As the world of ecommerce continues to grow, people are coming to expect more from their online shopping experience than what was accepted as “best practices” just a few years ago. Rich Media, also known as Enhanced Content or Rich Content, is a name for many different kinds of content and media put onto online product pages to engage shoppers and drive conversion.

High-quality product photography and written descriptions are just the beginning of optimizing your product pages on an online retailer. It’s essential to have these basics down, but adding rich media like video or interactive product tours goes a long way toward driving shoppers to make a purchase. There’s a lot of competition on the digital shelf, and providing your shopper with a unique and engaging experience will help them feel confident about choosing your product.

When searching and shopping for products online, Rich media and enhanced content can make up for this difference, and even go above and beyond what a shopper can do when in-store. Product videos can show the item being used in different environments and situations. Interactive tours allow you to walk shoppers through the most important aspects of your product with specially crafted copy. 360-degree photography lets them see the item from every angle, virtually putting it into their hands. The only limit to what you can do with rich media is your own strategy and creativity.

Since Rich Media is a catch-all term for ecommerce or marketing content that goes beyond traditional copy and photography, there’s naturally a lot of variation in the types of rich media content that can go on product pages. Here’s a quick overview of a few different types:

Product Video – Anyone working in ecommerce or online marketing today knows the importance of video. No matter where you go on the internet, video content is competing for attention and grabbing shoppers’ eyes in a way that’s naturally more engaging than traditional photography or written copy. Almost every major online retailer allows suppliers and brands to upload their own videos to product pages to show the item in action and give information-hungry shoppers exactly what they’re looking for.

Feature Set – Feature Sets are an especially diverse kind of rich media made up of images and written copy. Going beyond standard product photography and descriptions, feature sets give you more freedom to place smaller blurbs of copy next to images with creative brand graphics and text. The layout and contents of a feature set can vary wildly, allowing brands to tell the exact story they want to get across on their product page.

360 View – 360 Views are a revolution in product photography, allowing shoppers to spin the item around in virtual space to see it from every angle. This level of interactivity with the photos provides the shopper with an experience closer to physically holding the item in a retail store. Retailers like Walmart.com are starting to integrate 360-degree photography into the standard product photos, prominently featuring them in search results and at the top of product pages.

Interactive Tour – Interactive Product Tours are a rich media module with clickable buttons placed over different photographs of your item. When a shopper taps one of these nodes, a small piece of written copy appears, providing more information about that specific element of the product. With Interactive Tours, you can point out key differentiators and selling points of your item in a way that’s intuitive and engaging.

Comparison Table – Comparison tables are a standard feature on many large online retailers, showing items and their various attributes side-by-side for shoppers to compare. But when the retailer Creating comparison tables for your own product pages means you can fill them with different items in your product line, so shoppers can easily see and navigate your own products without suggesting competitors’ items on your item’s page.

Downloadable Documents – Many retailers allow brands and suppliers to upload things like instructions, warranty information, recipes, and more. The more information a shopper has about your product, the better, so providing these downloadable documents can help solidify your product as precisely what they’re looking for.

SKU Ninja’s Rich Media Upload Tool makes it easier and more affordable than ever to add these types of Rich Media to product detail pages on Walmart.com. For just $5 a month, you can host Video, Feature Sets, 360 Views, Product Tours, Comparison Tables, or Downloadable Documents and submit them to your item pages. SKU Ninja’s easy-to-use interface allows you to create new rich media modules and upload your own assets to go live on Walmart.com.

SKU Ninja + WhyteSpyder is a digital merchandising company with more than a decade of experience helping brands win at ecommerce. We combine the precision and efficiency of automation with the prowess of our human ecommerce experts.

Just email info@whytespyder.com to get in touch with us and see how we can create a strategy unique to your brand’s needs and help you save time, save money, and sell more online.