Want to know how to add video to Shopify products? It is surprisingly difficult given that Shopify is the most popular ecommerce platform. Using video has become an essential part of selling products online.
Consumers expect it now.
Using video on your Shopify store used to be a “nicety” but it has now become an essential. Off course this depends on the products you sell. Generally speaking the more convincing it takes to sell a product, the more you have to use video.
Video is not really about showcasing products. It is more about making information more easily accessible and digestible.
People have become lazy. No one wants to read pages of information anymore. They would much rather watch a video to see how something works.
As a rule of thumb, if your product solves a problem you need a video on your product page. You need to explain in under 60 seconds how the product works and how it solves the problem.
Using video in Shopify is incredibly powerful but takes a bit of work to incorporate into your store.
How To Add Video To Shopify Product Pages
1.Adding Mp4 Videos (No Youtube or Vimeo) To Your Shopify Store
Shopify currently has no native solution for adding video to product pages. There are some themes that have great video options but most of them are paid.
If you plan on using a lot of video on your product pages then I would suggest a theme called Motion. I really love this theme as it has so many animation effects. It really brings your products to life. It also makes adding video very easy.
If you don’t use Motion then its not the end of the world. There are always options.
One option is an app called Widgetic. The free plan gives you a massive 1GB of storage but they have since limited it to using only 1 video. Not to worry because the full version of the app is only $6.
This app allows you to upload plain MP4 videos. No Youtube or Vimeo that is filled with distractions. Its clean and simple and just plain video.
It also gives you full control over the video sizes and controls and you can style it to fit perfectly with your store.
All you have to do is to upload the video, pick your settings and embed a piece of code on your product page. Because its a piece of code you can quite literally add your video everywhere.
2.Adding Youtube or Vimeo Videos To Your Shopify Store
To be honest, I am not a fan of this. Youtube videos are filled with distractions. While you can remove some of it, you do not want to give potential customers an opportunity to leave your store.
With Youtube this is very likely to happen.
Vimeo is less distracting but still requires the paid option to gain access to proper video controls. For me Vimeo is not an option for Shopify.
Another thing I really do not like about using Youtube and Vimeo videos is that it makes your videos freely available for anyone to copy. Yes, your native MP4 video can also be copied but its much harder.
To embed a Youtube video in Shopify is quite simple. There are a number of free apps that makes this incredibly easy. The app I would recommend for this is called “Easy Video” and it makes it as easy as copy and paste to add your video to your product pages.
To add a Youtube video to your home page requires something different. Banner Slider is an app that allows you to add video sliders on your home page.
This is ideal for stores that have a lot of different videos of showcase products. Its not cheap though.
Video Background is a much cheaper option and has a ton of features. It allows you to edge-to-edge video on your home page and even allows you to use a full screen video background.
Its only $7 and a great option for building an amazing home page for your Shopify store using video. It is limited to Youtube though but they do a great job at hiding a lot of the normal Youtube distractions that come with embedded Youtube videos.
