There’s no denying that content is king. But it’s not always easy to create a direct connection between your content and selling your actual product.
Content can certainly help bridge the distance between you and your potential buyers, but it doesn’t close the gap. Or can it? The concept of “shoppable content” is transforming ecommerce and taking traditional content marketing to a whole new level.
What Is Shoppable Content?
Simply put, shoppable content is any type of content – articles, videos, images and more – that gives the customer an opportunity to purchase the product directly from the content. Shoppable content sometimes enables consumers to add items to their cart directly from content they are viewing. In other cases, it takes consumers to a product page where they can then make the purchase.
Online fashion retailer Net-A-Porter was one of the first brands to embrace this trend. They created an online magazine called The Edit that was completely shoppable. Readers who hovered over any product images featured in the magazine were prompted to “Get the look.” If they clicked, they’d be taken directly to that item’s product page.
British retailer Marks & Spencer also nailed this concept with their interactive Denim Style Guide video. The strong storytelling in the video kept viewers hooked and the ability to click on products in the video and purchase them made it easy for consumers to buy. In fact, this one video earned Marks & Spencer over 6,500 product clicks.
Why It Matters
What makes shoppable content so powerful? In short, it’s what consumers want. A survey by DemandGen shows that 91% of consumers favor interactive content over traditional content. Today’s consumers have set the bar high, expecting information and purchasing opportunities to be accessible on demand. Making your content shoppable helps you create those on-demand opportunities.
Imagine you’re an online shoe retailer. You publish a blog post titled “The 5 Shoes Every Woman Needs This Summer.” Your audience loves the shoes you featured in the post and they go straight to Zappos to order them. But if they had been able to shop directly from your blog post, it would have set your site up as the go-to place for new shoe research and new shoe shopping. That effect translates to (in Styla’s case) a 60% increase in time on page, 57% more traffic and twice as many social shares.
Beyond Fashion
Source: One Kings Lane
It’s not surprising that shoppable content has gained particular traction within the fashion industry. However, this marketing concept can help boost sales in many industries. Furnishings retailer One Kings Lane serves as a great example. The company’s website is filled with stunning photography, inspiring home tours and plenty of opportunities to “shop the look.”
Source: Crate & Barrel
Crate & Barrel is another retailer that’s making good use of shoppable content. The images in their blog posts and how-to guides have special shoppable product tags that allow consumers to shop straight from the content. And every product showcased on The Wirecutter has a buy button next to it.
Source: The Wirecutter
The Future of Content Marketing
Is shoppable content the future of digital marketing? It might be too soon to tell, but it appears likely that this trend is here to stay. Making your content shoppable allows you to take advantage of the key moments when your audience is most likely to purchase and makes the path to a purchase as seamless as possible, gives your KPIs a boost and can ingrain your site as the go-to in your industry.
