Reason #1: People love to consume videos

It's probably no surprise that people spend a lot of time watching videos. According to Hyperfine Media, one-third of online activity is spent watching videos, representing an average of 32.3 videos monthly. It's simple to understand why people like videos so much: They're fun and easy to consume.

Since people are used to watching videos, Animoto found 1 in 4 consumers tend to lose interest in a company if it doesn't feature any videos on its site. Moreover, nearly two-thirds of consumers say video companies know how to reach their customers. In other words, people perceive companies that use video to be more savvy and exciting than those that don't.

The passion people have for videos doesn't change for e-commerce: BigCommerce found 30% of online shoppers want more video from e-commerce sites, which includes product descriptions, tutorials, and customer testimonials.

To make people watch a video, you need to focus on engagement. That means making interesting, fun, and easy-to-understand videos. This can motivate people to watch the whole length of a video, which can increase a video's chances of influencing prospects.

Even if you create engaging videos, it's crucial to create videos that aren't too short or too long. According to Wistia, videos up to two minutes long get the most engagement. This is why people spend, on average, 2.6x more time on pages with video than without.

Finally, it's essential to make your videos load correctly. Otherwise, 4 out of 5 users will leave your

website if the video stalls while loading.

Reason #2: Video drives more organic traffic

Organic traffic is one of the most significant drivers of visitors to any e-commerce store. Companies spend countless hours and dollars trying to get links from high-quality sites. Doing so can help businesses increase the authority of their sites, which will help them improve their position in the SERPs and, finally, the amount of organic traffic they receive. The higher the website's quality appears to Google, the more it can attract organic traffic.

One way Google analyzes the quality of a website is through its bounce rate. If visitors bounce as soon as they visit a site, Google concludes that the website is low-quality. Since Google doesn't want low-quality websites to rank high, only websites that can engage their visitors for a reasonable amount of time tend to compartmentalize.

That's why an e-commerce store needs to have a low bounce rate. If you can reduce your site's bounce rate, you will be able to drive more organic traffic.

Engaging your visitors with your store is one of the best ways to reduce your bounce rate. As you have seen, video has high levels of engagement. Therefore, by using video, you should be able to make your site attract more organic traffic.

Before you start using video in your store, you must be able to distinguish between two types of videos. First, there are sales-focused videos, which include customer testimonials, demos, and promotional videos. They can work only after a customer is ready to make a purchase.

Then, there are engagement-focused videos, which aim to educate people and make them aware of your company and its offerings.

According to Wyzowl, 62% of businesses who use video believe video has helped increase the amount of organic traffic they receive.

One company that has been able to drive more organic traffic thanks to video is Step2, the leading manufacturer of kid's toys and preschool items. Step2 has been using video marketing to show its products in action. Since 2011, Step2 has created more than 100 videos featuring its products.

Thanks to their videos, Step2 has made video viewers 174% more likely to convert than non-viewers.

Reason #3: People use videos to learn about your products

As a business-focused person, videos may not come up nicely in your day-to-day tasks. People may like videos, but how does that impact your business? You want people to think about your products and buy them, not just watch and upvote them on YouTube.

As it turns out, videos significantly impact the purchase decision process. According to Wyzowl, 98% of the people surveyed said they had watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. Not only that, but 90% of people interviewed said that product videos were helpful in the decision process.

The previously mentioned study by Animoto found that most consumers find it helpful to watch a product video more than once before making a purchase. Moreover, Hyperfine Media found 64% are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video.

The reason so many people like watching videos directly correlates to the way it allows people to process information. People who watch a video retain 95% of a message compared to 10% when they read it in text. Also, according to Animoto, four times as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.

Video doesn't affect online purchases alone. According to a study done by Google, almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store.

The power video has in the purchase decision process explains why 93% of businesses who use video believe it has increased user understanding of their product or service, which affects their conversion rates (see below for more information).