Video commerce shoppers to reach 216 million by end of 2022: Report

Indian consumers browsing the internet for hours and consuming more videos on Youtube, Facebook and Instagram, are being prompted to make purchases for products they see while viewing these videos. With videos becoming an integral part of branding for companies, video commerce shoppers could touch 216 million by the end of 2022, a new report by digital advertising agency WATConsult said. 

WATConsult, an Isobar company and part of Dentsu India, defines video commerce as essentially shoppable videos on various social commerce platforms such as Meesho, Sim-Sim, Trell or on social media websites or video sharing platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. The report—Digital Commerce in India-Video Commerce—was published by Recogn, WATConsult’s research division. 

Video commerce uses video content to promote and sell products and services and helps retailers deliver product information to the customers. This could be in the form of a link of the product placed on the video or an advertisement that draws consumers to the brand site and helps them shop; livestreaming also constitutes as video commerce. 

At present, India has an estimated 146 million video commerce shoppers that have purchased and transacted on video commerce platforms. This is 49% of all e-commerce users in India today, the report said. The digital agency expects the number of video commerce shoppers to reach 216 million by the end of 2022, growing at a rate of 47%.  

“Video-based commerce is taking center stage as brands widening reach with a blend of content and commerce through shoppable videos,” the report said.  

Also read: Social commerce market set to more than double to $1.2 tn by 2025

Such videos help consumers use their screen time more efficiently as they don’t have to follow the process of scrolling through products on social media platforms, watching videos or checking live reviews on different platforms and then browsing the brand’s e-commerce page to shop for it, the report said.  

“Video commerce has become popular with more Indians moving online and discovering new ways of shopping through video platforms, said Heeru Dingra, CEO, Isobar India group. 

Dhingra said this format offers businesses and marketers a higher rate of conversion. 

“There is a huge opportunity to capture the video-based social commerce market, especially live-stream-based e-commerce while the market matures. Consumers today are frequently looking out to streamline and enhance their experience, they prefer instantaneous results,” she said. 

The survey was conducted in a sample size of 2,314 video commerce users across age groups, gender, occupation, zones and town classes, using stratified random sampling. 

Majority of shoppers surveyed by WATConsult said they shopped online after watching shoppable video ads on social media platforms, like YouTube (53%), Instagram (39%) and Facebook (38%), followed by Meesho (25%), Snapchat (15%), SimSim (15%), Pinterest (11%), BulBulTV (10%), Chingari (9%) and Trell (7%).  

When it comes to consuming video-focused content, customers prefer explainer content videos followed by customer testimonials and product demonstrations.  

Live commerce is also picking up, too. Over half the consumers stated their affinity towards shopping online during live streaming on social media and shopping apps. Last year, Google’s video-led platform YouTube acquired social commerce start-up Simsim. 

“As more and more shopping happens online, video has an important role in helping viewers discover new products and find expert advice they trust. Every day, people come to YouTube to compare products, watch reviews and find recommendations from their favourite creators. Today, we are taking another step to help viewers discover and buy products from local businesses,” Gautam Anand, vice president, YouTube Asia Pacific, said in a company blog, then. 

WATConsult studied consumer habits deeper to unpack how consumers behave while browsing videos. Video content from 15 seconds to a minute can make users stay longer on the platform, it said.  

It also assessed the impact of regional content. With a large population of non-English speakers in India, brands could do well creating content in the local languages. 27% said they prefer to watch such videos in English while close to 40% preferred a combination of English along with a local language.  

Video commerce platforms like SimSim and BulbulTV, etc., have also make their apps available to users in local languages such as Hindi, Tamil, and others.