👓 Spatial commerce

G’day and welcome to Morning Commerce.

A little shorter issue than normal this week as we’re in the middle of two big store launches and it’s all hands on deck.

Here’s what I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to this week:

• 10-minute Instagram Reels?

• Spatial commerce at Shopify AMA

• Buy with Prime on Shopify Checkout

• 2023 video in business benchmark report

• Collection page reviews conversion booster

• What you need to know about token-gated commerce

And if you haven’t yet hit reply and said hi, please do! I’d love to know what you’re working on and learn more about how I can help you.

— Kyle Tully

ACQUISITION

2023 video in business benchmark report

Vidyard just released its business benchmark report for 2023 and I’ll summarise it for you: video is kind of a big deal.

Here are some high-level stats to whet your appetite:

• 93% of people say video converts better or the same as other content.

• 72% of videos are user-generated vs. 28% “produced”.

• 29% more videos were created in 2022 than 2021.

• 2-4-minute videos are seeing the biggest growth, up 53%.

The average retail/consumer goods company created 307 user-generated and 227 produced videos last year. And video creation is up across the board, with larger companies growing their video output at a faster rate than smaller companies.

10-minute Instagram Reels?

While every other platform seems to have its sights set on short-form video content, Instagram may be looking to tackle longer-form video with the news that Reels could soon support 10-minute videos… just like IGTV which they just got rid of ☠️

CONVERSION

Collection page reviews conversion booster

Always Show the Number of User Ratings in List Items

According to Baymard, shoppers are just as interested in the number of reviews as they are in the actual star rating.

For example, a product with 500 reviews and a 4.7-star rating likely carries much more weight than a product with a 5-star rating but only a handful of reviews.

Not only does it make the reviews more trustworthy, but it also makes differentiating between products with similar star ratings easier. And as a topper, it makes the entire site more credible.

Makes sense, right?

Most Shopify review apps should show the number of reviews on collection pages by default, but I’ve seen some stores hide this info because the store owner wanted a cleaner look or wanted to bury the small number of reviews.

What you need to know about token-gated commerce

Once you wade through all the meme coins, rug pulls, and flat-out scams there are some interesting use cases for web3 technology in ecommerce.

Token-gated commerce tops my list as one of the most obvious and easiest to implement. Think of it like a loyalty program on steroids — one that allows you to reward both your customers and customers of other brands based on their actions.

This Shopify Masters episode will get you up to speed with everything you need to know.

SHOPIFY NEWS

Buy with Prime on Shopify Checkout

Fresh outta wind tunnel testing, Harley dropped some great news for those of us using Amazon’s fulfilment network on Shopify.

You’ll soon have the option to add “Buy with Prime” as a choice for your customers at checkout.

Amazon is set to release an app for Shopify that will allow merchants to offer Prime benefits to their customers, such as fast and free shipping, via Shopify checkout.

Best of all, orders processed via Buy with Prime on Shopify go through the normal Shopify Checkout and will include the customers’ information 🔥

Spatial commerce at Shopify AMA

“It’s going to fundamentally change how people shop“ — If these bold words from the Shopify President are not enough to pique your interest in spatial commerce then I don’t know what will.

Tune in to this Twitter AMA to discover all this and more:

• What is spatial commerce and why does it matter?

• What Shopify is doing when it comes to spatial.

• Why spatial is a real business opportunity for merchants.

• How to leverage spatial for unlimited photography and video.

• How spatial will matter for developers.

Two new Shopify updates

• Mark inventory as Unavailable - You can now set inventory aside as Unavailable at a specific location, preventing it from being sold.

• Standard Shipping now available for Markets Pro - Markets Pro has expanded its carrier options to include standard international shipping via DHL eCommerce.

INSPO OF THE WEEK

Content marketing can be a goldmine for most ecommerce businesses, and yet the blog is often the most neglected part of the store. Not so for Ghia who has created a delicious recipe blog styled to perfection to fit in with the rest of the website. For example, the posts use a similar template to product pages, and the blog posts section on the homepage looks just like a collection section. Very nicely done.

How we can help…

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