Customer-to-customer online marketplaces are stores where users trade with each other. It is possible to create a market environment where everyone is a buyer and a seller at the same time. Creating a fair, shared economy environment can be challenging. And as expected, content is here to help with its crucial role in engaging, educating, increasing transactions, and retaining users.
Among other types of content, video stands out. Videos are more dynamic, more captivating, and, needless to say -thanks to the younger generation's relationship with TikTok and YouTube- more trendy than still media or written content. Being highly energetic and visual, video content’s superior power is also proven by marketers. 91% of businesses will use video as a marketing tool in 2023.
When you match the two worlds of C2C marketplaces and video content, great opportunities are born. Because those stores are fast-paced, lively, and energetic, they go perfectly with videos. Besides the climb in the usage of videos for marketing activities, consider Storyly Video Stories, which are:
- Short and thus super easy to consume.
- Interactive with tons of stickers that let businesses collect zero-party data with no hassle.
- More immersive than any other format thanks to the full-screen nature of Stories.
- Driven by the community for the community with the powerful Moments by Storyly.
With all these in mind, let’s dive into how to leverage video Stories for C2C marketplaces.
What kind of Video Stories can you use in your C2C marketplace?
1) Campaign Stories
FOMO is everywhere. It’s definitely a thing for C2C marketplaces too. There is no eCommerce business that does not run occasional and seasonal campaigns, personalized offers, and discounts. Whether the brands partner with influencers, stylists, or experts of any kind, announcing special times with videos can boost conversions. Actually, a whopping 87% of marketers say video marketing has helped them increase sales. So, marketplaces already create video content for social media channels for announcements, and what we provide with Storyly is re-using those exact same videos in the form of Stories within the apps and websites. This ability keeps the attention of users in the marketplace platform rather than social media, where there is a higher chance and intention to purchase products.
Let’s spice things up and think of a more engaging way to announce campaigns with video Stories. Imagine you add a countdown on top of the video for communication. The countdown counts days, hours, minutes, and even seconds until the start of the campaign. Driven by the hype that is caused by the “time is running out” feeling, the user taps the bell-shaped reminder button to be notified before the campaign starts. With the immersive nature of video Stories, the countdown sticker with a reminder bell is a great way to keep your users engaged and retained, resulting in high conversion rates for your announcement.
2) Seller Stories
A healthy buyer-seller relationship is key to success in C2C marketplaces. Seller engagement is all about how sellers get engaged and communicate with their buyers. Sellers must have a certain level of interaction with their buyers in order to sell their products. As 89% of people say, watching a video has convinced them to buy a product or service.
Here we can talk about two main use cases of video Stories created by sellers in a marketplace:
It is for the best when buyers get to know the sellers more. They want to understand their lifestyles and even daily routines because this gives them the idea of whether they should purchase the pre-used (or pre-loved, as we call them, because why not bring some love to the conversation?) product from the seller.
Imagine a buyer is about to purchase a pair of high-end luxury heels, and there are many sellers. The buyer browses one seller’s profile page and notices an introductory video Story created by that seller talking about herself thanks to Moments by Storyly SDK in the app. There is a good chance that the buyer trusts the seller if she thinks that the seller is a decent person who wouldn’t try to sell heels in bad condition or fake. Thus, the buyer tends to buy from that seller.
This time, think of a seller promoting the products in their listing with short video Stories with links to the purchase step. The seller might showcase the products they are selling, talk about the details of these products (maybe even the production processes), and grasp the buyers’ attention. Again, this results in higher seller engagement and, at the end of the day, more conversion for the seller. User-generated Stories created by the sellers might also create FOMO because there is a high possibility that these products have only a few copies or are even uniquely handmade.
3) Buyers’ review Stories
Buyers’ behavior is significantly affected by the reviews on a product page. Consumers look for written and visual comments on the products they’re considering buying. 80% of respondents in a survey said user-generated content (UGC) plays an important role in their purchasing decisions. People tend to buy products more if there are image reviews. They would like to see how the sweatshirt looks on bodies like theirs, see how real people wear it, and combine it. Because buyers are not models, they are not influencers but ordinary people. Thus, they love the authenticity of customer reviews.
Benefiting from the power of UGC for reviews in eCommerce is as easy as it could be with Moments by Storyly. After purchasing a product, buyers can leave a review with a video Story, showing the product 360° and giving a clear idea to the potential buyer about how it might look on them. On top of that, adding stickers and text on Stories as written testimonials can boost trust together with the power of dynamic videos.
4) FAQ Stories
Educating users (buyers and sellers) about the working principles of C2C marketplaces is challenging. The number one reason for how tough it can be is that buyers and sellers must trust the middlemen -the marketplace- with their materials and money. Therefore, they need to learn the rules, when and how they will receive the money or the product. Video explanations have always been helpful to marketers. 53% say video marketing has helped them reduce support queries. But what else can Storyly improve for marketplaces regarding telling the most needed information?
Video Stories’ bite-sized nature provides an easy-to-follow, comprehensive way to answer questions. With “ask-me-anything” questions stickers Storyly has, C2C marketplaces can then gather the mostly asked questions from various parties and create curations of the answers. Question interactive stickers help them decrease the number of calls to the help centers or messages to support employees.
5) Feature adoption Stories
Some brands set the trend for new functions that have to exist in eCommerce apps and websites. Moreover, as in every industry, innovation can also emerge from any business in the shopping vertical. Shiny new features take a lot of work to adapt for users. Especially in the case of C2C marketplaces, loyalty programs, and their benefits should be well-explained.
Storyly Stories are proven to onboard the users with new features of the apps; the best and most engaging way to do so is by using videos in Stories. Videos construct strong communication when it comes to teaching new things to people. Immersive, full-screen, and engaging videos provided by Storyly Stories are key to high feature adoption rates.
Here, I listed 5 vital use cases of video Stories in C2C marketplaces. Video content is perfectly aligned with the dynamism of C2C marketplaces. Storyly video stories are developed and tailored to establish strong buyer-seller relationships, educate all users with fresh features and give the most trendy way for apps and websites to present whatever they have to tell their users.
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