Haul Videos: Your Ticket to Mobile Commerce Greatness

Ever seen a haul video? These little wonders of a capitalist society show what happens when people go shopping and show off the deals found therein.

Sometimes a statement of excess, others a statement of brilliant bargain-hunting, the end result is a strange video that some people can’t get enough of. Can these videos drive your mobile payments strategies? That they can.

Over seven million “haul videos” currently populate YouTube, and plenty of shoppers tune in to catch what their favorite personalities netted on a shopping trip. Haul videos are commonly regarded as authentic-low production values that look like it was shot out of a bedroom contribute to that-as well as having a kind of immersion factor that makes the shopper feel as though they were on hand for the shopping.

Plus, when the personalities in the haul videos start trying things on and testing things out, potential shoppers get a handle on what’s available and what it looks like on someone who isn’t necessarily a model. That’s welcome for a lot of people out there who neither look nor feel like models.

So how does this help bolster mobile commerce? We all know that mobile video viewing is an increasingly popular platform. So let’s take a store-say, Macy’s-who sponsors a haul video channel. That store in turn could supply links to a mobile page for everyone who’s viewing the haul video.

Throw in a mobile payment platform, and a shopper could potentially discover, order, and pay for the item seen and appreciated firsthand in a haul video. Word from Google says that 40 percent of shoppers who watch a haul video will turn around and purchase a product highlighted in said video.

So if stores get behind the haul video, and make it easier to make relevant purchases, the end result may ultimately mean bigger and more frequent sales.

It’s not a magic bullet solution, of course-sponsoring a haul video won’t mean bigger revenues tomorrow-but considering the success and popularity of haul videos, it’s worth considering. Throw in the fact that many YouTube successes also reach into Twitter, Instagram and other social media and sponsoring one shopper’s binge shopping may be the key to unlocking some fresh sales.