retailer could show a side-by-side comparison of their most popular products, with demos that showcase the features and ease of use reduce customer hesitation, turning browsers into buyers. In this way, Peloton’s video marketing strategy for example revolves around curated educational videos by professionals, including strength classes, meditation, and cardio classes, which to our earlier point, are used on their website, social media and mobile app.

5. User-Generated Content (UGC) for Authenticity: UGC adds an element of trust to your holiday campaigns by showcasing real customers enjoying your products. Encourage customers to share videos of their holiday unboxing experiences using your product. Many of these can be used as shoppable videos too, with influencer or UGC partnerships. Feature these in your promotional videos or live shopping events to build trust and credibility with potential buyers. For instance, Dr. Squatch uses autoplay video user-generated content on its home page. These show actual customers using Dr. Squatch’s products. Hissmile, the viral toothpaste and oral care sensation, similarly uses exclusively UGC content for engaging marketing, especially during the holiday shopping season.