Amazon Video Shorts: Adding Videos to Product Listings

Bring your products to life with videos! Product videos, if done correctly, help buyers make a more informed buying decision, increase conversions and ultimately increase sales. They can explain features that are not possible in product images alone and inspire consumers to believe in the product and make a purchase.

While most brands understand the importance of videos, it isn't so simple on the Amazon marketplace. At this time, only vendors have the ability to upload product videos onto their product pages. This is not a feature currently available for most sellers, although a select few have the option to upload videos. June 2023 update: Both brand-registered and non-brand-registered sellers now have the ability to upload Amazon product videos. If you aren't a part of the Brand Registry program, you must have been selling on Amazon for at least three months.

This naturally creates frustration among sellers as they know how much a video can help not only increase sales but also enhance the customer experience, which is the number one priority for Amazon. It is almost seen as an unfair advantage. That is why sellers have found an alternative solution to adding product videos to their listings via video shorts.

What is an Amazon Video Short?

It’s a short video, similar to an infomercial. Click here to briefly check out some of the Amazon video shorts that are live. Some of these are generic, such as How to Choose the Right Sheets, and others focus on specific products, such as the GoPro Hero Session. The video shorts that focus on products can also drive traffic to product listings by highlighting the products on the right-hand side of the video, allowing customers to click on the item and be directed straight to that specific product’s detail page.

Amazon video shorts come in different forms: advertisements, how-to's, product demonstrations, unboxing experiences, product comparisons, and vlogs. Product reviews also exist within video shorts, but these are customer-provided rather than produced by brand owners or video channels. Amazon still wants to maintain the integrity of its reviews.

Video Shorts Appearance

Video shorts appear in two places on the Amazon website: in the Video Shorts section and on the product detail pages. On the product pages they will appear as Related Video Shorts. The only downside is that they appear further down the page, below the product description, unlike the product videos uploaded by vendors that appear above the fold as an image thumbnail. Nevertheless, I have seen sellers benefit from higher conversion rates and increased sales since adding video shorts, despite the location further down the detail page.

Shareable Content to Drive Traffic to Listings

A great thing about video shorts is that every video has its own unique ASIN; this means it has its own URL. Brand owners can share this URL on social media to drive traffic to their product listings on Amazon.com. They can also use these videos in external emails as value-added content that might help the customer understand how to use or set up the item.

For an example of how this content can be used, check out these quick-start guides on the GoPro Hero5 Black. This is great value-added content that GoPro can share with their customers, providing a good brand experience, reducing the chance of customer returns, and increasing the chances of five-star seller feedback and a positive product review.

One thing to note is that when creating these videos, you must adhere to some basic guidelines. These include using no URLs, promotional offers, or inappropriate content. The video may only link to relevant ASINs, not competitors’ products. They also must be of high quality, as you might guess. Amazon has strict video quality requirements and will deny videos that do not have proper content, sound, or resolution.