Are you going to add a video to your Store's About Page?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

As discussed in this thread (thanks, @valueaddedresource ), ebay has finally launched the ability to add a short  video to your Store's Home Page, introducing your business to your buyers:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/About-Video-In-Stores/m-p/32503735#M1891293

I uploaded a short video of a Christmas angel music box just to test this out....this isn't really the type of video ebay has in mind, of course. 

Anyone here actually going to use this new tool?  

[southern*sweet*tea]

With 2.5 Mbps DSL...not anytime soon.  It took several hours for me to upload a 30 second video to Youtube.  😞

[luckythewinner]

---

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

Anyone here actually going to use this new tool?  

---

I have been on eBay since 1999. 

I cannot ever recall looking at any seller's store's "about" page. 

To me seller are anonymous order fillers. 

[downunder-61]

---

@luckythewinner wrote:

---

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

Anyone here actually going to use this new tool?  

---

I have been on eBay since 1999. 

I cannot ever recall looking at any seller's store's "about" page. 

To me seller are anonymous order fillers. 

---

Oh, nice LOL

I must admit though to being a bit the same, I do not look at videos etc, but that's just me.

I have always had you-tube linked to some items I sell, but these were ''instructional'' and or ''reviews'' on established well known brands that I am a registered Aus distributor for.

Just closed my store Nov 30 - all being done on my website now...........

But thanks to eBay for the ride, it was fun while it suited me and good luck to all seller's over the holiday season.

[richard1rst]

Well, like luckythewinner, I cannot ever recall looking at any seller's store's "about" page.

It strikes me that  "anonymous" order fillers is a bit cold, but in truth all I care about is the product I am buying.

I will look at the feedback and make my judgement to buy or skip from there. I don't look at the about me page.

[chapeau-noir]

*   🙄

ETA: But I won't be adding video - no facilities.

[coolections]

Correct. To me videos are useless along with stores. I too have never been to a seller's store in 22 years at Ebay.  Seeing how unprofessional many sellers are with pictures and descriptions, I can only imagine if they also did videos. Buyers would probably be scared away.

[bernhue2332]

yes

[nidiatrodr0]

I think if there is a product introduction video, shoppers will know more detailed information about the product, right?

[isys-66]

oh. I think I should interact with the seller so that I can get their help when needed?

[richard1rst]

---

@nidiatrodr0 wrote:

I think if there is a product introduction video, shoppers will know more detailed information about the product, right?

---

Unless I have misunderstood the program, the video is a general introduction to your store. Not a video about any product as that would more or less require multiple videos for multiple products, And I think you only get on generic video.

Now if you could embed videos within each individual listing then that would work as you suggest.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@richard1rst You say: "Now if you could embed videos within each individual listing then that would work as you suggest."

That has been in beta testing for a while now, and I'm guessing we will see it "soon", to use one of ebay's favorite terms.....

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@richard1rst I should have added: You can already include a clickable thumbnail link to a YouTube video that provides information about the particular item. One difference is that the link is within your description, whereas the video ebay will be providing is in the Gallery portion of your listing, and is hosted by ebay. 

[valueaddedresource]

---

@richard1rst wrote:

---

@nidiatrodr0 wrote:

I think if there is a product introduction video, shoppers will know more detailed information about the product, right?

---

Unless I have misunderstood the program, the video is a general introduction to your store. Not a video about any product as that would more or less require multiple videos for multiple products, And I think you only get on generic video.

Now if you could embed videos within each individual listing then that would work as you suggest.

---

@richard1rst  video in listings in the image gallery is currently available for sellers who use the eBay API or select third party listing tools and is supposed to be expanding to more sellers soon.

If you want to see what it looks like,  I gave examples and a link to a listing here. https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Video-In-Listings-Now-Live-On-Desktop/td-p/32476401

For the store's About video, if the seller isn't comfortable being the star of the show or doesn't want to make it about themselves, they could put together a video slideshow using pictures of items they sell or images that represent some of their store categories maybe - the idea would be to use it to give potential buyers an idea of what they might find if they look through your store.

I do agree with some here that the store About page probably doesn't get a lot of traffic and who knows how many buyers may even see this video, but that could also be partly because store pages in the past haven't really had much to look at and maybe once buyers start to get used to some of the new features eBay has added to stores, it will draw more attention to them.

It will be interesting to see what happens with it, but for those who have the ability to throw a video together and upload it, it couldn't hurt to try.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@valueaddedresource 

"I do agree with some here that the store About page probably doesn't get a lot of traffic and who knows how many buyers may even see this video, but that could also be partly because store pages in the past haven't really had much to look at and maybe once buyers start to get used to some of the new features eBay has added to stores, it will draw more attention to them."

Exactly. ebay has spent years ignoring stores in favor of an approach that was very listing centric: Sellers have largely existed to provide inventory (just as third party sellers do on Amazon), and, just as on Amazon , the marketplace really wasn't designed to give sellers the tools they need to build THEIR business (especially one with a strong repeat customer base). It seems there is a shift going on now, with ebay providing more tools which allow sellers to distinguish themselves in various ways : Promoted listings, coded coupons, newsletters, new store home page etc.

As a result of the years of store neglect, buyers (and sellers) have been conditioned to ignore the store home page.  So, yes, ebay will probably need to do more to convince buyers a visit to the home page is worth it. And, as I've been saying, ebay needs more granular traffic reporting for sellers....if I can actually SEE that buyers are looking at my home page, that would give me more incentive to use the home page tools. 

At the moment, I have no real way to gauge how useful , say, adding a store banner is , when I have no way to even know if anyone has looked at my home page. So, I agree, right now I can use this stuff, but I'm not convinced it is having much impact. I think it will take some time....and probably some additional changes by ebay...before ebay buyers break away from their current listing-centric conditioning. I suspect newer, younger buyers will be more likely to look at things like the store video, because they've been conditioned by other sites to look for things like that.

Of course, a video like this can be a two edged sword. Inevitably, some videos will do a good job of presenting the seller's "story", and others will not. I remember when ebay gave ebay stores blogs to promote our stores/listings.....most people didn't use them, and many who did , frankly, used them badly. 

It will certainly be interesting to see how this plays out....