The 18 Best Shoppable Video Platforms [2024]

Video + commerce = a winning combination of engagement, discovery, and ideally, the ability to convert shoppers into buyers. 

First, let’s define what exactly video commerce is. Pro tip, if you want the full lowdown on all things video commerce, dive into our video shopping glossary.

When people talk about video commerce, a lot of the time the first thing that comes to mind is live streaming or live selling - events held with a livestream host and a large crowd of shoppers watching. Check out our guide to some of the best live streaming solutions around.

Video commerce can also apply to one-to-one live video shopping, to help aid customers on nailing down the fine details of what they’re interested in buying - getting product recommendations, styling advice, or fit guidance, to name just a few core live video shopping use cases. There are a ton of live shopping apps out there, each with their own benefits and fit for different merchants and goals.  

In both of the above examples, however, video commerce is conflated with live commerce. In actuality, video commerce simply refers to any type of shopping that is done with, or over, video. 

This includes shoppable video. Shoppable video is defined as any type of video shared on a merchant’s website, landing page, social media, email, or other channel, which gives customers the ability to purchase a product from the video. And as you’ll see in our guide to the best video shopping apps, it’s an important area for investment when it comes to building out a video commerce strategy.

For this particular guide, we are breaking out live stream shoppable video separately from prerecorded shoppable video platforms. All of the shoppable video apps in this guide are focused on using existing assets that are then enhanced to include interactive elements.

Why shoppable video?

Consumers are spending countless hours per week engaging with video, whether it’s posts shared by friends on social platforms, creator-driven content on YouTube and TikTok, or even just attending video conferences via Zoom at work. 

Yet ecommerce is still largely devoid of video. Or for that matter, the type of organic, AI-based discovery experiences shoppers are used to when it comes to viewing video content on social media. 

Enter shoppable video, or sometimes referred to as shoppable media. It's an easy-to-implement tool to bring that social, interactive, and engaging experience shoppers love to any ecommerce site. 

Here are 7 of the top reasons why brands should offer shoppable video or shoppable media as part of their video marketing strategy:

1. More engaging than static images or text

Today’s consumers have short attention spans - the kind that doesn’t give them much motivation to read detailed product descriptions or scan through dozens of user reviews to understand whether a product is right for them. A video is a succinct way to give more information, more quickly, than a shopper could get through text / images alone. 
 

2. Adds a personal touch 
Founders are at the heart of many ecommerce brands - after all they started their business because they’re passionate about it. Shoppable video puts an authentic face to a brand, by letting founders or product experts speak about or demonstrate a product, drawing shoppers into their level of enthusiasm. 
 

3. Repurposes existing content

Many brands create video content for other mediums, such as their social channels, only to apply a ‘one and done’ approach. Shoppable video repurposes that content into evergreen pieces that can live on your website forever, and be viewed infinitely more times to help shoppers make buying decisions.
 

4. Drives conversions

The number one goal of video in ecommerce: Build shopper confidence. The more confident a shopper is, the more likely they’ll convert. Video can be an effective way to show a product from different angles, demonstrate how it works, or inspire a shopper how they might use it. 
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5. Brings engagement back to the merchant 
Shoppers spend hours on social media per week, and minutes on a retailer’s website. Naturally, many brands have worked hard to build up a strong social following, but with some trepidation, given they don’t really own the relationship, data, or insights about their audience. Shoppable video creates a more interactive experience that claws back time spent on third-party social platforms and encourages shoppers to spend more time on a merchant’s website. 
 

6. Easy to set up and implement

Livestream shopping and live video shopping are both highly engaging, real-time experiences - but real-time can also spook some merchants who are unsure about managing the logistics or investment of a live shopping experience. Shoppable video is as simple as taking any video you’ve already produced - or even recording a simple social-style video with a smartphone - and tagging products. Record a hundred takes or just one; Produce 5 videos or 50. There is no limit to how many shoppable videos you can create and on what timeline.
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7. Supports every stage of the shopper funnel

Shoppable video is helpful for product discovery, giving new customers a glimpse of what makes a product or brand so great, or hearing directly from a founder. It’s also helpful during the consideration phase, if a merchant offers videos that compare products or highlights unique features you can’t get anywhere else. Finally, shoppable video drives conversions by inviting customers to click right to a product page to check out. 

What is a shoppable video platform?

A shoppable video app allows users to record or upload a video, and link to products the shopper may want to purchase that are featured or mentioned in the video. Typically speaking, shoppable videos are prerecorded and uploaded for tagging in the app, as opposed to a live video app that streams content in real time. There are some great free shoppable video software out there, including Ghost.

These products may appear as product thumbnails, or simply a callout to learn more about a product by navigating to a product page. 

Shoppable video apps may offer different features to create a range of shoppable video types, including:

• Founder stories
• Brand ambassador or creator videos
• Product demonstrations or use cases
• How to guides
• Comparison videos
• Product reviews 
• Styling guides and advice 

How a shoppable video displays on a merchant’s site will largely depend on what the shoppable video platform offers. It may be embedded onto a page, appear as a hovering widget, or be included in a specific shoppable video gallery. 

 Looking for some shoppable video inspiration? Download our guide, 300+ Video Ideas to Transform Your Content Strategy.

The best shoppable video platforms

Ghost

Get started with shoppable video, fast and free with Ghost's interactive video platform. All you have to do to get started is upload any existing video content or import directly from Instagram, and easily tag up to 10 products within the video.

Embed videos anywhere on your site using one of our three preset display options - carousel, floating widget, or in-line, for flexibility and control over how they're displayed. Shoppers can click on the featured products to be taken right to the product page to add a product to their cart and checkout.

Bonus: Clicking on a product page doesn't close the video - shoppers can still view / hear the video while they're browsing other product details, and click back into your video feeds if they want to learn more. 

You can also create video collections on any theme imaginable. For example, sequence a number of videos on jeans so a shopper on the hunt for their next denim faves can browse all your jeans content at once. Or, try grouping a series of UGC videos together. Read our guide on where to place shoppable video on your site.

Shoppable video isn't just for retail either! We have plenty of customers using our tool to create interactive video for a range of industries including real estate, banking, and media - driving people to other CTAs like book a demo, sign up for content, or view a product or service page.

Want to do more with video commerce?

Ghost is best for:

• Starting to create shoppable video fast
• Offering multiple shoppable video display options
• Avoiding pricey overhead and long-term contracts (it’s free!)
• Trying out an entire suite of video commerce solutions

Start using Ghost for free! Or find Ghost on the Shopify App Store.

MikMak

MikMak’s enterprise-level tool is focused on what it calls ‘shoppable media’. They’re specifically geared toward the consumer packaged goods and grocery industry, where brands often don’t have a DTC presence, but still want to drive online conversions. 

MikMak’s tool lets brands add links to popular retailers to encourage purchases, whether they’re consuming content in a podcast, influencer-created content, or email newsletter. For example, COVERGIRL’s website doesn’t actually let shoppers transact. An influencer video spotlighting the brand’s foundation might include a number of links to popular retailers, like CVS or Amazon, where a shopper can buy the foundation - and gives COVERGIRL a trackable conversion. 

MikMak is best for: 

• Brands without the ability to push transactions on their own site
• Consumer packaged goods, cosmetics, and food and beverage brands 
• ROI transparency in awareness-building efforts

Verse

Ecommerce is just one of the areas where Verse seeks to makes video more interactive. Their specialty is creating clickable hotspots that can be used to design branching narratives, create interactive quizzes, showcase products from different angles, or simply highlight a brand or product that is featured in a video.

Verse describes itself as an ideal tool to take static, one-way video experiences and transform them into something interactive. It’s worth noting that the more complex video experiences shown on Verse’s site require a brand to invest in having a deep well of video content, as opposed to traditional ‘social’ content that can be created with something as simple as a smartphone and ring light. 

Verse is best for:

• Designing storytelling-driven experiences 
• Large, interconnected video libraries that can be woven together into an immersive experience 

Adventr.io

The idea behind Adventr is to create immersive video experiences that put the user in the driver’s seat, whether watching a story play out on screen, trying to score points in a game, or providing educational insights. From a shoppable video standpoint, brands can add videos into Adventr’s drag-and-drop experience builder, and link to different domains based on what’s shown in the video.

Similar to Verse, it’s worth noting that the most impressive Adventr examples - as shown on their site - are ones that have rich, immersive, and interactive video content to create branching experience with. Brands looking for a simpler solution may not need Adventr’s complex building tools.

Adventr.io is best for:

• Creating interactive, branching experiences 
• Brands with a wealth of video production capabilities and assets

Firework

Live stream shopping solution Firework also offers a secondary product, with short-form shoppable video. They actually offer two short-form video solutions, the first being a video ‘Creation Cloud’ editor that operates similarly to Canva by providing templates and AI-generated formatting. 

These videos can then be made shoppable by adding in a product link and enabling in-video checkout, for brands interested in using Firework’s proprietary solution. Firework’s Creation Cloud is available for free, but requires a conversation with their sales team to access. Their livestream and shoppable video products are bundled together in a number of packages, starting at $2,499/month - a price point that could be cost-prohibitive for growing businesses.

Firework is best for:

• Larger organizations with a dedicated video budget and strategy to maximize ROI on Firework’s steep price tag 
• Brands looking to do both livestreaming and shoppable video

Novel

Novel is all about taking what works on TikTok and making it shoppable. They specialize in short-form shoppable video that looks and feels like your favorite social, viral videos. A product can be spotlighted on the shoppable video, with the option to see other products in an in-video browse function, before adding to cart.

It’s worth noting that Novel stops the video once the customer gets into shopping, and although multiple products can be featured in a shoppable video, only one product can be added to cart before the shopper is taken directly to checkout, which may hurt AOV potential.

Novel is best for:

• Recreating a TikTok-like experience
• Creator-focused and TikTok-viral brands 
• Products that are simple to consider and add to cart 

Kahani

If Novel is all about replicating a TikTok-experience, then Kahani is taking a page from Instagram. Videos are formatted as circular bubbles, instantly calling to mind Instagram Stories, with the option to click into a product or collection page to get your shop on. 

One unique feature of Kahani’s shoppable videos is each video can have multiple successive screens - again, similar to Instagram Stories. Meaning, a merchant could have one ‘story’ dedicated to skincare with 3-4 slides, and another story dedicated to cosmetics, with another 3-4 slides. Merchants can also borrow from the Stories idea and upload pictures, instead of video, if they have limited video assets to work with. Note that Kahani’s product is still positioned as a beta with a wait list, as of early 2023.

Kahani is best for:

• Recreating an Instagram-like experience
• Simple video experiences or photos

StorifyMe

The hook of StorifyMe is their interactive videos can be placed in multiple places - including in apps in an Instagram-inspired row, on websites, or via Google Stories and the platform’s content delivery network (CDN). Similar to Kahani, merchants can create multiple pages per story, and use either video or photos to push shoppers to specific product pages. StorifyMe also lets merchants share links to specific stories via QR code or link, making it suitable for sharing in SMS or email campaigns.

There’s also the option to personalize stories en masse, using CRM integrations or simple CSV imports, suggesting a B2B or sales use case, as well as B2C experiences. For example, a brand may want to create a video that includes a tailored message per viewer, like ‘Hi Sheila, thanks for your purchase - how about this matching item?'. 

StorifyMe is best for:

• Sales teams / lead generation
• Publishers looking to add interactive video content 
• Producing shoppable video ads with Google Stories

Clicktivated

See, want, click: That’s pretty much the sweet spot of Clicktivated’s interactive video platform. The app lets a brand take any video and create clickable hotspots that can link out to different pages. For ecommerce, this naturally means product pages, but the company also has a strong focus on tourism. 

With Clicktivated, links of interest appear as a shopper clicks on them, in a sidebar that hovers to the side of a video. When the shopper’s ready to stop watching and start shopping (or learning more), they can click right to a product page. Clicktivated also offers a live streaming tool that allows for clickable hotspots for livestream redistribution.

Clicktivated is best for:

• Tourism brands 
• Adding interactivity to long-form video
• Using video as a jumping off point to go deeper

KERV

Shoppable video is just one part of KERV's overall interactive video suite, which promises the ability to have 'pixel-level object identification' through their proprietary AI. Brands can add a 'glow' feature to highlighted objects before sending shoppers to other product pages. One particularly unique featured of KERV is their ability to link connected TVs, set top boxes, and broadcast TV content to a mobile device through QR codes to create a cross-platform interactive campaign.

Advertising and distribution is a big focus of the KERV platform. They not only provide the tool to create interactive video, but allow you to distribute directly from their VPAID platform.

KERV is best for:

• Creating sponsored or paid shoppable videos

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VideoWise

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VideoWise has an interesting perspective on shoppable video, in that they're suggesting merchants don't just leverage their own brand content, but actually look to what their fans are creating, leveraging UGC (user-generated content) to create additional shoppable content. Their pro plan gives merchants the option to both find and moderate video UGC, adding a new creator stream to keep video content fresh and current.

Beyond that, VideoWise promotes the ability to upload video directly from Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, as well as the ability to share video via email, SMS, and on web - including off a merchant's site. When an article or blog is written about a brand, it's possible to embed a shoppable VideoWise clip to drive sales for the merchant.

VideoWise is best for:

• Brands with strong fan bases / social followers
• Leveraging creator and PR networks

Social Chat

The rather broadly named ‘Social Chat’ offers three different video-based ecommerce products to boost customer engagement: shoppable video, one-to-many live shopping, and one-to-one live shopping. Their shoppable video product Social Chat makes it as simple as uploading existing video content, tagging products, and adding to your site. 

The real focus of Social Chat is their live shopping events, given it’s built right into their revenue model (with a 5% take of all sales directly attributed from live events). With each tier of Social Chat, merchants get access to more features, with their one-to-one live shopping experience (which is limited to a video and text-based chat interface; no co-browsing) coming in as part of their top pricing tier.

Social Chat is best for:

• Getting started with video commerce and looking to test different formats
• Livestream-focused brands who wouldn’t mind a bonus shoppable video tool

Smartzer 

Much like Firework and Social Chat, Smartzer offers both shoppable video and livestream shopping tools, with a primary focus on making livestreams shoppable. Their shoppable video product allows merchants to set up interactive hotspots that open expandable menus with featured products shown in the video, as well as an add to cart button. 

The same content can not only be embedded on a merchant website, but shared across social media, CRM, messaging, and paid ads. Most of Smartzer’s sample creative highlights promotional-style videos, suggesting it’s a great platform for brands that already produce this sort of content and want to repurpose it for more viewer exposure. 

Smartzer is best for:

• Promotional video repurposing 
• Offering both livestream and shoppable video
• European brands (based on support availability)

Tolstoy

Interactive + video is the real aim of Tolstoy’s shoppable video product. Specifically, they promote use cases such as using quizzes or ‘choose your own adventure’ style branching logic to take shoppers from consideration to conversion. With that in mind, the focus is a bit less on seeing a product in a video and checking out, and more on guiding customers to products they might be interested in, based on how they engage with a video.

Like several other video shopping apps featured in this guide, Tolstoy's shoppable content can be embedded on a merchant’s website in a number of different formats, as well as shared via landing pages, email, and SMS campaigns. 

Tolstoy is best for:

• Creating interactive quizzes or branching logic experiences 

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Storyly

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A few things to know about the Storyly platform: It's designed to be mobile first, providing full-screen 'stories' similar to those you'd find on platforms like Instagram. One of their prime use cases is actually embedding stories in apps, helping promote new features, products, or how to guides for app users. They also highlight finance and airlines as two of the top users for their product.

And yes, it's shoppable too, with in-video checkout and  the option to not only embed stories in an app, but on a website as well. Another interesting feature is Storyly's integration with Google AdMob /AdManager, which allows brands or content sites to partner with vendors to run paid stories on their websites, creating micro retail media networks.

Storyly is best for:

• Custom app stories
• Creating paid or sponsored content
• Finance and airline industries

Instasell

Again, like several other video shopping apps on this list, Instasell is straddling two types of shoppable video: live stream shopping events and on-demand short videos. While their primary focus is most definitely on live stream shopping, the brand promotes their short shoppable videos as being mirrored after TikTok, and as a solid way to engage with cold prospects.

Their pricing is pretty affordable for brands just getting started with live stream shopping and shoppable video as well, starting as low as $39 for up to 50 hosted videos and 30 minutes of live streaming per month.

Instasell is best for:

• Budget-conscious brands getting started with video commerce

giosg

European-based gisog is best known for their live video chat platform, however, they also offer shoppable video as part of their video shopping experience solution. The app offers customizable templates to match any brand, as well as the ability to choose a target audience from 30 unique triggers and conditions. 

It's worth noting that shoppable video seems to largely be an embedded feature of the entire giosg product suite, which as mentioned, is more so focused on live stream one-on-one video, as opposed to shoppable video. Their one-on-one video chat is also largely geared toward a customer support role, with use cases for industries like real estate and pharmaceutical. Any brand looking for just this one feature of shoppable video may find the platform cost-prohibitive, given their pricing is quoted on a by-account basis. 

giosg is best for: 

• Offering video chat customer support first, shoppable video second

Storista

Storista is a great option for shoppable videos because it provides a seamless and user-friendly experience for both the customer and the brand. It integrates directly with your Shopify store, which is a plus as many e-commerce brands are on this platform. With Storista, customers can easily make purchases directly from the video they are watching, without having to navigate away from the content. Brands can also track engagement and conversion rates through detailed analytics, allowing them to optimize their video marketing strategy. Fans of Storista love it for displaying social proof and social media content.

Storista is best for:

• ecommerce brands that use Shopify's platform

Is shoppable video available on TikTok & Instagram?

Social media platforms have been dipping their toes into the live video and live stream shopping arena for years, with mixed results. Instagram Live was officially sunset in early 2023, on the heels of Facebook Live being shut down in fall 2022. Meanwhile, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest have started introducing live streaming video and social commerce elements to drive more revenue.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Amazon Live has remained a successful part of their business model, leveraging influencers who have followings elsewhere, as well as creating on-platform superstars that pull in healthy numbers when hosting a live shopping event. 

If you're wondering if there's a way to create interactive shoppable media natively within a social platform, the short answer is: Kind of. Right now, shoppable video on Instagram or TikTok is limited to embedding a clickable link on, for example, an Instagram story. Further limitations of Instagram Shopping experiences (as well as those on other platforms) include only being able to link to a single product per video, and the viewer having to navigate off the social experience to actually convert.

Ditto for shoppable media ads on social platforms. Yes, you can run a video ad on TikTok, but again, it can only include a single link that will drive your potential customer off the social platform / immersive interactive elements they were just engaging with. 
 

How to get started with shoppable video

The first step in getting started with shoppable video is taking a look at the following questions to help narrow down the right shoppable video platform for your ecommerce brand. 

1. Do you have existing video content? If so, what kind? If not, how will you create it? What type of budget, resources, or talent do you have to produce video? 
2. What style of shoppable video do you want (or are able) to create?
3. What type of content would be most helpful for your customers? 
4. Where should you share or place shoppable video content?  
5. What ecommerce platform is your site on?

Answering these questions can help narrow down the focus for what shoppable video platform makes the most sense for your business.  

Looking to get started fast or experiment with shoppable video? Ghost’s interactive video includes shoppable video as well and is completely free and easy to setup and use.