The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
A photo. Some text. A shopping cart button.
It’s the setup you’ve been used to since you were Internet-years-old.
Electronic commerce has existed since the 1970s[1], passing through a prescient experimental phase of telephone-based TV shopping[2] in the 1980s, and setting the tone for the future with Stephan Schambach’s 1990s invention of the first standardized online shopping software[3]. US consumers spent $861.12 billion[4] with online merchants in 2020. By making the “add to cart” ritual so familiar, it may seem like we’ve seen it all when it comes to digital commerce.
But hold onto your hats, because signs are emerging that we’re on the verge of the next online sales phase, akin to the 19th century leap from still photos to moving pictures.
If I’m right, with its standard product shots, conventional e-commerce will soon start to seem dull and dated in many categories compared to products sold via interactive video and further supported with post-purchase video.
Now is the time to prep for a filmed future, and fortunately, the trail has already been blazed for us by home shopping leader QVC, which took over television and then digitally remastered itself for the web, perfecting the art of video-based sales. Today, we’re going to deconstruct what’s happening on QVC, and how and why you may need to learn to apply it as an SEO, local SEO, or business owner — sooner than you think.
Why video sales?
A series of developments and disruptions point to a future in which many product sales will be facilitated via video. Let’s have a look at them: