Video is one of the most powerful tools in your eCommerce arsenal. Videos can introduce customers to your brand and showcase individual items on your product pages. Marketers are increasingly seeing the value of video content for increased customer engagement and sales. According to a Wyzowl survey in 2022, 81 percent of companies said they increased sales with video content.
However, not all marketing videos are created equal. By adding accessibility features like captions, you can reach a wider group of customers and provide added clarity to the content you create. Learn more about the benefits of adding captions and why this feature can increase your eCommerce conversion rate.
What are video captions in web accessibility?
According to the Web Accessibility Initiative, video captions are “a text form of audio information in video and animations. This includes the words that are spoken, who is speaking when it is not evident, and important sounds like music, laughter, and noises.” The captions are synchronized with the video to provide context for what is happening.
Think about the content that you include in your product description videos. The spokesperson will showcase the size and features of the item while talking about their experience using it. While your spokesperson can use gestures and other visual cues to support what they're saying, not everyone will be able to understand their spoken words without captions.
Video captions help customers who have difficulty hearing
Video captions are a primary accessibility feature for customers who are deaf and hard of hearing. They might not be able to fully hear the words, so the captions reinforce what the spokesperson is saying.
Watching video product descriptions are still more effective for people who are deaf than reading the descriptions your team writes out. These customers still want to see the product in action. Most customers look at a combination of product descriptions, photos, videos, and buyer reviews before choosing an item. By failing to add captions to your videos, you are taking away an educational resource for a significant part of your market.
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, approximately 15 percent of Americans (37.5 million people) over the age of 18 report having some trouble hearing. That’s a big segment of your target audience.
Captions benefit buyers with cognitive and learning disabilities
Captions on your product description videos can also help customers who have cognitive and learning disabilities. This could range from being able to hear but not process auditory information to having difficulty with reading written information. The brain is incredibly complex and cognitive disabilities are varied. Product videos that include captions allow you to support a larger percentage of the buying population, even if you aren’t familiar with cognitive disabilities.
Video captions are recommended in academia to support students who might have undiagnosed disabilities or who don’t feel comfortable disclosing them. You can reap the same benefits in your eCommerce business. Your customers shouldn’t have to reach out for accommodations just for basic support features to aid the buying process.
The majority of video content is watched on mute
Adding captions to your product videos isn’t just a way to accommodate customers with disabilities. The vast majority of your customers want to watch your videos without audio. There are multiple studies that highlight how common it is to watch video content on mute: about 85% of Facebook videos and 79% of LinkedIn videos are watched without audio.
People watch videos on mute for a variety of reasons. They may be in a public place where it’s rude or forbidden to play audio. Some customers also start videos muted and watch the first few seconds to decide if it’s worth turning the sound on. Finally, many videos don’t need sound. You don’t need any background noise to think a video of a kitten and a golden retriever snuggling is cute.
Your customers have been trained to watch video content without sound. By providing captions that start immediately when your video plays, you can increase the number of people who stay engaged.
Captions confirm what customers hear
Even if customers can hear the audio in your product description videos, captions can increase their information retention. Captions reinforce what they hear, reducing confusion and misheard words. Captions are also more engaging, so customers pay more attention to your videos.
Studies show that adding captions to educational videos helps students with their reading comprehension and understanding of the material. By adding captions to videos, teachers can create universal accessibility while building a better learning environment for all students. This applies to your customers as well. Greater engagement and comprehension lead to more items added to the cart and higher conversion rates.
Treat video captions as essential website elements
Video captions benefit all of your users, from customers who are hard of hearing to shoppers who don’t want to play the audio in a crowded place. It’s time to stop treating video captions as optional accessibility features and to start including them as essential website elements.
There are multiple free ways to easily add captions to your videos. You can also edit them to correct mistakes that confuse viewers and make your videos look unprofessional. By including captions in your editing process, you can make your videos more accessible and better for all users.
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