(1) Background and importance of short video development. With the popularization of mobile Internet, video has gradually become an important medium for product introduction, marketing promotion and brand communication on e-commerce websites. Video combines pictures, audio and text, with relatively complete content and high information density. In addition, the production process is simple, the production threshold is low and the participation is strong. As customers have an increasing demand for utilizing fragmented time, short videos have gradually become an important form of marketing information expression in cross-border e-commerce.
Statistics show that from 2016 to 2020, the time spent by customers on watching videos on various Internet platforms has increased year by year. Browsing and watching videos has become the mainstream behavior of users of social platforms, and video marketing has become one of the more common and effective marketing methods in the cross-border e-commerce industry.
Under such circumstances, video has become an important way of B2B marketing. Statistics show that in 2019, more than 30% of B2B marketers used video, especially short videos, in content marketing. This makes short videos one of the main ways of international marketing.
In the era of content marketing, short videos are an important traffic entrance, which is very important for both merchants and buyers. For merchants, short videos are marketing tools that can be used to gain exclusive exposure and higher traffic, thereby promoting conversion. For buyers, they can improve the efficiency and comfort of buyers viewing products, allowing buyers to shop more realistically and intuitively.
(2) Cross-border e-commerce video types and their characteristics. In cross-border e-commerce, there are four common video types: main picture videos, detail videos, popular shop videos, and product promotion videos. The main picture video is a product explanation video that displays multi-faceted information such as product usage, functions, and quality inspection. The main picture video can display the product from all angles, highlighting the professionalism of the company itself and its products, and reflecting the company’s strength. The main picture video mainly introduces what the product is, highlighting the product’s core selling points and performance highlights. Through the main picture video, buyers can understand the product in all aspects, thereby improving the efficiency and comfort of buyers viewing products, and ultimately improving buyers’ preference and the efficiency of buyers sending inquiries and orders.
Detail videos are videos inserted in the product details page to introduce product information and other content. High-quality product videos display both the details and the overall picture of the product. Combined with the process-oriented performance of the product operation and use, the detailed description and overall presentation of the lens language fully display the product’s characteristics, materials, and operation one by one; combined with virtual animation to explain the principle, the video is easy to understand, of moderate length, and with a good rhythm, thus stimulating consumers to make inquiries and improving conversion rates. Wangpu videos are videos that mainly display the company’s scale, certification qualifications, after-sales service and other service and strength-related content. Product promotion videos are content marketing videos. Generally, real-life explanations/demonstrations are used to display products or test performance to show the strength of the merchant and build trust between buyers and merchants. In a short period of time, it can attract attention and stimulate customer interest, thereby guiding customer inquiries. (3) Short video editing and production. As the threshold for short videos becomes higher and higher, the requirements for shooting and production are also getting higher and higher. In the future, more marketing activities will use short videos for scene integration. When making videos, it is necessary to pay attention to key points such as clarity, screen ratio, duration, and visual beauty. Different video types have different video production standards. With the help of various video editing tools, you can merge, edit, add audio, add special effects, etc. videos. Post-production is the editing and beautification of video materials, which can enhance the expressiveness and appeal of the video. Commonly used PC video editing tools include Premiere, Afer Effects, Camtasia Studio, and iClip. Commonly used mobile video editing tools include Jianying, Leshow, KineMaster, etc.